Leviticus 18:17-27

17 The nakedness of a woman and her daughter shalt thou not uncover; thou shalt not take her son's daughter, nor her daughter's daughter, to uncover her nakedness: they are her near relations: it is wickedness.
18 And thou shalt not take a wife to her sister, to vex her, to uncover her nakedness beside her, during her life.
19 And thou shalt not approach a woman in the separation of her uncleanness to uncover her nakedness.
20 And thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbour's wife, to become unclean with her.
21 And thou shalt not give of thy seed to let them pass through [the fire] to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am Jehovah.
22 And thou shalt not lie with mankind as one lieth with a woman: it is an abomination.
23 And thou shalt lie with no beast to become unclean therewith; and a woman shall not stand before a beast to lie down with it: it is confusion.
24 Make not yourselves unclean in any of these things; for in all these have the nations which I am casting out before you made themselves unclean.
25 And the land hath become unclean; and I visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land vomiteth out its inhabitants.
26 But *ye* shall observe my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of all these abominations: the home-born, and the stranger that sojourneth among you;
27 (for all these abominations have the men of the land done, who were before you, and the land hath been made unclean);

Leviticus 18:17-27 Meaning and Commentary

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.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. A divinity of the Ammonites to which little children were sacrificed.
The Darby Translation is in the public domain.