Leviticus 18-20
Amplified Bible, Classic Edition
18 And the Lord said to Moses,
2 Say to the Israelites, I am the Lord your God.
3 You shall not do as was done in the land of Egypt in which you dwelt, nor shall you do as is done in the land of Canaan to which I am bringing you; neither shall you walk in their statutes.
4 You shall do My ordinances and keep My statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God.
5 You shall therefore keep My statutes and My ordinances which, if a man does, he shall live by them. I am the Lord.(A)
6 None of you shall approach anyone close of kin to him to have sexual relations. I am the Lord.
7 The nakedness of your father, which is the nakedness of your mother, you shall not uncover; she is your mother; you shall not have intercourse with her.
8 The nakedness of your father’s wife you shall not uncover; it is your father’s nakedness.
9 You shall not have intercourse with or uncover the nakedness of your sister, the daughter of your father or of your mother, whether born at home or born abroad.
10 You must not have sexual relations with your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter; their nakedness you shall not uncover, for they are your own flesh.
11 You must not have intercourse with your father’s wife’s daughter; begotten by your father, she is your sister; you shall not uncover her nakedness.
12 You shall not have intercourse with your father’s sister; she is your father’s near kinswoman.
13 You shall not have sexual relations with your mother’s sister, for she is your mother’s near kinswoman.
14 You shall not have intercourse with your father’s brother’s wife; 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 have intercourse with her.
16 You shall not have intercourse with your brother’s wife; she belongs to your brother.
17 You shall not marry a woman and her daughter, nor shall you take her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter to have intercourse; they are [her] near kinswomen; it is wickedness and an outrageous offense.
18 You must not marry a woman in addition to her sister, to be a rival to her, having sexual relations with the second sister when the first one is alive.
19 Also you shall not have intercourse with a woman during her [menstrual period or similar] uncleanness.
20 Moreover, you shall not lie carnally with your neighbor’s wife, to defile yourself with her.
21 You shall not give any of your children to pass through the fire and sacrifice them to Molech [the fire god], nor shall you profane the name of your God [by giving it to false gods]. I am the Lord.
22 You shall not lie with a man as with a woman; it is an abomination.(B)
23 Neither shall you lie with any beast and defile yourself with it; neither shall any woman yield herself to a beast to lie with it; it is confusion, perversion, and degradedly carnal.
24 Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, for in all these things the nations are defiled which I am casting out before you.
25 And the land is defiled; therefore I visit the iniquity of it upon it, and the land itself vomits out her inhabitants.
26 So you shall keep My statutes and My ordinances and shall not commit any of these abominations, neither the native-born nor any stranger who sojourns among you,
27 For all these abominations have the men of the land done who were before you, and the land is defiled—
28 [Do none of these things] lest the land spew you out when you defile it as it spewed out the nation that was before you.
29 Whoever commits any of these abominations shall be cut off from among [his] people.
30 So keep My charge: do not practice any of these abominable customs which were practiced before you and defile yourselves by them. I am the Lord your God.
19 And the Lord said to Moses,
2 Say to all the assembly of the Israelites, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.(C)
3 Each of you shall give due respect to his mother and his father, and keep My Sabbaths holy. I the Lord am your God.
4 Do not turn to idols and things of nought or make for yourselves molten gods. I the Lord am your God.
5 And when you offer a sacrifice of peace offering to the Lord, you shall offer it so that you may be accepted.
6 It shall be eaten the same day you offer it and on the day following; and if anything remains until the third day, it shall be burned in the fire.
7 If it is eaten at all the third day, it is loathsome; it will not be accepted.
8 But everyone who eats it shall bear his iniquity, for he has profaned a holy thing of the Lord; and that soul shall be cut off from his people [and not be included in the atonement made for them].
9 And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field to its very corners, neither shall you gather the fallen ears or gleanings of your harvest.
10 And you shall not glean your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather its fallen grapes; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger. I am the Lord your God.
11 You shall not steal, or deal falsely, or lie one to another.(D)
12 And you shall not swear by My name falsely, neither shall you profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.
13 You shall not defraud or oppress your neighbor or rob him; the wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until morning.
14 You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall [reverently] fear your God. I am the Lord.
15 You shall do no injustice in judging a case; you shall not be partial to the poor or show a preference for the mighty, but in righteousness and according to the merits of the case judge your neighbor.
16 You shall not go up and down as a dispenser of gossip and scandal among your people, nor shall you [secure yourself by false testimony or by silence and] endanger the life of your neighbor. I am the Lord.
17 You shall not hate your brother in your heart; but you shall surely rebuke your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him.(E)
18 You shall not take revenge or bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.(F)
19 You shall keep My statutes. You shall not let your domestic animals breed with a different kind [of animal]; you shall not sow your field with mixed seed, neither wear a garment of linen mixed with wool.
20 And if a man lies carnally with a woman who is a slave betrothed to a husband and not yet ransomed or given her freedom, they shall be punished [after investigation]; they shall not be put to death, because she was not free;
21 But he shall bring his guilt or trespass offering to the Lord to the door of the Tent of Meeting, a ram for a guilt or trespass offering.
