“‘You shall therefore make a distinction between the clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean fowl and the clean: and you shall not make yourselves abominable by animal, or by bird, or by anything with which the ground teems, which I have separated from you as unclean for you.
Leviticus 20:23 You shall not walk in the customs of the nation, which I am casting out before you: for they did all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.
Leviticus 20:24 But I have said to you, “You shall inherit their land, and I 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 shall therefore make a distinction between the clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean fowl and the clean: and you shall not make yourselves abominable by animal, or by bird, or by anything with which the ground teems, which I have separated from you as unclean for you.
Leviticus 20:26 You shall be holy to me; for I, Yahweh, am holy, and have set you apart from the peoples, that you should be mine.
Leviticus 20:27 “‘A man or a woman that is a medium, or is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones. Their blood shall be upon them.’”
The verse centers on "shall", "therefore", "make", "distinction", "between", "clean", "animal", and "unclean". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "shall" and "therefore", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.
The nearby context moves from verse 24's "But I have said to you You..." into verse 26's "You shall be holy to me for...", so "shall" and "therefore" 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 "therefore" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.