Leviticus 18

Listen to Leviticus 18
1 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
2 Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, I am Yahweh your God.
3 After the doings of the land of Egypt, in which you lived, you shall not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, where I bring you, you shall not do; neither shall you walk in their statutes.
4 My ordinances shall you do, and my statutes shall you keep, to walk therein: I am Yahweh your God.
5 You shall therefore keep my statutes, and my ordinances; which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am Yahweh.
6 None of you shall approach to any who are close relatives to him, to uncover [their] nakedness: I am Yahweh.
7 The nakedness of your father, even the nakedness of your mother, you shall not uncover: she is your mother; you shall not uncover her nakedness.
8 The nakedness of your father's wife you shall not uncover: it is your father's nakedness.
9 The nakedness of your sister, the daughter of your father, or the daughter of your mother, whether born at home, or born abroad, even their nakedness you shall not uncover.
10 The nakedness of your son's daughter, or of your daughter's daughter, even their nakedness you shall not uncover: for theirs is your own nakedness.
11 The nakedness of your father's wife's daughter, conceived by your father, she is your sister, you shall not uncover her nakedness.
12 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's sister: she is your father's near kinswoman.
13 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother's sister: for she is your mother's near kinswoman.
14 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's brother, you shall not approach to his wife: she is your aunt.
15 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law: she is your son's wife; you shall not uncover her nakedness.
16 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother's wife: it is your brother's nakedness.
17 You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter; you shall not take her son's daughter, or her daughter's daughter, to uncover her nakedness; they are near kinswomen: it is wickedness.
18 You shall not take a wife to her sister, to be a rival [to her], to uncover her nakedness, besides the other in her lifetime.
19 You shall not approach to 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, to defile yourself with her.
21 You shall not give any of your seed to make them pass through [the fire] to Molech; neither shall you profane the name of your God: I am Yahweh.
22 You shall not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
23 You shall not lie with any animal to defile yourself therewith; neither shall any woman stand before an animal, to lie down with it: it is confusion.
24 Don't defile yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out from before you;
25 The land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity of it on it, and the land vomits out her inhabitants.
26 You therefore shall keep my statutes and my ordinances, and shall not do any of these abominations; neither the home-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 is 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.
30 Therefore shall you keep my charge, that you not practice any of these abominable customs, which were practiced before you, and that you not defile yourselves therein: I am Yahweh your God.

Leviticus 18 Commentary

Chapter 18

Unlawful marriages and fleshly lusts.

- Here is a law against all conformity to the corrupt usages of the heathen. Also laws against incest, against brutal lusts, and barbarous idolatries; and the enforcement of these laws from the ruin of the Canaanites. God here gives moral precepts. Close and constant adherence to God's ordinances is the most effectual preservative from gross sin. The grace of God only will secure us; that grace is to be expected only in the use of the means of grace. Nor does He ever leave any to their hearts' lusts, till they have left him and his services.

Chapter Summary

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.

Leviticus 18 Commentaries

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