Leviticus 18

¹Leviticus 18:1. Then the LORD said to Moses,²Leviticus 18:2. “Speak to the Israelites and tell them: I am the LORD your God.³Leviticus 18:3. You 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.⁴Leviticus 18:4. You are to practice My judgments and keep My statutes by walking in them. I am the LORD your God.⁵Leviticus 18:5. Keep My statutes and My judgments, for the man who does these things will live by them. I am the LORD.⁶Leviticus 18:6. None of you are to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the LORD.⁷Leviticus 18:7. You 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.⁸Leviticus 18:8. You must not have sexual relations with your father’s wife; it would dishonor your father.⁹Leviticus 18:9. You 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.¹⁰Leviticus 18:10. You must not have sexual relations with your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, for that would shame your family.¹¹Leviticus 18:11. You must not have sexual relations with the daughter of your father’s wife, born to your father; she is your sister.¹²Leviticus 18:12. You must not have sexual relations with your father’s sister; she is your father’s close relative.¹³Leviticus 18:13. You must not have sexual relations with your mother’s sister, for she is your mother’s close relative.¹⁴Leviticus 18:14. You must not dishonor your father’s brother by approaching his wife to have sexual relations with her; she is your aunt.¹⁵Leviticus 18:15. You 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.¹⁶Leviticus 18:16. You must not have sexual relations with your brother’s wife; that would shame your brother.¹⁷Leviticus 18:17. You 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.¹⁸Leviticus 18:18. You must not take your wife’s sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is still alive.¹⁹Leviticus 18:19. You must not approach a woman to have sexual relations with her during her menstrual period.²⁰Leviticus 18:20. You must not lie carnally with your neighbor’s wife and thus defile yourself with her.²¹Leviticus 18:21. You 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.²²Leviticus 18:22. You must not lie with a man as with a woman; that is an abomination.²³Leviticus 18:23. You 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.²⁴Leviticus 18:24. Do not defile yourselves by any of these practices, for by all these things the nations I am driving out before you have defiled themselves.²⁵Leviticus 18:25. Even the land has become defiled, so I am punishing it for its sin, and the land will vomit out its inhabitants.²⁶Leviticus 18:26. But 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.²⁷Leviticus 18:27. For the men who were in the land before you committed all these abominations, and the land has become defiled.²⁸Leviticus 18:28. So if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it spewed out the nations before you.²⁹Leviticus 18:29. Therefore anyone who commits any of these abominations must be cut off from among his people.³⁰Leviticus 18:30. You 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.”