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A question, read by SIFT

What is sexual immorality?

Read by SIFT · 7 Nov 2026 About this reading

In short

DEVELOPMENT: written up by Claude from an OpenAI reading

Every verse in it is shown whole.

God calls His people to be holy, and keeping away from sexual sin is part of that call:

"For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:" ()
"For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness." ()

In the plain sense of the question, sexual immorality is sexual conduct that goes against God's commands about holiness and marriage. The passages gathered show that it includes:

  • sexual union outside marriage: sex before marriage, and sex with someone who is not one's husband or wife;
  • adultery, which is betraying a husband or wife;
  • sex with partners God forbids, such as close family, a person of the same sex, or an animal;
  • forcing sex on another person;
  • the chosen lust that Jesus calls adultery already in the heart.

The good pattern Scripture gives is a man and his wife, joined as one flesh, faithful to one another, with honour and care on both sides. Marriage, and delight within it, are not dirty.

Scripture teaches this.

This is a definition with the examples Scripture itself gives. It is not a list of every possible act, and it is not a ruling on anyone's particular situation. Nothing here is a verdict on any person's heart or standing before God.

The rest of this answer shows where each part comes from, answers the strongest passages that seem to point another way, and says plainly what the reading did not decide.

How it was read, replayed

Here the replay stays still. This is the reading in brief; every step of it is listed below, in order.

"What is sexual immorality?"
  • 24 minutes 58 seconds of reading, by an AI from OpenAI
  • 86 searches of Scripture
  • 3,154 verses opened, from 156 chapters
  • 11 false readings struck out
  • 20 conclusions handed on
  • then the answer, written by Claude in 9 minutes 58 seconds

The readings it struck out, and the verses each would break

  1. "Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." (Hebrews 13:4) "Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love." (Proverbs 5:19) Hebrews 13:4 · Proverbs 5:19
  2. - Fornication means only paid prostitution, only idol worship, or only intercourse between two unmarried people. 1 Corinthians 5:1
  3. "And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet." (Romans 1:27) "For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." (Romans 13:9) Romans 1:27 · Romans 13:9
  4. - Only physical intercourse can be sexually wrong. Matthew 5:28
  5. "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." (Hebrews 4:15) "And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer:" (Luke 22:15) Hebrews 4:15 · Luke 22:15
  6. - Being forced makes the victim the sexual offender. Deuteronomy 22:26
  7. "What then? Romans 6:15 · Galatians 5:13 · 1 Corinthians 6:18
  8. "And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery." (Matthew 19:9) "The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord." (1 Corinthians 7:39) Matthew 19:9 · 1 Corinthians 7:39
  9. "And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth." (Revelation 17:18) "It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife." (1 Corinthians 5:1) Revelation 17:18 · 1 Corinthians 5:1
  10. - A forbidden sexual past is an unchangeable verdict on a person. 1 Corinthians 6:11
  11. "And I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things." (2 Samuel 12:8) "And her husband arose, and went after her, to speak friendly unto her, and to bring her again, having his servant with him, and a couple of asses: and she brought him into her father's house: and when the father of the damsel saw him, he rejoiced to meet him." (Judges 19:3) 2 Samuel 12:8 · Judges 19:3

Verdicts

  1. 1.
  2. "For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:" (1 Thessalonians 4:3) "For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness." (1 Thessalonians 4:7)
  3. 2.
  4. "And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female," (Matthew 19:4) "And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?" (Matthew 19:5) "Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh.
  5. 3.
  6. "And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death." (Leviticus 20:10) "Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ?
  7. The law and prophets also expressly prohibit intercourse during menstruation.
  8. "Also thou shalt not approach unto a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is put apart for her uncleanness." (Leviticus 18:19) "And hath not eaten upon the mountains, neither hath lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, neither hath defiled his neighbour's wife, neither hath come near to a menstruous woman," (Ezekiel 18:6)
  9. 4.
  10. "But unto the damsel thou shalt do nothing; there is in the damsel no sin worthy of death: for as when a man riseth against his neighbour, and slayeth him, even so is this matter:" (Deuteronomy 22:26) "For he found her in the field, and the betrothed damsel cried, and there was none to save her." (Deuteronomy 22:27)
  11. 5.
  12. "But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." (Matthew 5:28) "I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?" (Job 31:1) "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." (Hebrews 4:15)
  13. 6.
  14. "The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife." (1 Corinthians 7:4) "Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency." (1 Corinthians 7:5) "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;" (Ephesians 5:25) "Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." (Romans 13:10)
  15. A marriage label alone does not settle whether a union is lawful.
  16. "And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery." (Matthew 19:9) "The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord." (1 Corinthians 7:39)
  17. 7.
  18. "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?
  19. 8.
  20. "The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea.

The answer

How it was read, replayed from its own logs in the order it happened, at eight times its real speed (slower through its record, so each part can be read). It pauses once, at the reading's conclusions. The clock is the real time it happened.

What this reading did

  1. Scripture alone. By its words, and by the Greek and Hebrew behind them. The first search, sexual, found nothing.

  2. In its own context. Whole passages, and 80 whole chapters.

  3. False readings fall. It struck out 11 readings, each by a verse it would make false.

  4. Traceable. Every verse it quotes opens in its chapter, as the reading opened it.

The Greek and Hebrew word searches use data from STEP Bible.

I In short

The words Scripture uses

The question's own words, "sexual" and "immorality", do not appear in the English Bible text used for this reading (the King James Version). Searches for each found nothing. That says nothing about whether Scripture teaches on sexual conduct. It does, at length, using other words: fornication, adultery, uncleanness, lasciviousness, whoredom, and others.

These words overlap, but they are not interchangeable in every verse. Jesus can list adulteries and fornications side by side (Matthew 15:19, quoted below), while Paul calls one particular forbidden union "fornication" (1 Corinthians 5:1, quoted below). Separate words in a list do not prove the things are wholly separate, and they do not make every use mean the same thing either. So this answer describes the whole area of wrong these words cover, and its concrete members.

"Uncleanness" is a good example of why each word must be read in its setting. It can be sexual, but Jesus also uses it of hypocrisy, and Paul uses it of dishonest teaching:

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness." ()
"Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." ()
"For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile:" ()

Where the word is sexual, it is the bodily and sexual setting around it that shows this.

God's claim on the body

The passage that opens this answer goes on:

"That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;" ()
"Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:" ()
"That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified." ()
"He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit." ()

Honour and holiness stand against lustful conduct and against wronging a brother. Rejecting this is rejecting God, not merely a human rule. So sexual conduct is measured by God's claim on it, not only by whether anyone can see harm done.

What "vessel" means in verse 4 was not decided by this reading. Elsewhere Scripture uses the same original word for the body and also for a wife:

"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." ()
"Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body." ()
"For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh." ()
"Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered." ()

The answer is the same either way. Whether verse 4 means keeping one's own body in honour, or taking and living with a wife in honour, verse 3 still commands abstaining from fornication, and verses 5 to 8 still forbid lustful uncleanness and wronging a brother. Neither reading allows treating any person as property to be abused.

The good pattern: marriage

Scripture begins with God making man and woman, and joining them:

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." ()
"And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him." ()
"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." ()
"And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed." ()

Jesus Himself uses these words to answer a question about marriage, so the link between Genesis and marriage is His own, not a guess:

"The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?" ()
"And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female," ()
"And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?" ()
"Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." ()

Paul gives marriage as God's answer to the pull toward fornication, and tells the unmarried who cannot hold back to marry:

"Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband." ()
"But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn." ()

This is direct, positive teaching, not a rule guessed from silence. Sexual union belongs within marriage. Sex before marriage, and sex with someone who is not one's spouse, fall outside it. Affection does not change that, and neither does mutual willingness, payment, or a plan to marry later.

Marriage itself is honoured, and so is its bed:

"Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." ()

Scripture speaks warmly of delight between husband and wife, and sets it against a stranger's embrace:

"Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth." ()
"Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love." ()
"And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?" ()
"Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck." ()
"How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! how much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices!" ()

Paul says marrying is not sin, and he warns against those who forbid marriage:

"But and if thou marry, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned. Nevertheless such shall have trouble in the flesh: but I spare you." ()
"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;" ()
"Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth." ()

Some say all sex, or all sexual delight even in marriage, is sinful. That would make Hebrews 13:4 and Proverbs 5:19 false. This is not what Scripture teaches.

Two verses in 1 Corinthians 7 that can be misread

"Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman." ()

This cannot mean all sexual contact is sinful, because the next verses tell husbands and wives to give themselves to each other and to come together again, and verse 28 says marrying is not sin:

"Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband." ()
"The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife." ()
"Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency." ()

In the other direction, verse 2 cannot mean everyone must marry, because Paul also says staying unmarried is good, and that each has his own gift:

"For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that." ()
"I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I." ()

So celibacy is not laid on everyone, and marriage is not laid on everyone. These are different instructions for different cases.

