Leviticus 18:24

24 "'Don't defile yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations which I am casting out before you were defiled.

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 shall not lie with a man, as with a woman. That is detestible.

23 "'You shall not lie with any animal to defile yourself with it; neither shall any woman give herself to an animal, to lie down with it: it is a perversion.

24 "'Don't defile yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations which I am casting out before you were defiled.

25 The land was defiled: therefore I punished its iniquity, and the land vomitted out her inhabitants.

26 You therefore shall keep my statutes and my ordinances, and shall not do any of these abominations; neither the native-born, nor the stranger who sojourns among you;