Leviticus 18:2

Purity in remoter relationships.

The first Pentad: Relationships through marriage, Leviticus 18:16.

The second Pentad: Purity outside of the family, Leviticus 18:20.

To the exhortation concluding with -I am the Lord your God" (Leviticus 18:30) he would add Leviticus 19:2 b, -Ye shall be holy," etc.

The arrangement in this ch. is better than in ch. 20, and the cases dealt with are more numerous. Ch. 20 contains no parallels to Leviticus 18:7; Leviticus 18:10; Leviticus 18:17 b, Leviticus 18:18, and has therefore been taken as representing an earlier code. On the other hand ch. 20, unlike ch. 18, mentions penalties for the offences, while such indications as it affords by the juxtaposition of -you" in Leviticus 20:14 b, Leviticus 20:15 b, and -thou" in Leviticus 20:16; Leviticus 20:19, and the duplicate clauses in Leviticus 18:10 suggest that whatever age may be ascribed to the code in ch. 20, as compared with that which appears in ch. 18, the former has at any rate been subjected to later editing.