Laws Concerning Sexual Behavior. 1The Lord said to Moses: 2Speak to the Israelites and tell them: I, the Lord, am your God.* 3You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you once lived, nor shall you do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you; do not conform to their customs.a 4My decrees you shall carry out, and my statutes you shall take care to follow. I, the Lord, am your God. 5Keep, then, my statutes and decrees, for the person who carries them out will find life* through them. I am the Lord.b

6* None of you shall approach a close relative* to have sexual intercourse. I am the Lord. 7* You shall not disgrace your father by having intercourse with your mother.c She is your own mother; you shall not have intercourse with her. 8You shall not have intercourse with your father’s wife, for that would be a disgrace to your father. 9You shall not have intercourse with your sister,* d your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether she was born in your own household or born elsewhere. 10You shall not have intercourse with your son’s daughter or with your daughter’s daughter,* for that would be a disgrace to you. 11You shall not have intercourse with the daughter whom your father’s wife bore to him in his household,e since she, too, is your sister. 12You shall not have intercourse with your father’s sister,f since she is your father’s relative. 13You shall not have intercourse with your mother’s sister, since she is your mother’s relative. 14You shall not disgrace your father’s brother by having sexual relations with his wife,g since she, too, is your aunt. 15You shall not have intercourse with your daughter-in-law;* h she is your son’s wife; you shall not have intercourse with her. 16You shall not have intercourse with your brother’s wife;* i that would be a disgrace to your brother. 17You shall not have intercourse with a woman and also with her daughter, nor shall you marry and have intercourse with her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter;j they are related to her. This would be shameful. 18While your wife is still living you shall not marry her sister as her rival and have intercourse with her.k

19You shall not approach a woman to have intercourse with her while she is in her menstrual uncleanness.l 20You shall not have sexual relations with your neighbor’s wife,* m defiling yourself with her. 21n You shall not offer any of your offspring for immolation to Molech,* thus profaning the name of your God. I am the Lord. 22You shall not lie with a male as with a woman;o such a thing is an abomination. 23You shall not have sexual relations with an animal, defiling yourself with it; nor shall a woman set herself in front of an animal to mate with it; that is perverse.p

24Do not defile yourselves by any of these things, because by them the nations whom I am driving out of your way have defiled themselves. 25And so the land has become defiled, and I have punished it for its wickedness, and the land has vomited out its inhabitants.q 26You, however, must keep my statutes and decrees, avoiding all these abominations, both the natives and the aliens resident among you— 27because the previous inhabitants did all these abominations and the land became defiled; 28otherwise the land will vomit you out also for having defiled it, just as it vomited out the nations before you. 29For whoever does any of these abominations shall be cut off from the people. 30Heed my charge, then, not to observe the abominable customs that have been observed before your time, and thus become impure by them.r I, the Lord, am your God.