7 You may not have sex relations with your father or your mother: she is your mother, you may not take her. 8 And you may not have sex relations with your father's wife: she is your father's. 9 You may not take your sister, the daughter of your father or of your mother, wherever her birth took place, among you or in another country. 10 You may not have sex relations with your son's daughter or your daughter's daughter, for they are part of yourself; 11 Or your father's wife's daughter, the child of your father, for she is your sister. 12 You may not have sex connection with your father's sister, for she is your father's near relation. 13 You may not have sex connection with your mother's sister, for she is your mother's near relation. 14 You may not have sex relations with the wife of your father's brother, for she is of your family; 15 Or with your daughter-in-law, for she is your son's wife, and you may not take her. 16 You may not have sex relations with your brother's wife, for she is your brother's.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on Leviticus 18:7-16

Chapter Contents

Unlawful marriages and fleshly lusts.

Here is a law against all conformity to the corrupt usages of the heathen. Also laws against incest, against brutal lusts, and barbarous idolatries; and the enforcement of these laws from the ruin of the Canaanites. God here gives moral precepts. Close and constant adherence to God's ordinances is the most effectual preservative from gross sin. The grace of God only will secure us; that grace is to be expected only in the use of the means of grace. Nor does He ever leave any to their hearts' lusts, till they have left him and his services.