12 – Sexual Immorality

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

Then the LORD said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great. Because their sin is so grievous, I will go down to see if their actions fully justify the outcry that has reached Me. If not, I will find out." And the two men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the LORD. Abraham stepped forward and said, "Will You really sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous ones in the city? Will You really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous ones who are there? Far be it from You to do such a thing- to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Will not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?" So the LORD replied, "If I find fifty righteous ones within the city of Sodom, on their account I will spare the whole place." Then Abraham answered, "Now that I have ventured to speak to the Lord- though I am but dust and ashes- suppose the fifty righteous ones lack five. Will You destroy the whole city for the lack of five?" He replied, "If I find forty-five there, I will not destroy it." Once again Abraham spoke to the LORD, "Suppose forty are found there?" He answered, "On account of the forty, I will not do it." Then Abraham said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak further. Suppose thirty are found there?" He replied, "If I find thirty there, I will not do it." And Abraham said, "Now that I have ventured to speak to the Lord, suppose twenty are found there?" He answered, "On account of the twenty, I will not destroy it." Finally, Abraham said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak once more. Suppose ten are found there?" And He answered, "On account of the ten, I will not destroy it."

Now the two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them, bowed facedown, and said, " My lords, please turn aside into the house of your servant; wash your feet and spend the night. Then you can rise early and go on your way." "No," they answered, "we will spend the night in the square." But Lot insisted so strongly that they followed him into his house. He prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. Before they had gone to bed, all the men of the city of Sodom, both young and old, surrounded the house. They called out to Lot, saying, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Send them out to us so we can have relations with them!" Lot went outside to meet them, shutting the door behind him. "Please, my brothers," he pleaded, "don't do such a wicked thing! Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them to you, and you can do to them as you please. But do not do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof." "Get out of the way!" they replied. And they declared, "This one came here as a foreigner, and he is already acting like a judge! Now we will treat you worse than them." And they pressed in on Lot and moved in to break down the door. But the men inside reached out, pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. And they struck the men at the entrance, young and old, with blindness, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the door.

Then the two men said to Lot, "Do you have anyone else here- a son-in-law, your sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, because we are about to destroy this place. For the outcry to the LORD against its people is so great that He has sent us to destroy it." So Lot went out and spoke to the sons-in-law who were pledged in marriage to his daughters. "Get up," he said. "Get out of this place, for the LORD is about to destroy the city!" But his sons-in-law thought he was joking. At daybreak the angels hurried Lot along, saying, "Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city." But when Lot hesitated, the men grabbed his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters. And they led them safely out of the city, because of the LORD's compassion for them. As soon as the men had brought them out, one of them said, "Run for your lives! Do not look back, and do not stop anywhere on the plain! Flee to the mountains, or you will be swept away!"

Then the LORD rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah- from the LORD out of the heavens.

But Lot's wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

One night, however, God came to Abimelech in a dream and told him, "You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken, for she is a married woman."

When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the region, saw her, he took her and lay with her by force.

When Jacob's sons heard what had happened, they returned from the field. They were filled with grief and fury, because Shechem had committed an outrage in Israel by lying with Jacob's daughter- a thing that should not be done.

They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with their swords, took Dinah out of Shechem's house, and went away. Jacob's other sons came upon the slaughter and looted the city, because their sister had been defiled.

But they replied, "Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?"

When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute because she had covered her face. Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her and said, "Come now, let me sleep with you." "What will you give me for sleeping with you?" she inquired. "I will send you a young goat from my flock," Judah answered. But she replied, "Only if you leave me something as a pledge until you send it." "What pledge should I give you?" he asked. She answered, "Your seal and your cord, and the staff in your hand." So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him. Then Tamar got up and departed. And she removed her veil and put on her widow's garments again. Now when Judah sent his friend Hirah the Adullamite with the young goat to collect the items he had left with the woman, he could not find her. He asked the men of that place, "Where is the shrine prostitute who was beside the road at Enaim?" "No shrine prostitute has been here," they answered. So Hirah returned to Judah and said, "I could not find her, and furthermore, the men of that place said, 'No shrine prostitute has been here.'" "Let her keep the items," Judah replied. "Otherwise we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you could not find her." About three months later, Judah was told, "Your daughter-in-law Tamar has prostituted herself, and now she is pregnant." "Bring her out!" Judah replied. "Let her be burned to death!" As she was being brought out, Tamar sent a message to her father-in-law: "I am pregnant by the man to whom these items belong." And she added, "Please examine them. Whose seal and cord and staff are these?" Judah recognized the items and said, "She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah." And he did not have relations with her again.

