Do Not Have Homosexual Relations
The Prohibition in the Holiness Code
Leviticus 18:22: “Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.” The verse uses the word “toevah” — typically translated “detestable” or “abomination.” Toevah appears throughout Leviticus 18–20 to mark the most severe violations of the Holiness Code: Lev 18:26: “you shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations.” The chapter treats this prohibition as part of the comprehensive sexual ethics that distinguished covenant Israel from Egypt and Canaan.
The Holiness Code places this prohibition within the context of covenant community formation: the practices listed in Leviticus 18 are what caused the Canaanites to be expelled from the land (Lev 18:24–28). “Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean.” The prohibition is not presented as a universal natural law derived from reason alone but as part of Israel’s covenant distinctiveness from the surrounding cultures.
Sodom — The Biblical Narrative
Genesis 19:1–11: the two angels came to Sodom and were received by Lot. That night, “the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house. And they called to Lot, ‘Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.’” Lot went out and offered an alternative; the men rejected it and pressed against him to break down the door (Gen 19:9). The angels pulled Lot inside and struck the men of Sodom with blindness.
The name of the city has permanently entered the vocabulary of covenant ethics. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19:24–25) is cited repeatedly in the Hebrew prophets as the exemplary judgment: Isaiah 1:9, Jeremiah 23:14, Ezekiel 16:49–50. Ezekiel 16:49–50 specifically lists the sins of Sodom: “pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease... they did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did an abomination before me.” The sexual act attempted against the angels is the “abomination” that Ezekiel names alongside the broader pattern of Sodom’s corruption.
Toevah — The Category and Its Legal Consequences
In the Torah, “toevah” is the strongest category of prohibitedness. It is used in Leviticus 18–20 for acts that are not merely socially harmful but are treated as violations of the created order and covenant structure. Leviticus 20:13 repeats the prohibition with its penalty: “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.” The death penalty in the Leviticus 20 parallel marks this alongside the most severe violations in the Holiness Code.
Rambam (Issurei Biah 1:6) counts this as one of the core sexual prohibitions, placing it in the same category as the incest prohibitions of Leviticus 18:7–18. The legal treatment is consistent with the surrounding material: the same chapter that prohibits intercourse with one’s mother (#365–367), prohibits this act, and proceeds to prohibit bestiality (#369–370). The structure reflects the Torah’s comprehensive account of what constitutes a proper sexual relationship within the covenant: between a man and a woman, within the permitted relational network.
- The men of Sodom — Gen 19:4–11: surrounded Lot's house and demanded the male angels. Struck blind by the angels; the city destroyed by fire and sulfur (Gen 19:24). The paradigm case in the biblical narrative.
- Lot — Gen 19:1–10: received the angels, attempted to protect them, ultimately rescued by them. His presence in Sodom places the righteous individual within the corrupt city — the narrative pattern the prophets use to explore collective vs. individual accountability.
- Ezekiel’s accounting of Sodom — Ezek 16:49–50: “pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease... did not aid the poor and needy... they were haughty and did an abomination before me.” The sexual act is the named “abomination” within a broader pattern of covenant failure.
Read the source passage in the Torah reader.
Read in the Torah Reader — Leviticus 18:22