New International Version
Leviticus 18:20
20“ ‘Do not have sexual relations with your neighbor’s wife and defile yourself with her.
Leviticus 18:20 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Moreover thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbour’s wife, to defile thyself with her.
- English Standard Version (ESV)And you shall not lie sexually with your neighbor's wife and so make yourself unclean with her.
- New King James Version (NKJV)Moreover you shall not lie carnally with your neighbor’s wife, to defile yourself with her.
- New Living Translation (NLT)“Do not defile yourself by having sexual intercourse with your neighbor’s wife.
Context of Leviticus 18:20
18“ ‘Do not take your wife’s sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is living. 19“ ‘Do not approach a woman to have sexual relations during the uncleanness of her monthly period. “ ‘Do not have sexual relations with your neighbor’s wife and defile yourself with her. 21“ ‘Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molek, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord. 22“ ‘Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.
Read all of Leviticus 18Leviticus 18:20 word by word
וְאֶל־אֵ֙שֶׁת֙ עֲמִֽיתְךָ֔ לֹא־תִתֵּ֥ן שְׁכָבְתְּךָ֖ לְזָ֑רַע לְטָמְאָה־בָֽהּ׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Leviticus 18:20
- Leviticus 20:10“ ‘If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death.
- Exodus 20:14“You shall not commit adultery.
- Deuteronomy 5:18“You shall not commit adultery.
- Deuteronomy 22:22If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.
- 2 Samuel 11:3and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”
- Proverbs 6:25Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes.
- Malachi 3:5“So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,” says the Lord Almighty.
- Matthew 5:27“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’
- Romans 2:22You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?
- 1 Corinthians 6:9Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men
- Galatians 5:19The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;
- Hebrews 13:4Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.
Commentaries on Leviticus 18:20
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 20Thy neighbor's wife - See Clarke's note on Exodus 20:14.Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 20The Hebrew word translated as defile yourself can be more literally translated as to become ceremonially unclean. In the Old Testament, sexual intercourse with a neighbor’s wife or any married woman was adultery. Breaking this law was punishable by death (Deuteronomy 22:22). Like incest, adultery threatened the integrity and security of the home and family. It violated the marriage covenant and divided the adulterer’s affection between his spouse and his…Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1-302-4. I am the Lord your God--This renewed mention of the divine sovereignty over the Israelites was intended to bear particularly on some laws that were widely different from the social customs that obtained both in Egypt and Canaan; for the enormities, which the laws enumerated in this chapter were intended to put down, were freely practised or publicly sanctioned in both of those countries; and, indeed, the extermination of the ancient Canaanites is…Read the comment
Topics related to Leviticus 18:20
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Leviticus 18
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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