Leviticus 18:21-30

21 Never give your children as sacrifices to the god Molech [by burning them alive]. If you do, you are dishonoring the name of your God. I am the LORD.

22 Never have sexual intercourse with a man as with a woman. It is disgusting.

23 Never have sexual intercourse with any animal and become unclean with it. A woman must never offer herself to an animal for sexual intercourse. It is unnatural.

24 "Do not become unclean in any of these ways. By these practices all the nations which I am forcing out of your way have become unclean.

25 The land has become unclean. I will punish it for its sins. The land will vomit out those who live in it.

26 Live by my standards, and obey my rules. Neither you nor any foreigner should ever do any of these disgusting things.

27 The people of the land who were there before you did all these disgusting things. As a result, the land has become unclean.

28 If you make the land unclean, it will vomit you out as it has vomited out the people who were there before you.

29 Whoever does any of these disgusting things must be excluded from the people.

30 So you must follow my instructions. Don't live by the standards of the people who lived there before you. What they do is disgusting. Never become unclean that way. I am the LORD your God."

Leviticus 18:21-30 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.