Leviticus 18 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

Unlawful Sexual Relations

Lev 18:1And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

Lev 18:2“Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, I am the LORD your God.

Lev 18:3You 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.

Lev 18:4

Lev 18:4You shall follow my rules[fn] and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the LORD your God.

Lev 18:5

Lev 18:5You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the LORD.

Lev 18:6

Lev 18:6“None of you shall approach any one of his close relatives to uncover nakedness. I am the LORD.

Lev 18:7

Lev 18:7You 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.

Lev 18:8

Lev 18:8You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife; it is your father’s nakedness.

Lev 18:9

Lev 18:9You 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.

Lev 18:10

Lev 18:10You shall not uncover the nakedness of your son’s daughter or of your daughter’s daughter, for their nakedness is your own nakedness.

Lev 18:11

Lev 18:11You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife’s daughter, brought up in your father’s family, since she is your sister.

Lev 18:12

Lev 18:12You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s sister; she is your father’s relative.

Lev 18:13

Lev 18:13You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister, for she is your mother’s relative.

Lev 18:14

Lev 18:14You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s brother, that is, you shall not approach his wife; she is your aunt.

Lev 18:15

Lev 18:15You shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law; she is your son’s wife, you shall not uncover her nakedness.

Lev 18:16

Lev 18:16You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness.

Lev 18:17

Lev 18:17You 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.

Lev 18:18

Lev 18:18And you shall not take a woman as a rival wife to her sister, uncovering her nakedness while her sister is still alive.

Lev 18:19

Lev 18:19“You shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness while she is in her menstrual uncleanness.

Lev 18:20

Lev 18:20And you shall not lie sexually with your neighbor’s wife and so make yourself unclean with her.

Lev 18:21

Lev 18:21You shall not give any of your children to offer them[fn] to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the LORD.

Lev 18:22

Lev 18:22You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.

Lev 18:23

Lev 18:23And 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.

Lev 18:24

Lev 18:24“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,

Lev 18:25

Lev 18:25and the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants.

Lev 18:26

Lev 18:26But you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you

Lev 18:27

Lev 18:27(for the people of the land, who were before you, did all of these abominations, so that the land became unclean),

Lev 18:28

Lev 18:28lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you.

Lev 18:29

Lev 18:29For everyone who does any of these abominations, the persons who do them shall be cut off from among their people.

Lev 18:30

Lev 18:30So 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.”

See the ESV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

ESV Footnotes

(18:4)

Or my just decrees; also verse 5

(18:21)

Hebrew to make them pass through [the fire]

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016 by Crossway Books and Bibles, a Publishing Ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

See detailed copyright information.

For more information on this translation, see the ESV Preface.

Leviticus Chapter 18 — Additional Translations:

King James Version New King James Version New Living Translation New International Version Christian Standard Bible New American Standard Bible 2020 New American Standard Bible 1995 Legacy Standard Bible Amplified Bible New English Translation Revised Standard Version American Standard Version Young's Literal Translation Darby Translation Webster's Bible Hebrew Names Version Latin Vulgate Westminster Leningrad Codex Septuagint Smith Van Dyck Arabic Bible Open New Arabic Version Brenton's English Septuagint Reina Valera 1909 Reina-Valera 1960 Bible in Basic English Chinese Traditional Union Espanol Moderno Korean Holy Bible Louis Segond German Luther Russian Synodal Translation Sagradas Escrituras

Leviticus 18 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

Unlawful Sexual Relations

ESV Footnotes

Leviticus Chapter 18 — Additional Translations:

Did You Know BLB Is User Supported?