Levítico 20:2

Again, thou shalt say. — Better, And thou shalt say.

Whosoever he be. — Better, What man soever there be, as the Authorised Version renders this phrase in Levítico 17:3. (See Note on Levítico 17:8.)

That giveth any of his seed unto Molech. — It will be seen that whilst in Levítico 18:21 the law about Molech worship follows the laws of incest, the reverse is the case here, where it precedes those laws.

The people of the land. — That is, the whole community (see Levítico 4:27), who have selected the judges, and in whose name sentence is passed by the judges, are bound to execute the sentence.

Shall stone him with stones. — Lapidation was the first and the severest mode of capital punishment among the Hebrews, the three others being burning, beheading, and strangling. The Jewish canonists have tabulated the following eighteen cases in which death by stoning was inflicted: (1) of a man who has commerce with his own mother (chap 20:11); (2) or with his father’s wife (Levítico 20:12); (3) or with his daughter-in-law (Levítico 20:12); (4) or with a betrothed maiden (Deuteronômio 22:23); (5) or with a male (Levítico 20:13); (6) or with a beast (Levítico 20:15); (7) of a woman who was guilty of lying with a beast (Levítico 20:16); (8) the blasphemer (Levítico 24:10); (9) the worshipper of idols (Deuteronômio 17:2); (10) the one who gives his seed to Molech (Levítico 20:2); (11) the necromancer; (12) the wizard (Levítico 20:27); (13) the false prophet (Deuteronômio 13:6); (14) the enticer to idolatry (Deuteronômio 13:11); (15) the witch (Levítico 20:17); (16) the profaner of the Sabbath (Números 15:32); (17) he that curses his parent (Levítico 20:9); and (18) the rebellious son (Deuteronômio 21:18). As the Mosaic legislation only directs that the lapidation is to take place without the precincts of the city (Levítico 24:14; Números 15:36), and that the witnesses upon whose evidence the criminal has been sentenced to death are to throw the first stone (Deuteronômio 17:7), the administrators of the law during the second Temple decreed the following mode of carrying out the sentence. On his way from the court of justice to the place of execution a herald preceded the criminal, exclaiming, “So-and-so is being led out to be stoned for this and this crime, and so-and-so are the witnesses; if any one has to say anything that might save him, let him come forward and say it.” Within ten yards of the place of execution he was publicly admonished to confess his sins, within four yards he was stripped naked except a slight covering about his loins. After his hands had been bound, he was led upon a scaffolding about twice the height of a man. Here wine mingled with myrrh was mercifully given him to dull the pain of execution, and from here one of the witnesses pushed him down with great violence so that he fell upon his back. If the fall did not kill him, the other witness dashed a great stone on his breast, and if this did not kill him, all the people that stood by covered him with stones. The corpse was then nailed to the cross, and afterwards burnt. Hereupon the relatives visited both the judges and the witnesses to show that they bore no hatred towards them, and that the sentence was just. Not unfrequently, however, the excited multitude resorted to lapidation when they wished to inflict summary justice. This description will explain why the Jews said to Christ that the woman had to be stoned, and why He replied to her accusers that he who is without sin should cast the first stone (João 8:5; João 8:7); why the Jews wanted to stone Christ when they thought He was blaspheming (João 10:31), and why they offered Him wine mingled with myrrh before his crucifixion (Mateus 27:34; Mateus 27:38; Marcos 15:23).