Leviticus 20:15 (DRB)

Passage

He that shall copulate with any beast or cattle, dying let him die: the beast also ye shall kill.

Nearby Context

Leviticus 20:13 If any one lie with a man as with a woman, both have committed an abomination: let them be put to death. Their blood be upon them.

Leviticus 20:14 If any man after marrying the daughter, marry her mother, he hath done a heinous crime. He shall be burnt alive with them: neither shall so great an abomination remain in the midst of you.

Leviticus 20:15 He that shall copulate with any beast or cattle, dying let him die: the beast also ye shall kill.

Leviticus 20:16 The woman that shall lie under any beast, shall be killed together with the same. Their blood be upon them.

Leviticus 20:17 If any man take his sister, the daughter of his father, or the daughter of his mother, and see her nakedness, and she behold her brother's shame: they have committed a crime. They shall be slain, in the sight of their people, because they have discovered one another's nakedness. And they shall bear their iniquity.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "shall", "copulate", "beast", "cattle", "dying", and "kill". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "shall" and "copulate", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 14's "If any man after marrying the daughter..." into verse 16's "The woman that shall lie under any...", so "shall" and "copulate" 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 "copulate" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.