“Take the blasphemer outside the camp, and tell all those who heard the curse to lay their hands on his head. Then let the entire community stone him to death.
Parallel translations
- WEB “Bring out of the camp him who cursed; and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him.
- KJV Bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp; and let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him.
- BSB “Take the blasphemer outside the camp, and have all who heard him lay their hands on his head; then have the whole assembly stone him.
- NKJV “Take outside the camp him who has cursed; then let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him.
- NASB “Bring the one who has cursed outside the camp, and have all who heard him lay their hands on his head; then have all the congregation stone him.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Witnesses were to lay hands on the blasphemer's head, and the whole congregation was to stone him. The community shared responsibility for upholding God's honor.
Overview
The laying on of hands signified that the witnesses transferred the guilt back upon the offender, affirming the testimony was true. Communal stoning made the whole assembly participants in purging evil from their midst. The seriousness reflects how holy God is, and how grave it is to despise his name, a debt only Christ could fully bear for sinners.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Deut 17:7The hand of the witnesses shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall remove the evil from among you.
- Lev 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.’”
- Deut 21:21All the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall remove the evil from among you. All Israel shall hear, and fear.
- Lev 20:2“Moreover, you shall tell the children of Israel, ‘Anyone of the children of Israel, or of the strangers who live as foreigners in Israel, who gives any of his offspring to Molech; he shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones.
- John 10:31–33Therefore Jews took up stones again to stone him.
- Num 5:2–4“Command the children of Israel that they put out of the camp every leper, and everyone who has an issue, and whoever is unclean by the dead.
- John 8:59Therefore they took up stones to throw at him, but Jesus was hidden, and went out of the temple, having gone through the middle of them, and so passed by.
- Josh 7:25Joshua said, “Why have you troubled us? Yahweh will trouble you today.” All Israel stoned him with stones, and they burned them with fire and stoned them with stones.
- Num 15:35–36Yahweh said to Moses, “The man shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him with stones outside of the camp.”
- Deut 22:21then they shall bring out the young lady to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done folly in Israel, to play the prostitute in her father’s house. So you shall remove the evil from among you.
- Lev 13:46All the days in which the plague is in him he shall be unclean. He is unclean. He shall dwell alone. Outside of the camp shall be his dwelling.
- Deut 13:9–10but you shall surely kill him. Your hand shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterwards the hands of all the people.
- Acts 7:58–59They threw him out of the city, and stoned him. The witnesses placed their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.
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Christ at the center
Every sacrifice, every priest, and every day of atonement points beyond itself to the one perfect offering and the great High Priest who, by his own blood, makes the unclean holy once for all.
How Leviticus 24:14 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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