Leviticus 18
18
Prohibited Pagan Practices
1The Lord spoke to Moses: 2“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: I am the Lord your God.#Nm 15:41 3Do not follow the practices of the land of Egypt,#Lv 11:45; 19:34,36 where you used to live, or follow the practices of the land of Canaan,#Dt 18:9–12 where I am bringing you. You must not follow their customs.#Ex 23:24; Lv 18:24–30; 2Kg 17:7–8 4You are to practice my ordinances#Lv 18:26; Nm 29:18; Jos 6:15; Ezr 3:4; Jb 9:19; Ps 119:13; Is 1:17; Ezk 18:5 and you are to keep my statutes#Lv 7:7 by following them; I am the Lord your God. 5Keep my statutes and ordinances; a person will live#Dt 4:1; Neh 9:29; Ezk 20:13,21,25; 33:12; Rm 7:10; Php 1:21 if he does them.#Dt 6:24; Pr 6:23; Lk 10:26–28; Rm 7:10; 10:5; Gl 3:12 I am the Lord.
6“You are not to come near#Gn 20:4 any close relative#18:6 Lit any flesh of his flesh for sexual intercourse;#1Tm 4:3 I am the Lord. 7You are not to violate the intimacy that belongs to your father#Ezk 22:10 and mother.#18:7 Lit Do not uncover your father’s nakedness and your mother’s nakedness She is your mother; you must not have sexual intercourse with her. 8You are not to have sex with your father’s wife;#Gn 35:22; 49:4; Lv 20:11; 2Sm 16:21–22; Am 2:7; 1Co 5:1 she is your father’s family.#Lv 20:11 9You are not to have sexual intercourse with your sister, either your father’s daughter or your mother’s,#Lv 20:17; Dt 27:22; 2Sm 13:11–14; Ezk 22:11 whether born at home or born elsewhere. You are not to have sex with her. 10You are not to have sexual intercourse with your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, for they are your family.#18:10 Lit because they are your nakedness 11You are not to have sexual intercourse with your father’s wife’s daughter, who is adopted by#18:11 Lit daughter, a relative of your father; she is your sister. 12You are not to have sexual intercourse with your father’s sister;#Ex 6:20 she is your father’s close relative. 13You are not to have sexual intercourse with your mother’s sister,#Lv 20:19 for she is your mother’s close relative. 14You are not to violate the intimacy that belongs to#18:14 Lit Do not uncover the nakedness of your father’s brother by approaching his wife to have sexual intercourse; she is your aunt.#Lv 20:20 15You are not to have sexual intercourse with your daughter-in-law.#Gn 38:16; Lv 20:12; Ezk 22:11 She is your son’s wife; you are not to have sex with her. 16You are not to have sexual intercourse with your brother’s wife; she is your brother’s family.#Lv 20:21; Dt 25:5–10; Mt 14:3–4; Mk 6:18 17You are not to have sexual intercourse with a woman and her daughter.#Lv 20:14; Dt 27:23; Am 2:7 You are not to marry her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter and have sex with her. They are close relatives; it is depraved.#Lv 19:29 18You are not to marry a woman as a rival to her sister and have sexual intercourse with her during her sister’s lifetime.#Gn 29:21–28
19“You are not to approach#Gn 20:4 a woman during her menstrual impurity to have sexual intercourse with her.#Lv 15:19–24; 20:18; Ezk 18:6 20You are not to have sexual intercourse with#18:20 Lit to give your emission of semen to your neighbor’s wife, defiling yourself with her.#Ex 20:14; Lv 20:10; Nm 5:11–31; Dt 22:22; 1Co 6:9; Heb 13:4
21“You are not to sacrifice any of your children in the fire#18:21 Lit to make any of your children pass through the fire to Molech.#Lv 20:2–5; Dt 18:10; 1Kg 11:7; 2Kg 23:10; Jr 32:35; Ac 7:43 Do not profane the name#Ex 20:7; Lv 20:3; Jn 10:25 of your God; I am the Lord. 22You are not to sleep with a man as with a woman;#Gn 19:5; Lv 20:13; Dt 23:18; Rm 1:26–27; 1Co 6:9–11; Gl 5:21; 1Tm 1:10; Rv 21:8 it is detestable.#Gn 46:34 23You are not to have sexual intercourse with#18:23 Lit to give your emission to any animal, defiling yourself with it; a woman is not to present herself to an animal to mate with it;#Ex 22:19 it is a perversion.