What Scripture names as sexual wrong

A father's wife, and other close family

Paul names one case outright as fornication:

"It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife." ()

The law names that same relationship:

"The nakedness of thy father's wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father's nakedness." ()
"And the man that lieth with his father's wife hath uncovered his father's nakedness: both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them." ()
"A man shall not take his father's wife, nor discover his father's skirt." ()

Leviticus 20:11 also shows that "uncover nakedness" in Leviticus 18 means lying with someone. What makes this wrong is the family relationship itself, not payment and not a pagan ceremony.

This case rules out three narrow definitions. Some say fornication means only paid prostitution, or only sex connected with idol worship or a shrine, or only sex between two unmarried people. None of these can include a man with his father's wife, yet Scripture calls it fornication. This is not what Scripture teaches. The reverse does not follow either: this case is one kind of fornication, and it does not mean all fornication is incest.

The church at Corinth was proud, not grieved. Paul calls for mourning and removal, not approval:

"And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you." ()
"Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?" ()
"But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat." ()
"For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?" ()
"But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person." ()

Paul separates the church's responsibility for those within from God's judgment of those outside. The death penalties in Israel's law are part of that law's own setting; this answer does not turn them into instructions for any private reader.

Scripture records the same wrong in Reuben's life, and a later book explains it:

"And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine: and Israel heard it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve:" ()
"Now the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel, (for he was the firstborn; but, forasmuch as he defiled his father's bed, his birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph the son of Israel: and the genealogy is not to be reckoned after the birthright." ()

So calling Bilhah a "concubine" does not erase the forbidden relationship, and does not mean she was an unattached prostitute.

The law names other close family as well:

"None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am the LORD." ()
"The nakedness of thy sister, the daughter of thy father, or daughter of thy mother, whether she be born at home, or born abroad, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover." ()
"Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy daughter in law: she is thy son's wife; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness." ()
"Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, neither shalt thou take her son's daughter, or her daughter's daughter, to uncover her nakedness; for they are her near kinswomen: it is wickedness." ()
"Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister, to vex her, to uncover her nakedness, beside the other in her life time." ()
"And if a man shall take his sister, his father's daughter, or his mother's daughter, and see her nakedness, and she see his nakedness; it is a wicked thing; and they shall be cut off in the sight of their people: he hath uncovered his sister's nakedness; he shall bear his iniquity." ()

These were not innocent local customs. The nations before Israel were defiled by them, and the command reached the stranger living in Israel too:

"Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you:" ()
"Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you:" ()
"(For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;)" ()

A brother's wife: the law's own conditions

The law forbids taking a brother's wife:

"And if a man shall take his brother's wife, it is an unclean thing: he hath uncovered his brother's nakedness; they shall be childless." ()

Yet the same law gives a duty toward the widow of a brother who died without a child:

"If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband's brother unto her." ()
"And it shall be, that the firstborn which she beareth shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead, that his name be not put out of Israel." ()

The second law names its own conditions: the brother's death, no child, and keeping his name alive. A blanket rule that no relationship to a brother's widow could ever be allowed would make Deuteronomy 25:5 false. So the law's conditions have to be kept, not flattened.

John the Baptist's rebuke shows that calling a relationship "marriage" does not make it lawful:

"For Herod himself had sent forth and laid hold upon John, and bound him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife: for he had married her." ()
"For John had said unto Herod, It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife." ()

Even after Herod married her, she is still called Philip's wife.

Joining a prostitute, and the body that belongs to the Lord

Paul answers those who treated the body as if sex were just another appetite:

"All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any." ()
"Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body." ()
"Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid." ()
"What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh." ()
"But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit." ()
"Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body." ()
"What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" ()
"For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." ()

Three things follow from the passage itself.

First, "all things are lawful" cannot give permission for fornication. In the same passage Paul says the body is not for fornication, says "God forbid", and commands flight. There is no need to decide whether verse 12 repeats someone else's slogan; the limits are in the text.

Second, Paul quotes "one flesh" from Genesis 2:24. Bodily union is what makes joining a prostitute so serious. It does not turn that joining into an honourable marriage, and not every union is a marriage.

Third, verse 18 stresses that this sin is against one's own body, because the body belongs to Christ, is His member, and is bought. It is not a medical claim that no other sin ever harms a body.

The law also forbids making a daughter a prostitute:

"Do not prostitute thy daughter, to cause her to be a whore; lest the land fall to whoredom, and the land become full of wickedness." ()

Adultery

The commandments forbid adultery and desiring a neighbour's wife:

"Thou shalt not commit adultery." ()
"Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's." ()
"Neither shalt thou commit adultery." ()
"Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour's wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour's house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or any thing that is thy neighbour's." ()
"Moreover thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbour's wife, to defile thyself with her." ()
"And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death." ()

The law condemns both people in that case. Joseph refused for the same reason, calling it sin against God:

"There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" ()

The prophets and the proverbs say the same:

"Because they have committed villany in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbours' wives, and have spoken lying words in my name, which I have not commanded them; even I know, and am a witness, saith the LORD." ()
"Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids." ()
"So he that goeth in to his neighbour's wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent." ()
"But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul." ()

Love does not cancel this command. Paul places it inside the command to love one's neighbour, which comes from the law itself:

"For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." ()
"Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." ()
"Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD." ()
"For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." ()

Love includes faithfulness. It does not supply an exception for a relationship that is called loving.

Lust in the heart

Jesus does not set the command against adultery aside. He takes it deeper:

"Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:" ()
"But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." ()

The words "to lust after her" matter. This is looking in order to lust, not simply seeing a woman. So sexual wrong is not only completed intercourse; it includes chosen inward wrong. Some say only physical intercourse can be sexually wrong. That would make Matthew 5:28 false. This is not what Scripture teaches.

Job speaks the same way about his eyes, his heart, and lying in wait at a neighbour's door:

"I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?" ()
"If my step hath turned out of the way, and mine heart walked after mine eyes, and if any blot hath cleaved to mine hands;" ()
"If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbour's door;" ()
"For this is an heinous crime; yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges." ()

Job is defending himself with a conditional oath; its penalties are not commands for a reader to carry out. Later in the chapter he speaks of a "secretly enticed" heart, but there he means worshipping the sun and moon:

"If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness;" ()
"And my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand:" ()
"This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above." ()

Shared words like "heart" and "enticed" do not, by themselves, make a sentence about sex. The setting decides.

Temptation and desire are not the same as sin

This must be kept in balance. Being tempted is not the same as having sinned. Jesus was tempted, yet without sin:

"For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." ()
"Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." ()

James traces the steps from temptation, to lust conceiving, to sin:

"Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:" ()
"But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed." ()
"Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." ()

The same words for "desire" are also used of good things:

"And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer:" ()
"This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work." ()

Some say every temptation is already sexual sin, or every desire is sinful lust. That would make Hebrews 4:15 and Luke 22:15 false. This is not what Scripture teaches. What a desire is aimed at, and what it is for, is what matters. Calling desire ordinary does not excuse the chosen lust Jesus condemns, and Hebrews 4:15 does not say that every fantasy dwelt on is innocent. The answer neither treats all attraction as adultery nor excuses cultivated lust until intercourse happens.

Wrong that comes from the heart

Jesus, answering a dispute about washing hands before meals, says what truly defiles a person:

"But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man." ()
"For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:" ()
"These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man." ()
"For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders," ()
"Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:" ()

He contrasts food entering the stomach with what comes from the heart. That does not make sexual conduct unimportant: adulteries and fornications are among the things that defile.

Uncleanness, lasciviousness and wantonness

Scripture also condemns shameless indulgence and luring others into it:

"Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness." ()
"Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying." ()
"But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." ()
"And lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed." ()
"For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries:" ()
"Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:" ()
"For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error." ()
"While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage." ()
"For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ." ()

Paul lists these among the works of the flesh, along with many sins that are not sexual, and warns about them all:

"Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness," ()
"Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies," ()
"Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." ()
"But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;" ()
"Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks." ()
"For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God." ()
"Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience." ()
"Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:" ()

These passages forbid letting sexual desire steer conduct away from holiness. They do not make all affection evil. And they do not give an exhaustive list of gestures or rules about clothing; the reading drew none from them.

Same-sex sexual acts

Paul describes people who exchanged the Creator for images, and what followed:

"Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened." ()
"And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things." ()
"Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:" ()
"Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen." ()
"For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:" ()
"And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet." ()
"And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;" ()
"Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers," ()
"Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them." ()

The sentence about men is explicit. Because verse 27 says "likewise", verse 26 is read as the matching departure by women from the male-and-female sexual relation, not some unrelated fault. The law says the same independently:

"Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination." ()
"If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them." ()
"Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers," ()
"For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;" ()

Several things are kept in view here.

