Leviticus 18:20
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You must not lie carnally with your neighbor’s wife and thus defile yourself with her.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
Here is, I. A general law against all conformity to the corrupt usages of the heathen (Lev 18:1-5). II. Particular laws, 1. Against incest (Lev 18:6-18). 2. Against beastly lusts, and barbarous idolatries (Lev 18:19-23). III. The enforcement of these laws from the ruin of the Canaanites (Lev 18:24-30).
Open source ↗18:20 The Hebrew word translated defile yourself could be more literally translated to become ceremonially unclean. • Sexual intercourse with a neighbor’s wife or any married woman defined adultery in the Old Testament. Breaking this law was punishable by death (Deut 22:22). Like incest, adultery threatened the integrity and security of the home and family. In this case, it violated the covenant of marriage and divided the adulterer’s affection between his spouse and his mistress.
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
Cross-references
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You shall not commit adultery.
Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.
Do 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,
If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress must surely be put to death.
Do not lust in your heart for her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes.
You shall not commit adultery.
But if the man encounters a betrothed woman in the open country, and he overpowers her and lies with her, only the man who has done this must die.
And when the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the LORD.
The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery;
You who forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?