No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the Lord. The incest prohibition begins with the comprehensive principle: no sexual relations with any close relative. The I am the Lord formula after the prohibition communicates the grounding of the prohibition in God's character: the covenant community does not avoid incest merely for social or genetic reasons but because I am the Lord — because the God who made human sexuality also made the boundaries within which it is expressed.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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