  • None of these sentences limits the wrong to payment, to force, to boys, or to sex at an idol's shrine.
  • In Romans, idolatry is the stated cause and setting of the exchange. A cause is not an exception clause. Nothing in the text allows the same act when that cause is absent, and Leviticus names the act without any such exception.
  • Mutual desire is present in Romans 1:27 ("one toward another"), so consent alone does not settle what is right. The text gives no ground for exempting the act because the partners describe a lasting affection.
  • Some say that mutual desire, or calling a relationship loving, makes any sexual act right. That would make Romans 1:27 and Romans 13:9 false. This is not what Scripture teaches.
  • This is a conclusion about sexual acts. It says nothing about any particular person's desires, motives, identity or standing before God.

Paul immediately warns the one who judges others:

"Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things." ()
"Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?" ()

The list in Romans 1 cannot be used to excuse the judge's own sins.

About the word "effeminate" in 1 Corinthians 6:9 (quoted below): the original-word index used in this reading lines up that verse's words visibly wrongly, and the other places the same original word appears speak of soft clothing:

"But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings' houses." ()
"But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they which are gorgeously apparelled, and live delicately, are in kings' courts." ()

Soft clothing does not define the moral sense of the word in 1 Corinthians 6:9. So this reading draws no precise definition of "effeminate" from that check, and no condemnation of anyone's temperament, appearance or modern identity. That is a limit of the check, not a claim that the word has no meaning. The answer on same-sex conduct rests on the explicit acts in Romans and Leviticus.

Animals

"Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion." ()

The command is given to both men and women.

Intercourse during menstruation

The law forbids it, alongside the neighbouring prohibitions, and this must not be left out while those other verses are used:

"Also thou shalt not approach unto a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is put apart for her uncleanness." ()
"And if a man shall lie with a woman having her sickness, and shall uncover her nakedness; he hath discovered her fountain, and she hath uncovered the fountain of her blood: and both of them shall be cut off from among their people." ()

The prophets name it too, beside adultery and forbidden family unions, so it is not a minor washing detail:

"But if a man be just, and do that which is lawful and right," ()
"And hath not eaten upon the mountains, neither hath lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, neither hath defiled his neighbour's wife, neither hath come near to a menstruous woman," ()
"Hath walked in my statutes, and hath kept my judgments, to deal truly; he is just, he shall surely live, saith the Lord GOD." ()
"In thee have they discovered their fathers' nakedness: in thee have they humbled her that was set apart for pollution." ()
"And one hath committed abomination with his neighbour's wife; and another hath lewdly defiled his daughter in law; and another in thee hath humbled his sister, his father's daughter." ()

This must also be read in its setting. Leviticus 15 deals with ordinary bodily conditions and the washings they called for, for the sake of God's tabernacle:

"And if any man's seed of copulation go out from him, then he shall wash all his flesh in water, and be unclean until the even." ()
"The woman also with whom man shall lie with seed of copulation, they shall both bathe themselves in water, and be unclean until the even." ()
"And if a woman have an issue, and her issue in her flesh be blood, she shall be put apart seven days: and whosoever toucheth her shall be unclean until the even." ()
"Thus shall ye separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness; that they die not in their uncleanness, when they defile my tabernacle that is among them." ()

A bodily condition such as menstruation, or an emission needing washing, is not a chosen sexual sin. Being ritually "unclean" in that sense is not sexual immorality.

Hebrews explains that the earlier washings and offerings were for a time:

"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:" ()
"In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away." ()
"Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience;" ()
"Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation." ()
"For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:" ()
"How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" ()

The new covenant Hebrews quotes, read in Jeremiah, writes God's law inward; it does not commend unfaithfulness:

"Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:" ()
"Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:" ()
"But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people." ()

So two mistakes are ruled out. Hebrews does not name any forbidden sexual act as newly permitted, and the end of the earlier washings is not a general release from sexual prohibitions. Nor does any of this require rebuilding the whole earlier system of washings and sacrifices. The prohibition stands as the law and the prophets state it, in the setting of Israel's holiness code. No act is declared permitted merely because a later list does not repeat it, and no further purity question was decided by this reading.

When sex is forced

Being sexually assaulted is not the victim's sin. The law separates the one forced from the one who forces:

"If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them die, both the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shalt thou put away evil from Israel." ()
"If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto an husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her;" ()
"Then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die; the damsel, because she cried not, being in the city; and the man, because he hath humbled his neighbour's wife: so thou shalt put away evil from among you." ()
"But if a man find a betrothed damsel in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her: then the man only that lay with her shall die:" ()
"But unto the damsel thou shalt do nothing; there is in the damsel no sin worthy of death: for as when a man riseth against his neighbour, and slayeth him, even so is this matter:" ()
"For he found her in the field, and the betrothed damsel cried, and there was none to save her." ()

God's law likens the man's act to murdering a neighbour and says nothing is to be done to her. Some say being forced makes the victim a sexual wrongdoer. That would make Deuteronomy 22:26 false. This is not what Scripture teaches.

The city and field cases each name their own evidence and circumstances. They are not turned into a universal rule that not crying out proves willing participation in every assault.

The nearby laws have different conditions and must not be merged:

"If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found;" ()
"Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he hath humbled her, he may not put her away all his days." ()
"And if a man entice a maid that is not betrothed, and lie with her, he shall surely endow her to be his wife." ()
"If her father utterly refuse to give her unto him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins." ()

Deuteronomy puts payment and a lifelong duty on the man; it does not call his act good, and it does not sentence the woman for being taken. Exodus deals with enticing, and lets the father refuse the marriage, so intercourse does not by itself make a marriage. These laws cannot be merged into a claim that every assault victim must marry the attacker.

Scripture's stories say the same:

"And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her, and lay with her, and defiled her." ()
"And his soul clave unto Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the damsel, and spake kindly unto the damsel." ()
"And Shechem spake unto his father Hamor, saying, Get me this damsel to wife." ()
"And the sons of Jacob came out of the field when they heard it: and the men were grieved, and they were very wroth, because he had wrought folly in Israel in lying with Jacob's daughter; which thing ought not to be done." ()

Shechem's later love and wish to marry do not make the earlier act innocent.

"And she answered him, Nay, my brother, do not force me; for no such thing ought to be done in Israel: do not thou this folly." ()
"And I, whither shall I cause my shame to go? and as for thee, thou shalt be as one of the fools in Israel. Now therefore, I pray thee, speak unto the king; for he will not withhold me from thee." ()
"Howbeit he would not hearken unto her voice: but, being stronger than she, forced her, and lay with her." ()
"And she said unto him, There is no cause: this evil in sending me away is greater than the other that thou didst unto me. But he would not hearken unto her." ()

Tamar calls the force folly and the deed evil, and the narrator says his greater strength overrode her voice. Her appeal to the king in verse 13 is a plea in danger, not a law of God allowing a brother and sister to unite against Leviticus 18:9.

"But the men would not hearken to him: so the man took his concubine, and brought her forth unto them; and they knew her, and abused her all the night until the morning: and when the day began to spring, they let her go." ()
"And the men of Gibeah rose against me, and beset the house round about upon me by night, and thought to have slain me: and my concubine have they forced, that she is dead." ()
"And I took my concubine, and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel: for they have committed lewdness and folly in Israel." ()

The host's offer of women and the husband's handing over of his concubine are reported deeds, not examples to follow.

These are cases in Scripture. Nothing in the question described any danger, and nothing here assumes anything about the reader's life.

Marriage is no licence to harm

Inside marriage, the duties run both ways (1 Corinthians 7:3 and 7:4, quoted above), not as a one-sided right of a husband to use his wife. The consent in 1 Corinthians 7:5 is about agreeing to abstain for a time; it should not be quoted as a separately stated legal test for every act in marriage.

Paul and Peter call for self-giving love, nourishing and cherishing, and honour:

"Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God." ()
"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;" ()
"So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself." ()
"For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:" ()
"For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh." ()
"This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church." ()
"Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband." ()

Ephesians quotes Genesis 2:24 directly, so its picture of Christ and the church is read from that creation setting. Peter requires honour toward the wife (1 Peter 3:7, quoted above), and "Love worketh no ill to his neighbour" () carries no exception for marriage. Together these rule out treating marriage as an exemption for coercive harm or degrading use. This reading does not give a full account of every practice within marriage.

Malachi condemns a husband's treachery toward his wife:

"Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant." ()
"And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth." ()
"For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously." ()

The purpose of "a godly seed" does not make all married affection that does not lead to children sinful. Proverbs 5:18 and 5:19 commend delight in one's wife without that condition.

Divorce and remarriage

A marriage label alone does not settle whether a union is lawful. Jesus says that putting away a wife and marrying another can be adultery:

"They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?" ()
"He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so." ()
"And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery." ()
"It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement:" ()
"But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery." ()
"And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her." ()
"And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery." ()
"Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery." ()

Mark gives it in both directions. Moses' law did allow another marriage in the case it describes:

"When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house." ()
"And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife." ()
"Her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before the LORD: and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance." ()

Jesus Himself explains that allowance as "because of the hardness of your hearts", and points back to the beginning (Matthew 19:8). Neither sentence may be erased to make a tidy slogan.

