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.”

Punishment for Child Sacrifice

20 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Say to the people of Israel, ^(A)Any one of the people of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones. ^3 (B)I myself will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given one of his children to Molech, to make my sanctuary ^(C)unclean and ^(D)to profane my holy name. ⁴ And if the people of the land do at all close their eyes to that man when he gives one of his children to Molech, and do not ^(E)put him to death, ⁵ then I will set my face against that man and against his clan and will cut them off from among their people, him and all who follow him in ^(F)whoring after Molech.

⁶ “If ^(G)a person turns to mediums and necromancers, whoring after them, ^(H)I will set my face against that person and will cut him off from among his people. ^7 (I)Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am the Lord your God. ^8 (J)Keep my statutes and do them; ^(K)I am the Lord who sanctifies you. ⁹ For ^(L)anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death; he has cursed his father or his mother; ^(M)his blood is upon him.

Punishments for Sexual Immorality

¹⁰ “If a ^(N)man commits adultery with the wife of^[a] his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. ^11 (O)If a man lies with his father's wife, he has uncovered his father's nakedness; both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. ^12 (P)If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death; they have committed ^(Q)perversion; their blood is upon them. ^13 (R)If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. ^14 (S)If a man takes a woman and her mother also, it is depravity; he and they shall be burned with fire, that there may be no depravity among you. ^15 (T)If a man lies with an animal, he shall surely be put to death, and you shall kill the animal. ^16 (U)If a woman approaches any animal and lies with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.

^17 (V)“If a man takes his sister, a daughter of his father or a daughter of his mother, and sees her nakedness, and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace, and they shall be cut off in the sight of the children of their people. He has uncovered his sister's nakedness, and he shall bear his iniquity. ^18 (W)If a man lies with a woman during her menstrual period and uncovers her nakedness, he has made naked her fountain, and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood. Both of them shall be cut off from among their people. ^19 (X)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother's sister or of your father's sister, for that is to make naked ^(Y)one's relative; they shall bear their iniquity. ^20 (Z)If a man lies with his uncle's wife, he has uncovered his uncle's nakedness; they shall bear their sin; they shall die childless. ^21 (AA)If a man takes his brother's wife, it is impurity.^[b] He has uncovered his brother's nakedness; they shall be childless.

You Shall Be Holy

^22 (AB)“You shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my rules and do them, that the land where I am bringing you to live may not ^(AC)vomit you out. ^23 (AD)And you shall not walk in the customs of the nation that I am driving out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I detested them. ²⁴ But ^(AE)I have said to you, ‘You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land ^(AF)flowing with milk and honey.’ I am the Lord your God, ^(AG)who has separated you from the peoples. ^25 (AH)You shall therefore separate the clean beast from the unclean, and the unclean bird from the clean. You shall not make yourselves detestable by beast or by bird or by anything with which the ground crawls, which I have set apart for you to hold unclean. ^26 (AI)You shall be holy to me, ^(AJ)for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.

^27 (AK)“A man or a woman who is a medium or a necromancer shall surely be put to death. They shall be ^(AL)stoned with stones; ^(AM)their blood shall be upon them.”