Rules about sex
1 The Lord said to Moses, 2 ‘Speak to Israel's people. Say to them, “I am the Lord your God. 3 You have been living in Egypt, but you must not do the things that the people of Egypt do. I will soon take you to live in the land of Canaan. You must not do the things that the people of Canaan do. You must not live in the way that they think is right. 4 Instead, you must live in the way that I say is right. You must obey my laws. I am the Lord your God. 5 You must obey my laws and my teaching. Anyone who does that will continue to live. I am the Lord.”
18:3Egypt is a country in north Africa that was south of Israel. Pharaohs were the rulers of Egypt.
6 Tell them this:
“You must not have sex with anyone who belongs to your own family. I am the Lord. 7 Do not have sex with your mother. That would cause your father to be ashamed. 8 Do not have sex with any wife of your father. Your father would be ashamed. 9 Do not have sex with your sister. She may be your mother's daughter or your father's daughter. She may have been born in your house or in another house. It does not matter. You must not have sex with any sister. 10 Do not have sex with any granddaughter. That would make you ashamed. 11 Do not have sex with the daughter of your father and any of his wives. She is your sister so you must not have sex with her. 12 Do not have sex with your father's sister. She belongs to your father's family. 13 Do not have sex with your mother's sister. She belongs to your mother's family. 14 Do not have sex with the wife of your father's brother. That would make your uncle ashamed. His wife is your aunt. You must not try to get near to her. 15 Do not have sex with your son's wife. 16 Do not have sex with your brother's wife. That would make your brother ashamed. 17 Do not have sex with both a woman and her daughter. And do not take the woman's son's daughter or her daughter's daughter so that you can have sex with any of them. They belong to the same family. It would be a very wicked thing to do. 18 If your wife is still alive, do not marry her sister as a second wife. While your wife lives, you must not have sex with her sister. 19 Do not have sex with a woman at the time when she bleeds each month. She is unclean during that time. 20 Do not have sex with the wife of another man. You would become unclean. 21 Do not give any of your children as an offering to the god Molech. That would bring shame to the name of your God. I am the Lord!18:21Molech was a false god. To worship him, people sometimes burned their children as an offering to him. See 2 Chronicles 28:3. 22 A man must not have sex with another man as he would have sex with a woman. That is a disgusting thing to do. 23 Do not have sex with any animal. That would make you unclean. A woman must not offer herself to an animal to have sex with it. She would be doing a very bad thing.God warns the Israelites not to live like other nations live
24 Do not do any of these things that would make you unclean. The nations who live in Canaan make themselves unclean with all these things. I will chase out those people so that you can live in their land. 25 The land itself has become unclean because the people did these things. So I am punishing those people for their sins. The land has thrown out the people who lived on it.
26 But you yourselves must obey my laws and my rules. Do not do any of these wicked things. That includes the foreign people who live among you. 27 The people who lived in Canaan before you did these disgusting things. Because of that, the land became unclean. 28 So do not make the land unclean, as those people have done. Do not cause the land to throw you out, as it did to the nations who lived there before you.
29 If anyone does any of these disgusting things, they can no longer belong among Israel's people. 30 You must obey what I have commanded you to do. Do not live in the disgusting way that these other people have lived. Do not make yourselves unclean like that. I am the Lord your God.” ’