A widow is free to marry again:

"For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband." ()
"So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man." ()
"The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord." ()

So three claims fail. That a socially recognised marriage makes every union lawful, or that every divorce allows remarriage, would make Matthew 19:9 and Mark 10:11 false. That every later marriage is adultery would make 1 Corinthians 7:39 and Romans 7:3 false. This is not what Scripture teaches.

The exception Jesus names in Matthew is real and must be kept. Two narrower readings of it have been proposed. One says it covers only wrongdoing during betrothal. Matthew 1 does use "husband" and "wife" before a couple came together:

"Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost." ()
"Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily." ()
"But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost." ()

But that story does not use the word fornication, and Jesus' sentence states no betrothal-only limit. The other says it covers only a forbidden family marriage. 1 Corinthians 5:1 shows that kind of fornication, but one kind is not the whole category, and Matthew 19 does not mention family relationships. Neither restriction is established. Reading the exception as sexual unfaithfulness, named by Jesus as grounds in an actual marriage, fits the setting without adding those limits.

Paul also gives instructions for different situations:

"And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband:" ()
"But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife." ()
"But to the rest speak I, not the Lord: If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away." ()
"And the woman which hath an husband that believeth not, and if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him." ()
"But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace." ()

Verse 15 lets the departing unbeliever go and says the believer is "not under bondage". It does not explicitly say "marry another"; verse 39 is the verse that speaks of widowhood. A full ruling on every remarriage after being abandoned would need a further argument, and this reading did not make one. No such case was asked. The answer to the question asked is the same whichever way verse 15 is taken: adultery includes the divorce-and-remarriage cases Jesus condemns, with the exception He names, and widowhood is not one of them.

Plural wives and concubines in Scripture's history

Scripture's history includes households with more than one wife, and the law protected the women and children in them:

"If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her." ()
"If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish." ()
"And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out free without money." ()
"If a man have two wives, one beloved, and another hated, and they have born him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son be hers that was hated:" ()
"But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the firstborn, by giving him a double portion of all that he hath: for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his." ()

Nathan, speaking for the LORD, recalls a gift to David and then condemns his taking of Uriah's wife:

"And I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things." ()
"Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon." ()

Some say Scripture never recognises plural wives or a bond called concubinage. These verses do recognise them, so that claim would make 2 Samuel 12:8 false. This is not what Scripture teaches. In the other direction, a protection given inside such a household is not a general command to take more wives, and the gift to David does not permit taking a neighbour's wife. The pattern for this answer comes from Jesus' own return to the beginning, the two made one (Matthew 19:4 to 19:6), not from erasing the earlier laws.

Judges calls the man who took a concubine her husband, and calls her unfaithfulness a wrong against him:

"And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite sojourning on the side of mount Ephraim, who took to him a concubine out of Bethlehemjudah." ()
"And his concubine played the whore against him, and went away from him unto her father's house to Bethlehemjudah, and was there four whole months." ()
"And her husband arose, and went after her, to speak friendly unto her, and to bring her again, having his servant with him, and a couple of asses: and she brought him into her father's house: and when the father of the damsel saw him, he rejoiced to meet him." ()

So "concubine" cannot simply be swapped for "a casual partner". This one story does not define every historical form of concubinage.

The law about a woman taken captive in war required a month of mourning, then a real marriage, and forbade selling her if she was later sent away:

"And she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in thine house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month: and after that thou shalt go in unto her, and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife." ()
"And it shall be, if thou have no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go whither she will; but thou shalt not sell her at all for money, thou shalt not make merchandise of her, because thou hast humbled her." ()

That was a law to Israel in war. It is not permission for any reader to seize anyone or force sex.

Judah, Tamar and Onan

"And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother." ()
"And the thing which he did displeased the LORD: wherefore he slew him also." ()
"And Judah acknowledged them, and said, She hath been more righteous than I; because that I gave her not to Shelah my son. And he knew her again no more." ()

Judah's words compare Tamar with him because he had withheld Shelah; they do not approve every act in the story. Onan's stated purpose was to withhold offspring owed to his dead brother, and what he did with his seed is part of that deed. Taking away the brother, the duty and the purpose to make a universal rule about every emission of seed is not supported. This reading derived no rule about masturbation or contraception from this story, and no such act was asked about.

Grace and freedom do not permit sexual sin

Some say that being under grace, or being free, makes the sexual commands obsolete. Paul answers that directly:

"For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace." ()
"What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid." ()
"For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another." ()
"But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law." ()

Galatians 5:18 is followed at once by the works of the flesh (Galatians 5:19 to 5:21, quoted above). That claim would make Romans 6:15 and Galatians 5:13 false. This is not what Scripture teaches.

When the apostles decided that Gentile believers should not be made to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses, they still commanded them to abstain from fornication:

"Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?" ()
"But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they." ()
"Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God:" ()
"But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood." ()
"And they wrote letters by them after this manner; The apostles and elders and brethren send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia:" ()
"Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment:" ()
"For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things;" ()
"That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well." ()
"As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication." ()

At that meeting James quoted the prophet Amos about the nations being called by God's name:

"In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:" ()
"That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the LORD that doeth this." ()

Acts applies that prophecy to Gentiles being welcomed; it is not a passage defining sexual acts. The wording in Acts and in Amos is not forced to match word for word. Welcome for the Gentiles, freedom from the circumcision demand, and the command to abstain from fornication all stand together.

The opposite mistake is also ruled out: that every detailed marriage rule in Israel's law passes over without distinction. Acts 15:24 rejects imposing the law that way. For example, the high priest could not marry a widow, but Paul permits a widow to marry (1 Corinthians 7:39):

"A widow, or a divorced woman, or profane, or an harlot, these shall he not take: but he shall take a virgin of his own people to wife." ()

Those sentences have different hearers and conditions.

Paul's words "nothing unclean" are about food, in a discussion of eating without harming a brother:

"For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs." ()
"I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean." ()
"But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died." ()
"For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." ()
"For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence." ()

It is not permission for the fornication the same apostles expressly forbid. The new covenant is not a general permission to break sexual holiness.

When Scripture uses sexual words as a picture

Scripture often uses sexual unfaithfulness as a picture of turning away from God, or of a city's corruption. Scripture's own explanations show this use:

"For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:" ()
"Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice;" ()
"And they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils, after whom they have gone a whoring. This shall be a statute for ever unto them throughout their generations." ()
"And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them." ()
"The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD." ()
"My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them: for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God." ()
"And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks." ()
"Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the LORD." ()
"Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." ()
"Moreover he made high places in the mountains of Judah, and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit fornication, and compelled Judah thereto." ()
"But hast walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and hast made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to go a whoring, like to the whoredoms of the house of Ahab, and also hast slain thy brethren of thy father's house, which were better than thyself:" ()

Ezekiel explicitly addresses Jerusalem, and names the two sisters in his picture as Samaria and Jerusalem, with idols and foreign powers as the "lovers":

"Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations," ()
"Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou becamest mine." ()
"Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them," ()
"For thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, which hast despised the oath in breaking the covenant." ()
"And the names of them were Aholah the elder, and Aholibah her sister: and they were mine, and they bare sons and daughters. Thus were their names; Samaria is Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah." ()
"Thus she committed her whoredoms with them, with all them that were the chosen men of Assyria, and with all on whom she doted: with all their idols she defiled herself." ()
"I will do these things unto thee, because thou hast gone a whoring after the heathen, and because thou art polluted with their idols." ()
"That they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and with their idols have they committed adultery, and have also caused their sons, whom they bare unto me, to pass for them through the fire, to devour them." ()

Ezekiel also shows that payment is not what defines the wrong. An ordinary harlot receives gifts; Jerusalem pays hers out, and is likened to an adulterous wife:

"In that thou buildest thine eminent place in the head of every way, and makest thine high place in every street; and hast not been as an harlot, in that thou scornest hire;" ()
"But as a wife that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband!" ()
"They give gifts to all whores: but thou givest thy gifts to all thy lovers, and hirest them, that they may come unto thee on every side for thy whoredom." ()
"And the contrary is in thee from other women in thy whoredoms, whereas none followeth thee to commit whoredoms: and in that thou givest a reward, and no reward is given unto thee, therefore thou art contrary." ()

The shared betrayal is what makes the comparison; not every detail has to match.

In Revelation, the angel himself explains that the woman is a city:

"With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication." ()
"And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth." ()
"For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies." ()
"For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand." ()

So the kings' "fornication" there is not a separate checklist of acts for individual people.

