Leviticus 18

1 God spoke to Moses,
2 "Speak to the People of Israel. Tell them: I am God, your God.
3 Don't live like the people of Egypt where you used to live, and don't live like the people of Canaan where I'm bringing you. Don't do what they do.
4 Obey my laws and live by my decrees. I am your God.
5 Keep my decrees and laws: The person who obeys them lives by them. I am God.
6 "Don't have sex with a close relative. I am God.
7 "Don't violate your father by having sex with your mother. She is your mother. Don't have sex with her.
8 "Don't have sex with your father's wife. That violates your father.
9 "Don't have sex with your sister, whether she's your father's daughter or your mother's, whether she was born in the same house or elsewhere.
10 "Don't have sex with your son's daughter or your daughter's daughter. That would violate your own body.
11 "Don't have sex with the daughter of your father's wife born to your father. She is your sister.
12 "Don't have sex with your father's sister; she is your aunt, closely related to your father.
13 "Don't have sex with your mother's sister; she is your aunt, closely related to your mother.
14 "Don't violate your father's brother, your uncle, by having sex with his wife. She is your aunt.
15 "Don't have sex with your daughter-in-law. She is your son's wife; don't have sex with her.
16 "Don't have sex with your brother's wife; that would violate your brother.
17 "Don't have sex with both a woman and her daughter. And don't have sex with her granddaughters either. They are her close relatives. That is wicked.
18 "Don't marry your wife's sister as a rival wife and have sex with her while your wife is living.
19 "Don't have sex with a woman during the time of her menstrual period when she is unclean.
20 "Don't have sex with your neighbor's wife and violate yourself by her.
21 "Don't give any of your children to be burned in sacrifice to the god Molech - an act of sheer blasphemy of your God. I am God.
22 "Don't have sex with a man as one does with a woman. That is abhorrent.
23 "Don't have sex with an animal and violate yourself by it. A woman must not have sex with an animal. That is perverse.
24 "Don't pollute yourself in any of these ways. This is how the nations became polluted, the ones that I am going to drive out of the land before you.
25 Even the land itself became polluted and I punished it for its iniquities - the land vomited up its inhabitants.
26 You must keep my decrees and laws - natives and foreigners both. You must not do any of these abhorrent things.
27 The people who lived in this land before you arrived did all these things and polluted the land.
28 And if you pollute it, the land will vomit you up just as it vomited up the nations that preceded you.
29 "Those who do any of these abhorrent things will be cut off from their people.
30 Keep to what I tell you; don't engage in any of the abhorrent acts that were practiced before you came. Don't pollute yourselves with them. I am God, your God."

Leviticus 18 Commentary

Chapter 18

Unlawful marriages and fleshly lusts.

- 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.

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO LEVITICUS 18

In this chapter the Israelites are directed in general not to imitate the customs and practices of the Egyptians and Canaanites, but to keep the ordinances, statutes, and judgments of the Lord, Le 18:1-5; and they are instructed particularly to avoid incestuous marriages, Le 18:6-18; carnal copulation with a menstruous woman, Le 18:19; adultery, Le 18:20; letting any of their seed pass through the fire to Molech, Le 18:21; sodomy, Le 18:22; and bestiality, Le 18:23; and they are deterred from these things by observing to them the pollution and destruction which they brought on the inhabitants of Canaan, and would bring the same on them should they commit them, Le 18:24-30.

Leviticus 18 Commentaries

Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.