and after some time his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph and said, "Sleep with me." But he refused. "Look," he said to his master's wife, "with me here, my master does not concern himself with anything in his house, and he has entrusted everything he owns to my care. No one in this house is greater than I am. He has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. So how could I do such a great evil and sin against God?" Although Potiphar's wife spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be near her. One day, however, Joseph went into the house to attend to his work, and not a single household servant was inside. She grabbed Joseph by his cloak and said, "Sleep with me!" But leaving his cloak in her hand, he escaped and ran outside.

When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house, she called her household servants. "Look," she said, "this Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us. He came to me so he could sleep with me, but I screamed as loud as I could. When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house." So Potiphar's wife kept Joseph's cloak beside her until his master came home. Then she told him the same story: "The Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me, but when I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house." When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, "This is what your slave did to me," he burned with anger. So Joseph's master took him and had him thrown into the prison where the king's prisoners were confined. While Joseph was there in the prison,

You shall not commit adultery.

You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, or his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

Whoever lies with an animal must surely be put to death.

None of you are to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the LORD. You must not expose the nakedness of your father by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; you must not have sexual relations with her. You must not have sexual relations with your father's wife; it would dishonor your father. You must not have sexual relations with your sister, either your father's daughter or your mother's daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere. You must not have sexual relations with your son's daughter or your daughter's daughter, for that would shame your family. You must not have sexual relations with the daughter of your father's wife, born to your father; she is your sister. You must not have sexual relations with your father's sister; she is your father's close relative. You must not have sexual relations with your mother's sister, for she is your mother's close relative. You must not dishonor your father's brother by approaching his wife to have sexual relations with her; she is your aunt. You must not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law. She is your son's wife; you are not to have sexual relations with her. You must not have sexual relations with your brother's wife; that would shame your brother. You must not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter. You are not to marry her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter and have sexual relations with her. They are close relatives; it is depraved. You must not take your wife's sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is still alive.

You must not approach a woman to have sexual relations with her during her menstrual period. You must not lie carnally with your neighbor's wife and thus defile yourself with her. You must not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD. You must not lie with a man as with a woman; that is an abomination. You must not lie carnally with any animal, thus defiling yourself with it; a woman must not stand before an animal to mate with it; that is a perversion.

You must not defile your daughter by making her a prostitute, or the land will be prostituted and filled with depravity.

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. If a man lies with his father's wife, he has uncovered his father's nakedness. Both must surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both must surely be put to death. They have acted perversely; their blood is upon them. If a man lies with a man as with a woman, they have both committed an abomination. They must surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. If a man marries both a woman and her mother, it is depraved. Both he and they must be burned in the fire, so that there will be no depravity among you. If a man lies carnally with an animal, he must be put to death. And you are also to kill the animal. If a woman approaches any animal to mate with it, you must kill both the woman and the animal. They must surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.

If a man marries his sister, whether the daughter of his father or of his mother, and they have sexual relations, it is a disgrace. They must be cut off in the sight of their people. He has uncovered the nakedness of his sister; he shall bear his iniquity. If a man lies with a menstruating woman and has sexual relations with her, he has exposed the source of her flow, and she has uncovered the source of her blood. Both of them must be cut off from among their people. You must not have sexual relations with the sister of your mother or your father, for it is exposing one's own kin; both shall bear their iniquity. If a man lies with his uncle's wife, he has uncovered the nakedness of his uncle. They will bear their sin; they shall die childless. If a man marries his brother's wife, it is an act of impurity. He has uncovered the nakedness of his brother; they shall be childless.

A priest must not marry a woman defiled by prostitution or divorced by her husband, for the priest is holy to his God. You are to regard him as holy, since he presents the food of your God. He shall be holy to you, because I the LORD am holy- I who set you apart. If a priest's daughter defiles herself by prostituting herself, she profanes her father; she must be burned in the fire.

