Leviticus 18-20
Christian Standard Bible
Prohibited Pagan Practices
18 The Lord spoke to Moses: 2 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them: I am the Lord your God.(A) 3 Do not follow the practices of the land of Egypt,(B) where you used to live, or follow the practices of the land of Canaan,(C) where I am bringing you. You must not follow their customs.(D) 4 You are to practice my ordinances(E) and you are to keep my statutes(F) by following them; I am the Lord your God. 5 Keep my statutes and ordinances; a person will live(G) if he does them.(H) I am the Lord.
6 “You are not to come near(I) any close relative[a] for sexual intercourse;(J) I am the Lord. 7 You are not to violate the intimacy that belongs to your father(K) and mother.[b] She is your mother; you must not have sexual intercourse with her. 8 You are not to have sex with your father’s wife;(L) she is your father’s family.(M) 9 You are not to have sexual intercourse with your sister, either your father’s daughter or your mother’s,(N) whether born at home or born elsewhere. You are not to have sex with her. 10 You are not to have sexual intercourse with your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, for they are your family.[c] 11 You are not to have sexual intercourse with your father’s wife’s daughter, who is adopted by[d] your father; she is your sister. 12 You are not to have sexual intercourse with your father’s sister;(O) she is your father’s close relative. 13 You are not to have sexual intercourse with your mother’s sister,(P) for she is your mother’s close relative. 14 You are not to violate the intimacy that belongs to[e] your father’s brother by approaching his wife to have sexual intercourse; she is your aunt.(Q) 15 You are not to have sexual intercourse with your daughter-in-law.(R) She is your son’s wife; you are not to have sex with her. 16 You are not to have sexual intercourse with your brother’s wife; she is your brother’s family.(S) 17 You are not to have sexual intercourse with a woman and her daughter.(T) You are not to marry her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter and have sex with her. They are close relatives; it is depraved.(U) 18 You are not to marry a woman as a rival to her sister and have sexual intercourse with her during her sister’s lifetime.(V)
19 “You are not to approach(W) a woman during her menstrual impurity to have sexual intercourse with her.(X) 20 You are not to have sexual intercourse with[f] your neighbor’s wife, defiling yourself with her.(Y)
21 “You are not to sacrifice any of your children in the fire[g] to Molech.(Z) Do not profane the name(AA) of your God; I am the Lord. 22 You are not to sleep with a man as with a woman;(AB) it is detestable.(AC) 23 You are not to have sexual intercourse with[h] any animal, defiling yourself with it; a woman is not to present herself to an animal to mate with it;(AD) it is a perversion.
24 “Do not defile yourselves by any of these practices, for the nations I am driving out before you have defiled themselves by all these things. 25 The land has become defiled, so I am punishing it for its iniquity, and the land will vomit out its inhabitants.(AE) 26 But you are to keep my statutes and ordinances. You must not commit any of these detestable acts—not the native or the alien who resides among you. 27 For the people who were in the land prior to you have committed all these detestable acts, and the land has become defiled. 28 If you defile the land, it will vomit(AF) you out as it has vomited out the nations that were before you. 29 Any person who does any of these detestable practices is to be cut off from his people. 30 You must keep my instruction to not do any of the detestable customs(AG) that were practiced before you, so that you do not defile yourselves by them; I am the Lord your God.”
Laws of Holiness
19 The Lord spoke to Moses: 2 “Speak to the entire Israelite community and tell them: Be holy(AH) because I, the Lord your God, am holy.(AI)
3 “Each of you is to respect his mother and father.(AJ) You are to keep my Sabbaths; I am the Lord your God. 4 Do not turn to worthless idols(AK) or make cast images(AL) of gods for yourselves;(AM) I am the Lord your God.
5 “When you offer a fellowship sacrifice to the Lord, sacrifice it so that you may be accepted. 6 It is to be eaten on the day you sacrifice it or on the next day, but what remains on the third day must be burned.(AN) 7 If any is eaten on the third day, it is a repulsive thing; it will not be accepted.(AO) 8 Anyone who eats it will bear his iniquity, for he has profaned what is holy to the Lord. That person is to be cut off from his people.(AP)
9 “When you reap the harvest of your land, you are not to reap to the very edge of your field or gather the gleanings(AQ) of your harvest. 10 Do not strip your vineyard bare or gather its fallen grapes. Leave them for the poor(AR) and the resident alien;(AS) I am the Lord your God.