Two passages need care so they are not misread as permission. Hosea is told to love an adulteress, but then she is forbidden to be for another man:

"Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine." ()
"And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man: so will I also be for thee." ()

Love for someone who has done wrong is not permission for the wrong. And Isaiah's prophecy about Tyre speaks of a trading city's "hire":

"And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the LORD will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth." ()
"And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the LORD: it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the LORD, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing." ()

That is a picture of a city and its trade, not a command approving prostitution.

Every remaining close Hebrew passage was also opened, and each names its own object: other gods, an ephod, idols, the people's own inventions, a city full of murderers, departure from God:

"And yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but they went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves unto them: they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments of the LORD; but they did not so." ()
"And Gideon made an ephod thereof, and put it in his city, even in Ophrah: and all Israel went thither a whoring after it: which thing became a snare unto Gideon, and to his house." ()
"And it came to pass, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel turned again, and went a whoring after Baalim, and made Baalberith their god." ()
"And they transgressed against the God of their fathers, and went a whoring after the gods of the people of the land, whom God destroyed before them." ()
"For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee." ()
"And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them." ()
"Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions." ()
"How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers." ()
"Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them." ()
"For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." ()
"For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot." ()
"How canst thou say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim? see thy way in the valley, know what thou hast done: thou art a swift dromedary traversing her ways;" ()
"And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they shall lothe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations." ()
"Wherefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Are ye polluted after the manner of your fathers? and commit ye whoredom after their abominations?" ()
"For when ye offer your gifts, when ye make your sons to pass through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with all your idols, even unto this day: and shall I be enquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will not be enquired of by you." ()
"I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me: for now, O Ephraim, thou committest whoredom, and Israel is defiled." ()
"They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God: for the spirit of whoredoms is in the midst of them, and they have not known the LORD." ()
"Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people: for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loved a reward upon every cornfloor." ()
"They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah: therefore he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins." ()
"I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the firstripe in the fig tree at her first time: but they went to Baalpeor, and separated themselves unto that shame; and their abominations were according as they loved." ()
"And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces, and all the hires thereof shall be burned with the fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate: for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot, and they shall return to the hire of an harlot." ()
"Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the wellfavoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts." ()
"And it shall come to pass, that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her? whence shall I seek comforters for thee?" ()

These passages show the picture-use, or a mix of covenant betrayal and social wrong. They are not reduced to paid sex, they are not used as new lists of individual acts, and they give no permission for any literal sexual wrong.

Both uses are real, and neither cancels the other. Some say every use of fornication or adultery means literal sex; that would make Revelation 17:18 false, where the woman is a city. Others say every use means only idolatry; that would make 1 Corinthians 5:1 false, where the deed is a man with his father's wife, along with the joining to a harlot in 1 Corinthians 6:16 and the marriage alternative in 1 Corinthians 7:2. This is not what Scripture teaches. The question asked is about literal sexual conduct, and the bodily passages answer it directly; the picture-use is named here so that no passage is misread.

When sex and idol worship go together

Sometimes Scripture records both together. At Peor, Israel committed whoredom with the daughters of Moab and joined in their sacrifices:

"And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab." ()
"And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods." ()
"And Israel joined himself unto Baalpeor: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel." ()
"And those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand." ()
"Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the LORD." ()
"But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication." ()

Revelation names Balaam, Balac, Israel, idol food and fornication, so the link back to Numbers is shown in the text itself.

Paul uses Israel's history as a warning:

"Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play." ()
"Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand." ()
"Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." ()

The words "rose up to play" come from the golden calf:

"And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play." ()

There the setting is the calf and its sacrifices; "play" is not taken as a definition of intercourse.

Paul gives twenty-three thousand "in one day"; Numbers gives twenty-four thousand in the plague, without that qualifier. This reading does not invent a timeline to fill the gap, and does not use the difference to set either passage aside. What both passages make plain is the condemnation and the warning.

In Revelation 2, a woman in Thyatira is rebuked:

"Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols." ()
"And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not." ()
"Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds." ()

Whether this means actual sexual acts bound up with idolatry, or sexual language for covenant betrayal, this reading did not decide; no account of her life outside the text was available. The answer does not depend on it. Either way, what is named is condemned and repentance is called for, and the literal sexual boundary is already established in 1 Corinthians 5 to 7.

Sodom

Jude names Sodom's sexual wrong as a warning:

"And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." ()
"Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." ()

Genesis shows what happened: the visitors were angels, and the men of the city made a violent demand:

"And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground;" ()
"And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them." ()
"And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly." ()
"Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof." ()
"And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door." ()

This is threatened sexual violence, not a quiet relationship both people chose. Lot's offer of his daughters is a reported speech, not moral permission. Peter calls the city's conduct filthy and unlawful:

"And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:" ()
"(For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)" ()

Ezekiel adds that Sodom's guilt also included pride, plenty, idleness and neglect of the poor:

"Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy." ()
"And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good." ()

So it would be wrong to say Sodom's guilt was only sexual. Equally, those other sins do not erase the sexual wrong Jude names.

What exactly "strange flesh" means in Jude 1:7 was not decided by this reading. The same original word for "strange" is elsewhere used simply for "another" (another husband, another person), which does not settle which difference Jude means. The angels just mentioned in Jude 1:6, and the angelic visitors in Genesis, keep open a reading about crossing the boundary between angels and humans; the demand for the men keeps open a reading about a forbidden kind of partner. Both readings keep the sexual wrong and the violent demand, and neither gives any permission. The answer does not change: the conclusion about same-sex acts rests on Romans 1 and Leviticus 18:22 on their own, not on this phrase.

A search for the similar English phrase "other flesh" found only this, which is about Moses' hand and has nothing to do with sex:

"And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again; and plucked it out of his bosom, and, behold, it was turned again as his other flesh." ()

It was set aside, and no link to Jude is drawn from it.

Stories that report, but do not permit

Some passages mention harlots in passing, or report wrongs, without approving them:

"Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valour, and he was the son of an harlot: and Gilead begat Jephthah." ()
"Then went Samson to Gaza, and saw there an harlot, and went in unto her." ()
"Then came there two women, that were harlots, unto the king, and stood before him." ()

A person's parentage, a deed reported amid an ambush and an escape, and women who come to the king in a dispute over a child are reports. They are not commands or permission to repeat sexual wrong.

Proverbs warns:

"For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit." ()
"Whoso loveth wisdom rejoiceth his father: but he that keepeth company with harlots spendeth his substance." ()

The prophets condemn those who exploit others:

"And they have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink." ()
"Therefore thus saith the LORD; Thy wife shall be an harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be divided by line; and thou shalt die in a polluted land: and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land." ()

Joel condemns those who trade people; the person sold is not named as the one who chose sexual wrong. Amos foretells humiliation and captivity as judgment on Amaziah's opposition; a prediction of harm is not permission to inflict it, and not approval of how she is treated.

Many other passages found in the searches were read and kept to their own setting. Joseph's story includes an invitation, his refusal, his flight and a false accusation, and these are not all moral guides just because they share words like "lie with". The later plan of Lot's daughters is a report, not a command. The elder son's accusation in Jesus' parable of the son who returned is not a definition from God. The flattering "strange woman" of Proverbs, with her claims of love and her religious offerings, gives no permission. The Lamb's marriage supper in Revelation is not an earthly rule about sexual conduct. Jesus' rebukes of the generation that sought a sign are rebukes of a whole generation; they do not state that each person in it did a particular physical act. A shared ordinary word, on its own, was never used as defining evidence.

Judgment, and the hope of change

The warnings are real, and they must not be softened into advice about preferences:

"Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind," ()
"Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God." ()
"But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things." ()
"But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." ()
"For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie." ()
"Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright." ()

Hebrews 12:16 shows "profane" by Esau's sale of his birthright. It agrees with how serious this is, but it is not used as main evidence for the definition.

The same passage that warns in 1 Corinthians 6 goes straight on to change:

"And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." ()

Some say a sexual past is a verdict on a person that cannot change. That would make 1 Corinthians 6:11 false. This is not what Scripture teaches. And change is not permission to go on: Paul still says "Flee fornication" ().

Jesus told the religious leaders that harlots were entering the kingdom before them, and gave the reason: they believed:

"Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you." ()
"For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him." ()

That is not praise of harlotry. To the woman brought to Him, Jesus said:

"She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more." ()

The refusal to condemn comes with the command to sin no more. The Bible text used notes that John 8:1-11 is not found in every early copy; it was kept as given, and no conclusion here rests on it alone.

Rahab is called a harlot, yet she was spared because she hid the messengers, and Hebrews names her faith:

"And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, even Jericho. And they went, and came into an harlot's house, named Rahab, and lodged there." ()
"And the city shall be accursed, even it, and all that are therein, to the LORD: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent." ()
"And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father's household, and all that she had; and she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day; because she hid the messengers, which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho." ()
"By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace." ()

The label is not a permanent verdict on her, and the texts do not call harlotry good.

