LEVITICUS 18

LEVITICUS 18 (NIV)

1. The LORD said to Moses,
2. "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: "I am the LORD your God.
3. You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices.
4. You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the  LORD your God.
5. Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. I am the LORD.
6. "' No one is to approach any close relative to have intimate relations. I am the LORD.
7. "Do not  dishonor your father by having intimate relations with your mother. She is your mother; do not have realtions with her.
8. "'Do not have intimate relations with your father's wife; that would dishonor your father.
9. "'Do not have intimate relations with your sister, either your father's daughter or your mother's daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere.
10. "Do not have intimate relations with your son's daughter or your daughter's daughter; that would dishonor you.
11. "Do not have intimate relations with the daughter of your father's wife, born to your father; she is your sister.
12. "Do not have intimate relations with your father's sister; she is your father's close relative.
13. "Do not have intimate relations with your mother;s sister, because she is your mother's close relative.
14. "Do not dishonor your father's brother by approaching his wife to have intimate relations; she is your aunt.
15. "Do not have intimate relations with your daughter-in-law.  She is your son's wife; do not have relations with her.
16. "Do not have intimate relations with your brother's wife; that would dishonor your brother.
17. "Do not have intimate relations with both a woman and her daughter.  Do not have intimate relations with either her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter; they are her close relatives.  That is wickedness.
18. "Do not take your wife's sister as a rival wife and have intimate relations with her while your wife is living.
19. "Do not approach a woman to have intimate relations during the uncleanness of her monthly period.
20. "Do not have intimate relations with your neighbor's wife and defile yourself with her.
21. "Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God.  I am the LORD.
22. "Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.
23. "Do not have intimate relations with an animal and defile your self with it.  A woman must not present herself to an animal to have intimate relations with it; that is a perversion.
24. "Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled.
25. Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants.
26. But you must keep my decrees and my laws.  The native-born and the aliens living among you must not do any of these detestable things,
27. for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled.
28. And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you.
29. "Everyone who does any of these detestable things - such persons must be cut off from their people.
30. Keep my requirements and do not follow any of the detestable customs that were practiced before you came and do not defile yourselves with them.  I am the LORD your God.'"