Exodus 22:19 kjv
Whosoever lieth with a beast shall surely be put to death.
Exodus 22:19 nkjv
"Whoever lies with an animal shall surely be put to death.
Exodus 22:19 niv
"Anyone who has sexual relations with an animal is to be put to death.
Exodus 22:19 esv
"Whoever lies with an animal shall be put to death.
Exodus 22:19 nlt
"Anyone who has sexual relations with an animal must certainly be put to death.
Exodus 22 19 Cross References
| Verse | Text | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Lev 18:23 | 'And you shall not lie with any animal to defile yourself with it... | Direct prohibition of bestiality. |
| Lev 20:15 | 'If a man lies with an animal, he shall surely be put to death... | Reinforces the death penalty for the act. |
| Lev 20:16 | 'If a woman approaches any animal to lie with it, you shall kill... | Extends prohibition and penalty to women and animals. |
| Deut 27:21 | 'Cursed be anyone who lies with any animal.' And all the people shall say.. | A public declaration of God's curse. |
| Lev 19:2 | 'You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.' | Foundation for Israel's separation and moral laws. |
| Lev 18:24-25 | 'Do not defile yourselves by any of these things, for by all these the nations.. | Links forbidden acts to the defilement of the land. |
| Lev 18:28 | 'so that the land may not vomit you out when you defile it...' | Consequence of defiling acts: expulsion from land. |
| Deut 7:25-26 | 'You shall burn the carved images of their gods... it is an abomination...' | Connects prohibited acts to detestable pagan practices. |
| Num 15:30-31 | 'But the person who does anything defiantly... he despises the word of the LORD' | Describes willful, high-handed sin deserving death. |
| Rom 6:23 | For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life... | Universal truth about sin's ultimate consequence. |
| Jas 1:15 | Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is full grown.. | The progression of sin to death. |
| Rom 1:26-27 | For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women.. | Paul's teaching on unnatural sexual acts due to spiritual degradation. |
| 1 Cor 6:9-10 | Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God.. | Warns against sexual immorality disqualifying from salvation. |
| Eph 5:3-5 | But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even.. | New Testament call for believers to shun all impurity. |
| Col 3:5-6 | Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity.. | Instruction for Christians to rid themselves of such sins. |
| 1 Thess 4:3-5 | For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality | God's will is for purity and abstinence from immorality. |
| Heb 13:4 | Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled.. | God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. |
| Jude 1:7 | just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged.. | Example of divine judgment on gross sexual immorality. |
| Rev 21:8 | But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral.. | Ultimate judgment for those who practice such sins. |
| Gen 1:26-27 | Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness...' | Defines humanity's unique dignity, distinct from animals. |
| Ps 8:4-5 | What is man, that You take thought of him; And the son of man, that You care for him? | Highlights humanity's elevated status in creation. |
| Matt 5:17-18 | "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not.. | Jesus affirms the enduring moral principles of the Law. |
Exodus 22 verses
Exodus 22 19 Meaning
Exodus 22:19 dictates a capital punishment for the act of bestiality. It prohibits any human from engaging in sexual relations with an animal, underscoring the severe consequences, namely, that the person must be put to death. This verse establishes a fundamental boundary regarding sexual purity and the sanctity of God's created order.
Exodus 22 19 Context
Exodus 22:19 is part of the "Book of the Covenant" (Exod 20:22–23:33), which elaborates on the Ten Commandments, providing specific civil, social, and cultic laws for the newly formed Israelite nation. This section outlines numerous offenses and their prescribed penalties, often involving capital punishment for severe violations. Verse 19 specifically addresses bestiality, immediately followed by the prohibition against idolatry (Exod 22:20) and various social justice laws (Exod 22:21-27). This placement indicates a connection between adherence to pure worship, the rejection of abominable sexual practices, and righteous living within the community.
Historically, in the Ancient Near East, certain pagan fertility cults involved temple prostitution or blurred distinctions between human and animal realms, sometimes including animal veneration. By explicitly prohibiting bestiality and imposing the death penalty, God commanded Israel to be distinct from surrounding nations. This law upheld the unique sanctity of human beings, created in the image of God (Gen 1:26-27), separating them from the animal kingdom and defining the sacred boundaries of human sexuality within the divine order. It was a clear polemic against practices that corrupted God's design and led to defilement of the land.
