Laws of Sexual Morality

18 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ^(A)‘I am the Lord your God. ^3 (B)According to ^[a]the doings of the land of Egypt, where you dwelt, you shall not do; and ^(C)according to the doings of the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you, you shall not do; nor shall you walk in their ^[b]ordinances. ^4 (D)You shall observe My judgments and keep My ordinances, to walk in them: I am the Lord your God. ⁵ You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them: I am the Lord.

⁶ ‘None of you shall approach anyone who is near of kin to him, to uncover his nakedness: I am the Lord. ⁷ The nakedness of your father or the nakedness of your mother you shall not uncover. She is your mother; you shall not uncover her nakedness. ⁸ The nakedness of your ^(E)father’s wife you shall not uncover; it is your father’s nakedness. ^9 (F)The nakedness of your sister, the daughter of your father, or the daughter of your mother, whether born at home or elsewhere, their nakedness you shall not uncover. ¹⁰ The nakedness of your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, their nakedness you shall not uncover; for theirs is your own nakedness. ¹¹ The nakedness of your father’s wife’s daughter, begotten by your father—she is your sister—you shall not uncover her nakedness. ^12 (G)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s sister; she is near of kin to your father. ¹³ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister, for she is near of kin to your mother. ^14 (H)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s brother. 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; it is your brother’s nakedness. ¹⁷ You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her ^(I)daughter, nor shall you take her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter, to uncover her nakedness. They are near of kin to her. It is wickedness. ¹⁸ Nor shall you take a woman ^(J)as a rival to her sister, to uncover her nakedness while the other is alive.

¹⁹ ‘Also you shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness as ^(K)long as she is in her ^(L)customary impurity. ^20 (M)Moreover you shall not lie carnally with your ^(N)neighbor’s wife, to defile yourself with her. ²¹ And you shall not let any of your descendants ^(O)pass through ^(P)the fire to ^(Q)Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God: I am the Lord. ²² You shall not lie with ^(R)a male as with a woman. It is an abomination. ²³ Nor shall you mate with any ^(S)animal, to defile yourself with it. Nor shall any woman stand before an animal to mate with it. It is perversion.

^24 (T)‘Do not defile yourselves with any of these things; ^(U)for by all these the nations are defiled, which I am casting out before you. ²⁵ For ^(V)the land is defiled; therefore I ^(W)visit^[c] the punishment of its iniquity upon it, and the land ^(X)vomits out its inhabitants. ^26 (Y)You shall therefore ^[d]keep My statutes and My judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations, either any of your own nation or any stranger who dwells among you ²⁷ (for all these abominations the men of the land have done, who were before you, and thus the land is defiled), ²⁸ lest ^(Z)the land vomit you out also when you defile it, as it vomited out the nations that were before you. ²⁹ For whoever commits any of these abominations, the persons who commit them shall be ^[e]cut off from among their people.

³⁰ ‘Therefore you shall keep My ^[f]ordinance, so ^(AA)that you do not commit any of these abominable customs which were committed before you, and that you do not defile yourselves by them: ^(AB)I am the Lord your God.’ ”

The Portion of the Priests and Levites

18 “The priests, the Levites—all the tribe of Levi—shall have ^[a]no part nor ^(A)inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the offerings of the Lord made by fire, and His portion. ² Therefore they shall have no inheritance among their brethren; the Lord is their inheritance, as He said to them.

³ “And this shall be the priest’s ^(B)due^[b] from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, whether it is bull or sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder, the cheeks, and the stomach. ^4 (C)The firstfruits of your grain and your new wine and your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep, you shall give him. ⁵ For ^(D)the Lord your God has chosen him out of all your tribes ^(E)to stand to minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons forever.

