Leviticus 18: Forbidden relations, and Molech

In plain English: Yahweh said to Moses,

In plain English: "Speak to the Israelites and tell them, 'I am Yahweh your God.

In plain English: You are not to do what is done in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you are not to do what is done in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. You are not to live by their customs (or: statutes).

In plain English: You are to do my rulings and keep my rules, and follow them. I am Yahweh your God.

In plain English: So you are to keep my rules and my rulings. The person who does them will live by them. I am Yahweh.

Good to know: The words "he shall live in them" are quoted in the New Testament: Romans 10:5 says, "The one who does them will live by them", and Galatians 3:12 quotes them too.

In plain English: None of you is to come near any close relative to have sexual relations (literally: to uncover nakedness). I am Yahweh.

The Hebrew words: "To uncover nakedness" is galah, to uncover, with ervah, which the dictionary gives as "nudity". In chapters 18 and 20 the phrase means to have sexual relations.

How it is translated: This Bible says "nakedness" in all 20 verses of Leviticus that use ervah: 14 in this chapter and 6 in chapter 20. The plain lines on this page say "have sexual relations".

In plain English: You are not to have sexual relations with your father or with your mother (or: you are not to shame your father by having sexual relations with your mother). She is your mother. You are not to have sexual relations with her.

In plain English: You are not to have sexual relations with your father's wife. That is your father's nakedness.

In plain English: You are not to have sexual relations with your sister, your father's daughter or your mother's daughter, whether she was born in the same home or somewhere else.

In plain English: You are not to have sexual relations with your son's daughter or your daughter's daughter, because their nakedness is your own.

In plain English: You are not to have sexual relations with the daughter of your father's wife, born to your father. She is your sister.

In plain English: You are not to have sexual relations with your father's sister. She is your father's close relative.

In plain English: You are not to have sexual relations with your mother's sister, because she is your mother's close relative.

In plain English: You are not to dishonor your father's brother (literally: uncover his nakedness). You are not to go near his wife. She is your aunt.

In plain English: You are not to have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law. She is your son's wife. You are not to have sexual relations with her.

In plain English: You are not to have sexual relations with your brother's wife. That is your brother's nakedness.

Good to know: Deuteronomy 25:5 gives a different rule for one case: when a man dies with no son, his brother is to marry the widow. Leviticus 18 does not speak of that case.

In plain English: You are not to have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter. You are not to take her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter to have sexual relations with her. They are close relatives. It is wickedness.

In plain English: You are not to take a woman as a rival wife alongside her sister (or: alongside another woman), having sexual relations with her while her sister (or: the other) is still alive.

The Hebrew words: "A wife in addition to her sister" is word for word "a woman to her sister". In Exodus 26:3 the same Hebrew words, used of curtains, mean "one to another".

What changes: Read as "one to another", the verse forbids taking a second wife while the first is still alive, not only a wife's sister. This Bible reads "her sister".

Good to know: In Genesis 29:28, long before this law, Jacob married two sisters, Leah and Rachel.

In plain English: You are not to come near a woman to have sexual relations with her while she is unclean during her monthly period.

In plain English: You are not to have sexual relations with your neighbor's wife and make yourself unclean with her.

In plain English: You are not to give any of your children to Molech (this Bible: as a sacrifice; literally: to make them pass over). You are not to profane (treat as common) the name of your God. I am Yahweh.

The Hebrew words: "Give as a sacrifice" is literally "give, to make pass over", with the verb avar, to cross over. "Molech" is molek, which the dictionary gives as "Molek (i.e. king), the chief deity of the Ammonites".

How it is translated: This Bible says "Molech" in 8 of the 9 verses that use the name: 5 in Leviticus (here and 20:2 to 20:5), and others such as 1 Kings 11:7, which calls Molech "the abomination of the children of Ammon". In Amos 5:26 it says "king".

What changes: 2 Kings 23:10 says "to pass through the fire to Molech", and Jeremiah 32:35 says much the same. Some readers take the verse to mean burning children as a sacrifice. Others take "make pass over" to mean handing children over to Molech's service. Leviticus names Molech and does not say more.

In plain English: You are not to lie with a male as one lies with a woman. It is detestable (or: an abomination).

The Hebrew words: Word for word the verse says: "And with a male (zakar) you shall not lie the lyings of a woman (mishkevei ishah). It is to'evah." The dictionary gives mishkav as "a bed", and also as a polite word for sexual relations. It gives to'evah as "something disgusting (morally), i.e. (as noun) an abhorrence; especially idolatry or (concretely) an idol".

How it is translated: "The lyings of a woman" is in only 2 verses of the Bible: here and Leviticus 20:13. For to'evah this Bible says "detestable" here and "abomination" in 20:13. In Leviticus the word is in 6 verses, all in chapters 18 and 20, and across the Bible this Bible says "abomination" or "abominations" in 103 of its 112 verses.

Church tradition: Jewish and Christian traditions have read this verse in different ways. Many have read it as forbidding all sexual relations between men. Others read "the lyings of a woman" more narrowly, as one act or one setting, or read the verse together with the other laws of its time and place. Readers today disagree on what it covers and how it applies. Leviticus 18 gives the rule in the words above.

In plain English: You are not to have sexual relations with any animal and make yourself unclean with it. No woman is to stand in front of an animal to mate with it. It is a perversion (literally: a mixing).

The Hebrew word: "Perversion" is tevel, which the dictionary gives as "mixture". It is in only 2 verses: here and Leviticus 20:12.

In plain English: Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, because the nations that I am driving out before you made themselves unclean by all of them.

In plain English: The land became unclean, so I punished it for its wrongdoing (literally: visited its wrong on it), and the land vomited out the people living in it.

In plain English: But you are to keep my rules and my rulings and not do any of these detestable things, neither the people born in the land nor the foreigners living among you

In plain English: (for the people of the land who were there before you did all these detestable things, and the land became unclean),

In plain English: so that the land does not vomit you out too when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was there before you.

In plain English: For whoever does any of these detestable things, the people who do them are to be cut off from among their people.

Good to know: On "cut off from among their people", see the note on Leviticus 17:4.

In plain English: So you are to keep what I require, and not follow any of these detestable customs that were practiced before you, and not make yourselves unclean by them. I am Yahweh your God.'"