Go to Related Reading
About this book

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 Code of Hammurabi §154 and Leviticus 18:6

Ancient Near East, Babylonian · Hebrew Bible

Share:

Summary

Leviticus 18 shares the concern with incest found in the Code of Hammurabi, yet does not name illicit activity with a daughter among its specific bans, not using the same level of detail in its general prohibition.

Passages

Code of Hammurabi §154

Ancient Near East, Babylonian · Babylonian Legal Text
153 If a man's wife has her husband and another man's wife murdered for the sake of that other man, both of them shall be impaled. 154 If a man is guilty of incest with his daughter, he shall be driven out of the city. 155 If a man betroths a girl to his son, and his son has intercourse with her, but the father afterward defiles her and is caught, he shall be bound and thrown into the water. 156 If a man betroths a girl to his son, but his son has not known her, and the father defiles her, he shall pay her half a mina of gold and repay her everything she brought from her father's house, and she may marry the man of her heart.
1750 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Code of Hammurabi

Leviticus 18:6

Hebrew Bible
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.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Leviticus

References

“... Yet how bad were the Canaanites really? A comparison of the list of forbidden unions in Leviticus to those found in other Mesopotamian law codes demonstrates just how similar the holiness codes could be to these earlier laws. Strikingly, though, while other Mesopotamian codes explicitly forbid father-daughter incest, Leviticus leaves this particular provision out. The Laws of Hammurabi state: If a man should carnally know his daughter, they shall banish that man from the city. If a man selects a bride for his son and his son carnally knows her, after which he himself then lies with her and they seize him in the act, they shall bind that man and cast him into the water. . . . If a man, after his father’s death, should lie with his mother, they shall burn them both. If a man, after his father’s death, should be discovered in the lap of his (the father’s) principal wife who had borne children, that man shall be disinherited from the paternal estate. (Laws of Hammurabi 154–56, 158)86 According to old Babylonian law, the wives of sons, mothers, and foster mothers were off-limits, just as in Leviticus. Incest with a daughter is specifically listed, with such behavior leading to expulsion from the city. The Hittites also forbade sex with a mother, with a father’s wife during his lifetime, with a brother’s wife during his lifetime, with a sister of a current wife during her lifetime, and with a mother and a daughter at the same time, a list that is similar to that in the holiness code. Unlike Leviticus, however, Hittite laws, like the Laws of Hammurabi, explicitly outlawed father-daughter relationships, punishing these unions severely. The omission of a direct prohibition against father-daughter incest in Leviticus has troubled many commentators. Was father-daughter incest tolerated in ancient Israel? Or, worse, was it accepted as moral behavior? Rabbinic literature was careful to indicate that father-daughter incest was forbidden, whatever Leviticus may or may not say. Modern interpreters have also resisted the conclusion that such behavior was permitted by biblical writers. Jonathan Ziskind, for example, argues that the holiness code neglected to include daughters in their list out of respect for the father’s authority within the family. This does not mean, however, that they believed father-daughter incest was permissible, or so Ziskind argues. Judith Romney Wegner offers a similar solution: Since an unmarried Israelite girl’s sexuality belongs to her father, Leviticus did not need to include her in this list. After all, it was in the father’s self-interest to avoid sex with his daughter. If he did not, he would have failed to preserve his daughter’s virginity for her husband, “at which point his ownership of the daughter’s virginity accrues to the father in the form of a bride-price.” In other words, a daughter’s virginity was valuable to her father. If he broke her hymen himself, at the very least he would suffer a financial penalty. At worse, if she was found guilty of “playing the harlot” prior to marriage, he would be forced to witness her stoning. Still, perhaps the general command in Leviticus 18:6, “None of you shall approach anyone near of kin to uncover nakedness,” was meant to include daughters as well as sons, neither of whom are mentioned. ...”
Jennifer Wright Knust, Unprotected Texts: The Bible’s Surprising Contradictions About Sex and Desire (New York: HarperOne, 2011), 144–145.

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

Your feedback

Code of Hammurabi §154 and Leviticus 18:6

Leave a comment

Your questions and comments are welcome!

Comments

Glossary

Search the Library