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1And the Lord said to Moses, 2“Say to the people of Israel, I am the Lord your God. 3You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you dwelt, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. 4You shall do my ordinances and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God. 5You shall therefore keep my statutes and my ordinances, by doing which a man shall live: I am the Lord.

6“None of you shall approach any one near of kin to him to uncover nakedness. I am the Lord. 7You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, which is the nakedness of your mother; she is your mother, you shall not uncover her nakedness. 8You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife; it is your father’s nakedness. 9You shall not uncover the nakedness of your sister, the daughter of your father or the daughter of your mother, whether born at home or born abroad. 10You shall not uncover the nakedness of your son’s daughter or of your daughter’s daughter, for their nakedness is your own nakedness. 11You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife’s daughter, begotten by your father, since she is your sister. 12You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s sister; she is your father’s near kinswoman. 13You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister, for she is your mother’s near kinswoman. 14You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s brother, that is, you shall not approach his wife; she is your aunt. 15You shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law; she is your son’s wife, you shall not uncover her nakedness. 16You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; she is your brother’s nakedness. 17You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and of her daughter, and you shall not take her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter to uncover her nakedness; they are your near kinswomen; it is wickedness. 18And you shall not take a woman as a rival wife to her sister, uncovering her nakedness while her sister is yet alive.

19“You shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness while she is in her menstrual uncleanness. 20And you shall not lie carnally with your neighbor’s wife, and defile yourself with her. 21You shall not give any of your children to devote them by fire to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord. 22You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. 23And you shall not lie with any beast and defile yourself with it, neither shall any woman give herself to a beast to lie with it: it is perversion.

24“Do not defile yourselves by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am casting out before you defiled themselves; 25and the land became defiled, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. 26But you shall keep my statutes and my ordinances and do none of these abominations, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you 27(for all of these abominations the men of the land did, who were before you, so that the land became defiled); 28lest the land vomit you out, when you defile it, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. 29For whoever shall do any of these abominations, the persons that do them shall be cut off from among their people. 30So keep my charge never to practice any of these abominable customs which were practiced before you, and never to defile yourselves by them: I am the Lord your God.”

Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.
Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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