Scripture's last invitation stands beside its last warning:

"And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." ()

Both stand. Neither one is a verdict on any reader. Whether any person is saved, forgiven, or truly God's is not for this answer to say.

What this reading left undecided

Four narrow points were not decided, and in each the answer above stays the same whichever way they fall. Each is explained where it comes up:

  • what "vessel" means in 1 Thessalonians 4:4 (see "God's claim on the body");
  • the exact difference meant by "strange flesh" in Jude 1:7 (see "Sodom");
  • whether Revelation 2:20 to 2:22 describes literal acts or a picture of covenant betrayal (see "When sex and idol worship go together");
  • the precise meaning of "effeminate" in 1 Corinthians 6:9, where the index check failed (see "Same-sex sexual acts").

None of them gives any permission for the conduct condemned.

What this reading did not do

  • It did not read the whole Bible. Some searches had more pages, and some hits were shown but not read; those are listed in the full record and nothing is claimed about them. So nothing here claims Scripture is silent on anything, and the examples above are not a complete list of every possible act.
  • It did not give a full ruling on every practice within marriage, every purity law, every historical household arrangement, or every remarriage or abandonment case. None was asked, and the general definition here must not be taken as a ruling on any particular case.
  • It did not separately check the history of the early-copy notes the Bible text carries (such as the one on John 8:1-11).

How this was read

The reading used Scripture alone, in the King James Version, with no commentator, tradition or dictionary. It searched by English words, by topic, and by an index of the original Hebrew and Greek words. An index number only shows where a word appears; it was never treated as a definition. Every verse relied on was read in its own passage, with attention to who is speaking, to whom, and what kind of sentence it is. The full record lists every search, every verse read, every verse set aside and why, and every hit that was not read, so each step can be checked.

Every step of the reading

Everything the replay shows, as plain text, in the order it happened. Times are from the moment the reading began.

Every search, in order (86)
  1. words sexual 0 found
  2. words immorality 0 found
  3. word family fornication 134 found
  4. word family adultery 51 found
  5. word family lasciviousness 9 found
  6. word family uncleanness 248 found
  7. words lie with 28 found
  8. words lust 18 found
  9. words marriage 18 found
  10. original word G766 9 found lasciviousness 6 · wantonness 2 · filthy 1
  11. original word G1608 1 found fornication 1
  12. original word G4202 25 found fornication 24 · fornications 2
  13. word family harlot 784 found
  14. original word G4203 7 found fornication 7 · committed 1
  15. word family fornication (page 3) 134 found
  16. word family whoremonger 10 found
  17. word family fornication (page 2) 134 found
  18. word family adultery (page 2) 51 found
  19. original word G167 10 found uncleanness 10
  20. original word G4204 12 found harlot 4 · harlots 4 · whore 4
  21. original word G4205 10 found whoremongers 4 · fornicator 2 · fornicators 2 · nor 1 · whoremonger 1
  22. original word H2181 82 found harlot 33 · whoring 19 · whoredom 11 · whore 9 · whoredoms 4 · fornication 3 · whorish 3 · harlot's 2 · harlots 2 · whores 2 · commit 1 · continually 1 · great 1 · harlots' 1 · make 1 · whore's 1
  23. original word H8457 19 found whoredoms 15 · whoredom 3 · fornication 1 · fornications 1
  24. original word H5003 26 found adultery 17 · adulterers 5 · adulterer 3 · adulteress 2 · adulteresses 2 · adulterous 1 · wedlock 1
  25. original word G3429 4 found adultery 6
  26. original word G3431 11 found adultery 14 · do 3 · shalt 3 · commit 1 · should 1
  27. words male and female 7 found
  28. words one flesh 6 found
  29. words tabernacle of David 3 found
  30. words neighbour as thyself 8 found
  31. words rose up to play 2 found
  32. words bill of divorcement 3 found
  33. words concubine 21 found
  34. words wives 122 found
  35. word family lust 788 found
  36. words defiled 69 found
  37. words counsel of Balaam 1 found
  38. words Sodom 47 found
  39. words wife of thy youth 2 found
  40. words strange woman 9 found
  41. words my spouse 6 found
  42. original word G1937 16 found desire 4 · covet 2 · desired 2 · shalt 2 · after 1 · coveted 1 · desireth 1 · desiring 1 · fain 1 · lust 1 · lusted 1 · lusteth 1
  43. original word G1939 37 found lusts 22 · lust 9 · concupiscence 3 · desire 3 · after 1
  44. original word G3715 1 found lust 1
  45. original word G3806 3 found affection 1 · affections 1 · lust 1
  46. all of two + wives 12 found
  47. words brother's wife 7 found
  48. words forbid 37 found
  49. words wantonness 2 found
  50. words prostitute 1 found
  51. words desire 109 found
  52. words fornication 32 found
  53. words adultery 33 found
  54. words covet 7 found
  55. original word G733 1 found mankind 1
  56. original word G4632 22 found vessel 11 · vessels 8 · goods 2 · sail 1 · stuff 1
  57. original word G3120 3 found soft 3 · nor 1
  58. words sexual 0 found
  59. words immorality 0 found
  60. word family fornication 134 found
  61. word family adultery 51 found
  62. word family lasciviousness 9 found
  63. word family uncleanness 248 found
  64. words forbidding 4 found
  65. words espoused 5 found
  66. words chambering 1 found
  67. words force 19 found
  68. original word H6172 40 found nakedness 51 · shame 1 · unclean 1 · uncleanness 1
  69. original word H2932 31 found uncleanness 25 · filthiness 7 · unclean 4 · uncleannesses 1
  70. words under grace 2 found
  71. words nothing unclean 1 found
  72. words yet without sin 1 found
  73. words covenant with mine eyes 1 found
  74. words selfsame body 0 found
  75. words fornications 3 found
  76. original word G2087 94 found another 44 · other 30 · others 11 · next 2 · some 2 · altered 1 · another's 1 · else 1 · man 1 · matters 1 · one 1 · seventy 1 · strange 1 · thing 1 · things 1
  77. words strange flesh 1 found
  78. words other flesh 1 found
  79. all of heart + enticed 1 found
  80. words purifying 11 found
  81. words carnal ordinances 1 found
  82. original word G2087 (page 2) 94 found another 44 · other 30 · others 11 · next 2 · some 2 · altered 1 · another's 1 · else 1 · man 1 · matters 1 · one 1 · seventy 1 · strange 1 · thing 1 · things 1
  83. words new covenant 4 found
  84. words put my law 1 found
  85. words iniquity to be punished 2 found
  86. words menstruous 3 found
Every time it opened Scripture (11 times, 3,154 verses)
  1. Matthew 5 48 Matthew 15:1–20 20 Matthew 19:1–12 12 Mark 7:1–23 23 John 8:1–47 47 Acts 15 41 Acts 21:15–30 16 Romans 1 32 1 Corinthians 5 13 1 Corinthians 6 20 1 Corinthians 7 40 1 Corinthians 10:1–22 22 2 Corinthians 12:11–21 11 Galatians 5 26 Ephesians 4:17–32 16 Ephesians 5:1–21 21 Colossians 3:1–17 17 1 Thessalonians 4:1–12 12 Jude 1 25 Hebrews 13:1–9 9 471 verses, 471 new
  2. Genesis 1:24–31 8 Genesis 2 25 Genesis 34 31 Genesis 38 30 Genesis 39 23 Exodus 20 26 Exodus 21:1–11 11 Exodus 22:16–31 16 Leviticus 15 33 Leviticus 18 30 Leviticus 19 37 Leviticus 20 27 Deuteronomy 22 30 Deuteronomy 24:1–5 5 332 verses, 332 new
  3. Revelation 2 29 Revelation 9:13–21 9 Revelation 14:6–13 8 Revelation 17 18 Revelation 18 24 Revelation 19 21 Revelation 21:1–8 8 Revelation 22 21 Mark 10:1–12 12 Luke 16:13–18 6 Romans 2 29 Romans 7:1–13 13 Romans 13 14 1 Timothy 1 20 Hebrews 12:12–29 18 2 Peter 2 22 1 Peter 4:1–11 11 James 1:12–18 7 290 verses, 290 new
  4. Genesis 19 38 Numbers 25 18 Numbers 31:1–24 24 Exodus 32:1–14 14 Amos 9 15 Proverbs 2 22 Proverbs 5 23 Proverbs 6 35 Proverbs 7 27 Song of Solomon 4 16 Song of Solomon 5:1–1 1 Malachi 2:10–17 8 Malachi 3:1–6 6 Ephesians 5:22–33 12 Deuteronomy 21 23 Deuteronomy 25:1–10 10 2 Samuel 12:1–25 25 317 verses, 317 new one request the fetcher refused in this call (Judges 19-20: over its cap of 600 verses), asked again later
  5. Judges 19 30 Judges 20:1–13 13 Ezekiel 16 63 Ezekiel 23 49 Hosea 1 11 Hosea 2 23 Hosea 3 5 Hosea 4 19 Isaiah 23 18 2 Chronicles 21 20 Jeremiah 3 25 Exodus 34:10–17 8 Matthew 21:23–32 10 Luke 15 32 Matthew 11:1–19 19 Luke 7:18–35 18 Luke 22:1–23 23 2 Corinthians 4 18 1 Peter 3:1–12 12 416 verses, 416 new
  6. Matthew 1 25 1 Timothy 4:1–8 8 Romans 6 23 Romans 14 23 1 Thessalonians 2 20 Matthew 23:23–33 11 2 Samuel 13:1–22 22 Mark 6:14–29 16 Deuteronomy 23 25 Leviticus 17 16 Leviticus 21 24 Numbers 15:22–41 20 Deuteronomy 31:14–30 17 James 2 26 James 4:1–10 10 Deuteronomy 5 33 Matthew 19:13–30 18 Mark 10:13–31 19 Luke 18:15–30 16 Matthew 12:22–45 24 Matthew 16:1–12 12 Mark 8:27–38 12 420 verses, 420 new
  7. Job 24 25 Psalms 50 23 Proverbs 30:10–23 14 Isaiah 57 21 Jeremiah 5:1–9 9 Jeremiah 7:1–28 28 Jeremiah 9:1–9 9 Jeremiah 23:9–32 24 Jeremiah 29:15–23 9 Hosea 7 16 Matthew 13:1–23 23 Luke 16:19–31 13 Luke 17:20–37 18 Acts 20:17–38 22 1 Timothy 3:1–13 13 Hebrews 6:1–12 12 1 Peter 1:1–16 16 Revelation 9:1–12 12 Hebrews 4:12–16 5 312 verses, 312 new
  8. Job 31 40 Ezekiel 18 32 Ezekiel 22:1–16 16 Hebrews 8 13 Hebrews 9 28 Hebrews 10 39 Genesis 35:16–29 14 1 Chronicles 5:1–2 2 184 verses, 184 new
  9. Jeremiah 31:23–40 18 Exodus 4:1–9 9 27 verses, 27 new
  10. Joshua 2 24 Joshua 6:15–27 13 Judges 2:6–23 18 Judges 8:22–35 14 Judges 11:1–11 11 Judges 16:1–3 3 1 Kings 3:16–28 13 1 Chronicles 5:18–26 9 Psalms 73 28 Psalms 106:34–48 15 Proverbs 23:26–35 10 Proverbs 29:1–4 4 Isaiah 1 31 Jeremiah 2 37 Ezekiel 6 14 Ezekiel 20:27–44 18 Hosea 5 15 Hosea 9 17 Joel 3 21 Amos 7 17 Micah 1 16 Nahum 3 19 367 verses, 367 new
  11. Hebrews 11:23–40 18 18 verses, 18 new
The reader's own notes (8)
  1. The reading will begin with the two permitted SIFT files, then find and fetch the relevant Scripture through the supplied tools. The working record will be completed and checked before the hand-off is written.
  2. The wording “sexual immorality” produced no hits in the supplied text. The searches have led to “fornication,” “adultery,” and related words. Their settings distinguish forbidden conduct from honourable marriage, and include difficult passages about divorce, bodily union, and liberty that need to be tested together.
  3. The passages require a broader account than physical intercourse alone: Jesus addresses adultery in the heart, while other texts distinguish marriage from fornication. The reading is also checking limits on that distinction, including forced sex, prohibited family relationships, and passages that use sexual language for unfaithfulness to God.
  4. The strongest limiting readings have been checked: fornication cannot be confined to prostitution, idol worship, or adultery alone, and marriage cannot be treated as permission for every sexual act. The record will preserve the qualifications in the texts, including the innocence of someone forced, the divorce exception, and the distinction between temptation and chosen lust.
  5. The record has been written, and its read-back has identified checks to finish before the hand-off: Job’s treatment of eyes and desire, Jude’s description of Sodom, and the laws about bodily purity. These checks will test whether the explanation is too broad or too narrow.
  6. The read-back added qualifications that the hand-off will retain. Job supports the eyes-and-heart connection; Jude’s Sodom example concerns a violent demand and cannot define every sexual case by itself; Ezekiel confirms that the menstrual-intercourse prohibition must be acknowledged. The remaining close fornication hits have also been read in their settings, including passages about covenant betrayal and Rahab’s faith.
  7. Both files are written. The hand-off includes the conclusions, rejected readings, strongest hard passages, and every qualification added during read-back. A final check will verify its quotations against the fetched text and confirm that each one appears in the record.
  8. Completed RECORD.md and HANDOFF.md. Both were read back. All 551 quotation occurrences matched the fetched text. No public-facing answer was written.
What its record and its hand-off say, in their order

