Leviticus18
New International Version
1The Lord said to Moses,
2“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘I am the Lord your God.
3You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices.
4You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the Lord your God.
5Keep my decrees and laws, for the person who obeys them will live by them. I am the Lord.
6“‘No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the Lord.
7“‘Do not dishonor your father by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; do not have relations with her.
8“‘Do not have sexual relations with your father’s wife; that would dishonor your father.
9“‘Do 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.
10“‘Do not have sexual relations with your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter; that would dishonor you.
11“‘Do not have sexual relations with the daughter of your father’s wife, born to your father; she is your sister.
12“‘Do not have sexual relations with your father’s sister; she is your father’s close relative.
13“‘Do not have sexual relations with your mother’s sister, because she is your mother’s close relative.
14“‘Do not dishonor your father’s brother by approaching his wife to have sexual relations; she is your aunt.
15“‘Do not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law. She is your son’s wife; do not have relations with her.
16“‘Do not have sexual relations with your brother’s wife; that would dishonor your brother.
17“‘Do not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter. Do not have sexual relations with either her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter; they are her close relatives. That is wickedness.
18“‘Do not take your wife’s sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is living.
19“‘Do not approach a woman to have sexual relations during the uncleanness of her monthly period.
20“‘Do not have sexual relations with your neighbor’s wife and defile yourself with her.
21“‘Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molek, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.
22“‘Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.
23“‘Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion.
24“‘Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled.
25Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants.
26But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the foreigners residing among you must not do any of these detestable things,
27for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled.
28And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you.
29“‘Everyone who does any of these detestable things—such persons must be cut off from their people.
30Keep my requirements and do not follow any of the detestable customs that were practiced before you came and do not defile yourselves with them. I am the Lord your God.’”
Study Guide
Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Leviticus 18.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: Unlawful marriages and fleshly lusts. (1-30).
vv1-30
Here is a law against all conformity to the corrupt usages of the heathen. Also laws against incest, against brutal lusts, and barbarous idolatries; and the enforcement of these laws from the ruin of the Canaanites. God here gives moral precepts. Close and constant adherence to God's ordinances is the most effectual preservative from gross sin. The grace of God only will secure us; that grace is to be expected only in the use of the means of grace. Nor does He ever leave any to their hearts' lusts, till they have left him and his services.
Key Words
דָבַר: perhaps properly, to arrange; but used figuratively (of words), to speak; rarely (in a destructive sense) to subdue
מֹשֶׁה: Mosheh, the Israelite lawgiver
אָמַר: to say (used with great latitude)
בֵּן: a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etc., (like father or brother), etc.)
יִשְׂרָאֵל: Jisrael, a symbolical name of Jacob; also (typically) of his posterity
אֱלֹהִים: gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God; occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrates; and sometimes as a superlative
עָשָׂה: to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest application
מַעֲשֶׂה: an action (good or bad); generally, a transaction; abstractly, activity; by implication, a product (specifically, a poem) or (generally) property
אֶרֶץ: the earth (at large, or partitively a land)
מִצְרַיִם: Mitsrajim, i.e. Upper and Lower Egypt
Cross References
Leviticus 18Paul explicitly quotes Leviticus 18:5 ('the man which doeth those things shall live in them') regarding legal righteousness.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Paul quotes the phrase 'the man that doeth them shall live in them' to contrast law and faith.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Provides the foundational promise of life for keeping the statutes and judgments.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Jesus echoes the life promise of Leviticus 18:5 to the lawyer: 'this do, and thou shalt live.'
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Paul condemns a man having 'his father's wife' as incest not even named among the Gentiles.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Specifies the capital penalty for giving seed to Molech, expanding on verse 21.
Supported by John Calvin
Prescribes the capital punishment for the homosexual act forbidden as an abomination in verse 22.
Supported by John Calvin
Establishes the penalty for bestiality, which is prohibited in verse 23.
Supported by John Calvin
Repeats warning against walking in the manners of the nations cast out before them.
Supported by John Calvin, JFB
Jesus' statement 'if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments' echoes the promise of verse 5.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Reuben's sin with Bilhah, his father's concubine, violates the prohibition against uncovering a father's wife's nakedness.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Jacob's dying words denounce Reuben for defiling his couch, referring back to the incest forbidden here.
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Prohibits making sons or daughters pass through the fire, parallel to Molech worship.
Supported by John Calvin
Condemns the pagan practice of burning children in the fire to their gods.
Supported by John Calvin
Apostolic theological application of the 'do and live' principle of Leviticus 18.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Warning that the land will vomit Israel out if they commit these abominations.
Supported by John Calvin
Ezekiel explicitly cites God's giving of statutes which 'if a man do, he shall even live in them.'
Supported by Matthew Poole
The formal covenant curse pronounced upon anyone who lies with his father's wife, echoing verse 8.
Supported by Matthew Poole
The levirate marriage law provides a specific, divinely mandated exception to the general prohibition in verse 16.
John the Baptist's rebuke to Herod: 'It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife.'
Historical fulfillment where Josiah defiled Topheth to stop child sacrifices to Molech.
Supported by JFB
Prophetic condemnation of Israel building high places to cause children to pass through fire to Molech.
Supported by John Calvin
New Testament parallel exposing the same unnatural practices as errors worthy of judgment.
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Pronounces a formal curse upon anyone who lies with any manner of beast.
Supported by John Calvin
Ezekiel denounces Jerusalem for uncovering their fathers' nakedness and humbling women set apart for pollution.
The penal counterpart to verse 8, prescribing the death penalty for lying with a father's wife.
Tamar appeals to the prohibition of sibling incest, pleading with Amnon not to do such folly.
Prescribes the specific penalty (childlessness) for taking a brother's wife, reinforcing the prohibition of verse 16.
Declares the death penalty for both the adulterer and adulteress, backing the prohibition in verse 20.
Parallels the prohibition against profaning the name of your God.
Supported by John Calvin
Reinforces the command not to do after the customs of Egypt or Canaan.
Supported by Matthew Poole