Leviticus 18:17-26

17 Do not have intercourse with the daughter or granddaughter of a woman with whom you have had intercourse; they may be related to you, and that would be incest. ¹

18 Do not take your wife's sister as one of your wives, as long as your wife is living.

19 Do not have intercourse with a woman during her monthly period, because she is ritually unclean. ²

20 Do not have intercourse with another man's wife; that would make you ritually unclean. ³

21 Do not hand over any of your children to be used in the worship of the god Molech, because that would bring disgrace on the name of God, the Lord. ⁴

22 No man is to have sexual relations with another man; God hates that. ⁵

23 No man or woman is to have sexual relations with an animal; that perversion makes you ritually unclean. ⁶

24 Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these acts, for that is how the pagans made themselves unclean, those pagans who lived in the land before you and whom the Lord is driving out so that you can go in.

25 Their actions made the land unclean, and so the Lord is punishing the land and making it reject the people who lived there.

26 They did all these disgusting things and made the land unclean, but you must not do them. All of you, whether Israelites or foreigners living with you, must keep the Lord's laws and commands,

Leviticus 18:17-26 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.

Cross References

• 1. 18.17Leviticus 20.14;Deuteronomy 27.23.
• 2. 18.19Leviticus 20.18.
• 3. 18.20Leviticus 20.10.
• 4. 18.21Leviticus 20.1-5.
• 5. 18.22Leviticus 20.13.
• 6. 18.23Exodus 22.19;Leviticus 20.15, 16;Deuteronomy 27.21.