Leviticus 18

⁷I will take you as My own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.

⁴⁴For I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, because I am holy. You must not defile yourselves by any creature that crawls along the ground.

⁵and tell them that this is what the Lord God says: On the day I chose Israel, I swore an oath to the descendants of the house of Jacob and made Myself known to them in the land of Egypt. With an uplifted hand I said to them, ‘I am the Lord your God.’

⁷Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, because I am the Lord your God.

¹⁹I am the Lord your God; walk in My statutes, keep My ordinances, and practice them.

²⁰Keep My Sabbaths holy, that they may be a sign between us, so that you may know that I am the Lord your God.’

³Each of you must respect his mother and father, and you must keep My Sabbaths. I am the Lord your God.

⁴Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves molten gods. I am the Lord your God.

²³You must not follow the statutes of the nations I am driving out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them.

²⁴You must not bow down to their gods or serve them or follow their practices. Instead, you are to demolish them and smash their sacred stones to pieces.

⁷And I said to them: ‘Each of you must throw away the abominations before his eyes, and you must not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’

⁸But they rebelled against Me and refused to listen. None of them cast away the abominations before their eyes, and they did not forsake the idols of Egypt. So I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and vent My anger against them in the land of Egypt.

⁸She did not give up the prostitution she began in Egypt, when men slept with her in her youth, caressed her virgin bosom, and poured out their lust upon her.

²Consequently, he does not live out his remaining time on earth for human passions, but for the will of God.

³For you have spent enough time in the past carrying out the same desires as the Gentiles: living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and detestable idolatry.

³⁰be careful not to be ensnared by their ways after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods, asking, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.”

³¹You must not worship the Lord your God in this way, because they practice for their gods every abomination which the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.

¹⁹I am the Lord your God; walk in My statutes, keep My ordinances, and practice them.

²“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: I am the Lord your God.

⁴You have ordained Your precepts, that we should keep them diligently.

¹⁴You are My friends if you do what I command you.

²⁷And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and to carefully observe My ordinances.

³⁷You must keep all My statutes and all My ordinances and follow them. I am the Lord.”

¹²The law, however, is not based on faith; on the contrary, “The man who does these things will live by them.”

¹¹And I gave them My statutes and made known to them My ordinances—for the man who does these things will live by them.

⁵For concerning the righteousness that is by the law, Moses writes: “The man who does these things will live by them.”

²¹But the children rebelled against Me. They did not walk in My statutes or carefully observe My ordinances—though the man who does these things will live by them—and they profaned My Sabbaths. So I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and vent My anger against them in the wilderness.

¹³Yet the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness. They did not follow My statutes and they rejected My ordinances—though the man who does these things will live by them—and they utterly profaned My Sabbaths. Then I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and put an end to them in the wilderness.

²⁸“You have answered correctly,” Jesus said. “Do this and you will live.”

¹⁷If a man marries his sister, whether the daughter of his father or of his mother, and they have sexual relations, it is a disgrace. They must be cut off in the sight of their people. He has uncovered the nakedness of his sister; he shall bear his iniquity.

¹⁸If a man lies with a menstruating woman and has sexual relations with her, he has exposed the source of her flow, and she has uncovered the source of her blood. Both of them must be cut off from among their people.

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.

¹¹If a man lies with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness. Both must surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.

¹²If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both must surely be put to death. They have acted perversely; their blood is upon them.

¹¹If a man lies with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness. Both must surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.

¹⁰In you they have uncovered the nakedness of their fathers; in you they violate women during their menstrual impurity.

¹⁴If a man marries both a woman and her mother, it is depraved. Both he and they must be burned in the fire, so that there will be no depravity among you.

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.

¹¹If a man lies with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness. Both must surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.

¹It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is intolerable even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife.

³⁰A man is not to marry his father’s wife, so that he will not dishonor his father’s marriage bed.

²⁰‘Cursed is he who sleeps with his father’s wife, for he has violated his father’s marriage bed.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

⁷They trample on the heads of the poor as on the dust of the earth; they push the needy out of their way. A man and his father have relations with the same girl and so profane My holy name.

⁴Uncontrolled as the waters, you will no longer excel, because you went up to your father’s bed, onto my couch, and defiled it.

¹⁷If a man marries his sister, whether the daughter of his father or of his mother, and they have sexual relations, it is a disgrace. They must be cut off in the sight of their people. He has uncovered the nakedness of his sister; he shall bear his iniquity.

²²‘Cursed is he who sleeps with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

¹¹One man commits an abomination with his neighbor’s wife; another wickedly defiles his daughter-in-law; and yet another violates his sister, his own father’s daughter.

