Lê-vi Ký 18

Do not live like Egypt or Canaan

¹The LORD spoke to Moses. He said, ²“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: ‘I am the LORD your God. ³Do not copy what is done in the land of Egypt, where you once lived, or what is done in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not live by their customs. ⁴You are to carry out my rulings and keep my statutes, living by them. I am the LORD your God. ⁵Keep my statutes and my rulings. The one who does them will live by them. I am the LORD.

Forbidden sexual relations

⁶Not one of you is to go near any close relative of his own flesh to have sexual relations. I am the LORD.

⁷You must not have sexual relations with your mother, for that would be an offense against your father. She is your mother. Do not have sexual relations with her.^a

⁸Do not have sexual relations with your father’s wife. That would be an offense against your father.

⁹You must not have sexual relations with a sister of yours, the daughter of your father or of your mother, whether she was born into your household or born outside it.^b

¹⁰You must not have sexual relations with your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, for they are your own flesh and blood.

¹¹Your father’s wife may have borne him a daughter; she is your sister, and you must not have sexual relations with her.

¹²You must not have sexual relations with your father’s sister. She is your father’s blood relative.

¹³You must not have sexual relations with your mother’s sister, for she is your mother’s blood relative.

¹⁴Do not go near the wife of your father’s brother to have sexual relations with her, for that would be an offense against your uncle. She is your aunt.

¹⁵You must not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law. She is married to your son. Do not have sexual relations with her.

¹⁶You must not have sexual relations with the wife of your brother. It would be an offense against him.

¹⁷You must not have sexual relations with a woman and also with her daughter. Nor are you to marry her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter and have sexual relations with her. They are blood relatives; it is depravity. ¹⁸While your wife is alive, you must not also marry her sister, making the two women rivals by having sexual relations with her as well.^{c 19}While a woman is unclean because of her monthly period, you must not go near her for sexual relations. ²⁰You must not have intercourse with the wife of a fellow Israelite. It would make you unclean through her. ²¹None of your children may be handed over and made to pass through the fire to Molech. You must not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.^{d 22}You must not lie with a male as a man lies with a woman. It is a detestable act. ²³You must not have intercourse with any animal; it would make you unclean. No woman is to offer herself to an animal so that it mates with her. That is a perverse mixing. ²⁴Do not let any of these things make you unclean. All of them are what made the nations unclean, the nations I am driving out from before you. ²⁵The land was made unclean, and I called it to account for its guilt; and the land vomited out the people living on it. ²⁶But you are to keep my statutes and my rulings and not do any of these detestable things, neither the native-born nor the outsider who lives among you, ²⁷for the people who lived in the land before you did all these detestable things, and the land became unclean. ²⁸Then the land will not vomit you out for making it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was there before you. ²⁹For if anyone does any of these detestable things, the persons who do them must be cut off from the people. ³⁰Keep what I have charged you to do. Do not take up any of the detestable customs of those who lived here before you, and do not make yourselves unclean through them. I am the LORD your God.’”