The big picture
Attention turns from food and sacrifice to sexual relationships and other banned practices. Moses, the leader teaching God's commands, addresses Israel, the people leaving one country's ways and entering another land. Egypt is their former place of slavery; Canaan is the land God is giving them. Neither country's customs will determine their conduct. God's commands set the boundaries, including within families, and warn that breaking them endangers life in the land.
In this chapter
- Neither Former nor Future Customs Rule Leviticus 18:1-5
Moses receives a reminder for Israel that the Lord is their God.
- Close Family Relationships Are Protected Leviticus 18:6-18
Sexual relations with close relatives are banned.
- Other Forbidden Acts Are Named Leviticus 18:19-23
A man must not have sex with a woman during her monthly bleeding.
- Israel Faces the Same Judgment Leviticus 18:24-30
God says the nations already in the land have defiled themselves through these acts.
Central truth
God bans sexual acts and forms of worship that make people and their land unclean, and Israel faces judgement too.
Scripture beside the summary
Leviticus · King James Version · 30Leviticus 18:1-5
Neither Former nor Future Customs Rule
Moses receives a reminder for Israel that the Lord is their God. Their old home was Egypt; their new home will be Canaan. They must not copy either land's ways. His laws and decisions are to guide their actions. He connects keeping these commands with life. The people are not left to choose whichever surrounding custom seems familiar or convenient. The move changes more than where they live. They must live by the rules of the God to whom they belong.
In everyday life
The incoming carer hears that the last team routinely skipped a needed check. She keeps the check in place when starting with a new household, despite pressure to follow local habit. Familiar practice does not settle what is right. A care code can be revised by its profession; Israel receives these commands from God.
Notice
Leviticus 18:3 Both the country behind Israel and the land ahead are named. Leaving one set of customs does not make the next set automatically acceptable.
Leviticus 18:1-5
King James Version1And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
2Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am the LORD your God.
3After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances.
4Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the LORD your God.
5Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the LORD.
Leviticus 18:6-18
Close Family Relationships Are Protected
Sexual relations with close relatives are banned. The list includes parents, sisters and half-sisters, granddaughters, aunts, and certain relatives through marriage. A man must not take both a woman and her daughter or granddaughter. Nor is he to take his wife's sister as a rival during his wife's lifetime. The repeated language about uncovering nakedness refers to sexual relations. The law names each tie. Being close kin gives no right to cross the sexual limits God has set.
In everyday life
A safeguarding worker listens as relatives insist that private family arrangements are nobody else's concern. She keeps the meeting focused on the boundaries that protect those with less power. Familiarity does not make every household demand acceptable. The worker enforces safeguards; Moses gives laws from God about the sexual relationships named here.
Notice
Leviticus 18:9 Half-sisters are included whether born in the household or elsewhere. The law does not let separate homes erase the close family relationship.
Leviticus 18:6-18
King James Version6None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am the LORD.
7The nakedness of thy father, or the nakedness of thy mother, shalt thou not uncover: she is thy mother; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.
8The nakedness of thy father’s wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father’s nakedness.
9The nakedness of thy sister, the daughter of thy father, or daughter of thy mother, whether she be born at home, or born abroad, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover.
10The nakedness of thy son’s daughter, or of thy daughter’s daughter, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover: for theirs is thine own nakedness.
11The nakedness of thy father’s wife’s daughter, begotten of thy father, she is thy sister, thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.
12Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father’s sister: she is thy father’s near kinswoman.
13Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother’s sister: for she is thy mother’s near kinswoman.
14Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father’s brother, thou shalt not approach to his wife: she is thine aunt.
15Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy daughter in law: she is thy son’s wife; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.
16Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother’s wife: it is thy brother’s nakedness.
17Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, neither shalt thou take her son’s daughter, or her daughter’s daughter, to uncover her nakedness; for they are her near kinswomen: it is wickedness.
18Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister, to vex her, to uncover her nakedness, beside the other in her life time.
Leviticus 18:19-23
Other Forbidden Acts Are Named
A man must not have sex with a woman during her monthly bleeding. Sex with a neighbour's wife is also banned. Children must not be offered through fire to Molech, the god named in this rite. God's name must not be dishonoured in that way. A man must not have sexual relations with another man as with a woman. Sexual acts with animals are banned for both men and women. God states these bans plainly. No custom can make the killing of children for worship right under these laws.
In everyday life
A youth-club volunteer locks the activity room after hearing that older members have pressured children to keep a dangerous secret. She writes down the concern and calls the safeguarding contact. The silence around the group's habits must not decide what is allowed. This fear is a distant likeness; God's laws here forbid sexual wrongs and child sacrifice.
Notice
Leviticus 18:21 The command about children appears among the sexual laws. God treats this worship practice as a violation of his name, not as an acceptable local custom.
Leviticus 18:19-23
King James Version19Also thou shalt not approach unto a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is put apart for her uncleanness.
20Moreover thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbour’s wife, to defile thyself with her.
21And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.
22Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
23Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion.
Leviticus 18:24-30
Israel Faces the Same Judgment
God says the nations already in the land have defiled themselves through these acts. His judgement makes the land like a body that vomits up the people living there. Israel must not assume that receiving the land makes it immune. If the people follow the same practices, they too face expulsion. The rules apply to native members and resident foreigners alike. Those who commit the banned acts are to be cut off from their people. God's gift does not cancel his commands.
In everyday life
A conservation tenant receives the keys to a protected cottage and the same care conditions that bound the previous tenant. The new tenancy does not permit the neglect that ended the old one. She reads the conditions before moving in. God's judgment removes peoples from a land, far exceeding a tenancy dispute.
Notice
Leviticus 18:28 The new people face the same warning as the old ones. Israel's place in the land is not permission to repeat the condemned conduct.
Leviticus 18:24-30
King James Version24Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you:
25And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.
26Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you:
27(For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;)
28That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you.
29For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people.
30Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the LORD your God.
Details worth noticing
The opening image
Leviticus 18:1 begins with “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,”
Where the chapter turns
Leviticus 18:3 forms a natural hinge: “After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do…”
The final note
Leviticus 18:30 leaves the reader with “Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not…”
A word trail through the chapter
The words nakedness, uncover, daughter, land, LORD, father’s help reveal the chapter’s repeated concerns.
KJV words made clear
- uncover their nakedness
- Have sexual relations with them, in the repeated wording used here.
- ordinances
- Rules that tell a people how they must live.
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
