1The LORD spoke to Moses. He said,2‘Speak to the Israelites. Tell them, “I am the LORD your God.3Do not do what the people of Egypt do. You used to live there. And do not do what the people of Canaan do. I am bringing you into their land. Do not follow their practices.4Obey my laws. Be careful to follow my rules. I am the LORD your God.5Keep my rules and laws. The one who obeys them will benefit from living by them. I am the LORD.6‘ “Do not have sex with any of your close relatives. I am the LORD.7‘ “Do not bring shame on your father by having sex with your mother. Do not have sex with her. She is your mother.8‘ “Do not have sex with any other wife of your father. That would bring shame on your father.9‘ “Do not have sex with your sister. It does not matter whether she is your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter. It does not matter whether she was born in the same home as you were or somewhere else.10‘ “Do not have sex with your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter. That would bring shame on you.11‘ “Do not have sex with the daughter of your father’s wife. She was born to your father. She is your sister.12‘ “Do not have sex with your father’s sister. She is a close relative on your father’s side.13‘ “Do not have sex with your mother’s sister. She is a close relative on your mother’s side.14‘ “Do not bring shame on your father’s brother by having sex with his wife. She is your aunt.15‘ “Do not have sex with your daughter-in-law. She is your son’s wife. Do not have sex with her.16‘ “Do not have sex with your brother’s wife. That would bring shame on your brother.17‘ “Do not have sex with both a woman and her daughter. Do not have sex with either her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter. They are close relatives on her side. Having sex with them is an evil thing.18‘ “Do not take your wife’s sister as another wife and have sex with her. Do not do it while your wife is still living.19‘ “Do not have sex with a woman during her monthly period. She is ‘unclean’ at that time.20‘ “Do not have sex with your neighbour’s wife. That would make you ‘unclean’.21‘ “Do not hand over any of your children to be sacrificed to the god Molek. That would be treating my name as if it were not holy. I am the LORD your God.22‘ “Do not have sex with a man as you would have sex with a woman. I hate that.23‘ “Do not have sex with an animal. Do not make yourself ‘unclean’ by doing that. A woman must not offer herself to an animal to have sex with it. That is a wrong use of sex.24‘ “Do not make yourselves ‘unclean’ in any of these ways. That is how other nations became ‘unclean’. So I am going to drive those nations out of the land to make room for you.25Even their land was not ‘clean’. So I punished it because of its sin. The land itself threw out the people who lived there.26But you must keep my rules and my laws. You must not do any of the things I hate. It does not matter whether you are Israelites or outsiders.27All these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you. That is how the land became ‘unclean’.28If you make the land ‘unclean’, it will throw you out. It will get rid of you just as it got rid of the nations there before you.29‘ “Suppose you do any of the things I hate. Then you must be separated from your people.30Do exactly what I require. When you arrive in Canaan, do not follow any of the practices of its people. I hate the things they do. Do not make yourselves ‘unclean’ by doing them. I am the LORD your God.” ’
Leviticus 18
English Standard Version
Unlawful Sexual Relations
1And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,2“Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, I am the Lord your God. (Ex 6:6; Le 11:44; Le 19:4; Le 20:7)3You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. (Ex 23:24; De 12:30; Eze 20:7; Eze 23:8)4You shall follow my rules[1] and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God. (Le 18:2; Le 18:26; Le 19:19; Le 19:37; Le 20:8; Le 20:22; Le 25:18; De 4:1; De 4:6; De 5:1; De 6:1; De 12:1; Eze 20:19)5You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord. (Le 18:4; Eze 20:11; Eze 20:13; Eze 20:21; Lu 10:28; Ro 10:5; Ga 3:12)6“None of you shall approach any one of his close relatives to uncover nakedness. I am the Lord.7You 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. (Le 20:11)8You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife; it is your father’s nakedness. (Ge 49:4; De 22:30; De 27:20; Am 2:7; 1Co 5:1)9You 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. (2Sa 13:12; Eze 22:11)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.15You shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law; she is your son’s wife, you shall not uncover her nakedness. (Ge 38:26; Eze 22:11)16You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness. (Ge 38:8; De 25:5; Mt 22:24; Mr 12:19; Lu 20:28)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 rival wife to her sister, uncovering her nakedness while her sister is still alive. (Ge 31:50; 1Sa 1:6)19“You shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness while she is in her menstrual uncleanness. (Le 15:24; Le 20:18; Eze 18:6; Eze 22:10)20And you shall not lie sexually with your neighbor’s wife and so make yourself unclean with her. (Ex 20:14)21You shall not give any of your children to offer them[2] to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord. (Le 19:12; Le 20:2; Le 20:3; Le 21:6; Le 22:2; Le 22:32; De 18:10; 1Ki 11:7; 1Ki 11:33; Eze 36:20; Eze 36:22; Mal 1:12; Ac 7:43)22You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. (Ge 19:5; Le 20:13; Jud 19:22; Ro 1:27; 1Co 6:9; 1Ti 1:9)23And 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 perversion. (Ex 22:19; Le 20:12; Le 20:15)24“Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean, (Le 18:30; Le 20:23; De 18:12; Mt 15:19; Mr 7:21)25and the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. (Le 20:22; Nu 35:34; Jer 2:7; Eze 36:17)26But you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you (Le 16:29; Le 18:4)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.30So keep my charge never to practice any of these abominable customs that were practiced before you, and never to make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God.” (Le 18:2; Le 18:3; Le 18:26; Le 20:23; Le 22:9; De 18:9)