18Then^a Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ²“Speak to the Israelites,^b and say to them, ‘I am Yahweh your God. ³You must not carry out^c the practices of the land of Egypt, in which you lived, and you must not carry out^d the practices of the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you; and you must not follow their statutes. ⁴You must carry out^e my regulations, and you must observe^f my statutes by following them; I am Yahweh your God. ⁵And you shall observe^g my statutes and my regulations by which the person doing them shall live;^h I am Yahweh.

⁶“ ‘Noneⁱ of you shall approach anyone who is his close relative^j to expose nakedness; I am Yahweh. ⁷You must not expose your father’s nakedness or^k your mother’s nakedness—she is your mother; you must not expose her nakedness. ⁸You must not expose the nakedness of your father’s wife—it is your father’s nakedness. ⁹As for your sister’s nakedness, whether your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether born at home^l or born abroad,^m you must not expose their nakedness. ¹⁰As for the nakedness of your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, you must not expose their nakedness, because they are your nakedness. ¹¹As for the nakedness of the daughter of your father’s wife, she is your sister, a relative of your father; you must not expose her nakedness. ¹²You must not expose the nakedness of your father’s sister; she is your father’s close relative.ⁿ ¹³You must not expose the nakedness of your mother’s sister, because she is your mother’s close relative.^o ¹⁴You must not expose the nakedness of your father’s brother; you must not have sex with^p his wife—she is your aunt. ¹⁵You must not expose your daughter-in-law’s nakedness; she is your son’s wife; you must not expose her nakedness. ¹⁶You must not expose the nakedness of your brother’s wife; she is your brother’s nakedness. ¹⁷You must not expose the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, or her son’s daughter, or her daughter’s daughter; you must not take her as wife^q to expose her nakedness; they are close relatives^r—that is wickedness. ¹⁸And you must not take as wife^s a woman with her sister, to be a rival-wife, to expose her nakedness before her during^t her life.

¹⁹“ ‘And you must not have sex with^u a woman to expose her nakedness during^v her menstrual uncleanness. ²⁰And you must not have sex^w with your fellow citizen’s^x wife, becoming unclean with her.

²¹“ ‘And you shall not give any of^y your offspring^z in order to sacrifice them to Molech, nor^a shall you profane the name of your God; I am Yahweh. ²²And you shall not lie with a male as lying with^b a woman; that is a detestable thing. ²³And you shall not have sexual relations^c with any animal, becoming unclean with it; and a woman shall not stand before^d an animal to copulate with it—that is a perversion.

²⁴“ ‘You must not make yourself unclean in any of these things, because the nations whom I am driving out from your presence were made unclean by all of these. ²⁵So^e the land became unclean, and I have brought the punishment of^f its guilt upon it, and the land has vomited out its inhabitants. ²⁶But^g you (neither the native nor^h the alien who is dwelling in your midst) shall keep my statutes and my regulations, and you shall not practiceⁱ any of these detestable things ²⁷(because the people of the land, who were before you,^j did all these detestable things, so the land became unclean), ²⁸so that the land will not vomit you out when you make it unclean just as it vomited out the nation that was before you.^k ²⁹Indeed, anyone who does any of these detestable things, even^l those persons who do so shall be cut off from the midst of their people. ³⁰Thus^m you shall keep my obligation to not do any of the statutes regardingⁿ the detestable things that they did before you,^o so that you will not make yourselves unclean by them; I am Yahweh your God.’ ”

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Footnotes

aOr “And”
bLiterally “sons/children of Israel”
cLiterally “do”
dLiterally “do”
eLiterally “do”
fOr “keep”
gOr “keep”
hLiterally “which the man does them and he shall live in them”
iLiterally “a man a man … not”
jLiterally “the flesh of his body”
kOr “and”
lLiterally “a relative of house”
mLiterally “a relative of an outside place”
nLiterally “the flesh of your father”
oLiterally “the flesh of your mother”
pLiterally “approach”
qThe verb לקח is used to speak of marrying (“taking a wife”)
rLiterally “flesh”; see vv. 6, 12, 13
sThe verb לקח is used to speak of marrying (“taking a wife”)
tLiterally “in”
uLiterally “approach”
vLiterally “in”
wLiterally “you shall not give your lying down for semen”
xOr “neighbor’s”
yLiterally “from”
zOr “descendants”
aOr “and not”
bLiterally “of”
cLiterally “give your lying down”
dLiterally “to the faces of”
eOr “And”
fLiterally “I have visited”
gOr “And”
hOr “and”
iLiterally “do”
jLiterally “to the faces of you”
kLiterally “to the faces of you”
lOr “and”
mOr “And”
nLiterally “of”
oLiterally “to the faces of you”