¹¹And when she had brought them to him to eat, he took hold of her and said, “Come lie with me, my sister!”

¹²“No, my brother!” she cried. “Do not violate me, for such a thing should never be done in Israel. Do not do this disgraceful thing!

¹¹You must not have sexual relations with the daughter of your father’s wife, born to your father; she is your sister.

¹⁹You must not have sexual relations with the sister of your mother or your father, for it is exposing one’s own kin; both shall bear their iniquity.

²⁰And Amram married his father’s sister Jochebed, and she bore him Aaron and Moses. Amram lived 137 years.

²⁰If a man lies with his uncle’s wife, he has uncovered the nakedness of his uncle. They will bear their sin; they shall die childless.

¹²If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both must surely be put to death. They have acted perversely; their blood is upon them.

²⁶Judah recognized the items and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not have relations with her again.

¹¹One man commits an abomination with his neighbor’s wife; another wickedly defiles his daughter-in-law; and yet another violates his sister, his own father’s daughter.

¹⁸“What pledge should I give you?” he asked. She answered, “Your seal and your cord, and the staff in your hand.” So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him.

¹⁹Then Tamar got up and departed. And she removed her veil and put on her widow’s garments again.

²¹If a man marries his brother’s wife, it is an act of impurity. He has uncovered the nakedness of his brother; they shall be childless.

⁵When brothers dwell together and one of them dies without a son, the widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother is to take her as his wife and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law for her.

¹⁹“Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man is to marry his brother’s widow and raise up offspring for him.

²⁴“Teacher,” they said, “Moses declared that if a man dies without having children, his brother is to marry the widow and raise up offspring for him.

¹⁷For Herod himself had ordered that John be arrested and bound and imprisoned, on account of his brother Philip’s wife Herodias, whom Herod had married.

³Now Herod had arrested John and bound him and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife,

⁴because John had been telling him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.”

¹⁴If a man marries both a woman and her mother, it is depraved. Both he and they must be burned in the fire, so that there will be no depravity among you.

⁷They trample on the heads of the poor as on the dust of the earth; they push the needy out of their way. A man and his father have relations with the same girl and so profane My holy name.

²³‘Cursed is he who sleeps with his mother-in-law.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

¹⁵Has not the Lord made them one, having a portion of the Spirit? And why one? Because He seeks godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not break faith with the wife of your youth.

²⁸And Jacob did just that. He finished the week’s celebration, and Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife.

¹⁵But Leah replied, “Is it not enough that you have taken away my husband? Now you want to take my son’s mandrakes as well?” “Very well,” said Rachel, “he may sleep with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.”

¹⁹And Lamech married two women, one named Adah and the other Zillah.

⁶Because the Lord had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival would provoke her viciously to taunt her.

⁷And this went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord, her rival taunted her until she wept and would not eat.

³Five of the curtains are to be joined together, and the other five joined as well.

²⁴If a man lies with her and her menstrual flow touches him, he will be unclean for seven days, and any bed on which he lies will become unclean.

¹⁸If a man lies with a menstruating woman and has sexual relations with her, he has exposed the source of her flow, and she has uncovered the source of her blood. Both of them must be cut off from among their people.

¹⁰In you they have uncovered the nakedness of their fathers; in you they violate women during their menstrual impurity.

¹⁹When a woman has a discharge consisting of blood from her body, she will be unclean due to her menstruation for seven days, and anyone who touches her will be unclean until evening.

⁶He does not eat at the mountain or look to the idols of the house of Israel. He does not defile his neighbor’s wife or approach a woman during her period.

²“Say to the Israelites, ‘A woman who becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son will be unclean for seven days, as she is during the days of her menstruation.

¹⁴You shall not commit adultery.

⁴Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.

⁹Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts,

²⁷You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’

²⁸But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

¹⁰If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress must surely be put to death.

¹⁸You shall not commit adultery.

³¹You must not worship the Lord your God in this way, because they practice for their gods every abomination which the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.

¹⁰Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, practices divination or conjury, interprets omens, practices sorcery,

²“Tell the Israelites, ‘Any Israelite or foreigner living in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech must be put to death. The people of the land are to stone him.

³And I will set My face against that man and cut him off from his people, because by giving his offspring to Molech, he has defiled My sanctuary and profaned My holy name.

¹²You must not swear falsely by My name and so profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.

³²You must not profane My holy name. I must be acknowledged as holy among the Israelites. I am the Lord who sanctifies you,

³³For they have forsaken Me to worship Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the Ammonites. They have not walked in My ways, nor done what is right in My eyes, nor kept My statutes and judgments, as Solomon’s father David did.

