Leviticus 18

Berean Standard Bible

Chapter summary

The Lord instructs Moses to tell the Israelites not to follow the practices of Egypt or Canaan, but to keep His statutes and judgments instead. The text details specific prohibitions against sexual relations with close relatives, including mothers, stepmothers, sisters, granddaughters, aunts, daughters-in-law, and sisters-in-law. Further regulations forbid sexual relations during menstruation, adultery, child sacrifice to Molech, homosexual intercourse, and bestiality. The Lord explains that the nations previously in the land defiled it through these practices, leading to their punishment and expulsion. Finally, the Israelites and resident foreigners are warned that committing these forbidden acts will similarly defile the land and result in them being cut off from their people.

Summary automatically generated from the Bible text.

Words of Jesus in red

¹Then the LORD said to Moses, ²“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: I am the LORD your God. ³You must not follow the practices of the land of Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not follow the practices of the land of Canaan, into which I am bringing you. You must not walk in their customs. ⁴You are to practice My judgments and keep My statutes by walking in them. I am the LORD your God. ⁵Keep My statutes and My judgments, for the man who does these things will live by them. I am the LORD. ⁶None of you are to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the LORD. ⁷You must not expose the nakedness of your father by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; you must not have sexual relations with her. ⁸You must not have sexual relations with your father’s wife; it would dishonor your father. ⁹You must not have sexual relations with your sister, either your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere. ¹⁰You must not have sexual relations with your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, for that would shame your family. ¹¹You must not have sexual relations with the daughter of your father’s wife, born to your father; she is your sister. ¹²You must not have sexual relations with your father’s sister; she is your father’s close relative. ¹³You must not have sexual relations with your mother’s sister, for she is your mother’s close relative. ¹⁴You must not dishonor your father’s brother by approaching his wife to have sexual relations with her; she is your aunt. ¹⁵You must not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law. She is your son’s wife; you are not to have sexual relations with her. ¹⁶You must not have sexual relations with your brother’s wife; that would shame your brother. ¹⁷You must not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter. You are not to marry her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter and have sexual relations with her. They are close relatives; it is depraved. ¹⁸You must not take your wife’s sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is still alive. ¹⁹You must not approach a woman to have sexual relations with her during her menstrual period. ²⁰You must not lie carnally with your neighbor’s wife and thus defile yourself with her. ²¹You must not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD. ²²You must not lie with a man as with a woman; that is an abomination. ²³You must not lie carnally with any animal, thus defiling yourself with it; a woman must not stand before an animal to mate with it; that is a perversion. ²⁴Do not defile yourselves by any of these practices, for by all these things the nations I am driving out before you have defiled themselves. ²⁵Even the land has become defiled, so I am punishing it for its sin, and the land will vomit out its inhabitants. ²⁶But you are to keep My statutes and ordinances, and you must not commit any of these abominations—neither your native-born nor the foreigner who lives among you. ²⁷For the men who were in the land before you committed all these abominations, and the land has become defiled. ²⁸So if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it spewed out the nations before you. ²⁹Therefore anyone who commits any of these abominations must be cut off from among his people. ³⁰You must keep My charge not to practice any of the abominable customs that were practiced before you, so that you do not defile yourselves by them. I am the LORD your God.”

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Louis Segond 1910 and Berean Standard Bible: public domain. Cross references: open-cross-ref, Creative Commons BY 4.0.