We know from a study of the Scriptures that the word beast means a race or people who are not Israelites. In other words the Chinese, Jews, Negroes, as well as evil men who are both Israelites and non-Israelites.
From New Unger's Bible Dictionary) (originally published by Moody Press of Chicago, Illinois.� Copyright (C) 1988).
BEAST:
Figurative. In a figurative or symbolical sense, the term frequently occurs in Scripture and generally refers to the sensual and groveling or ferocious and brutal natures properly belonging to the brute creation. The psalmist speaks of himself as being "like a beast" before God, while giving way to merely sensuous considerations <Psalm. 73:22>. THE WORD IS SOMETIMES USED FIGURATIVELY OF BRUTAL MEN. Hence the phrase "I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus" <1 Corinthians 15:32, cf. Acts 19:29> is a figurative description of a fight with strong and exasperated enemies. For a similar use of the word see <Ecclesiastes 3:18; 2 Peter 2:12; Jude 10>.
A WILE BEAST IS THE SYMBOL OF SELFISH, TYRANNICAL MONARCHIES. The four beasts in <Daniel 7:3,17,23>, represent four kingdoms <Ezekiel 34:28; Jeremiah 12:9>.
IN THE APOCALYPSE THE BEAST OBVIOUSLY MEANS A WORLDLY POWER WHOSE RISING OUT OF THE SEA INDICATES THAT IT OWES ITS ORIGIN TO THE COMMOTIONS OF THE PEOPLE <Revelation 13:1; 15:2; 17:8>.
The "four beasts" (Gk. zoa, "living creatures," not therion, "beast" in the strict sense) of the KJV of <Revelation 4:6> should be rendered "four living ones" or "four living creatures" (so NASB and NIV). See Cherub, Cherubim. (from New Unger's Bible Dictionary) (originally published by Moody Press of Chicago, Illinois.� Copyright (C) 1988.)
From Fausset's Bible Dictionary:
BEAST
SYMBOLICALLY, MAN SEVERED FROM GOD AND RESTING ON HIS OWN PHYSICAL OR INTELLECTUAL STRENGTH, OR MATERIAL RESOURCES, IS BEASTLY AND BRUTISH. He is only manly when Godly, for man was made in the image of God. So ASAPH DESCRIBES HIMSELF, WHEN ENVYING THE PROSPEROUS WICKED," I WAS AS A BEAST before Thee" (<Psalm. 73:22>). "Man in honor (apart from God) abideth not, he is like the beasts that perish" (<Psalm. 49:12>). The multitude opposing Messiah are but so many "bulls" and "calves" to be stilled by His "rebuke" (<Psalm. 68:30>). Those "THAT WALK AFTER THE FLESH IN THE LUST OF UNCLEANNESS, AS NATURAL BRUTE BEASTS, ARE MADE ONLY TO BE TAKEN AND DESTROYED" (<2 Peter 2:12>). So persecutors of Christians, as Paul's opponents at Ephesus (<1 Corinthians 15:32>). The "beast" (<Revelation 13; Revelation 15; Revelation 17; Revelation 19>) is the combination of all these sensual, lawless, God opposing features. THE FOUR SUCCESSIVE WORLD EMPIRES ARE REPRESENTED AS BEASTS coming up out of the sea whereon the winds of heaven strove (<Daniel :7>). The kingdom of Messiah, on the contrary, is that of "the Son of MAN," supplanting utterly the former, and alone everlasting and world wide. In <Revelation 4; 5>, the four cherubic forms are not "beasts" (as KJV), but "living creatures" ([zoa]). The "beast" ([theerion (grk 2342)]) is literally the wild beast, untamed to the obedience of Christ and God (<Romans 8:7>). THE �HARLOT� OR APOSTATE CHURCH (compare <Revelation 12:1>, etc., with <Revelation 17:1>, etc.; <Isaiah 1:21>) SITS FIRST ON THE BEAST, which again is explained as "seven mountains upon which she sitteth"; probably seven universal God‑opposed empires (contrast <Jeremiah 51:25> with <Isaiah 2:2>) of which the seven‑hilled Rome is the prominent embodiment, namely, Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Mede Persia, Greece, Rome (including the modern Latin kingdoms), and the Germano‑Slavonic empire. The woman sitting on them is the church conformed to the world; therefore the instrument of her sin is retributively made the instrument of her punishment (<Ezekiel 23; Jeremiah 2:19; Revelation 17:16>).
"The spirit of man," even as it normally ascends to God, whose image he bore, so at death "goeth upward"; and the spirit of the beast, even as its desires tend downward to merely temporal wants, "goeth downward" (<Ecclesiastes 3:21>). God warns against cruelty to the brute (<Deuteronomy 22:6‑7>). He regarded the "much cattle" of Nineveh (<Jonah 4:11>). He commanded that they should be given the sabbath rest. As to the creature's final deliverance, see <Romans 8:20‑23>. (from Fausset's Bible Dictionary)
Exodus 20:3‑17
1). Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
2). Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
3). Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
4). Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
5). Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
6). Thou shalt not kill. (Should have been rendered �murder.�
7). Thou shalt not commit adultery.
8). Thou shalt not steal.
9). Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
10). Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.
(KJV)
Now the 7th commandment is to not commit adultery; the 10th commandment is to not covet ones neighbors wife; the two would be the same commandment. Therefore, it is obvious that the 7th is entirely different than the 10th which is to covet anothers wife.
Therefore, the following verses make much more sense when we realize that �Adultery� is the mixing of another race or people other than a brother or sister Israelite.
Leviticus 18:23: �NEITHER SHALT THOU LIE WITH ANY BEAST TO DEFILE THYSELF THEREWITH: NEITHER SHALL ANY WOMAN STAND BEFORE A BEAST TO LIE DOWN THERETO: it is confusion.�
Yahweh does not kill just to be killing; and to kill an animal because a woman had intercourse with it would be unfair, unjust and unreasonable because the beast would not know any better than to treat the woman as another animal. Yahweh simply would not do this.
Leviticus 20:15‑16: �And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death: and ye shall slay the beast. And IF A WOMAN APPROACH UNTO ANY BEAST, and LIE DOWN THERETO, THOU SHALT KILL THE WOMAN, and THE BEAST: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.�
Here again, this states that either the man or the woman that lies down with a beast would be put to death together. Again Yahweh would not kill an animal because it did not know better than to lie with the woman or man. Another thing, if anyone has ever seen an animal copulate with others they can quickly see that the animal would not lie down, as it does its copulating standing up. There are no animals that copulate in a prostrate position, lying down position.
Therefore, common sense, which we realize that few Christians have when studying the scriptures, would tell one that to commit adultery is to mix with the other races which is an abomination to Yahweh, in itself.