Scope and permitted sources

The question is "What is sexual immorality?" No personal circumstances were supplied, and no clarification was needed to explain the category. No inference about the questioner's conduct, motives or standing is made.

The reading opened these files, and no other source files:

  • /Users/Shared/before-god-sift-library-2026-11-03/runs/sexual-immorality/inputs/SIFT-v3-CORE.md
  • /Users/Shared/before-god-sift-library-2026-11-03/runs/sexual-immorality/inputs/SIFT-v3-POLICY.md

Both were read whole together before the Scripture searches. The digests supplied by the questioner were not independently computed, because an additional hashing command was not permitted. Scripture was fetched only with the supplied kjv.py tool; discovery used only search.py and the supplied tag.py index. The tools themselves were invoked, not opened as source files. Work proceeded alone, without outside sources or other runs.

The output file opened for read-back is /Users/Shared/before-god-sift-library-2026-11-03/runs/sexual-immorality/out/RECORD.md. The final hand-off, if read back, is /Users/Shared/before-god-sift-library-2026-11-03/runs/sexual-immorality/out/HANDOFF.md. File creation uses the writing tool rather than an additional shell command. No external lexical definition is used. Word numbers below are indexes of occurrences, never definitions.

From its hand-off to the writer

Their words

"What is sexual immorality?"

No personal act, relationship, danger, motive or claim about God was disclosed. The answer must define the sexual wrongdoing Scripture describes, explain its positive boundary, and distinguish the wrong from a verdict on a person's heart or standing. No question about circumstances is needed for that definition. A later question about a particular act would need that act and its circumstances; none should be invented here.

The supplied text has no hits for sexual or immorality as English words. Fornication, adultery, uncleanness and lasciviousness were searched alongside close English words and indexed original-word occurrences. The answer must not present the question's wording as though it were a single supplied technical term with an imported dictionary definition.

Hard passages

First Corinthians 6:12 and 6:16 could be pressed as permission or as a claim that sexual union automatically makes an honourable marriage. In the same setting, Paul denies that the body is for fornication, rejects joining a harlot, and commands flight. Genesis 2:24, the source of his one-flesh citation, was read with the woman made and brought to the man. One-flesh bodily union makes the illicit joining serious; it does not make it good.

"All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any." ()
"What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh." ()
"Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body." ()
"Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body." ()

First Corinthians 7:1 could be read as condemning all sexual contact; 7:2 could be read as requiring everyone to marry. Both fail the differentiated instructions: reciprocal marital duty, good remaining unmarried, differing gifts, and explicit denial that marrying is sin.

"Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman." ()
"Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband." ()
"For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that." ()
"I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I." ()
"But and if thou marry, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned. Nevertheless such shall have trouble in the flesh: but I spare you." ()

Galatians' freedom from being under law, the Jerusalem decision against imposing circumcision and the law, and Romans' food-purity language must not be turned into sexual permissions. Galatians immediately names the works of flesh; the Jerusalem letter explicitly retains abstinence from fornication; Romans 14's subject is food and the brother harmed through it. These are textual limits, not imported exceptions.

"But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law." ()
"Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness," ()
"Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment:" ()
"That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well." ()
"I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean." ()
"But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died." ()

Deuteronomy 24 really allows another marriage in its stated case. Jesus himself explains the earlier divorce concession by hardness of heart and returns to the beginning. Matthew's exception cannot be omitted to make every sentence uniformly absolute. The proposed betrothal-only restriction has Matthew 1's husband/wife language before coming together as a possible background, but neither that narrative nor Jesus' sentence establishes that restriction. The incest-only proposal mistakes a kind of fornication in 1 Corinthians 5:1 for the entire category.

"And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife." ()
"He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so." ()
"And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery." ()
"Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost." ()

First Corinthians 7:15 expressly permits the departing unbeliever to depart and says the brother or sister is not under bondage. It does not explicitly say marry another. The record does not turn that phrase into a complete ruling on all abandonment cases or cancel the stated instructions about remaining unmarried, reconciliation and widowhood. The general answer remains the same under either proposed extent of release: preserve Jesus' actual adultery judgments and their stated exception, and do not adjudicate an absent case.

