Forbidden Sexual Relations
1Yahweh spoke to Moses. He said, 2“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: I am Yahweh your God. 3You must not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you; you must not follow their customs. 4You are to carry out my regulations and keep my statutes, living by them. I am Yahweh your God. 5Keep my statutes and my regulations; the person who does them will live by them. I am Yahweh. 6None of you is to approach a close relative to uncover their nakedness. I am Yahweh. 7You must not uncover the nakedness of your father — that is, the nakedness of your mother. She is your mother; you must not uncover her nakedness. 8You must not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife; it is your father’s nakedness. 9You must not uncover the nakedness of your sister — your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether born into the same household or elsewhere. 10You must not uncover the nakedness of your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter; their nakedness is your own nakedness. 11You must not uncover the nakedness of the daughter of your father’s wife, born to your father; she is your sister. 12You must not uncover the nakedness of your father’s sister; she is your father’s close relative. 13You must not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister; she is your mother’s close relative. 14You must not uncover the nakedness of your father’s brother by approaching his wife; she is your aunt. 15You must not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law; she is your son’s wife. You must not uncover her nakedness. 16You must not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness. 17You must not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, and you must not take her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter to uncover her nakedness; they are her close relatives. That is depravity. 18You must not take a woman as a rival wife to her sister, uncovering her nakedness while her sister is still alive. 19You must not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness while she is set apart in her monthly impurity. 20You must not have sexual relations with your neighbor’s wife, defiling yourself with her. 21You must not give any of your children to be passed through the fire to Molech, profaning the name of your God in this way. I am Yahweh. 22You must not lie with a man as with a woman; that is detestable. 23You must not have sexual relations with any animal, defiling yourself with it; and a woman must not present herself to an animal to mate with it — that is a perversion. 24Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because the nations I am driving out before you defiled themselves in all these ways. 25The land became defiled, and I brought punishment on it for its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. 26But you are to keep my statutes and my regulations, and you must not do any of these detestable things — neither the native-born nor the foreigner living among you — 27because the people who lived in the land before you did all these detestable things, and the land became defiled. 28If you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nation that was there before you. 29For everyone who does any of these detestable things — those who do them are to be cut off from among their people. 30So keep my requirement not to practice any of the detestable customs that were practiced before you, and do not defile yourselves by them. I am Yahweh your God.”
