Leviticus 18:24

24 "'Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, because all the nations which I am expelling ahead of you are defiled with them.

Leviticus 18:24 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 18:24

Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things
In incestuous copulations and marriages, in adultery, corporeal and spiritual, and bestiality: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you;
that is, the seven nations of the land of Canaan, which God was about to eject out of their land to make room for the Israelites, and that on account of the above shocking vices which abounded among them; so that in some sense the land they dwelt upon was defiled by them, and called for vengeance on them, as even loathing its inhabitants, as afterwards suggested.

Leviticus 18:24 In-Context

22 "'You are not to go to bed with a man as with a woman; it is an abomination.

23 "'You are not to have sexual relations with any kind of animal and thus become unclean with it; nor is any woman to present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; it is perversion.

24 "'Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, because all the nations which I am expelling ahead of you are defiled with them.

25 The land has become unclean, and this is why I am punishing it - the land itself will vomit out its inhabitants.

26 But you are to keep my laws and rulings and not engage in any of these disgusting practices, neither the citizen nor the foreigner living with you;