22 The priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt or trespass offering before the Lord for his sin, and he shall be forgiven for committing the sin.
23 And when you come into the land and have planted all kinds of trees for food, then you shall count the fruit of them as inedible and forbidden to you for three years; it shall not be eaten.
24 In the fourth year all their fruit shall be holy for giving praise to the Lord.
25 But in the fifth year you may eat of the fruit [of the trees], that their produce may enrich you; I am the Lord your God.
26 You shall not eat anything with the blood; neither shall you use magic, omens, or witchcraft [or predict events by horoscope or signs and lucky days].
27 You shall not round the corners of the hair of your heads nor trim the corners of your beard [as some idolaters do].
28 You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead nor print or tattoo any marks upon you; I am the Lord.
29 Do not profane your daughter by causing her to be a harlot, lest the land fall into harlotry and become full of wickedness.
30 You shall keep My Sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary. I am the Lord.
31 Turn not to those [mediums] who have familiar spirits or to wizards; do not seek them out to be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God.
32 You shall rise up before the hoary head and honor the face of the old man and [reverently] fear your God. I am the Lord.
33 And if a stranger dwells temporarily with you in your land, you shall not suppress and mistreat him.
34 But the stranger who dwells with you shall be to you as one born among you; and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
35 You shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in measures of length or weight or quantity.
36 You shall have accurate and just balances, just weights, just ephah and hin measures. I am the Lord your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
37 You shall observe all My statutes and ordinances and do them. I am the Lord.
20 And the Lord said to Moses,
2 Moreover, you shall say to the Israelites, Any one of the Israelites or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech [the fire god worshiped with human sacrifices] shall surely be put to death; the people of the land shall stone him with stones.
3 I also will set My face against that man [opposing him, withdrawing My protection from him, and excluding him from My covenant] and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given of his children to Molech, defiling My sanctuary and profaning My holy name.
4 And if the people of the land do at all hide their eyes from the man when he gives one of his children [as a burnt offering] to Molech [the fire god] and they overlook it or neglect to take legal action to punish him, winking at his sin, and do not kill him [as My law requires],
5 Then I will set My face against that man and against his family and will cut him off from among their people, him and all who follow him to [unfaithfulness to Me, and thus] play the harlot after Molech.
6 The person who turns to those who have familiar spirits and to wizards, [being unfaithful to Israel’s Maker Who is her Husband, and thus] playing the harlot after them, I will set My face against that person and will cut him off from among his people [that he may not be included in the atonement made for them].(G)
7 Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy; for I am the Lord your God.
8 And you shall keep My statutes and do them. I am the Lord Who sanctifies you.
9 Everyone who curses his father or mother shall surely be put to death; he has cursed his father or mother; his bloodguilt is upon him.
10 The man who commits adultery with another’s wife, even his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.(H)
11 And the man who lies carnally with his father’s wife has uncovered his father’s nakedness; both of the guilty ones shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon their own heads.
12 And if a man lies carnally with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death; they have wrought confusion, perversion, and defilement; their blood shall be upon their own heads.
13 If a man lies with a male as if he were a woman, both men have committed an offense (something perverse, unnatural, abhorrent, and detestable); they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
14 And if a man takes a wife and her mother, it is wickedness and an outrageous offense; all three shall be burned with fire, both he and they [after being stoned to death], that there be no wickedness among you.(I)
15 And if a man lies carnally with a beast, he shall surely be [stoned] to death, and you shall slay the beast.
16 If a woman approaches any beast and lies carnally with it, you shall [stone] the woman and the beast; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.
17 If a man takes his sister, his father’s or his mother’s daughter, and sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness, it is a wicked and shameful thing; and they shall be cut off in the sight of their people; he has had sexual relations with his sister; he shall bear his iniquity.
18 And if a man shall lie with a woman having her menstrual pains and shall uncover her nakedness, he has made naked her fountain, and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood; and both of them shall be cut off from among their people.
19 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister or of your father’s sister, for that is to make naked his close kin; they shall bear their iniquity.
20 And if a man shall lie carnally with his uncle’s wife, he has uncovered his uncle’s nakedness; they shall bear their sin; they shall die childless [not literally, but in a legal sense].
21 And if a man shall take his brother’s wife, it is impurity; he has uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless [not literally, but in a legal sense].
22 You shall therefore keep all My statutes and all My ordinances and do them, that the land where I am bringing you to dwell may not vomit you out [as it did those before you].(J)
23 You shall not walk in the customs of the nation which I am casting out before you; for they did all these things, and therefore I was wearied and grieved by them.
24 But I have said to you, You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God, Who has separated you from the peoples.
25 You shall therefore make a distinction between the clean beast and the unclean, and between the unclean fowl and the clean; and you shall not make yourselves detestable with beast or with bird or with anything with which the ground teems or that creeps, which I have set apart from you as unclean.
26 And you shall be holy to Me; for I the Lord am holy, and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be Mine.
27 A man or woman who is a medium and has a familiar spirit or is a wizard shall surely be put to death, be stoned with stones; their blood shall be upon them.
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation
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