He is not to marry a widow, a divorced woman, or one defiled by prostitution. He is to marry a virgin from his own people,

"Speak to the Israelites and tell them that if any man's wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him by sleeping with another man, and it is concealed from her husband and her impurity is undetected (since there is no witness against her and she was not caught in the act),

This is the law of jealousy when a wife goes astray and defiles herself while under her husband's authority,

Just then an Israelite man brought to his family a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and the whole congregation of Israel while they were weeping at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

You shall not commit adultery.

You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. You shall not covet your neighbor's house or field, or his manservant or maidservant, or his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

A woman must not wear men's clothing, and a man must not wear women's clothing, for whoever does these things is detestable to the LORD your God.

If, however, this accusation is true, and no proof of the young woman's virginity can be found, she shall be brought to the door of her father's house, and there the men of her city will stone her to death. For she has committed an outrage in Israel by being promiscuous in her father's house. So you must purge the evil from among you.

If a man is found lying with another man's wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.

If there is a virgin pledged in marriage to a man, and another man encounters her in the city and sleeps with her, you must take both of them out to the gate of that city and stone them to death- the young woman because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he has violated his neighbor's wife. So you must purge the evil from among you.

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. Do nothing to the young woman, because she has committed no sin worthy of death. This case is just like one in which a man attacks his neighbor and murders him. When he found her in the field, the betrothed woman cried out, but there was no one to save her.

If a man encounters a virgin who is not pledged in marriage, and he seizes her and lies with her, and they are discovered, then the man who lay with her must pay the young woman's father fifty shekels of silver, and she must become his wife because he has violated her. He must not divorce her as long as he lives.

A man is not to marry his father's wife, so that he will not dishonor his father's marriage bed.

No one of illegitimate birth may enter the assembly of the LORD, nor may any of his descendants, even to the tenth generation.

No daughter or son of Israel is to be a shrine prostitute. You must not bring the wages of a prostitute, whether female or male, into the house of the LORD your God to fulfill any vow, because both are detestable to the LORD your God.

Cursed is he who sleeps with his father's wife, for he has violated his father's marriage bed.' And let all the people say, 'Amen!'

Cursed is he who lies with any animal.' And let all the people say, 'Amen!'

Cursed is he who sleeps with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.' And let all the people say, 'Amen!'

Cursed is he who sleeps with his mother-in-law.' And let all the people say, 'Amen!'

One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute and went in to spend the night with her.

Now in those days, when there was no king in Israel, a Levite who lived in the remote hill country of Ephraim took for himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah. But she was unfaithful to him and left him to return to her father's house in Bethlehem in Judah. After she had been there four months,

While they were enjoying themselves, suddenly the wicked men of the city surrounded the house. Pounding on the door, they said to the old man who owned the house, "Bring out the man who came to your house, so we can have relations with him!" The owner of the house went out and said to them, "No, my brothers, do not do this wicked thing! After all, this man is a guest in my house. Do not commit this outrage. Look, let me bring out my virgin daughter and the man's concubine, and you can use them and do with them as you wish. But do not do such a vile thing to this man." But the men would not listen to him. So the Levite took his concubine and sent her outside to them, and they raped her and abused her throughout the night, and at dawn they let her go. Early that morning, the woman went back to the house where her master was staying, collapsed at the doorway, and lay there until it was light. In the morning, when her master got up and opened the doors of the house to go out on his journey, there was his concubine, collapsed in the doorway of the house, with her hands on the threshold. "Get up," he told her. "Let us go." But there was no response. So the man put her on his donkey and set out for home. When he reached his house, he picked up a knife, took hold of his concubine, cut her limb by limb into twelve pieces, and sent her throughout the territory of Israel. And everyone who saw it said, "Nothing like this has been seen or done from the day the Israelites came out of the land of Egypt until this day. Think it over, take counsel, and speak up!"

We will take ten men out of every hundred from all the tribes of Israel, and a hundred out of every thousand, and a thousand out of every ten thousand, to supply provisions for the army when they go to Gibeah in Benjamin to punish them for the atrocity they have committed in Israel." So all the men of Israel gathered as one man, united against the city.

