Imamat 18:1-3

Exhortation to Obedience and Life

18:1 The Lord spoke to Moses: 18:2 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘I am the Lord your God! 18:3 You must not do as they do in the land of Egypt where you have been living, ¹  and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan into which I am about to bring you; ²  you must not ³  walk in their statutes.

Imamat 18:24

Warning against the Abominations of the Nations

18:24 “‘Do not defile yourselves with any of these things, for the nations which I am about to drive out before you ⁴  have been defiled with all these things.

Imamat 18:26-27

18:26 You yourselves must obey ⁵  my statutes and my regulations and must not do any of these abominations, both the native citizen and the resident foreigner in your midst, ⁶  18:27 for the people who were in the land before you have done all these abominations, ⁷  and the land has become unclean.

Imamat 18:30

18:30 You must obey my charge to not practice any of the abominable statutes ⁸  that have been done before you, so that you do not ⁹  defile yourselves by them. I am the Lord your God.’”

[18:3]  ¹ tn Heb “As the work [or “deed”] of the land of Egypt, which you were dwelling in it, you must not do.”

[18:3]  ² tn Heb “and as the work [or “deed”] of the land of Canaan which I am bringing you to there, you must not do.” The participle “I am bringing” is inceptive; the Lord is “about to” bring them into the land of Canaan, as opposed to their having dwelt previously in the land of Egypt (see the first part of the verse).

[18:3]  ³ tn Heb “and you shall not walk.”

[18:24]  ⁴ tn Heb “which I am sending away (Piel participle of שָׁלַח [shalakh, “to send”]) from your faces.” The rendering here takes the participle as anticipatory of the coming conquest events.

[18:26]  ⁵ tn Heb “And you shall keep, you.” The latter emphatic personal pronoun “you” is left out of a few medieval Hebrew mss, Smr, the LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate.

[18:26]  ⁶ tn Heb “the native and the sojourner”; NIV “The native-born and the aliens”; NAB “whether natives or resident aliens.”

[18:27]  ⁷ tn Heb “for all these abominations the men of the land who were before you have done.”

[18:30]  ⁸ tn Heb “to not do from the statutes of the detestable acts.”

[18:30]  ⁹ tn Heb “and you will not.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.