⁶ “So if a Levite comes from any of your ^[c]gates, from where he ^(F)dwells among all Israel, and comes with all the desire of his mind ^(G)to the place which the Lord chooses, ⁷ then he may serve in the name of the Lord his God ^(H)as all his brethren the Levites do, who stand there before the Lord. ⁸ They shall have equal ^(I)portions to eat, besides what comes from the sale of his inheritance.

Avoid Wicked Customs

⁹ “When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, ^(J)you shall not learn to follow the ^[d]abominations of those nations. ¹⁰ There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter ^(K)pass^[e] through the fire, ^(L)or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, ^11 (M)or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or ^(N)one who calls up the dead. ¹² For all who do these things are ^[f]an abomination to the Lord, and ^(O)because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you. ¹³ You shall be ^[g]blameless before the Lord your God. ¹⁴ For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the Lord your God has not ^[h]appointed such for you.

A New Prophet Like Moses

^15 (P)“The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear, ¹⁶ according to all you desired of the Lord your God in Horeb ^(Q)in the day of the assembly, saying, ^(R)‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die.’

¹⁷ “And the Lord said to me: ^(S)‘What they have spoken is good. ^18 (T)I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and ^(U)will put My words in His mouth, ^(V)and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. ^19 (W)And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him. ²⁰ But ^(X)the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or ^(Y)who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’ ²¹ And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’— ^22 (Z)when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, ^(AA)if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it ^(AB)presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

True Worship and False

66 Thus says the Lord:

The Lord Vindicates Zion

¹² For thus says the Lord:

The Reign and Indignation of God

¹⁸ “For I know their works and their ^(S)thoughts. It shall be that I will ^(T)gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come and see My glory. ^19 (U)I will set a sign among them; and those among them who escape I will send to the nations: to Tarshish and ^[c]Pul and Lud, who draw the bow, and Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands afar off who have not heard My fame nor seen My glory. ^(V)And they shall declare My glory among the Gentiles. ²⁰ Then they shall ^(W)bring all your brethren ^(X)for an offering to the Lord out of all nations, on horses and in chariots and in litters, on mules and on camels, to My holy mountain Jerusalem,” says the Lord, “as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord. ²¹ And I will also take some of them for ^(Y)priests and Levites,” says the Lord.

Trusting in Lying Words^(A)

7 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, ^2 (B)“Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who enter in at these gates to worship the Lord!’ ” ³ Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^(C)“Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. ^4 (D)Do not trust in these lying words, saying, ‘The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these.’

⁵ “For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly ^(E)execute ^[a]judgment between a man and his neighbor, ⁶ if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, ^(F)or walk after other gods to your hurt, ^7 (G)then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in ^(H)the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.

⁸ “Behold, you trust in ^(I)lying words that cannot profit. ^9 (J)Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and ^(K)walk after other gods whom you do not know, ^10 (L)and then come and stand before Me in this house ^(M)which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’? ¹¹ Has ^(N)this house, which is called by My name, become a ^(O)den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” says the Lord.

¹² “But go now to ^(P)My place which was in Shiloh, ^(Q)where I set My name at the first, and see ^(R)what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel. ¹³ And now, because you have done all these works,” says the Lord, “and I spoke to you, ^(S)rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I ^(T)called you, but you did not answer, ¹⁴ therefore I will do to the house which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to this place which I gave to you and your fathers, as I have done to ^(U)Shiloh. ¹⁵ And I will cast you out of My sight, ^(V)as I have cast out all your brethren—^(W)the whole posterity of Ephraim.

¹⁶ “Therefore ^(X)do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them, nor make intercession to Me; ^(Y)for I will not hear you. ¹⁷ Do you not see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ^18 (Z)The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they ^(AA)pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger. ^19 (AB)Do they provoke Me to anger?” says the Lord. “Do they not provoke themselves, to the shame of their own faces?”

²⁰ Therefore thus says the Lord God: “Behold, My anger and My fury will be poured out on this place—on man and on beast, on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground. And it will burn and not be quenched.”