¹³If a man lies with a man as with a woman, they have both committed an abomination. They must surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.

⁹Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts,

²⁶For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.

²⁷Likewise, the men abandoned natural relations with women and burned with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

¹⁰for the sexually immoral, for homosexuals, for slave traders and liars and perjurers, and for anyone else who is averse to sound teaching

⁷In like manner, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, who indulged in sexual immorality and pursued strange flesh, are on display as an example of those who sustain the punishment of eternal fire.

²⁴There were even male shrine prostitutes in the land. They imitated all the abominations of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites.

¹⁵If a man lies carnally with an animal, he must be put to death. And you are also to kill the animal.

¹⁶If a woman approaches any animal to mate with it, you must kill both the woman and the animal. They must surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.

¹⁹Whoever lies with an animal must surely be put to death.

¹²If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both must surely be put to death. They have acted perversely; their blood is upon them.

²¹‘Cursed is he who lies with any animal.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

¹²For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord. And because of these detestable things, the Lord your God is driving out the nations before you.

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.”

²²You are therefore to keep all My statutes and ordinances, so that the land where I am bringing you to live will not vomit you out.

²³You must not follow the statutes of the nations I am driving out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them.

³¹You must not worship the Lord your God in this way, because they practice for their gods every abomination which the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.

¹⁷If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

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.

²⁸So if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it spewed out the nations before you.

²²You are therefore to keep all My statutes and ordinances, so that the land where I am bringing you to live will not vomit you out.

²³You must not follow the statutes of the nations I am driving out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them.

⁷I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and bounty, but you came and defiled My land and made My inheritance detestable.

⁹Should I not punish them for these things? declares the Lord. Should I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?”

³⁸They shed innocent blood—the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood.

³³Do not pollute the land where you live, for bloodshed pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land on which the blood is shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it.

³⁴Do not defile the land where you live and where I dwell. For I, the Lord, dwell among the Israelites.”

⁵Keep My statutes and My judgments, for the man who does these things will live by them. I am the Lord.

¹⁵But the seeds on good soil are those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, cling to it, and by persevering produce a crop.

²⁸But He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”

³²See that you do everything I command you; do not add to it or subtract from it.

¹Hear now, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances I am teaching you to follow, so that you may live and may enter and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you.

²You must not add to or subtract from what I command you, so that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I am giving you.

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.”

¹¹One man commits an abomination with his neighbor’s wife; another wickedly defiles his daughter-in-law; and yet another violates his sister, his own father’s daughter.

¹⁵‘Cursed is the man who makes a carved idol or molten image—an abomination to the Lord, the work of the hands of a craftsman—and sets it up in secret.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

⁵⁰Thus they were haughty and committed abominations before Me. Therefore I removed them, as you have seen.

¹⁴Furthermore, all the leaders of the priests and the people multiplied their unfaithful deeds, following all the abominations of the nations, and they defiled the house of the Lord, which He had consecrated in Jerusalem.

²⁴There were even male shrine prostitutes in the land. They imitated all the abominations of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites.

³Instead, he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and even sacrificed his son in the fire, according to the abominations of the nations that the Lord had driven out before the Israelites.

²⁵Even the land has become defiled, so I am punishing it for its sin, and the land will vomit out its inhabitants.

²²You are therefore to keep all My statutes and ordinances, so that the land where I am bringing you to live will not vomit you out.

¹⁶So because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to vomit you out of My mouth!

¹⁷“Son of man, when the people of Israel lived in their land, they defiled it by their own ways and deeds. Their behavior before Me was like the uncleanness of a woman’s impurity.

¹⁹For the sound of wailing is heard from Zion: ‘How devastated we are! How great is our shame! For we have abandoned the land because our dwellings have been torn down.’”

¹³For this is what the Lord God says: Because people say to you, ‘You devour men and deprive your nation of its children,’

¹⁰If anyone from the house of Israel or a foreigner living among them eats any blood, I will set My face against that person and cut him off from among his people.

⁶Whoever turns to mediums or spiritists to prostitute himself with them, I will also set My face against that person and cut him off from his people.

¹⁵For seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you are to remove the leaven from your houses. Whoever eats anything leavened from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel.

²³You must not follow the statutes of the nations I am driving out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them.

⁹When you enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not imitate the detestable ways of the nations there.

¹⁰Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, practices divination or conjury, interprets omens, practices sorcery,

⁹The priests must keep My charge, lest they bear the guilt and die because they profane it. I am the Lord who sanctifies them.

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.

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.

¹You shall therefore love the Lord your God and always keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments.