Leviticus · 30 verses
Leviticus 18
Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.
The chapter
What happens here
Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.
The land can become so defiled that it vomits out its inhabitants—a remarkably queasy piece of geography, and one that takes its moral condition personally.
A word before the prohibitionsvv. 1–5
The LORD speaks to Moses, who is to deliver the address to Israel. Egypt and Canaan appear as two lands whose customs are not to be followed; instead, Israel is to walk in the LORD’s judgments and statutes, with the solemn promise that the one who does these things will live by them.
The crowded cataloguevv. 6–23
What follows is a long, highly specific catalogue of forbidden sexual relations: close relatives, a neighbour’s wife, a child given to Molech, a man with a man, and a person with an animal. The final case is staged with peculiar precision: the woman must not stand before the animal to mate with it. Nothing is left to the imagination except, perhaps, why the staging detail was thought necessary.
When the land has had enoughvv. 24–30
The prohibitions are now tied to the land itself. The nations before Israel have defiled it, and the land is said to vomit out its inhabitants; Israel, native-born and foreigner alike, is warned that the same fate awaits anyone who defiles it. The concluding charge returns to the LORD’s statutes and to the refusal of the customs practised before them.
The text
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Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.
Lev 18:2“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: I am the LORD your God.
Lev 18:3You must not follow the practices of the land of Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not follow the practices of the land of Canaan, into which I am bringing you. You must not walk in their customs.
Lev 18:4You are to practice My judgments and keep My statutes by walking in them. I am the LORD your God.
Lev 18:5Keep My statutes and My judgments, for the man who does these things will live by them. I am the LORD.
Lev 18:6None of you are to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the LORD.
Lev 18:7You must not expose the nakedness of your father by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; you must not have sexual relations with her.
Lev 18:8You must not have sexual relations with your father’s wife; it would dishonor your father.
Lev 18:9You must not have sexual relations with your sister, either your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere.
Lev 18:10You must not have sexual relations with your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, for that would shame your family.
Lev 18:11You must not have sexual relations with the daughter of your father’s wife, born to your father; she is your sister.
Lev 18:12You must not have sexual relations with your father’s sister; she is your father’s close relative.
Lev 18:13You must not have sexual relations with your mother’s sister, for she is your mother’s close relative.
Lev 18:14You must not dishonor your father’s brother by approaching his wife to have sexual relations with her; she is your aunt.
Lev 18:15You must not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law. She is your son’s wife; you are not to have sexual relations with her.
Lev 18:16You must not have sexual relations with your brother’s wife; that would shame your brother.
Lev 18:17You must not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter. You are not to marry her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter and have sexual relations with her. They are close relatives; it is depraved.
Lev 18:18You must not take your wife’s sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is still alive.
Lev 18:19You must not approach a woman to have sexual relations with her during her menstrual period.
Lev 18:20You must not lie carnally with your neighbor’s wife and thus defile yourself with her.
Lev 18:21You must not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.
Lev 18:22You must not lie with a man as with a woman; that is an abomination.
Lev 18:23You must not lie carnally with any animal, thus defiling yourself with it; a woman must not stand before an animal to mate with it; that is a perversion.
Lev 18:24Do not defile yourselves by any of these practices, for by all these things the nations I am driving out before you have defiled themselves.
Lev 18:25Even the land has become defiled, so I am punishing it for its sin, and the land will vomit out its inhabitants.
Lev 18:26But you are to keep My statutes and ordinances, and you must not commit any of these abominations—neither your native-born nor the foreigner who lives among you.
Lev 18:27For the men who were in the land before you committed all these abominations, and the land has become defiled.
Lev 18:28So if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it spewed out the nations before you.
Lev 18:29Therefore anyone who commits any of these abominations must be cut off from among his people.
Lev 18:30You must keep My charge not to practice any of the abominable customs that were practiced before you, so that you do not defile yourselves by them. I am the LORD your God.”
01 — Also here
Who else the chapter reaches
Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.
Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.
Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.
02 — Read alongside
Where this is echoed
Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 220 passages were voted onto 26 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.
- 22Leviticus 20:13If a man lies with a man as with a woman, they have both committed an abomination. They must surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.
- 22Romans 1:26–27For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.
- 221 Corinthians 6:9Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts,
- 221 Timothy 1:10for the sexually immoral, for homosexuals, for slave traders and liars and perjurers, and for anyone else who is averse to sound teaching
- 22Jude 1:7In like manner, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, who indulged in sexual immorality and pursued strange flesh, are on display as an example of those who sustain the punishment of eternal fire.
- 221 Kings 14:24There were even male shrine prostitutes in the land. They imitated all the abominations of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.
- 22Deuteronomy 23:18You must not bring the wages of a prostitute, whether female or male, into the house of the LORD your God to fulfill any vow, because both are detestable to the LORD your God.
- 22Judges 19:22While they were enjoying themselves, suddenly the wicked men of the city surrounded the house. Pounding on the door, they said to the old man who owned the house, “Bring out the man who came to your house, so we can have relations with him!”
- 22Genesis 19:5They called out to Lot, saying, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Send them out to us so we can have relations with them!”
- 5Galatians 3:12The law, however, is not based on faith; on the contrary, “The man who does these things will live by them.”
- 21Deuteronomy 12:31You must not worship the LORD your God in this way, because they practice for their gods every abomination which the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.
- 24Deuteronomy 18:12For whoever does these things is detestable to the LORD. And because of these detestable things, the LORD your God is driving out the nations before you.
- 5Romans 10:5For concerning the righteousness that is by the law, Moses writes: “The man who does these things will live by them.”
- 5Ezekiel 20:11And I gave them My statutes and made known to them My ordinances—for the man who does these things will live by them.
- 5Ezekiel 20:21But the children rebelled against Me. They did not walk in My statutes or carefully observe My ordinances—though the man who does these things will live by them—and they profaned My Sabbaths. So I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and vent My anger against them in the wilderness.
- 5Ezekiel 20:13Yet the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness. They did not follow My statutes and they rejected My ordinances—though the man who does these things will live by them—and they utterly profaned My Sabbaths. Then I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and put an end to them in the wilderness.
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