Leviticus 18:22-30
New English Translation
22 You must not have sexual relations with a male as one has sexual relations with a woman;[a] it is a detestable act.[b] 23 You must not have sexual relations[c] with any animal to become defiled with it, and a woman must not stand before an animal to have sexual relations with it;[d] it is a perversion.[e]
Warning against the Abominations of the Nations
24 “‘Do not defile yourselves with any of these things, for the nations that I am about to drive out before you[f] have been defiled with all these things. 25 Therefore[g] the land has become unclean and I have brought the punishment for its iniquity upon it,[h] so that the land has vomited out its inhabitants. 26 You yourselves must obey[i] my statutes and my regulations and must not do any of these abominations, both the native citizen and the resident foreigner[j] in your midst, 27 for the people who were in the land before you have done all these abominations,[k] and the land has become unclean. 28 So do not make the land vomit you out because you defile it[l] just as it has vomited out the nations[m] 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.[n] 30 You must obey my charge not to practice any of the abominable statutes[o] that have been done before you, so that you do not[p] defile yourselves by them. I am the Lord your God.’”
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Leviticus 18:22 tn Heb “And with a male you shall not lay [as the] lyings of a woman” (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 123). The specific reference here is to homosexual intercourse between males.
- Leviticus 18:22 tn The Hebrew term תּוֹעֵבָה (toʿevah, rendered “detestable act”) refers to the repugnant practices of foreigners, whether from the viewpoint of other peoples toward the Hebrews (e.g., Gen 43:32; 46:34; Exod 8:26) or of the Lord toward other peoples (see esp. Lev 18:26-27, 29-30). It can also designate, as here, detestable acts that might be perpetrated by the native peoples (it is used again in reference to homosexuality in Lev 20:13; cf. also its use for unclean food, Deut 14:3; idol worship, Isa 41:24; remarriage to a former wife who has been married to someone else in between, Deut 24:4).
- Leviticus 18:23 tn See the note on v. 20 above.
- Leviticus 18:23 tn Heb “to copulate with it” (cf. Lev 20:16).
- Leviticus 18:23 tn The Hebrew term תֶּבֶל (tevel, “perversion”) derives from the verb “to mix; to confuse” and therefore refers to illegitimate mixtures of species or violation of the natural order of things.
- Leviticus 18:24 tn Heb “which I am sending away (Piel participle of שָׁלַח [shalakh, “to send”]) from your faces.” The rendering here takes the participle as anticipatory of the coming conquest events.
- Leviticus 18:25 tn Heb “And.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative or even inferential force here.
- Leviticus 18:25 tn Heb “and I have visited its [punishment for] iniquity on it.” See the note on Lev 17:16 above.
- Leviticus 18:26 tn Heb “And you shall keep, you.” The latter emphatic personal pronoun “you” is left out of a few medieval Hebrew mss, Smr, the LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate.
- Leviticus 18:26 sn On the Hebrew ger (גֵּר) “resident foreigner” see notes at Exod 12:19 and Deut 29:11.
- Leviticus 18:27 tn Heb “for all these abominations the men of the land who were before you have done.”
- Leviticus 18:28 tn Heb “And the land will not vomit you out in your defiling it.”
- Leviticus 18:28 tc The MT reads the singular “nation” and is followed by ASV, NASB, NRSV; the LXX, Syriac, and Targum have the plural “nations” (cf. v. 24).
- Leviticus 18:29 sn Regarding the “cut off” penalty see the note on Lev 7:20.
- Leviticus 18:30 tn Heb “to not do from the statutes of the detestable acts.”
- Leviticus 18:30 tn Heb “and you will not.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.
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