Leviticus 18 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Leviticus 18

Unlawful Sexual Relations

18:1 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, I am the LORD your God. 3 You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and 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 You shall follow my rules¹ and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the LORD your God. 5 You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; 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 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 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife; it is your father’s nakedness. 9 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 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law; she is your son’s wife, you shall not uncover her nakedness. 16 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 rival wife to her sister, uncovering her nakedness while her sister is still alive.

19 “You shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness while she is in her menstrual uncleanness. 20 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 offer them² to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the LORD. 22 You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. 23 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 perversion.

24 “Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean, 25 and the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. 26 But you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the 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 So keep my charge never to practice any of these abominable customs that were practiced before you, and never to make yourselves unclean by them: I am the LORD your God.”

Footnotes

[1] 18:4 Or my just decrees; also verse 5
[2] 18:21 Hebrew to make them pass through [the fire]

Commentary

v1-5: The declaration, often repeated, to live God's way, in the midst of peoples who did not.

v2: "I am the Lord your God"; therefore our lives must be ordered by His will, and not be the standards of others.

v3: The key principle is repeated, that the people of God were not to follow the ways of the Egyptians, nor the Canaanites. We are not to be like unbelievers. In v24, the other nations were defiled by their unholy ways.

v4: In contrast, the Israelites had to follow the laws of the Lord.

v5: Ex 24.7; the Israelite had committed himself to obey the law; and here was life for him.

v6-23: The application of the principles of v1-5 to sexual relations. In all respects, where God has drawn the line, we are not to transgress.

v6-18: Sexual intimacy between close relations was forbidden. The practice in earlier years, where, for example, Abraham married his half-sister (Gen 20.12), was no longer allowed.

v19-23: These verses seem to relate to sexual sins characteristic of the Canaanites.

v24: The Canaanites practised "all" these things. The prohibitions were therefore not theoretical; they were both practical and relevant, because people did do them. The Israelites were forbidden from doing "any" of them (v29).

v25: The sins of the nations resulted in national punishments; the land vomited up its inhabitants. The Lord God said that this would happen again, if Israel continued in the sins of the Canaanites (v28).

v26: Those who belong to God were characterised by a quite different way of life.

v29: Sins practised by individuals would result in personal punishment; as in Deut 19.19. The nation had the responsibility to exact the required punishment.

v30: And the chapter ends where it started, "I am the Lord your God." This is the final and ultimate motivation to godly living. Dr Alfred Edersheim comments; 'On every side there was evidence that religion here was not merely a creed, nor a set of observances, but that it pervaded every relationship, and dominated every phase of life.' (Sketches of Jewish Social Life).