Leviticus 18:22

18:22 You must not have sexual intercourse with a male as one has sexual intercourse with a woman; ¹  it is a detestable act. ² 

Leviticus 18:26-30

18:26 You yourselves must obey ³  my statutes and my regulations and must not do any of these abominations, both the native citizen and the resident foreigner in your midst, ⁴  18:27 for the people who were in the land before you have done all these abominations, ⁵  and the land has become unclean. 18:28 So do not make the land vomit you out because you defile it ⁶  just as it has vomited out the nations ⁷  that were before you. 18:29 For if anyone does any of these abominations, the persons who do them will be cut off from the midst of their people. ⁸  18:30 You must obey my charge to not practice any of the abominable statutes ⁹  that have been done before you, so that you do not ¹⁰  defile yourselves by them. I am the Lord your God.’”

[18:22]  ¹ tn Heb “And with a male you shall not lay [as the] lyings of a woman” (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 123). The specific reference here is to homosexual intercourse between males.

[18:22]  ² tn The Hebrew term תּוֹעֵבָה (to’evah, rendered “detestable act”) refers to the repugnant practices of foreigners, whether from the viewpoint of other peoples toward the Hebrews (e.g., Gen 43:32; 46:34; Exod 8:26) or of the Lord toward other peoples (see esp. Lev 18:26-27, 29-30). It can also designate, as here, detestable acts that might be perpetrated by the native peoples (it is used again in reference to homosexuality in Lev 20:13; cf. also its use for unclean food, Deut 14:3; idol worship, Isa 41:24; remarriage to a former wife who has been married to someone else in between, Deut 24:4).

[18:26]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Heb “the native and the sojourner”; NIV “The native-born and the aliens”; NAB “whether natives or resident aliens.”

[18:27]  ⁵ tn Heb “for all these abominations the men of the land who were before you have done.”

[18:28]  ⁶ tn Heb “And the land will not vomit you out in your defiling it.”

[18:28]  ⁷ tc The MT reads the singular “nation” and is followed by ASV, NASB, NRSV; the LXX, Syriac, and Targum have the plural “nations” (cf. v. 24).

[18:29]  ⁸ sn Regarding the “cut off” penalty see the note on Lev 7:20.

[18:30]  ⁹ tn Heb “to not do from the statutes of the detestable acts.”

[18:30]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and you will not.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.