Leviticus 18:19-29

19 "'You shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is impure by her uncleanness.

20 "'You shall not lie carnally with your neighbor's wife, and defile yourself with her.

21 "'You shall not give any of your children to sacrifice to Molekh; neither shall you profane the name of your God: I am the LORD.

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;

27 (for all these abominations have the men of the land done, that were before you, and the land became defiled);

28 that the land not vomit you out also, when you defile it, as it vomited out the nation that was before you.

29 "'For whoever shall do any of these abominations, even the souls that do 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.