24“Do not defile yourselves by any of these practices, for the nations I am driving out before you have defiled themselves by all these things. 25The land has become defiled, so I am punishing it for its iniquity, and the land will vomit out its inhabitants.#Nm 35:33–34; Dt 9:4; Ezr 9:11; Is 24:5–6; Jr 2:7; Ezk 36:1 26But you are to keep my statutes and ordinances. You must not commit any of these detestable acts — not the native or the alien who resides among you. 27For the people who were in the land prior to you have committed all these detestable acts, and the land has become defiled. 28If you defile the land, it will vomit#Lv 20:22; Dt 8:20 you out as it has vomited out the nations that were before you. 29Any person who does any of these detestable practices is to be cut off from his people. 30You must keep my instruction to not do any of the detestable customs#Lv 7:7 that were practiced before you, so that you do not defile yourselves by them; I am the Lord your God.”
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Leviticus 18: CSB
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© 2017 Holman Bible Publishers
Leviticus 18
18
Unlawful Sexual Relations
1And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2“Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, #ch. 11:44; 19:4; 20:7; Ex. 6:6, 7I am the Lord your God. 3#Ezek. 20:7, 8; 23:8 You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and #Ex. 23:24; Deut. 12:30, 31you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. 4#ver. 26; ch. 19:19, 37; 20:8, 22; 25:18; Deut. 4:1, 6; 5:1; 6:1; 12:1; Ezek. 20:19 You shall follow my rules#18:4 Or my just decrees; also verse 5 and keep my statutes and walk in them. #[See ver. 2 above]I am the Lord your God. 5#[See ver. 4 above] You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; #Ezek. 20:11, 13, 21; Cited Rom. 10:5; Gal. 3:12; [Luke 10:28]if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord.
6“None of you shall approach any one of his close relatives to uncover nakedness. I am the Lord. 7#For ver. 7-16, see ch. 20:11-21You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, which is the nakedness of your mother; she is your mother, you shall not uncover her nakedness. 8#Deut. 22:30; 27:20; 1 Cor. 5:1; [Gen. 49:4; Amos 2:7]You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife; it is your father’s nakedness. 9#[2 Sam. 13:12; Ezek. 22:11]You shall not uncover the nakedness of your sister, your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether brought up in the family or in another home. 10You shall not uncover the nakedness of your son’s daughter or of your daughter’s daughter, for their nakedness is your own nakedness. 11You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife’s daughter, brought up in your father’s family, since she is your sister. 12You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s sister; she is your father’s relative. 13You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister, for she is your mother’s relative. 14You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s brother, that is, you shall not approach his wife; she is your aunt. 15#[Gen. 38:26; Ezek. 22:11]You shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law; she is your son’s wife, you shall not uncover her nakedness. 16#[Gen. 38:8; Deut. 25:5; Matt. 22:24; Mark 12:19; Luke 20:28]You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness. 17You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and of her daughter, and you shall not take her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter to uncover her nakedness; they are relatives; it is depravity. 18And you shall not take a woman as a #[1 Sam. 1:6] rival wife to her sister, uncovering her nakedness #[Gen. 31:50]while her sister is still alive.
19 # [ch. 15:24; 20:18; Ezek. 18:6; 22:10] “You shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness while she is in her menstrual uncleanness. 20#See Ex. 20:14And you shall not lie sexually with your neighbor’s wife and so make yourself unclean with her. 21You shall not give any of your children to #ch. 20:2-5; Deut. 18:10 offer them#18:21 Hebrew to make them pass through [the fire] to #[1 Kgs. 11:7, 33; Acts 7:43] Molech, and so #ch. 19:12; 20:3; 21:6; 22:2, 32; Ezek. 36:20, 22; Mal. 1:12profane the name of your God: I am the Lord. 22#ch. 20:13; [Gen. 19:5; Judg. 19:22; Rom. 1:27; 1 Cor. 6:9, 10; 1 Tim. 1:9, 10]You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. 23#ch. 20:15, 16; Ex. 22:19 And you shall not lie with any animal and so make yourself unclean with it, neither shall any woman give herself to an animal to lie with it: it is #ch. 20:12perversion.
24 # ver. 30; [Matt. 15:19, 20; Mark 7:21-23] “Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, #ch. 20:23; [Deut. 18:12]for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean, 25and the #Num. 35:34; Jer. 2:7; Ezek. 36:17 land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land #ch. 20:22vomited out its inhabitants. 26But #See ver. 4, 5 you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the #See ch. 16:29native or the stranger who sojourns among you 27(for the people of the land, who were before you, did all of these abominations, so that the land became unclean), 28lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. 29For everyone who does any of these abominations, the persons who do them shall be cut off from among their people. 30#ch. 22:9 So keep my charge never to practice #ver. 3, 26; ch. 20:23; Deut. 18:9 any of these abominable customs that were practiced before you, and never to make yourselves unclean by them: #See ver. 2I am the Lord your God.”
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