Leviticus 20:18 Meaning: Why Prescribe Cutting Off?

Three Hebrew words carry the weight of this verse. Dāvâ (here translated “having her monthly period”) literally means “sick” or “weak.” It describes the physical reality of a woman’s cycle, not as shameful but as a natural condition that calls for care, not disregard. Māqôr (“fountain” or “spring”) appears twice, the man uncovers her fountain, and she uncovers the fountain of her blood. The word pictures a source of water, but here it is a source of life itself, because blood represents life (a theme woven through the whole Torah). To treat that fountain lightly is to treat life lightly. Kārat (“cut off”) is the penalty, a severing from the people of God. It was not just death; it meant being removed from the community of Israel, losing your place among God’s covenant people. These words together teach that God’s people were to treat the sacred boundaries of life with reverence, even in the most private moments.

Christian readers have understood this verse in different ways. John Calvin saw it as a warning against “brutal impulse of lust”, the idea that a man who would violate this boundary had lost all natural modesty and was capable of any evil. Matthew Henry placed it among the severest sexual sins, punished by death. John Gill distinguished between wilful transgression (which brought cutting off) and accidental contact (which only caused temporary uncleanness, per Leviticus 15). Others in the Anglican and Lutheran traditions have read it as a ceremonial law that the New Testament does not require believers to observe, while still seeing a lasting principle: God cares about how we treat the body and the boundaries He created. All agree that the verse shows how seriously God takes the holiness of life and blood.

A common misreading is that this verse treats menstruation as dirty or dangerous, as if God were enforcing a primitive taboo. In fact, the issue is much deeper. The phrase “fountain of her blood” deliberately echoes the biblical idea that blood is the vehicle of life (Genesis 9:4; Leviticus 17:11). The prohibition is not about disgust but about reverence. To engage sexually during monthly bleeding was to treat a natural sign of life’s fragility with careless disregard. The penalty matches the seriousness of dishonouring what God has set apart.

You may never face this exact law, but the heart of it reaches into your life this week. In marriage, it asks you to honour your spouse’s physical and emotional boundaries, to practice restraint and care, not demanding your own way even in intimate moments. Outside of marriage, it calls you to respect God’s design for the body as sacred. Ask yourself: Where am I pushing against a boundary God has placed, treating something holy as common? This verse invites you to let reverence shape your actions, especially when no one else is watching.