Study Desk

'If there is a man who marries a woman and her mother, it is an outrageous sin; both he and they shall be burned with fire, so that there will be no such outrageous sin in your midst.

'If there is a man who has sexual intercourse with an animal, he must be put to death; you shall also kill the animal.

'If there is a woman who approaches any animal to mate with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal; they must be put to death. They have brought their own deaths upon themselves.

'If there is a man who takes his sister, his father's daughter or his mother's daughter, so that he sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace; and they shall be cut off in the sight of the sons of their people. He has uncovered his sister's nakedness; he bears his guilt.

'If there is a man who sleeps with a menstruous woman and uncovers her nakedness, he has exposed her flow, and she has uncovered the flow of her blood; so both of them shall be cut off from among their people.

'You shall also not uncover the nakedness of your mother's sister or of your father's sister, for such a one has uncovered his blood relative; they will bear their guilt.

'Furthermore, you shall not follow the customs of the nation which I am going to drive out before you, because they did all these things; therefore I have felt disgust for them.

'You are therefore to make a distinction between the clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean bird and the clean; and you shall not make yourselves detestable by animal or by bird, or by anything that crawls on the ground, which I have distinguished for you as unclean.

'Now a man or a woman who is a medium or a spiritist must be put to death. They shall be stoned with stones; they have brought their own deaths upon themselves.'"

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them: 'No one shall defile himself for a dead person among his people,

'He shall not defile himself as a relative by marriage among his people, so as to profane himself.

'They shall not shave any area on their heads bald, nor shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuts in their flesh.

'They shall be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God, because they present the offerings by fire to the LORD, the food of their God; so they shall be holy.

'They shall not take a woman who is a prostitute and profaned, nor shall they take a woman divorced from her husband; for he is holy to his God.

'You shall consecrate him, therefore, because he offers the food of your God. He shall be holy to you; for I the LORD, who sanctifies you, am holy.

'Also the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by prostitution, she profanes her father; she shall be burned with fire.

'The priest who is highest among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil has been poured and who has been consecrated to wear the garments, shall not uncover his head nor tear his clothes;

nor shall he approach any dead person, nor defile himself even for his father or his mother;

nor shall he leave the sanctuary nor profane the sanctuary of his God, for the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is on him; I am the LORD.

'He shall take a wife in her virginity.