Leviticus 18:19-29

19 'Also you shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness as long as she is in her customary impurity.

20 Moreover you shall not lie carnally with your neighbor's wife, to defile yourself with her.

21 And you shall not let any of your descendants pass through the fire to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.

22 You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination.

23 Nor shall you mate with any animal, to defile yourself with it. Nor shall any woman stand before an animal to mate with it. It is perversion.

24 'Do not defile yourselves with any of these things; for by all these the nations are defiled, which I am casting out before you.

25 For the land is defiled; therefore I visit the punishment of its iniquity upon it, and the land vomits out its inhabitants.

26 You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations, either any of your own nation or any stranger who dwells among you

27 (for all these abominations the men of the land have done, who were before you, and thus the land is defiled),

28 lest the land vomit you out also when you defile it, as it vomited out the nations that were before you.

29 For whoever commits any of these abominations, the persons who commit them shall be cut off from among their people.

Leviticus 18:19-29 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.