Leviticus 20:15

Lev 20:15 And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death: and ye shall slay the beast.

Ver. 15. Ye shall slay the beast.] Though innocent: this shows the heinousness of the sin. See Lev 18:9.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Lev 20:15. Slay the beast — Partly for the prevention of monstrous births, partly to blot out the memory of so loathsome a crime.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

(15, 16) with a beast.—See Lev_18:23.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

If a man lie with a beast,.... A sin quite unnatural, exceeding shocking and detestable, forbid Lev 18:23,

he shall surely be put to death: by stoning, as the Targum of Jonathan adds; and this is the death such are condemned to in the Misnah (h):

and ye shall slay the beast; with clubs, as says the Targum of Jonathan; the reasons given in the Misnah (i), why the beast was to be slain, are, because ruin came to the man by means of it, and that it might not be said, as it passed along the streets, that is the beast for which such an one was stoned. Aben Ezra says it was to be slain, that it might not cause others to sin; and he adds, there are that say it was to cover the reproach: no doubt the true reason was to deter the more from this detestable sin, that if a beast, which was only accessory to it, and an instrument of it, was put to death, of how much sorer punishment must the man that committed it be worthy of, even of eternal wrath and destruction, and, unless repented of and forgiven, must be expected by him?

(h) Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 7. sect. 4. (i) Ibid.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The beast also ye shall kill. The killing of the beast was for the greater horror of the crime, and to prevent the remembrance of such abomination. (Challoner) --- The beast was to be killed with clubs; the man was stoned to death. (Jonathan)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Partly, for the prevention of monstrous births; partly, to blot out the memory of so loathsome a crime; and partly, that by so severe a punishment of that creature which was only a passive instrument to man’s sin, men might be assured that a more dreadful punishment than corporal death was reserved for them, if they repented not.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

15. Lie with a beast — See Lev_18:23.

Slay the beast — The innocent instrument of the abominable act of a moral agent is put to death as a mark of Jehovah’s abhorrence.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Slay the beast - Partly for the prevention of monstrous births, partly to blot out the memory of so loathsome a crime.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

he must surely be put to death

This can be stated in active form. AT: "you must surely put him to death" (See: Active or Passive)

you must kill the woman and the animal. They must certainly be put to death

Both clauses mean the same thing. They emphasize that the woman and animal must die. (See: Parallelism)

They must certainly be put to death

This can be stated in active form. AT: "You must certainly put them to death" (See: Active or Passive)

translationWords

had relations with

guilt

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

ואת הבהמה תהרגו AND YE SHALL SLAY THE BEAST — If the man has sinned, what sin has the beast committed? But because the man’s opportunity to stumble (to sin) was occasioned by it, therefore Scripture says, “let it be stoned"! How much the more does this principle apply to a human being who knows to distinguish between good and evil and yet brings evil upon his fellow-man by inducing him to commit a sin. In a similar way you should explain: (Deuteronomy 12:2) “Ye shall utterly destroy all the places [where the nations… served their gods… under every bushy tree]" Now is not the following a logical conclusion? How is it in the case of trees which can neither see nor hear? Merely because an opportunity to sin was occasioned by them Scripture says, "Destroy, burn, exterminate them!״ One who makes his fellow-man deviate from the path of lifeto the path of death, does it not follow all the more that he should be punished? (Sifra, Kedoshim, Chapter 11 5; cf. Sanhedrin 54a, 55a.)

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.