Now Eli was very old, and he heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel and how they were sleeping with the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

One evening David got up from his bed and strolled around on the roof of the palace. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing- a very beautiful woman. So David sent and inquired about the woman, and he was told, "This is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite." Then David sent messengers to get her, and when she came to him, he slept with her. (Now she had just purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned home. And the woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, "I am pregnant."

Why then have you despised the command of the LORD by doing evil in His sight? You put Uriah the Hittite to the sword and took his wife as your own, for you have slain him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.' This is what the LORD says: 'I will raise up adversity against you from your own house. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to another, and he will lie with them in broad daylight. You have acted in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.'"

And when she had brought them to him to eat, he took hold of her and said, "Come lie with me, my sister!" "No, my brother!" she cried. "Do not humiliate me, for such a thing should never be done in Israel. Do not do this disgraceful thing! Where could I ever take my shame? And you would be like one of the fools in Israel! Please speak to the king, for he will not withhold me from you." But Amnon refused to listen to her, and being stronger, he violated her and lay with her.

King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh- women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon, as well as Hittite women. These women were from the nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, "You must not intermarry with them, for surely they will turn your hearts after their gods." Yet Solomon clung to these women in love. He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines- and his wives turned his heart away. For when Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and he was not wholeheartedly devoted to the LORD his God, as his father David had been. Solomon followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD; unlike his father David, he did not follow the LORD completely.

There were even male shrine prostitutes in the land. They imitated all the abominations of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.

He banished the male shrine prostitutes from the land and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.

He banished from the land the male shrine prostitutes who remained from the days of his father Asa.

He also tore down the quarters of the male shrine prostitutes that were in the house of the LORD, where the women had woven tapestries for Asherah.

"I have made a covenant with my eyes. How then could I gaze with desire at a virgin?

It will rescue you from the forbidden woman, from the stranger with seductive words who abandons the partner of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God.

Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil, in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword.

Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, or embrace the bosom of a stranger?

to keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress. Do not lust in your heart for her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes. For the levy of the prostitute is poverty, and the adulteress preys upon your very life. Can a man embrace fire and his clothes not be burned? Can a man walk on hot coals without scorching his feet? So is he who sleeps with another man's wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished.

He who commits adultery lacks judgment; whoever does so destroys himself.

that they may keep you from the adulteress, from the stranger with seductive words. For at the window of my house I looked through the lattice. I saw among the simple, I noticed among the youths, a young man lacking judgment, crossing the street near her corner, strolling down the road to her house, at twilight, as the day was fading into the dark of the night. Then a woman came out to meet him, with the attire of a harlot and cunning of heart.

With her great persuasion she entices him; with her flattering lips she lures him. He follows her on impulse, like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer bounding into a trap, until an arrow pierces his liver, like a bird darting into a snare- not knowing it will cost him his life. Now, my sons, listen to me, and attend to the words of my mouth. Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths. For she has brought many down to death; her slain are many in number. Her house is the road to Sheol, descending to the chambers of death.

The righteousness of the upright delivers them, but the faithless are trapped by their own desires.

The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit; he who is under the wrath of the LORD will fall into it.

For a prostitute is a deep pit, and an adulteress is a narrow well. Like a robber she lies in wait and multiplies the faithless among men.

A man who loves wisdom brings joy to his father, but a companion of prostitutes squanders his wealth.

This is the way of an adulteress: She eats and wipes her mouth and says, 'I have done nothing wrong.'

And I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a net, and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is ensnared.

See how the faithful city has become a harlot! She once was full of justice; righteousness resided within her, but now only murderers!

"But come here, you sons of a sorceress, you offspring of adulterers and prostitutes!

" If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him to marry another, can he ever return to her? Would not such a land be completely defiled? But you have played the harlot with many lovers- and you would return to Me?" declares the LORD. "Lift up your eyes to the barren heights and see. Is there any place where you have not been violated? You sat beside the highways waiting for your lovers, like a nomad in the desert. You have defiled the land with your prostitution and wickedness. Therefore the showers have been withheld, and no spring rains have fallen. Yet you have the brazen look of a prostitute; you refuse to be ashamed.

