Sexual conduct

18 The Lord said to Moses, ² Speak to the Israelites and say to them: I am the Lord your God. ³ You must not do things like they are done in the land of Egypt, where you used to live. And you must not do things like they are done in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. You must not follow the practices^[a] of those places. ⁴ No, my regulations and my rules are the ones you must keep by following them: I am the Lord your God. ⁵ You must keep my rules and my regulations; by doing them one will live; I am the Lord.

⁶ No one is allowed to approach any blood relative for sexual contact:^[b] I am the Lord. ⁷ You must not uncover your father’s nakedness, which is your mother’s nakedness. She is your mother; you must not have sexual contact with her. ⁸ You must not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife; it is your father’s nakedness. ⁹ You must not have sexual contact with your sister—regardless of whether she is your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether born into the same household as you or outside it. ¹⁰ You must not have sexual contact with your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, because their nakedness is your own nakedness.^{[c] 11} You must not have sexual contact with the daughter of your father’s wife, who was born into your father’s family; she is your sister. ¹² You must not have sexual contact with your father’s sister; she is your father’s blood relative. ¹³ You must not have sexual contact with your mother’s sister because she is your mother’s blood relative. ¹⁴ You will not uncover the nakedness of your father’s brother—that is, you will not approach his wife for sex; she is your aunt. ¹⁵ You must not have sexual contact with your daughter-in-law; she is your son’s wife. You must not have sexual contact with her. ¹⁶ You will not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness.

¹⁷ You must not have sexual contact with a woman and her daughter. You will not marry her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter, thereby uncovering her nakedness. They are her blood relatives; it is shameful. ¹⁸ You must not marry your wife’s sister as a rival and have sexual contact with her while her sister is alive. ¹⁹ You must not approach a woman for sexual contact during her menstrual uncleanness. ²⁰ You must not have sexual relations with the wife of your fellow Israelite, becoming unclean by it.

²¹ You must not give any of your children^[d] to offer them over to Molech so that you do not defile your God’s name: I am the Lord. ²² You must not have sexual intercourse with a man as you would with a woman; it is a detestable practice. ²³ You will not have sexual relations with any animal, becoming unclean by it. Nor will a woman present herself before an animal to mate with it; it is a perversion.

Warning against uncleanness and moral pollution

²⁴ Do not make yourselves unclean in any of these ways because that is how the nations that I am throwing out before you became unclean. ²⁵ That is also how the land became unclean, and I held it liable for punishment, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. ²⁶ But all of you must keep my rules and my regulations. You must not do any of these detestable things, neither citizen nor immigrant who lives with you (²⁷ because the people who had the land before you did all of these detestable things and the land became unclean), ²⁸ so that the land does not vomit you out because you have made it unclean, just as it vomited out the nations that were before you. ²⁹ Anyone who does any of these detestable things will be cut off from their people. ³⁰ You must keep my requirement of not doing any of the detestable practices^[e] that were done before you arrived so that you don’t make yourselves unclean by them; I am the Lord your God.