Leviticus 20:23 (ASV)

Passage

And ye shall not walk in the customs of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they did all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.

Nearby Context

Leviticus 20:21 And if a man shall take his brother`s wife, it is impurity: he hath uncovered his brother`s nakedness; they shall be childless.

Leviticus 20:22 Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all mine ordinances, and do them; that the land, whither I bring you to dwell therein, vomit you not out.

Leviticus 20:23 And ye shall not walk in the customs of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they did all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.

Leviticus 20:24 But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land flowing with milk and honey: I am Jehovah your God, who hath separated you from the peoples.

Leviticus 20:25 Ye shall therefore make a distinction between the clean beast and the unclean, and between the unclean fowl and the clean: and ye shall not make your souls abominable by beast, or by bird, or by anything wherewith the ground teemeth, which I have separated from you as unclean.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "shall", "walk", "customs", "nation", "cast", "before", "things", and "therefore". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "shall" and "walk", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 22's "Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes..." into verse 24's "But I have said unto you Ye...", so "shall" and "walk" belong inside that flow. In Leviticus context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "shall" and "walk" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.