Chapter 18

And the Lord spoke to Moses

bidding him give the sons of Israel this message: I am the Lord your God;

it is not for you to live by the customs of that Egyptian land in which you once dwelt, or to imitate the men of Chanaan, the new home I am giving you, and follow their observances.

It is my decrees you will execute, my commands you will obey, following them closely; am I not the Lord your God?

It is my laws, my decrees you must keep; they give life to the man who lives by them; am I not the Lord?

And it is I, the Lord, who tell you that no man is to betake himself to a woman who is near of kin to him, and mate with her.

Thou shalt not come between thy father’s sheets, and mate with her that bore thee; wouldst thou mate with thy own mother?

Thou shalt not mate with her that is thy father’s wife; her shame is his.

Thou shalt not mate with thy sister by either parent, born in the same house or born elsewhere.

Thou shalt not mate with the daughter of thy own son or daughter; her shame is thine.

Thou shalt not mate with any daughter thy father’s wife bears him; she is thy sister.

Thou shalt not mate with thy father’s sister, thy own father’s flesh and blood;

nor with thy mother’s sister, thy own mother’s flesh and blood.

Thou shalt not come between thy uncle’s sheets and mate with his wife; she is bound to thee by affinity.

Thou shalt not mate with thy daughter-in-law; wouldst thou mate with the wife of thy own son?

Thou shalt not mate with thy brother’s wife;1 her shame is his.

Thou shalt not mate with a woman and also with her daughter, no, nor with any grand-daughter of hers; they are flesh and blood of hers, and all such commerce is incestuous.

Thou shalt not make a concubine of thy wife’s sister, mating with her while thy wife still lives.

Thou shalt not come nigh a woman and mate with her during her monthly time.

Thou shalt not defile thyself by bedding with thy neighbour’s wife.

Thou shalt not yield up any child of thine to be devoted to the false god Moloch, doing dishonour to the name of thy God; am I not the Lord?

Thou shalt not have commerce with a man as if it had been with a woman; such commerce is abominable.

Thou shalt not defile thyself by commerce with a beast; nor shall a woman allow any beast to have commerce with her; it is foully done.

Do not defile yourselves like the nations I am dispossessing to make room for you;

the whole land is contaminated by their presence, and I am calling it to account for these ill deeds, till it vomits out its own inhabitants.

Citizens alike and aliens, that dwell among you, must observe these laws and decrees I am giving you, and keep clear of all such abominations;

the very abominations by which the former inhabitants of the land have contaminated it.

Be sure that it will vomit you out like those others, if you do as they did.

Whoever is guilty of any such abomination is lost to his people.

Keep my commandments, and do not defile yourselves by imitating your forerunners; am I not the Lord your God?