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    Insight on the Scriptures, Volume 2
    • Incest

      An Israelite man could not marry any of the following: His mother, stepmother, or a secondary wife of his father (Le 18:7, 8; 20:11; De 22:30; 27:20); his sister or half sister (Le 18:9, 11; 20:17; De 27:22); his granddaughter (Le 18:10); his aunt (either his mother’s sister or his father’s sister) (Le 18:12, 13; 20:19); his aunt by marriage (either his father’s brother’s wife or his mother’s brother’s wife) (Le 18:14; 20:20); his daughter-in-law (Le 18:15; 20:12); his daughter, stepdaughter, stepdaughter’s daughter, stepson’s daughter, mother-in-law (Le 18:17; 20:14; De 27:23); brother’s wife (Le 18:16; 20:21), except in levirate marriage (De 25:5, 6); his wife’s sister during his wife’s lifetime (Le 18:18)

      An Israelite woman could not marry any of the following: Her son or her stepson (Le 18:7, 8; 20:11; De 22:30; 27:20); her brother or half brother (Le 18:9, 11; 20:17; De 27:22); her grandfather (Le 18:10); her nephew (either her brother’s son or her sister’s son) (Le 18:12, 13; 20:19); her nephew (either her husband’s brother’s son or her husband’s sister’s son) (Le 18:14; 20:20); her father-in-law (Le 18:15; 20:12); her father, stepfather, mother’s stepfather, father’s stepfather, son-in-law (Le 18:7, 17; 20:14; De 27:23); her husband’s brother (Le 18:16; 20:21), except in levirate marriage (De 25:5, 6); her sister’s husband during her sister’s lifetime (Le 18:18)

      Penalty for incest: death (Le 18:29; 20:11, 12, 14, 17, 20, 21)

      Intercourse during menstruation

      If a man and a woman deliberately cohabited during menstruation, they were cut off in death (Le 18:19; 20:18)

      Husband who unwittingly had intercourse with wife during such uncleanness (perhaps at unexpected beginning of menstruation) was unclean seven days (Le 15:19-24)

  • Law
    Insight on the Scriptures, Volume 2
    • Sodomy carried death penalty for both persons involved (Le 18:22; 20:13)

      Bestiality resulted in death for person and beast (Ex 22:19; Le 18:23, 29; 20:15, 16; De 27:21)

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