Exodus 22 19 Word analysis
- Whosoever / וְכָל (və·ḵol): This emphatic "and all" or "whoever" signifies universality. The prohibition and its severe consequence apply without exception to every individual in the community, regardless of status, gender, or social standing. It highlights the non-negotiable nature of the command.
- lieth / שֹׁכֵב (šō·ḵêv): Derived from the root "shakháv," meaning "to lie down," this term serves as a common biblical euphemism for sexual intercourse (e.g., Gen 19:32; Lev 18:22). It implies an active and intentional act of sexual union, leaving no ambiguity about the nature of the transgression.
- with / עִם (ʻim): This preposition indicates association or direct involvement with another entity. Here, it explicitly defines the illicit object of the sexual act.
- a beast / בְּהֵמָה (bə·hē·māh): A general Hebrew term for a quadruped or domestic animal. Its use clearly differentiates the animal from a human being, underscoring that the offense involves crossing the fundamental, God-ordained boundary between humanity and the animal kingdom. This distinction is foundational to the creation narrative.
- shall surely be put to death / מוֹת יוּמָת (môṯ yū·māṯ): This is a Hebrew infinitive absolute construction ("dying he shall die"). It serves as the strongest possible emphatic expression for certainty and severity of punishment. It leaves absolutely no room for mercy, clemency, or negotiation; death is the inescapable, certain outcome. This absolute pronouncement underlines the extreme abomination of the act in God's eyes.
Words-group by words-group analysis:
- "Whosoever lieth with a beast": This phrase precisely defines the abhorrent act. "Whosoever" establishes the universal applicability of the law. "Lieth with" directly refers to the act of sexual intercourse. "A beast" identifies the non-human participant. This formulation leaves no room for misunderstanding what is forbidden, clearly separating humans from animals and reinforcing the divinely established order of creation where human sexuality is consecrated within human relationships.
- "shall surely be put to death": This command declares the irreversible, capital consequence. The emphatic doubling of the verb ("dying he shall die") communicates the utter depravity of the act in God's sight. The severity of the penalty is proportionate to the defilement caused by the sin, indicating that bestiality is not merely a social misdemeanor but a profound affront to the sanctity of life, creation order, and the purity demanded by a holy God.
Exodus 22 19 Bonus section
The Law of Moses often included the killing of the animal involved in bestiality (e.g., Lev 20:15-16) in addition to the human. This measure emphasized the extreme defilement and pollution brought upon the land and its creatures by such an act. It symbolized that the impurity was so pervasive that even the unwitting animal was no longer fit for sacred or common use. This served as a visible and profound statement to the community about the gravity of the sin. The specific placement of Exodus 22:19 between laws concerning sorcery (v. 18) and idolatry (v. 20) in the Book of the Covenant suggests that sexual perversion like bestiality was seen as profoundly unholy and perhaps linked to pagan practices or occultic activities that corrupted God's order. These laws together define the ethical boundaries for a community striving to live holy lives before a holy God.
Exodus 22 19 Commentary
Exodus 22:19 addresses a deeply transgressive act, bestiality, by imposing the absolute penalty of death. This law is not merely a piece of ancient jurisprudence; it reveals profound theological principles concerning God's holiness, His created order, and the sanctity of human sexuality. The severity of the punishment emphasizes that bestiality is an egregious sin because it fundamentally distorts and debases God's design for human dignity and relationships.
Human beings are made in God's image (Gen 1:26-27), set apart from the animal kingdom, and endowed with moral accountability. Engaging in sexual relations with an animal blurs these divinely established distinctions, reduces human beings to an animalistic level, and defiles the essence of human sexuality intended for the marriage covenant between a man and a woman. Moreover, this law served as a powerful differentiator for Israel from surrounding pagan cultures, which sometimes integrated such aberrant practices into their fertility cults or worshipped animals, thereby blurring ethical lines. The public execution associated with such crimes (as further detailed in Leviticus and Deuteronomy) cleansed the community of impurity, reasserted God's moral boundaries, and aimed to prevent the land from becoming defiled (Lev 18:28). While modern societies no longer practice the Mosaic penal code, the moral principle condemning such acts as abhorrent to God's created order remains eternally valid, speaking to the divine demand for purity and proper reverence for creation.