11 “Do not steal.(AT) Do not act deceptively(AU) or lie(AV) to one another. 12 Do not swear falsely by my name, profaning the name of your God;(AW) I am the Lord.
13 “Do not oppress(AX) your neighbor or rob(AY) him. The wages due a hired worker(AZ) must not remain with you until morning. 14 Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind,(BA) but you are to fear your God;(BB) I am the Lord.(BC)
15 “Do not act unjustly(BD) when deciding a case. Do not be partial(BE) to the poor or give preference to the rich;(BF) judge your neighbor fairly. 16 Do not go about spreading slander(BG) among your people; do not jeopardize[i] your neighbor’s life; I am the Lord.
17 “Do not harbor hatred against your brother.[j](BH) Rebuke your neighbor directly, and you will not incur guilt because of him.(BI) 18 Do not take revenge(BJ) or bear a grudge against members of your community, but love your neighbor as yourself;(BK) I am the Lord.
19 “You are to keep my statutes. Do not crossbreed two different kinds of your livestock, sow your fields with two kinds of seed, or put on a garment made of two kinds of material.(BL)
20 “If a man has sexual intercourse with a woman who is a slave designated for another man, but she has not been redeemed(BM) or given her freedom, there must be punishment.[k] They are not to be put to death, because she had not been freed. 21 However, he must bring a ram as his guilt[l] offering to the Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting.(BN) 22 The priest will make atonement on his behalf before the Lord with the ram of the guilt offering for the sin he has committed, and he will be forgiven for the sin he committed.
23 “When you come into the land and plant any kind of tree for food, you are to consider the fruit forbidden.[m] It will be forbidden to you for three years; it is not to be eaten. 24 In the fourth year all its fruit is to be consecrated as a praise offering(BO) to the Lord. 25 But in the fifth year you may eat its fruit. In this way its yield will increase for you;(BP) I am the Lord your God.
26 “You are not to eat anything with blood in it.[n](BQ) You are not to practice divination(BR) or witchcraft.(BS) 27 You are not to cut off the hair at the sides of your head or mar the edge of your beard.(BT) 28 You are not to make gashes on your bodies for the dead(BU) or put tattoo marks on yourselves; I am the Lord.
29 “Do not debase[o](BV) your daughter by making her a prostitute,(BW) or the land will be prostituted and filled with depravity. 30 Keep my Sabbaths and revere my sanctuary;(BX) I am the Lord.
31 “Do not turn to mediums[p](BY) or consult spiritists,[q](BZ) or you will be defiled by them; I am the Lord your God.
32 “You are to rise in the presence of the elderly and honor the old.(CA) Fear your God; I am the Lord.
33 “When an alien resides with you in your land, you must not oppress(CB) him. 34 You will regard the alien who resides with you as the native-born among you. You are to love him as yourself,(CC) for you were aliens in the land of Egypt;(CD) I am the Lord your God.
35 “Do not be unfair(CE) in measurements of length, weight, or volume. 36 You are to have honest balances,(CF) honest weights, an honest dry measure,[r] and an honest liquid measure;[s](CG) I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. 37 Keep all my statutes and all my ordinances and do them; I am the Lord.”
Molech Worship and Spiritism
20 The Lord spoke to Moses: 2 “Say to the Israelites: Any Israelite or alien residing in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech(CH) must be put to death; the people of the country are to stone him.(CI) 3 I will turn[t] against that man and cut him off from his people, because he gave his offspring to Molech, defiling my sanctuary(CJ) and profaning my holy name.(CK) 4 But if the people of the country look the other way when that man[u] gives any of his children to Molech, and do not put him to death, 5 then I will turn against that man and his family, and cut off from their people both him and all who follow[v] him in prostituting(CL) themselves with Molech.
6 “Whoever turns to mediums[w](CM) or spiritists[x] and prostitutes himself with them, I will turn against that person and cut him off from his people. 7 Consecrate yourselves and be holy, for I am the Lord your God. 8 Keep my statutes and do them; I am the Lord who sets you apart.
