Laws on Immoral Relations

18 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘I am the Lord your God. ³ You shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt where you lived, and you shall not do what is done in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you. You shall not follow their statutes (practices, customs). ⁴ You are to follow My judgments (precepts, ordinances) and keep My statutes and live by them. I am the Lord your God. ⁵ So you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, by which, if a person keeps them, he shall live; I am the Lord.^(A)

²⁴ ‘Do not defile yourselves by any of these things; for by all these the nations which I am casting out before you have become defiled. ²⁵ For the land has become defiled; therefore I have brought its punishment upon it, and the land vomits out its inhabitants. ²⁶ But as for you, you are to keep My statutes and My judgments (precepts) and shall not commit any of these repulsive acts, neither the native-born, nor the stranger who lives temporarily among you ²⁷ (for all these repulsive acts have been done by the men who lived in the land before you, and the land has become defiled); ²⁸ [do none of these things] so that the land will not vomit you out, should you defile it, as it has vomited out the nation which has been before you. ²⁹ For whoever commits any of these repulsive acts, those persons who do so shall be cut off from among their people [excluding them from the atonement made for them]. ³⁰ So keep My command: do not practice any of the repulsive customs which have been practiced before you, so as not to defile yourselves by them; I am the Lord your God.’”