Exhortation to Obedience and Life

1The Lord spoke to Moses: 2“Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘I am the Lord your God! 3You must not do as they do in the land of Egypt where you have been living, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan into which I am about to bring you; you must not walk in their statutes. 4You must observe my regulations and you must be sure to walk in my statutes. I am the Lord your God. 5So you must keep my statutes and my regulations; anyone who does so will live by keeping them. I am the Lord.

Laws of Sexual Relations

6“‘No man is to approach any close relative to have sexual intercourse with her. I am the Lord. 7You must not expose your father’s nakedness by having sexual intercourse with your mother. She is your mother; you must not have intercourse with her. 8You must not have sexual intercourse with your father’s wife; she is your father’s nakedness. 9You must not have sexual intercourse with your sister, whether she is your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether she is born in the same household or born outside it; you must not have sexual intercourse with either of them. 10You must not expose the nakedness of your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter by having sexual intercourse with them, because they are your own nakedness. 11You must not have sexual intercourse with the daughter of your father’s wife born of your father; she is your sister. You must not have intercourse with her. 12You must not have sexual intercourse with your father’s sister; she is your father’s flesh. 13You must not have sexual intercourse with your mother’s sister, because she is your mother’s flesh. 14You must not expose the nakedness of your father’s brother; you must not approach his wife to have sexual intercourse with her. She is your aunt. 15You must not have sexual intercourse with your daughter-in-law; she is your son’s wife. You must not have intercourse with her. 16You must not have sexual intercourse with your brother’s wife; she is your brother’s nakedness. 17You must not have sexual intercourse with both a woman and her daughter; you must not take as wife either her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter to have intercourse with them. They are closely related to her – it is lewdness. 18You must not take a woman in marriage and then marry her sister as a rival wife while she is still alive, to have sexual intercourse with her.

19“‘You must not approach a woman in her menstrual impurity to have sexual intercourse with her. 20You must not have sexual intercourse with the wife of your fellow citizen to become unclean with her. 21You must not give any of your children as an offering to Molech, so that you do not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord! 22You must not have sexual intercourse with a male as one has sexual intercourse with a woman; it is a detestable act. 23You must not have sexual intercourse with any animal to become defiled with it, and a woman must not stand before an animal to have sexual intercourse with it; it is a perversion.

Warning against the Abominations of the Nations

24“‘Do not defile yourselves with any of these things, for the nations which I am about to drive out before you have been defiled with all these things. 25Therefore the land has become unclean and I have brought the punishment for its iniquity upon it, so that the land has vomited out its inhabitants. 26You yourselves must obey my statutes and my regulations and must not do any of these abominations, both the native citizen and the resident foreigner in your midst, 27for the people who were in the land before you have done all these abominations, and the land has become unclean. 28So do not make the land vomit you out because you defile it just as it has vomited out the nations that were before you. 29For if anyone does any of these abominations, the persons who do them will be cut off from the midst of their people. 30You must obey my charge to not practice any of the abominable statutes that have been done before you, so that you do not defile yourselves by them. I am the Lord your God.’”