Family and Sexual Offenses
9 “If anyone curses his father or mother, he must be put to death.(CN) He has cursed his father or mother; his death is his own fault.[y]
10 “If a man commits adultery(CO) with a married woman—if he commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife—both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death. 11 If a man sleeps with his father’s wife, he has violated the intimacy that belongs to his father.[z](CP) Both of them must be put to death; their death is their own fault.[aa] 12 If a man sleeps with his daughter-in-law,(CQ) both of them must be put to death. They have acted perversely; their death is their own fault. 13 If a man sleeps with a man as with a woman,(CR) they have both committed a detestable act.(CS) They must be put to death; their death is their own fault. 14 If a man marries[ab] a woman and her mother,(CT) it is depraved. Both he and they must be burned,(CU) so that there will be no depravity among you. 15 If a man has sexual intercourse with[ac] an animal, he must be put to death; you are also to kill the animal. 16 If a woman approaches any animal and mates with it, you are to kill the woman and the animal.(CV) They must be put to death; their death is their own fault. 17 If a man marries his sister,(CW) whether his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter, and they have sexual relations,[ad](CX) it is a disgrace.(CY) They are to be cut off publicly from their people. He has had sexual intercourse with his sister; he will bear his iniquity. 18 If a man sleeps with a menstruating woman and has sexual intercourse with her, he has exposed the source of her flow, and she has uncovered the source of her blood.(CZ) Both of them are to be cut off from their people. 19 You must not have sexual intercourse with your mother’s sister or your father’s sister,(DA) for it is exposing one’s own blood relative; both people will bear their iniquity. 20 If a man sleeps with his aunt, he has violated the intimacy that belongs to his uncle;[ae](DB) they will bear their guilt and die childless. 21 If a man marries his brother’s wife, it is impurity.(DC) He has violated the intimacy that belongs to his brother;[af](DD) they will be childless.
Holiness in the Land
22 “You are to keep all my statutes and all my ordinances, and do them, so that the land where I am bringing you to live will not vomit you out.(DE) 23 You must not follow the statutes of the nations I am driving out before you, for they did all these things, and I abhorred them.(DF) 24 And I promised you: You will inherit their land, since I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey.(DG) I am the Lord your God who set you apart from the peoples. 25 Therefore you are to distinguish the clean animal from the unclean one, and the unclean bird from the clean one. Do not become contaminated(DH) by any land animal, bird, or whatever crawls on the ground; I have set these apart as unclean for you.(DI) 26 You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be mine.(DJ)
27 “A man or a woman who is[ag] a medium or a spiritist must be put to death. They are to be stoned; their death is their own fault.”
Footnotes
- 18:6 Lit any flesh of his flesh
- 18:7 Lit Do not uncover your father’s nakedness and your mother’s nakedness
- 18:10 Lit because they are your nakedness
- 18:11 Lit daughter, a relative of
- 18:14 Lit Do not uncover the nakedness of
- 18:20 Lit to give your emission of semen to
- 18:21 Lit to make any of your children pass through the fire
- 18:23 Lit to give your emission to
- 19:16 Lit not stand against
- 19:17 Or your fellow Israelite
- 19:20 Or compensation
- 19:21 Or restitution
- 19:23 Lit uncircumcised
- 19:26 Or anything over its blood
- 19:29 Lit profane
- 19:31 Or spirits of the dead
- 19:31 Or familiar spirits
- 19:36 Lit honest ephah
- 19:36 Lit honest hin
- 20:3 Lit will set my face, also in vv. 5,6
- 20:4 Lit country ever close their eyes from that man when he
- 20:5 Lit prostitute themselves with
- 20:6 Or spirits of the dead
- 20:6 Or familiar spirits
- 20:9 Lit his blood on him
- 20:11 Lit has uncovered his father’s nakedness
- 20:11 Lit their blood on them, also in vv. 12,13,16,27
- 20:14 Lit takes, also in vv. 17,21
- 20:15 Lit man gives his emission to
- 20:17 Lit and he sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness
- 20:20 Lit has uncovered his uncle’s nakedness
- 20:21 Lit has uncovered his brother’s nakedness
- 20:27 Lit is in them
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