Leviticus 18

1 And the LORD said to Moses,
2 "Say to the people of Israel, I am the LORD your God.
3 You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you dwelt, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes.
4 You shall do my ordinances and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the LORD your God.
5 You shall therefore keep my statutes and my ordinances, by doing which a man shall live: I am the LORD.
6 "None of you shall approach any one near of kin to him to uncover nakedness. I am the LORD.
7 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, which is the nakedness of your mother; she is your mother, you shall not uncover her nakedness.
8 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's wife; it is your father's nakedness.
9 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your sister, the daughter of your father or the daughter of your mother, whether born at home or born abroad.
10 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your son's daughter or of your daughter's daughter, for their nakedness is your own nakedness.
11 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's wife's daughter, begotten by your father, since she is your sister.
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, that is, you shall not approach 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; she is your brother's nakedness.
17 You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and of her daughter, and you shall not take her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter to uncover her nakedness; they are your near kinswomen; it is wickedness.
18 And you shall not take a woman as a rival wife to her sister, uncovering her nakedness while her sister is yet alive.
19 "You shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness while she is in her menstrual uncleanness.
20 And 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 devote them by fire to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the LORD.
22 You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.
23 And you shall not lie with any beast and defile yourself with it, neither shall any woman give herself to a beast to lie with it: it is perversion.
24 "Do not defile yourselves by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am casting out before you defiled themselves;
25 and the land became defiled, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants.
26 But you shall keep my statutes and my ordinances and do none of these abominations, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you
27 (for all of these abominations the men of the land did, who were before you, so that the land became defiled);
28 lest the land vomit you out, when you defile it, as it vomited out the nation that was before you.
29 For whoever shall do any of these abominations, the persons that do them shall be cut off from among their people.
30 So keep my charge never to practice any of these abominable customs which were practiced before you, and never to defile yourselves by them: I am the LORD 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

Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.