Leviticus 20:23 (LSB)

Passage

Moreover, you shall not walk in the statutes of the nation which I will cast out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I have loathed them.

Nearby Context

Leviticus 20:21 If there is a man who takes his brother’s wife, it is an impure act; he has uncovered his brother’s nakedness. They will be childless.

Leviticus 20:22 ‘You shall therefore keep all My statutes and all My judgments and do them, so that the land to which I am bringing you to inhabit will not vomit you out.

Leviticus 20:23 Moreover, you shall not walk in the statutes of the nation which I will cast out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I have loathed them.

Leviticus 20:24 Hence I have said to you, “You yourselves shall possess their land, and I Myself will give it to you to possess it, a land flowing with milk and honey.” I am Yahweh your God, who has separated you from the peoples.

Leviticus 20:25 You are therefore to separate between the clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean bird and the clean; and you shall not make yourselves detestable by animal or by bird or by anything that creeps on the ground, which I have separated for you as unclean.

Study Lenses

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

The nearby context moves from verse 22's "You shall therefore keep all My statutes..." into verse 24's "Hence I have said to you You...", so "moreover" and "shall" 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 "moreover" and "shall" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.