Leviticus 18: Verse-by-Verse Commentary (with Videos)

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.”