Now in the days of King Josiah, the LORD said to me, "Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every green tree to prostitute herself there. I thought that after she had done all these things, she would return to Me. But she did not return, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it. She saw that because faithless Israel had committed adultery, I gave her a certificate of divorce and sent her away. Yet that unfaithful sister Judah had no fear and prostituted herself as well.

But as a woman may betray her husband, so you have betrayed Me, O house of Israel," declares the LORD.

"Why should I forgive you? Your children have forsaken Me and sworn by gods that are not gods. I satisfied their needs, yet they committed adultery and assembled at the houses of prostitutes. They are well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing after his neighbor's wife.

Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal, and follow other gods that you have not known,

Your adulteries and lustful neighings, your shameless prostitution on the hills and in the fields- I have seen your detestable acts. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! How long will you remain unclean?"

And among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: They commit adultery and walk in lies. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns his back on wickedness. They are all like Sodom to Me; the people of Jerusalem are like Gomorrah."

For they have committed an outrage in Israel by committing adultery with the wives of their neighbors and speaking lies in My name, which I did not command them to do. I am He who knows, and I am a witness, declares the LORD."

Women have been ravished in Zion, virgins in the cities of Judah.

But because of your fame, you trusted in your beauty and played the harlot. You lavished your favors on everyone who passed by, and your beauty was theirs for the asking. You took some of your garments and made colorful high places for yourself, and on them you prostituted yourself. Such things should not have happened; never should they have occurred! You also took the fine jewelry of gold and silver I had given you, and you made male idols with which to prostitute yourself.

You even took the sons and daughters you bore to Me and sacrificed them as food to idols. Was your prostitution not enough? You slaughtered My children and delivered them up through the fire to idols. And in all your abominations and acts of prostitution, you did not remember the days of your youth when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your own blood.

At the head of every street you built your lofty shrines and degraded your beauty. With increasing promiscuity, you spread your legs to all who passed by. You prostituted yourself with your lustful neighbors, the Egyptians, and increased your promiscuity to provoke Me to anger. Therefore I stretched out My hand against you and reduced your portion. I gave you over to the desire of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd conduct. Then you prostituted yourself with the Assyrians, because you were not yet satisfied. Even after that, you were still not satisfied. So you extended your promiscuity to Chaldea, the land of merchants- but even with this you were not satisfied!

How weak-willed is your heart, declares the Lord GOD, while you do all these things, the acts of a shameless prostitute! But when you built your mounds at the head of every street and made your lofty shrines in every public square, you were not even like a prostitute, because you scorned payment. You adulterous wife! You receive strangers instead of your own husband! Men give gifts to all their prostitutes, but you gave gifts to all your lovers. You bribed them to come to you from everywhere for your illicit favors. So your prostitution is the opposite of that of other women: No one solicited your favors, and you paid a fee instead of receiving one; so you are the very opposite!

Therefore, O prostitute, hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Lord GOD says: Because you poured out your wealth and exposed your nakedness in your promiscuity with your lovers and with all your detestable idols, and because of the blood of your children which you gave to them, therefore I will surely gather all the lovers with whom you found pleasure, all those you loved and all those you hated. I will gather them against you from all around and expose you before them, and they will see you completely naked. And I will sentence you to the punishment of women who commit adultery and those who shed blood; so I will bring upon you the wrath of your bloodshed and jealousy.

Then they will burn down your houses and execute judgment against you in the sight of many women. I will put an end to your prostitution, and you will never again pay your lovers. So I will lay to rest My wrath against you, and My jealousy will turn away from you. Then I will be calm and no longer angry. Because you did not remember the days of your youth, but enraged Me with all these things, I will surely bring your deeds down upon your own head, declares the Lord GOD. Have you not committed this lewdness on top of all your other abominations?

Among you are slanderous men bent on bloodshed; within you are those who eat on the mountain shrines and commit acts of indecency. In you they have uncovered the nakedness of their fathers; in you they violate women during their menstrual impurity. One man commits an abomination with his neighbor's wife; another wickedly defiles his daughter-in-law; and yet another violates his sister, his own father's daughter.

Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying, "Son of man, there were two women, daughters of the same mother, and they played in Egypt, prostituting themselves from their youth. Their breasts were fondled there, and their virgin bosoms caressed. The older was named Oholah, and her sister was named Oholibah. They became Mine and gave birth to sons and daughters. As for their identities, Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem. Oholah prostituted herself while she was still Mine. She lusted after her lovers, the Assyrians- warriors clothed in blue, governors and commanders, all desirable young men, horsemen mounted on steeds. She offered sexual favors to all the elite of Assyria. She defiled herself with all the idols of those for whom she lusted. She did not give up the prostitution she began in Egypt, when men slept with her in her youth, caressed her virgin bosom, and poured out their lust upon her. Therefore I delivered her into the hands of her lovers, the Assyrians for whom she lusted. They exposed her nakedness, seized her sons and daughters, and put her to the sword. Thus she became a byword among women, and they executed judgment against her. Her sister Oholibah saw this, yet in her lust and prostitution she was more depraved than her sister. She too lusted after the Assyrians- governors and commanders, warriors dressed in splendor, horsemen riding on steeds, all desirable young men. And I saw that she too had defiled herself; both of them had taken the same path. But Oholibah carried her prostitution even further. She saw the men portrayed on the wall, images of the Chaldeans, engraved in vermilion, wearing belts on their waists and flowing turbans on their heads; all of them looked like officers of the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their birth. At the sight of them, she lusted for them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea. Then the Babylonians came to her, to the bed of love, and in their lust they defiled her. But after she had been defiled by them, she turned away in disgust. When Oholibah openly prostituted herself and exposed her nakedness, I turned away from her in disgust, just as I had turned away from her sister. Yet she multiplied her promiscuity, remembering the days of her youth, when she had prostituted herself in the land of Egypt and lusted after their lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of stallions. So you revisited the indecency of your youth, when the Egyptians caressed your bosom and pressed your young breasts.

So I will put an end to your indecency and prostitution, which began in the land of Egypt, and you will not lift your eyes to them or remember Egypt anymore.' For this is what the Lord GOD says: 'Surely I will deliver you into the hands of those you hate, from whom you turned away in disgust. They will treat you with hatred, take all for which you have worked, and leave you naked and bare, so that the shame of your prostitution will be exposed. Your indecency and promiscuity have brought these things upon you, because you have prostituted yourself with the nations and defiled yourself with their idols.

Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: 'Because you have forgotten Me and have cast Me behind your back, you must bear the consequences of your indecency and prostitution.'" Then the LORD said to me: "Son of man, will you pass judgment against Oholah and Oholibah? Then declare to them their abominations. For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols. They have even sacrificed their children, whom they bore to Me, in the fire as food for their idols. They have also done this to Me: On that very same day, they defiled My sanctuary and profaned My Sabbaths. On the very day they slaughtered their children for their idols, they entered My sanctuary to profane it. Yes, they did this inside My house.

Furthermore, you sisters sent messengers for men who came from afar; and behold, when they arrived, you bathed for them, painted your eyes, and adorned yourself with jewelry. You sat on a couch of luxury with a table spread before it, on which you had set My incense and My oil, accompanied by the sound of a carefree crowd. Drunkards were brought in from the desert along with men from the rabble, who put bracelets on your wrists and beautiful crowns on your head. Then I said of her who had grown old in adulteries: 'Now let them use her as a prostitute, for that is all she is!' And they slept with her as with a prostitute; they slept with Oholah and Oholibah, those lewd women. But righteous men will sentence them to the punishment of those who commit adultery and bloodshed, because they are adulteresses with blood on their hands.

So I will put an end to indecency in the land, and all the women will be admonished not to imitate your behavior. They will repay you for your indecency, and you will bear the consequences of your sins of idolatry. Then you will know that I am the Lord GOD.'"

When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, He told him, "Go, take a prostitute as your wife and have children of adultery, because this land is flagrantly prostituting itself by departing from the LORD."

Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not My wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adultery from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts. Otherwise, I will strip her naked and expose her like the day of her birth. I will make her like a desert and turn her into a parched land, and I will let her die of thirst. I will have no compassion on her children, because they are the children of adultery. For their mother has played the harlot and has conceived them in disgrace. For she thought, 'I will go after my lovers, who give me bread and water, wool and linen, oil and drink.'

