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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 Genesis 20:12 and Leviticus 18:9

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

In Genesis, Abraham marries his half-sister Sarah, an act later forbidden in Leviticus. Genesis uses distinct traditions not yet shaped by later texts in the Torah and makes no attempt to harmonize these stories.

Passages

Genesis 20:12

Hebrew Bible
11 Abraham replied, “Because I thought, ‘Surely no one fears God in this place. They will kill me because of my wife.’ 12 What’s more, she is indeed my sister, my father’s daughter, but not my mother’s daughter. She became my wife. 13 When God made me wander from my father’s house, I told her, ‘This is what you can do to show your loyalty to me: Every place we go, say about me, “He is my brother.”’”
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

Leviticus 18:9

Hebrew Bible
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

"... Although the rest of the Torah would not be intelligible without the background provided in the Book of Genesis, this work nevertheless constitutes a distinct and discrete unit within that literary corpus. Its individuality and antiquity are asserted in numerous ways ... Abraham married his half-sister, an act that is repeatedly forbidden in the law collections. Jacob was simultaneously married to two sisters, mothers of the tribes of Israel, a marriage arrangement that is outlawed in Leviticus 18:18. Judah and Tamar understand that the levirate obligation extends even to the father of the deceased, childless husband; but according to Deuteronomy 25:5–10, it is restricted to the brothers. Indeed, the offspring of the union of Judah and Tamar—which would later be considered an illicit union—becomes the ancestor of the royal line of David. And whereas intermarriage with foreigners, natives of Canaan, is prohibited in Exodus 34:16 and Deuteronomy 7:3, no such interdiction is either assumed or implied in the narratives of Genesis. Simeon and Levi voice no religious objection to the proposal of the Shechemites to intermarry with Jacob’s family. Their sole concern is the violation of their sister. Both Judah and Simeon married Canaanite women; and Joseph took to wife the daughter of an Egyptian priest, a union that produces two of the tribes of Israel. In general, religious differences between the patriarchs and foreigners are never a source of tension. The only sins attributed to non-Israelites are of the moral kind; idolatry, a major theme in the rest of the Bible, is never mentioned ..."
Nahum M Sarna, Genesis: The Traditional Hebrew Text with New JPS Translation (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1989), xv.

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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Genesis 20:12 and Leviticus 18:9

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