Skip to content
Opens in a new window

[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 rules 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 them 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.”

Leviticus — Chapters