Bible Strands
Leviticus 17:7
They must no longer offer their sacrifices to the goat demons to which they have prostituted themselves. This will be a permanent statute for them for the generations to come.’
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God commands the house of Israel and resident foreigners to halt their current sacrificial practices as He institutes centralized worship regulations at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
The words — יִזְבְּח֥וּ (yiz.be.Chu) means "they will sacrifice," and לַ/שְּׂעִירִ֕ם (la./se.'i.Rim) translates literally to "to the goat idols."
The thread — The text's prohibition against idolatrous offerings runs parallel to 1 Corinthians 10:20, Exodus 34:15, and Deuteronomy 32:17, which all explicitly identify pagan sacrifices as directed toward demons or false gods rather than Yahweh.
Why it lands — The passage demands exclusive worship by forbidding sacrifices to goat demons, establishing this boundary as a permanent statute for all generations.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils, after whom they have gone a whoring. This shall be a statute for ever unto them throughout their generations.
Cross-references
- 1 Corinthians 10:20 No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God. And I do not want you to be participants with demons.
- Exodus 34:15 Do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you, and you will eat their sacrifices.
- Deuteronomy 32:17 They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they had not known, to newly arrived gods, which your fathers did not fear.
- 2 Chronicles 11:15 And Jeroboam appointed his own priests for the high places and for the goat demons and calf idols he had made.
- Psalms 106:37 They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons.
- Exodus 22:20 If anyone sacrifices to any god other than the LORD alone, he must be set apart for destruction.
- Exodus 32:8 How quickly they have turned aside from the way that I commanded them! They have made for themselves a molten calf and have bowed down to it. They have sacrificed to it and said, ‘These, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.’”
- Leviticus 20:5 then I will set My face against that man and his family and cut off from among their people both him and all who follow him in prostituting themselves with Molech.
- Deuteronomy 31:16 And the LORD said to Moses, “You will soon rest with your fathers, and these people will rise up and prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake Me and break the covenant I have made with them.
- Ezekiel 23:8 She did not give up the prostitution she began in Egypt, when men slept with her in her youth, caressed her virgin bosom, and poured out their lust upon her.