Cursing and lying, murder and stealing, and adultery are rampant; one act of bloodshed follows another.

My people consult their wooden idols, and their divining rods inform them. For a spirit of prostitution leads them astray and they have played the harlot against their God. They sacrifice on the mountaintops and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar, and terebinth, because their shade is pleasant. And so your daughters turn to prostitution and your daughters-in-law to adultery. I will not punish your daughters when they prostitute themselves, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery. For the men themselves go off with prostitutes and offer sacrifices with shrine prostitutes. So a people without understanding will come to ruin.

I know all about Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from Me. For now, O Ephraim, you have turned to prostitution; Israel is defiled. Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God, for a spirit of prostitution is within them, and they do not know the LORD.

Do not rejoice, O Israel, with exultation like the nations, for you have played the harlot against your God; you have made love for hire on every threshing floor.

They cast lots for My people; they bartered a boy for a prostitute and sold a girl for wine to drink.

because of the many harlotries of the harlot, the seductive mistress of sorcery, who betrays nations by her prostitution and clans by her witchcraft.

Yet you ask, "Why?" It is because the LORD has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have broken faith, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. Has not the LORD made them one, having a portion of the Spirit? And why one? Because He seeks godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not break faith with the wife of your youth. "For I hate divorce," says the LORD, the God of Israel. "He who divorces his wife covers his garment with violence," says the LORD of Hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not break faith.

"Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud laborers of their wages and deny justice to the foreigner but do not fear Me," says the LORD of Hosts.

You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, brings adultery upon her. And he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander.

Now I tell you that whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman, commits adultery."

"Watch and pray so that you will not enter into temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak."

For from within the hearts of men come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, arrogance, and foolishness. All these evils come from within, and these are what defile a man."

So He told them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery."

You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not cheat others, honor your father and mother.'"

Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and mother.'"

The scribes and Pharisees, however, brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before them and said, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such a woman. So what do You say?" They said this to test Him, in order to have a basis for accusing Him. But Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with His finger. When they continued to question Him, He straightened up and said to them, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to cast a stone at her." And again He bent down and wrote on the ground. When they heard this, they began to go away one by one, beginning with the older ones, until only Jesus was left, with the woman standing there. Then Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you?" "No one, Lord," she answered. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Now go and sin no more."

Instead, we should write and tell them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals, and from blood.

You must abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.

As for the Gentile believers, we have written to them our decision that they must abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality."

Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity for the dishonoring of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is forever worthy of praise! Amen. For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. Likewise, the men abandoned natural relations with women and burned with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips,

Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things are worthy of death, they not only continue to do these things, but also approve of those who practice them.

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires. Do not present the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and present the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness.

I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to escalating wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.

So then, if she is joined to another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law and is not an adulteress, even if she marries another man. Therefore, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. For when we lived according to the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, bearing fruit for death.

But I see another law at work in my body, warring against the law of my mind and holding me captive to the law of sin that dwells within me.

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man, as an offering for sin. He thus condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous standard of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh; but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. The mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God: It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the flesh cannot please God.

Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation, but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

Therefore I urge you, brothers, on account of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

The commandments "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and any other commandments, are summed up in this one decree: "Love your neighbor as yourself."

Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Instead, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is intolerable even among pagans: A man has his father's wife.

I wrote you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. I was not including the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a verbal abuser, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. What business of mine is it to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. "Expel the wicked man from among you."

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, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

" Food for the stomach and the stomach for food," but God will destroy them both. The body is not intended for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! Or don't you know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, "The two will become one flesh." But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with Him in spirit. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a man can commit is outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.

Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good to abstain from sexual relations. But because there is so much sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband. The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife. Do not deprive each other, except by mutual consent and for a time, so you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again, so that Satan will not tempt you through your lack of self-control.

But if they cannot control themselves, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

However, if someone thinks he is acting inappropriately toward his betrothed, and if she is beyond her youth and they ought to marry, let him do as he wishes; he is not sinning; they should get married.

We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died.

So the one who thinks he is standing firm should be careful not to fall. No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide an escape, so that you can stand up under it.

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive his due for the things done in the body, whether good or bad.

