Leviticus 18 Summary

The LORD commands Moses to instruct the Israelites to distinguish themselves from the practices of Egypt and Canaan by obeying His statutes and judgments, through which a man shall live. The bulk of the chapter enumerates forbidden sexual relationships, prohibiting intercourse with close relatives (including parents, siblings, grandchildren, aunts, daughters-in-law, and sisters-in-law), with a neighbor's wife, with a woman during her menstrual uncleanness, and with any animal. The chapter also forbids offering one's children to Molech and warns against same-sex relations and bestiality, labeling these acts abominations. God concludes by warning that the defiling practices of the nations before them caused the land to vomit out its inhabitants, and that the same judgment awaits Israel if they defile themselves, with violators being cut off from among the people.