Leviticus 20:23 (DRB)

Passage

Walk not after the laws of the nations, which I will cast out before you. For they have done all these things: and therefore I abhorred them.

Nearby Context

Leviticus 20:21 He that marrieth his brother's wife, doth an unlawful thing: he hath uncovered his brother's nakedness. They shall be without children.

Leviticus 20:22 Keep my laws and my judgments, and do them: lest the land into which you are to enter to dwell therein, vomit you also out.

Leviticus 20:23 Walk not after the laws of the nations, which I will cast out before you. For they have done all these things: and therefore I abhorred them.

Leviticus 20:24 But to you I say: Possess their land which I will give you for an inheritance, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God, who have separated you from other people.

Leviticus 20:25 Therefore do you also separate the clean beast from the unclean, and the clean fowl from the unclean. Defile not your souls with beasts, or birds, or any things that move on the earth, and which I have shewn you to be unclean:

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "walk", "after", "laws", "nations", "cast", "before", "done", and "things". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "walk" and "after", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 22's "Keep my laws and my judgments and..." into verse 24's "But to you I say Possess their...", so "walk" and "after" 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 "walk" and "after" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.