Unlawful Sexual Relations

18 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, ^(A)I am the Lord your God. ^3 (B)You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and ^(C)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 (D)You shall follow my rules^[a] and keep my statutes and walk in them. ^(E)I am the Lord your God. ^5 (F)You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; ^(G)if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord.

⁶ “None of you shall approach any one of his close relatives to uncover nakedness. I am the Lord. ^7 (H)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 (I)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's wife; it is your father's nakedness. ^9 (J)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your sister, your father's daughter or your mother's daughter, whether brought up in the family or in another home. 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, brought up in your father's family, since she is your sister. ¹² You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's sister; she is your father's relative. ¹³ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother's sister, for she is your mother's relative. 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 (K)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law; she is your son's wife, you shall not uncover her nakedness. ^16 (L)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 of her daughter, and you shall not take her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter to uncover her nakedness; they are relatives; it is depravity. ¹⁸ And you shall not take a woman as a ^(M)rival wife to her sister, uncovering her nakedness ^(N)while her sister is still alive.

^19 (O)“You shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness while she is in her menstrual uncleanness. ^20 (P)And you shall not lie sexually with your neighbor's wife and so make yourself unclean with her. ²¹ You shall not give any of your children to ^(Q)offer them^[b] to ^(R)Molech, and so ^(S)profane the name of your God: I am the Lord. ^22 (T)You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. ^23 (U)And you shall not lie with any animal and so make yourself unclean with it, neither shall any woman give herself to an animal to lie with it: it is ^(V)perversion.

^24 (W)“Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, ^(X)for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean, ²⁵ and the ^(Y)land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land ^(Z)vomited out its inhabitants. ²⁶ But ^(AA)you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the ^(AB)native or the stranger who sojourns among you ²⁷ (for the people of the land, who were before you, did all of these abominations, so that the land became unclean), ²⁸ lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. ²⁹ For everyone who does any of these abominations, the persons who do them shall be cut off from among their people. ^30 (AC)So keep my charge never to practice ^(AD)any of these abominable customs that were practiced before you, and never to make yourselves unclean by them: ^(AE)I am the Lord your God.”

The Lord Is Holy

19 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, ^(AF)You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. ^3 (AG)Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father, and ^(AH)you shall keep my Sabbaths: I am the Lord your God. ^4 (AI)Do not turn to idols ^(AJ)or make for yourselves any gods of cast metal: I am the Lord your God.

^5 (AK)“When you offer a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord, you shall offer it so ^(AL)that you may be accepted. ⁶ It shall be eaten the same day you offer it or on the day after, and anything left over until the third day shall be burned up with fire. ⁷ If it is eaten at all on the third day, it is ^(AM)tainted; it will not be accepted, ⁸ and everyone who eats it shall ^(AN)bear his iniquity, because ^(AO)he has profaned what is holy to the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from his people.

Love Your Neighbor as Yourself

^9 (AP)“When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. ¹⁰ And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.

^11 (AQ)“You shall not steal; ^(AR)you shall not deal falsely; you shall not lie to one another. ^12 (AS)You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so ^(AT)profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.

^13 (AU)“You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. ^(AV)The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until the morning. ^14 (AW)You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall ^(AX)fear your God: I am the Lord.

^15 (AY)“You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. ^16 (AZ)You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not ^(BA)stand up against the life^[c] of your neighbor: I am the Lord.

^17 (BB)“You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but ^(BC)you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you ^(BD)incur sin because of him. ^18 (BE)You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but ^(BF)you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

You Shall Keep My Statutes

^19 (BG)“You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your cattle breed with a different kind. ^(BH)You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor shall you wear a garment of cloth made of two kinds of material.

²⁰ “If a man lies sexually with a woman who is a slave, assigned to another man and not yet ransomed or given her freedom, a distinction shall be made. They shall not be put to death, because she was not free; ²¹ but ^(BI)he shall bring his compensation to the Lord, to the entrance of the tent of meeting, a ram for a guilt offering. ²² And the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering before the Lord for his sin that he has committed, and he shall be forgiven for the sin that he has committed.

²³ “When you come into the land and plant any kind of tree for food, then you shall regard its fruit as forbidden.^[d] Three years it shall be forbidden to you; it must not be eaten. ²⁴ And in the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy, an offering of praise to the Lord. ²⁵ But in the fifth year you may eat of its fruit, to increase its yield for you: I am the Lord your God.

^26 (BJ)“You shall not eat any flesh with the blood in it. ^(BK)You shall not interpret omens or ^(BL)tell fortunes. ^27 (BM)You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard. ²⁸ You shall not make any ^(BN)cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the Lord.

^29 (BO)“Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, lest the land fall into prostitution and the land become full of depravity. ^30 (BP)You shall keep my Sabbaths and ^(BQ)reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.

^31 (BR)“Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God.

^32 (BS)“You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall ^(BT)fear your God: I am the Lord.

^33 (BU)“When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. ^34 (BV)You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and ^(BW)you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

^35 (BX)“You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measures of length or weight or quantity. ^36 (BY)You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin:^[e] I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. ³⁷ And ^(BZ)you shall observe all my statutes and all my rules, and do them: I am the Lord.”

Jesus Heals a Man with an Unclean Spirit

^21 (A)And they went into Capernaum, and immediately ^(B)on the Sabbath ^(C)he entered the synagogue and was teaching. ²² And ^(D)they were astonished at his teaching, ^(E)for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes. ²³ And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, ^24 (F)“What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? ^(G)I know who you are—^(H)the Holy One of God.” ²⁵ But Jesus ^(I)rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” ²⁶ And the unclean spirit, ^(J)convulsing him and ^(K)crying out with a loud voice, came out of him. ²⁷ And they were all ^(L)amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? ^(M)A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” ²⁸ And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee.

Jesus Heals Many

^29 (N)And immediately he^{[a] (O)}left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. ³⁰ Now ^(P)Simon's mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him about her. ³¹ And he came and ^(Q)took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

³² That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or ^(R)oppressed by demons. ³³ And the whole city was gathered together at the door. ^34 (S)And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And ^(T)he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.

Jesus Preaches in Galilee

^35 (U)And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and ^(V)there he prayed. ³⁶ And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, ³⁷ and they found him and said to him, ^(W)“Everyone is looking for you.” ³⁸ And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for ^(X)that is why I came out.” ^39 (Y)And ^(Z)he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.

Jesus Cleanses a Leper

^40 (AA)And a leper^[b] came to him, imploring him, and ^(AB)kneeling said to him, ^(AC)“If you will, you can make me clean.” ⁴¹ Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.” ⁴² And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. ⁴³ And ^(AD)Jesus^[c] sternly charged him and sent him away at once, ⁴⁴ and said to him, ^(AE)“See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, ^(AF)show yourself to the priest and ^(AG)offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, ^(AH)for a proof to them.” ^45 (AI)But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter ^(AJ)a town, but was out in ^(AK)desolate places, and ^(AL)people were coming to him from every quarter.

I Will Bless the Lord

Of David.

Warnings Against Adultery