Leviticus 24:23 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

Leviticus 24:10-16; Leviticus 24:23. The punishment for blasphemy connected, as in Leviticus 10:1-7 and Sabbath breaking, with an actual example. Language and literary manner suggest that the section is later than H, as also the new beginning in Leviticus 24:15 and the position of Leviticus 24:23. The guilty man, the offspring of a mixed marriage (forbidden in Deuteronomy 7:3; Exodus 34:16), is a proselyte or stranger (Leviticus 24:16). The Name (for the name of Yahweh) does not occur elsewhere in OT, though frequent in later Jewish writings. The man is to be brought outside the camp as being unholy and polluting the community. The sin is more than the careless invocation of the Name in a moment of passion (Exodus 20:7). The stranger renounces his allegiance to Yahweh altogether (cf. Job 1:11, where the word is different though the meaning is probably the same). For the laying on of hands, see on Leviticus 1:4: the sinner, like the sacrificial victim, purges the whole community by his death. For the stoning, cf. Deuteronomy 17:7. The whole ceremony is purgative, not judicial.