Leviticus 18:22-30

18:22 You must not have sexual intercourse with a male as one has sexual intercourse with a woman; ¹  it is a detestable act. ²  18:23 You must not have sexual intercourse ³  with any animal to become defiled with it, and a woman must not stand before an animal to have sexual intercourse with it; ⁴  it is a perversion. ⁵ 

Warning against the Abominations of the Nations

18:24 “‘Do not defile yourselves with any of these things, for the nations which I am about to drive out before you ⁶  have been defiled with all these things. 18:25 Therefore ⁷  the land has become unclean and I have brought the punishment for its iniquity upon it, ⁸  so that the land has vomited out its inhabitants. 18:26 You yourselves must obey ⁹  my statutes and my regulations and must not do any of these abominations, both the native citizen and the resident foreigner in your midst, ¹⁰  18:27 for the people who were in the land before you have done all these abominations, ¹¹  and the land has become unclean. 18:28 So do not make the land vomit you out because you defile it ¹²  just as it has vomited out the nations ¹³  that were before you. 18:29 For if anyone does any of these abominations, the persons who do them will be cut off from the midst of their people. ¹⁴  18:30 You must obey my charge to not practice any of the abominable statutes ¹⁵  that have been done before you, so that you do not ¹⁶  defile yourselves by them. I am the Lord your God.’”

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¹ 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.

² tn The Hebrew term תּוֹעֵבָה (to’evah, 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).

³ tn See the note on v. 20 above.

⁴ tn Heb “to copulate with it” (cf. Lev 20:16).

⁵ 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.

⁶ 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.

⁷ tn Heb “And.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative or even inferential force here.

⁸ tn Heb “and I have visited its [punishment for] iniquity on it.” See the note on Lev 17:16 above.

⁹ 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.

¹⁰ tn Heb “the native and the sojourner”; NIV “The native-born and the aliens”; NAB “whether natives or resident aliens.”

¹¹ tn Heb “for all these abominations the men of the land who were before you have done.”

¹² tn Heb “And the land will not vomit you out in your defiling it.”

¹³ 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).

¹⁴ sn Regarding the “cut off” penalty see the note on Lev 7:20.

¹⁵ tn Heb “to not do from the statutes of the detestable acts.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “and you will not.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.