18Leviticus 18

Forbidden Sexual Practices

1The Lord told MosesSelect Leviticus 18:1

2to say to the people of Israel, “I am the Lord your God.Select Leviticus 18:2

3Do not follow the practices of the people of Egypt, where you once lived, or of the people in the land of Canaan, where I am now taking you.Select Leviticus 18:3

4Obey my laws and do what I command. I am the Lord your God.Select Leviticus 18:4

5Follow the practices and the laws that I give you; you will save your life by doing so. I am the Lord.”Select Leviticus 18:5

6The Lord gave the following regulations. Do not have sexual intercourse with any of your relatives.Select Leviticus 18:6

7Do not disgrace your father by having intercourse with your mother. You must not disgrace your own mother.Select Leviticus 18:7

8Do not disgrace your father by having intercourse with any of his other wives.Select Leviticus 18:8

9Do not have intercourse with your sister or your stepsister, whether or not she was brought up in the same house with you.Select Leviticus 18:9

10Do not have intercourse with your granddaughter; that would be a disgrace to you.Select Leviticus 18:10

11Do not have intercourse with a half sister; she, too, is your sister.Select Leviticus 18:11

13Do not have intercourse with an aunt, whether she is your father's sister or your mother's sister.Select Leviticus 18:13

14Do not have intercourse with your uncle's wife; she, too, is your aunt.Select Leviticus 18:14

15Do not have intercourse with your daughter-in-lawSelect Leviticus 18:15

16or with your brother's wife.Select Leviticus 18:16

17Do not have intercourse with the daughter or granddaughter of a woman with whom you have had intercourse; they may be related to you, and that would be incest.Select Leviticus 18:17

18Do not take your wife's sister as one of your wives, as long as your wife is living.Select Leviticus 18:18

19Do not have intercourse with a woman during her monthly period, because she is ritually unclean.Select Leviticus 18:19

20Do not have intercourse with another man's wife; that would make you ritually unclean.Select Leviticus 18:20

21Do not hand over any of your children to be used in the worship of the god Molech, because that would bring disgrace on the name of God, the Lord.Select Leviticus 18:21

22No man is to have sexual relations with another man; God hates that.Select Leviticus 18:22

23No man or woman is to have sexual relations with an animal; that perversion makes you ritually unclean.Select Leviticus 18:23

24Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these acts, for that is how the pagans made themselves unclean, those pagans who lived in the land before you and whom the Lord is driving out so that you can go in.Select Leviticus 18:24

25Their actions made the land unclean, and so the Lord is punishing the land and making it reject the people who lived there.Select Leviticus 18:25

27They did all these disgusting things and made the land unclean, but you must not do them. All of you, whether Israelites or foreigners living with you, must keep the Lord's laws and commands,Select Leviticus 18:27

28and then the land will not reject you, as it rejected the pagans who lived there before you.Select Leviticus 18:28

29You know that whoever does any of these disgusting things will no longer be considered one of God's people.Select Leviticus 18:29

30And the Lord said, “Obey the commands I give and do not follow the practices of the people who lived in the land before you, and do not make yourselves unclean by doing any of these things. I am the Lord your God.”Select Leviticus 18:30