Prohibited Pagan Practices

1The Lord spoke to Moses: 2“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: I am the Lord your God.a 3Do not follow the practices of the land of Egypt,a where you used to live, or follow the practices of the land of Canaan,b where I am bringing you. You must not follow their customs.c 4You are to practice my ordinancesa and you are to keep my statutesb by following them; I am the Lord your God. 5Keep my statutes and ordinances; a person will livea if he does them.b I am the Lord.

6“You are not to come neara any close relativeA for sexual intercourse;b I am the Lord. 7You are not to violate the intimacy that belongs to your fathera and mother.A She is your mother; you must not have sexual intercourse with her. 8You are not to have sex with your father’s wife;a she is your father’s family.b 9You are not to have sexual intercourse with your sister, either your father’s daughter or your mother’s,a whether born at home or born elsewhere. You are not to have sex with her. 10You are not to have sexual intercourse with your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, for they are your family.A 11You are not to have sexual intercourse with your father’s wife’s daughter, who is adopted byA your father; she is your sister. 12You are not to have sexual intercourse with your father’s sister;a she is your father’s close relative. 13You are not to have sexual intercourse with your mother’s sister,a for she is your mother’s close relative. 14You are not to violate the intimacy that belongs toA your father’s brother by approaching his wife to have sexual intercourse; she is your aunt.a 15You are not to have sexual intercourse with your daughter-in-law.a She is your son’s wife; you are not to have sex with her. 16You are not to have sexual intercourse with your brother’s wife; she is your brother’s family.a 17You are not to have sexual intercourse with a woman and her daughter.a You are not to marry her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter and have sex with her. They are close relatives; it is depraved.b 18You are not to marry a woman as a rival to her sister and have sexual intercourse with her during her sister’s lifetime.a

19“You are not to approacha a woman during her menstrual impurity to have sexual intercourse with her.b 20You are not to have sexual intercourse withA your neighbor’s wife, defiling yourself with her.a

21“You are not to sacrifice any of your children in the fireA to Molech.a Do not profane the nameb of your God; I am the Lord. 22You are not to sleep with a man as with a woman;a it is detestable.b 23You are not to have sexual intercourse withA any animal, defiling yourself with it; a woman is not to present herself to an animal to mate with it;a it is a perversion.

24“Do not defile yourselves by any of these practices, for the nations I am driving out before you have defiled themselves by all these things. 25The land has become defiled, so I am punishing it for its iniquity, and the land will vomit out its inhabitants.a 26But you are to keep my statutes and ordinances. You must not commit any of these detestable acts — not the native or the alien who resides among you. 27For the people who were in the land prior to you have committed all these detestable acts, and the land has become defiled. 28If you defile the land, it will vomita you out as it has vomited out the nations that were before you. 29Any person who does any of these detestable practices is to be cut off from his people. 30You must keep my instruction to not do any of the detestable customsa that were practiced before you, so that you do not defile yourselves by them; I am the Lord your God.”