Therefore, beloved, since we have these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that defiles body and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

I am afraid that when I come again, my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of their acts of impurity, sexual immorality, and debauchery.

So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh craves what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; idolatry and sorcery; hatred, discord, jealousy, and rage; rivalries, divisions, factions, and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Do not be deceived: God is not to be mocked. Whatever a man sows, he will reap in return. The one who sows to please his flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; but the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

All of us also lived among them at one time, fulfilling the cravings of our flesh and indulging its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature children of wrath.

Having lost all sense of shame, they have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity, with a craving for more.

But among you, as is proper among the saints, there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk, or crude joking, which are out of character, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure, or greedy person (that is, an idolater), has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

Put to death, therefore, the components of your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.

For it is God's will that you should be holy: You must abstain from sexual immorality; each of you must know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God;

For God has not called us to impurity, but to holiness. Anyone, then, who rejects this command does not reject man but God, the very One who gives you His Holy Spirit.

We realize that law is not enacted for the righteous, but for the lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinful, for the unholy and profane, for killers of father or mother, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for homosexuals, for slave traders and liars and perjurers, and for anyone else who is averse to sound teaching

Flee from youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, together with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, without love of good, traitorous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. Turn away from such as these! They are the kind who worm their way into households and captivate vulnerable women who are weighed down with sins and led astray by various passions,

It instructs us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live sensible, upright, and godly lives in the present age,

See to it that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his birthright.

Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.

Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him. When tempted, no one should say, " God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when by his own evil desires he is lured away and enticed. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

And when you do ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may squander it on your pleasures. You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God.

As obedient children, do not conform to the passions of your former ignorance.

Beloved, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from the desires of the flesh, which war against your soul.

Therefore, since Christ suffered in His body, arm yourselves with the same resolve, because anyone who has suffered in his body is done with sin. Consequently, he does not live out his remaining time on earth for human passions, but for the will of God. For you have spent enough time in the past carrying out the same desires as the Gentiles: living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and detestable idolatry.

For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them deep into hell, placing them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment; if He did not spare the ancient world when He brought the flood on its ungodly people, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, among the eight; if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes as an example of what is coming on the ungodly; and if He rescued Lot, a righteous man distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)- if all this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment. Such punishment is specially reserved for those who indulge the corrupt desires of the flesh and despise authority. Bold and self-willed, they are unafraid to slander glorious beings.

Their eyes are full of adultery; their desire for sin is never satisfied; they seduce the unstable. They are accursed children with hearts trained in greed.

With lofty but empty words, they appeal to the sensual passions of the flesh and entice those who are just escaping from others who live in error.

Most importantly, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.

For all that is in the world- the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life- is not from the Father but from the world. The world is passing away, along with its desires; but whoever does the will of God remains forever.

For certain men have crept in among you unnoticed- ungodly ones who were designated long ago for condemnation. They turn the grace of our God into a license for immorality, and they deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

And the angels who did not stay within their own domain but abandoned their proper dwelling- these He has kept in eternal chains under darkness, bound for judgment on that great day. In like manner, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, who indulged in sexual immorality and pursued strange flesh, are on display as an example of those who sustain the punishment of eternal fire. Yet in the same way these dreamers defile their bodies, reject authority, and slander glorious beings.

But I have a few things against you, because some of you hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to place a stumbling block before the Israelites so they would eat food sacrificed to idols and commit sexual immorality.

But I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads My servants to be sexually immoral and to eat food sacrificed to idols. Even though I have given her time to repent of her immorality, she is unwilling. Behold, I will cast her onto a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her will suffer great tribulation unless they repent of her deeds.

Furthermore, they did not repent of their murder, sorcery, sexual immorality, and theft.

Then a second angel followed, saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, who has made all the nations drink the wine of the passion of her immorality."

Then one of the seven angels with the seven bowls came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits on many waters. The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and those who dwell on the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her immorality."

All the nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her immorality. The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown wealthy from the extravagance of her luxury."

Then the kings of the earth who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her will weep and wail at the sight of the smoke rising from the fire that consumes her.

For His judgments are true and just. He has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality. He has avenged the blood of His servants that was poured out by her hand."

But to the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death."