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Leviticus

About this book
Chapter 18

1 The Lord spoke to Moses: 2 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘I am the Lord your God! 3 You must not do as they do in the land of Egypt where you have been living, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan into which I am about to bring you; you must not walk in their statutes. 4 You must observe my regulations, and you must be sure to walk in my statutes. I am the Lord your God. 5 So you must keep my statutes and my regulations; anyone who does so will live by keeping them.⁠ I am the Lord.⁠ 6 “‘No man is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations with her. I am the Lord.⁠ 7 You must not expose your father’s nakedness by having sexual relations with your mother.⁠ She is your mother; you must not have sexual relations with her. 8 You must not have sexual relations with your father’s wife; she is your father’s nakedness.⁠ 9 You must not have sexual relations with your sister, whether she is your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether she is born in the same household or born outside it; you must not have sexual relations with either of them.⁠ 10 You must not expose the nakedness of your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter by having sexual relations with them, because they are your own nakedness. 11 You must not have sexual relations with the daughter of your father’s wife born of your father; she is your sister. You must not have sexual relations with her. 12 You must not have sexual relations with your father’s sister; she is your father’s flesh. 13 You must not have sexual relations with your mother’s sister, because she is your mother’s flesh. 14 You must not expose the nakedness of your father’s brother; you must not approach his wife to have marital relations with her. She is your aunt. 15 You must not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law; she is your son’s wife. You must not have sexual relations with her. 16 You must not have sexual relations with your brother’s wife; she is your brother’s nakedness. 17 You must not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter; you must not take as wife either her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter to have sexual relations with them. They are closely related to her—it is lewdness. 18 You must not take a woman in marriage and then marry her sister as a rival wife while she is still alive, to have sexual relations with her.⁠ 19 “‘You must not approach a woman in her menstrual impurity to have sexual relations with her. 20 You must not have sexual relations with the wife of your fellow citizen to become unclean with her.⁠ 21 You must not give any of your children as an offering to Molech,⁠ so that you do not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord! 22 You must not have sexual relations with a male as one has sexual relations with a woman; it is a detestable act. 23 You must not have sexual relations with any animal to become defiled with it, and a woman must not stand before an animal to have sexual relations with it; it is a perversion. 24 “‘Do not defile yourselves with any of these things, for the nations that I am about to drive out before you have been defiled with all these things.⁠ 25 Therefore the land has become unclean, and I have brought the punishment for its iniquity upon it, so that the land has vomited out its inhabitants.⁠ 26 You yourselves must obey my statutes and my regulations and must not do any of these abominations, both the native citizen and the resident foreigner in your midst, 27 for the people who were in the land before you have done all these abominations, and the land has become unclean. 28 So do not make the land vomit you out because you defile it just as it has vomited out the nations that were before you. 29 For if anyone does any of these abominations, that person who does them will be cut off from the midst of the people. 30 You must obey my charge not to practice any of the abominable statutes⁠ that have been done before you, so that you do not defile yourselves by them. I am the Lord your God.’”

Texts in conversation

Compare Leviticus 18:5 and Ezekiel 20:11

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Leviticus promises that those who obey the commandments will live, where obedience is the path to secure life in the land. Ezekiel echoes this, recalling that the same commandments were given to Israel as a way to life, though the people failed to obey.

Passages

Leviticus 18:5

Hebrew Bible
3 You must not do as they do in the land of Egypt where you have been living, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan into which I am about to bring you; you must not walk in their statutes. 4 You must observe my regulations, and you must be sure to walk in my statutes. I am the Lord your God. 5 So you must keep my statutes and my regulations; anyone who does so will live by keeping them. I am the Lord. 6 “‘No man is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations with her. I am the Lord. 7 You must not expose your father’s nakedness by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; you must not have sexual relations with her.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Leviticus

Ezekiel 20:11

Hebrew Bible
9 I acted for the sake of my reputation, so that I would not be profaned before the nations among whom they lived, before whom I revealed myself by bringing them out of the land of Egypt. 10 “‘So I brought them out of the land of Egypt and led them to the wilderness. 11 I gave them my statutes and revealed my regulations to them. The one who carries them out will live by them! 12 I also gave them my Sabbaths as a reminder of our relationship, so that they would know that I, the Lord, sanctify them. 13 But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness; they did not follow my statutes and they rejected my regulations (the one who obeys them will live by them), and they utterly desecrated my Sabbaths. So I decided to pour out my rage on them in the wilderness and destroy them.
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Ezekiel

References

"... In verse 5 “keeping” is applied to both laws and decrees. These decrees are to be practiced continually so that they may be ingrained into a person’s way of living, their walk. The keeping of God’s commandments bears the promise of life (compare 26:3–13; Deuteronomy 28:1–14; also see references to this verse in Ezekiel 20:11, 13, 21; Nehemiah 9:29). Since humankind disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3), they have been denied access to the tree of life. God has opened a way to life through obedience to the law. What is meant by life here? The text is imprecise. Placed in the context of the parenesis (verses 24–30), it means that Israel will have a secure, healthy life with sufficient goods in the promised land as God’s people. Later interpreters (as Targum Pseudo-Jonathan and Targum Onkelos and early Jewish commentators like Ramban) have taken “life” to mean eternal life ..."
John E. Hartley, Word Biblical Commentary: Leviticus (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 2018), 672–673.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Leviticus 18:5 and Ezekiel 20:11

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