Leviticus 18

Unlawful Sexual Relations

1Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,[#Or “And”]

2“Speak to the Israelites, and say to them, ‘I am Yahweh your God.[#Literally “sons/children of Israel”]

3You must not carry out the practices of the land of Egypt, in which you lived, and you must not carry out the practices of the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you; and you must not follow their statutes.[#Literally “do”; #Literally “do”]

4You must carry out my regulations, and you must observe my statutes by following them; I am Yahweh your God.[#Literally “do”; #Or “keep”]

5And you shall observe my statutes and my regulations by which the person doing them shall live; I am Yahweh.[#Or “keep”; #Literally “which the man does them and he shall live in them”]

6“ ‘None of you shall approach anyone who is his close relative to expose nakedness; I am Yahweh.[#Literally “a man a man … not”; #Literally “the flesh of his body”]

7You must not expose your father’s nakedness or your mother’s nakedness—she is your mother; you must not expose her nakedness.[#Or “and”]

8You must not expose the nakedness of your father’s wife—it is your father’s nakedness.

9As for your sister’s nakedness, whether your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether born at home or born abroad, you must not expose their nakedness.[#Literally “a relative of house”; #Literally “a relative of an outside place”]

10As for the nakedness of your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, you must not expose their nakedness, because they are your nakedness.

11As for the nakedness of the daughter of your father’s wife, she is your sister, a relative of your father; you must not expose her nakedness.

12You must not expose the nakedness of your father’s sister; she is your father’s close relative.[#Literally “the flesh of your father”]

13You must not expose the nakedness of your mother’s sister, because she is your mother’s close relative.[#Literally “the flesh of your mother”]

14You must not expose the nakedness of your father’s brother; you must not have sex with his wife—she is your aunt.[#Literally “approach”]

15You must not expose your daughter-in-law’s nakedness; she is your son’s wife; you must not expose her nakedness.

16You must not expose the nakedness of your brother’s wife; she is your brother’s nakedness.

17You must not expose the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, or her son’s daughter, or her daughter’s daughter; you must not take her as wife to expose her nakedness; they are close relatives—that is wickedness.[#The verb לקח is used to speak of marrying (“taking a wife”); #Literally “flesh”; see vv. 6, 12, 13]

18And you must not take as wife a woman with her sister, to be a rival-wife, to expose her nakedness before her during her life.[#The verb לקח is used to speak of marrying (“taking a wife”); #Literally “in”]

19“ ‘And you must not have sex with a woman to expose her nakedness during her menstrual uncleanness.[#Literally “approach”; #Literally “in”]

20And you must not have sex with your fellow citizen’s wife, becoming unclean with her.[#Literally “you shall not give your lying down for semen”; #Or “neighbor’s”]

21“ ‘And you shall not give any of your offspring in order to sacrifice them to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God; I am Yahweh.[#Literally “from”; #Or “descendants”; #Or “and not”]

22And you shall not lie with a male as lying with a woman; that is a detestable thing.[#Literally “of”]

23And you shall not have sexual relations with any animal, becoming unclean with it; and a woman shall not stand before an animal to copulate with it—that is a perversion.[#Literally “give your lying down”; #Literally “to the faces of”]

24“ ‘You must not make yourself unclean in any of these things, because the nations whom I am driving out from your presence were made unclean by all of these.

25So the land became unclean, and I have brought the punishment of its guilt upon it, and the land has vomited out its inhabitants.[#Or “And”; #Literally “I have visited”]

26But you (neither the native nor the alien who is dwelling in your midst) shall keep my statutes and my regulations, and you shall not practice any of these detestable things[#Or “And”; #Or “and”; #Literally “do”]

27(because the people of the land, who were before you, did all these detestable things, so the land became unclean),[#Literally “to the faces of you”]

28so that the land will not vomit you out when you make it unclean just as it vomited out the nation that was before you.[#Literally “to the faces of you”]

29Indeed, anyone who does any of these detestable things, even those persons who do so shall be cut off from the midst of their people.[#Or “and”]

30Thus you shall keep my obligation to not do any of the statutes regarding the detestable things that they did before you, so that you will not make yourselves unclean by them; I am Yahweh your God.’ ”[#Or “And”; #Literally “of”; #Literally “to the faces of you”]

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