Leviticus18
New Living Translation
1Then the Lord said to Moses,
2“Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. I am the Lord your God.
3So do not act like the people in Egypt, where you used to live, or like the people of Canaan, where I am taking you. You must not imitate their way of life.
4You must obey all my regulations and be careful to obey my decrees, for I am the Lord your God.
5If you obey my decrees and my regulations, you will find life through them. I am the Lord.
6“You must never have sexual relations with a close relative, for I am the Lord.
7“Do not violate your father by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; you must not have sexual relations with her.
8“Do not have sexual relations with any of your father’s wives, for this would violate your father.
9“Do not have sexual relations with your sister or half sister, whether she is your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether she was born into your household or someone else’s.
10“Do not have sexual relations with your granddaughter, whether she is your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, for this would violate yourself.
11“Do not have sexual relations with your stepsister, the daughter of any of your father’s wives, for she is your sister.
12“Do not have sexual relations with your father’s sister, for she is your father’s close relative.
13“Do not have sexual relations with your mother’s sister, for she is your mother’s close relative.
14“Do not violate your uncle, your father’s brother, by having sexual relations with his wife, for she is your aunt.
15“Do not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law; she is your son’s wife, so you must not have sexual relations with her.
16“Do not have sexual relations with your brother’s wife, for this would violate your brother.
17“Do not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter. And do not take her granddaughter, whether her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter, and have sexual relations with her. They are close relatives, and this would be a wicked act.
18“While your wife is living, do not marry her sister and have sexual relations with her, for they would be rivals.
19“Do not have sexual relations with a woman during her period of menstrual impurity.
20“Do not defile yourself by having sexual intercourse with your neighbor’s wife.
21“Do not permit any of your children to be offered as a sacrifice to Molech, for you must not bring shame on the name of your God. I am the Lord.
22“Do not practice homosexuality, having sex with another man as with a woman. It is a detestable sin.
23“A man must not defile himself by having sex with an animal. And a woman must not offer herself to a male animal to have intercourse with it. This is a perverse act.
24“Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, for the people I am driving out before you have defiled themselves in all these ways.
25Because the entire land has become defiled, I am punishing the people who live there. I will cause the land to vomit them out.
26You must obey all my decrees and regulations. You must not commit any of these detestable sins. This applies both to native-born Israelites and to the foreigners living among you.
27“All these detestable activities are practiced by the people of the land where I am taking you, and this is how the land has become defiled.
28So do not defile the land and give it a reason to vomit you out, as it will vomit out the people who live there now.
29Whoever commits any of these detestable sins will be cut off from the community of Israel.
30So obey my instructions, and do not defile yourselves by committing any of these detestable practices that were committed by the people who lived in the land before you. 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.
Supported by JFB
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