²¹ Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^(AC)“Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat. ^22 (AD)For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. ²³ But this is what I commanded them, saying, ^(AE)‘Obey My voice, and ^(AF)I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.’ ^24 (AG)Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but ^(AH)followed^[b] the counsels and the ^[c]dictates of their evil hearts, and ^(AI)went^[d] backward and not forward. ²⁵ Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have even ^(AJ)sent to you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them. ^26 (AK)Yet they did not obey Me or incline their ear, but ^(AL)stiffened their neck. ^(AM)They did worse than their fathers.

²⁷ “Therefore ^(AN)you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not obey you. You shall also call to them, but they will not answer you.

Judgment on Obscene Religion

²⁸ “So you shall say to them, ‘This is a nation that does not obey the voice of the Lord their God ^(AO)nor receive correction. ^(AP)Truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth. ^29 (AQ)Cut off your hair and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the desolate heights; for the Lord has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.’ ³⁰ For the children of Judah have done evil in My sight,” says the Lord. ^(AR)“They have set their abominations in the house which is called by My name, to ^[e]pollute it. ³¹ And they have built the ^(AS)high places of Tophet, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to ^(AT)burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, ^(AU)which I did not command, nor did it come into My heart.

³² “Therefore behold, ^(AV)the days are coming,” says the Lord, “when it will no more be called Tophet, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; ^(AW)for they will bury in Tophet until there is no room. ³³ The ^(AX)corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth. And no one will frighten them away. ³⁴ Then I will cause to ^(AY)cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. For ^(AZ)the land shall be desolate.

Abominations in the Temple

8 And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house with ^(A)the elders of Judah sitting before me, that ^(B)the hand of the Lord God fell upon me there. ^2 (C)Then I looked, and there was a likeness, like the appearance of fire—from the appearance of His waist and downward, fire; and from His waist and upward, like the appearance of brightness, ^(D)like the color of amber. ³ He ^(E)stretched out the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my hair; and ^(F)the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven, and ^(G)brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the north gate of the inner court, ^(H)where the seat of the image of jealousy was, which ^(I)provokes^[a] to jealousy. ⁴ And behold, the ^(J)glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I ^(K)saw in the plain.

⁵ Then He said to me, “Son of man, lift your eyes now toward the north.” So I lifted my eyes toward the north, and there, north of the altar gate, was this image of jealousy in the entrance.

⁶ Furthermore He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great ^(L)abominations that the house of Israel commits here, to make Me go far away from My sanctuary? Now turn again, you will see greater abominations.” ⁷ So He brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, there was a hole in the wall. ⁸ Then He said to me, “Son of man, dig into the wall”; and when I dug into the wall, there was a door.

⁹ And He said to me, “Go in, and see the wicked abominations which they are doing there.” ¹⁰ So I went in and saw, and there—every ^(M)sort of ^(N)creeping thing, abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, ^[b]portrayed all around on the walls. ¹¹ And there stood before them ^(O)seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, and in their midst stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan. Each man had a censer in his hand, and a thick cloud of incense went up. ¹² Then He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the room of his idols? For they say, ^(P)‘The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land.’ ”

¹³ And He said to me, “Turn again, and you will see greater abominations that they are doing.” ¹⁴ So He brought me to the door of the north gate of the Lord’s house; and to my dismay, women were sitting there weeping for ^[c]Tammuz.

¹⁵ Then He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Turn again, you will see greater abominations than these.” ¹⁶ So He brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house; and there, at the door of the temple of the Lord, ^(Q)between the porch and the altar, ^(R)were about twenty-five men ^(S)with their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, and they were worshiping ^(T)the sun toward the east.

¹⁷ And He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it a trivial thing to the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have ^(U)filled the land with violence; then they have returned to provoke Me to anger. Indeed they put the branch to their nose. ^18 (V)Therefore I also will act in fury. My ^(W)eye will not spare nor will I have pity; and though they ^(X)cry in My ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.”