"But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace." ()
"But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife." ()
"The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord." ()

The household laws and Nathan's message are genuine counterweights to claiming Scripture simply labels every historical plural household prostitution. The laws protect a woman's maintenance and a firstborn's rights; Nathan recounts a divine gift and then condemns taking Uriah's wife. Recognizing the stated relationships neither authorizes taking another spouse nor cancels Jesus' use of the created two.

"If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish." ()
"If a man have two wives, one beloved, and another hated, and they have born him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son be hers that was hated:" ()
"And I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things." ()
"Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon." ()

Deuteronomy 22:28-29 imposes consequences for the man in its case; Exodus 22:16-17 addresses enticing an unbetrothed maid and allows the father to refuse the marriage. These are laws with different conditions, not one command requiring every modern assault victim to marry an assailant. In particular, intercourse does not automatically create marriage. Tamar's appeal to the king is a plea under threat, not a divine marriage law; her refusal and the narrator's account of force must remain.

"Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he hath humbled her, he may not put her away all his days." ()
"And if a man entice a maid that is not betrothed, and lie with her, he shall surely endow her to be his wife." ()
"If her father utterly refuse to give her unto him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins." ()
"And she answered him, Nay, my brother, do not force me; for no such thing ought to be done in Israel: do not thou this folly." ()
"Howbeit he would not hearken unto her voice: but, being stronger than she, forced her, and lay with her." ()

Genesis 38's comparison of Tamar with Judah addresses his withholding of Shelah; it is not a universal endorsement of every act in the story. Onan's stated purpose involves offspring owed to his dead brother. The story must not be stripped of that duty and purpose and converted into a freestanding definition of every emission or a complete ruling on masturbation or contraception. No such particular act was disclosed.

"And Judah acknowledged them, and said, She hath been more righteous than I; because that I gave her not to Shelah my son. And he knew her again no more." ()
"And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother." ()

Hosea's love for an adulteress is not permission for adultery: the following instruction forbids being for another man. Isaiah 23's hire serves those before the LORD in a prophecy about the merchant city Tyre; that city/trade depiction is not a command approving prostitution. Both are genuine controls on reading a sexual word apart from its subject and setting.

"Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine." ()
"And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man: so will I also be for thee." ()
"And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the LORD will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth." ()
"And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the LORD: it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the LORD, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing." ()

Jesus' welcome and the harlots' entering in Matthew 21 must be kept with the explanation that they believed. The welcome does not commend harlotry. John 8:11 likewise contains the command to sin no more. The supplied tool notes that John 8:1-11 is not found in every early copy; no conclusion depends on it alone.

"Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you." ()
"For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him." ()
"She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more." ()
Checks added by the record's read-back

These checks are part of the hand-off because they change or qualify the explanation. Their ranges were read whole as named in RECORD.md; only selected whole verses are quoted here.

Job 31 adds eyes, heart and preparatory conduct to the argument against restricting sexual wrong to completed intercourse. Its conditional penalties are not commands to imitate. Its secretly enticed heart later concerns the sun and moon and denial of God, so the shared heart/enticement words cannot by themselves define a sexual act.

"I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?" ()
"If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbour's door;" ()
"If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness;" ()
"And my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand:" ()
"This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above." ()

Jude 1, Genesis 19, Ezekiel 16 and 2 Peter 2 qualify the Sodom argument. Jude expressly names sexual wrong. Genesis identifies angelic visitors and records a violent demand for men; it does not depict a quiet mutually chosen relationship. Ezekiel also names pride, plenty, idleness and neglect of the poor, so sexual sin cannot be presented as all of Sodom's guilt. Peter's description is unlawful conduct. The same-sex conclusion rests independently on Romans 1 and Leviticus 18, not solely on Sodom or an assumed definition of strange flesh.

"Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." ()
"And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground;" ()
"And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them." ()
"And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door." ()
"Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy." ()
"(For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)" ()

Exodus 4:1-9 was the English other-flesh control. Its restored hand is not sexual conduct; that hit is set aside as a definition. No cross-language equivalence with Jude is inferred.

"And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again; and plucked it out of his bosom, and, behold, it was turned again as his other flesh." ()

Ezekiel 18 and 22 strengthen the requirement to acknowledge the menstrual-intercourse prohibition alongside kinship prohibitions and adultery. Leviticus 15 distinguishes bodily conditions and washings, with its tabernacle reason. Hebrews 8-10 distinguishes the older service and purification of flesh from Christ's cleansing of conscience. Its quoted new covenant was checked in Jeremiah 31:23-40: God's law is written inward. The answer must not call every bodily condition a chosen sexual sin, dismiss the named intercourse prohibition as a trivial washing detail, authorize every sexual act through the end of earlier ordinances, or impose the entire earlier sacrificial system.

"And hath not eaten upon the mountains, neither hath lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, neither hath defiled his neighbour's wife, neither hath come near to a menstruous woman," ()
"In thee have they discovered their fathers' nakedness: in thee have they humbled her that was set apart for pollution." ()
"And one hath committed abomination with his neighbour's wife; and another hath lewdly defiled his daughter in law; and another in thee hath humbled his sister, his father's daughter." ()
"The woman also with whom man shall lie with seed of copulation, they shall both bathe themselves in water, and be unclean until the even." ()
"And if a woman have an issue, and her issue in her flesh be blood, she shall be put apart seven days: and whosoever toucheth her shall be unclean until the even." ()
"Thus shall ye separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness; that they die not in their uncleanness, when they defile my tabernacle that is among them." ()
"In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away." ()
"Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation." ()
"How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" ()
"But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people." ()

Genesis 35:16-29 and 1 Chronicles 5:1-2 add the father's-bed case involving Bilhah. The later record expressly explains Reuben's lost birthright by defiling his father's bed. The historical word concubine therefore does not erase the forbidden relation, and does not by itself mean an unattached prostitute.

"And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine: and Israel heard it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve:" ()
"Now the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel, (for he was the firstborn; but, forasmuch as he defiled his father's bed, his birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph the son of Israel: and the genealogy is not to be reckoned after the birthright." ()

Joshua 2, Joshua 6:15-27 and Hebrews 11:23-40 add Rahab's named example. Receiving the messengers and faith explain her preservation; the label harlot is not an irrevocable verdict on a soul or an approval of harlotry.

"And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, even Jericho. And they went, and came into an harlot's house, named Rahab, and lodged there." ()
"And the city shall be accursed, even it, and all that are therein, to the LORD: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent." ()
"And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father's household, and all that she had; and she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day; because she hid the messengers, which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho." ()
"By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace." ()

The remaining close Hebrew passages were all opened. Their additions preserve the distinct kinds of sentence and prevent a uniform literal-sex definition. Each following item gives the passage and what it changes:

  • Judges 2:6-23 identifies other gods as the object. Judges 8:22-35 identifies the ephod and then Baalim. These strengthen the religious-unfaithfulness use.

"And yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but they went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves unto them: they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments of the LORD; but they did not so." ()
"And Gideon made an ephod thereof, and put it in his city, even in Ophrah: and all Israel went thither a whoring after it: which thing became a snare unto Gideon, and to his house." ()
"And it came to pass, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel turned again, and went a whoring after Baalim, and made Baalberith their god." ()
  • First Chronicles 5:18-26 likewise identifies the land's gods. Psalms 73 speaks of departure from God; Psalms 106:34-48 speaks of idols and the people's inventions. They retain a figurative or intertwined setting, rather than adding a different permitted kind of sexual intercourse.

"And they transgressed against the God of their fathers, and went a whoring after the gods of the people of the land, whom God destroyed before them." ()
"For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee." ()
"Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions." ()
  • Isaiah 1 names the formerly faithful city now full of murderers and corrupt rulers. Jeremiah 2 explains high-place harlotry through forsaking God and Baalim. These passages forbid reducing the imagery to an individual bodily act alone.

"How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers." ()
"For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot." ()
"How canst thou say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim? see thy way in the valley, know what thou hast done: thou art a swift dromedary traversing her ways;" ()
  • Ezekiel 6 explicitly links heart and eyes to departure and idols. Ezekiel 20:27-44 links whoredom to the fathers' abominations and child-offerings to idols. Their object controls the wording.

"And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they shall lothe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations." ()
"Wherefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Are ye polluted after the manner of your fathers? and commit ye whoredom after their abominations?" ()
"For when ye offer your gifts, when ye make your sons to pass through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with all your idols, even unto this day: and shall I be enquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will not be enquired of by you." ()
  • Hosea 5 addresses Ephraim/Israel with the spirit of whoredoms and failure to turn to God. Hosea 9 names whoring from God and recalls Peor and Gibeah. Neither is used as a new literal sexual checklist.

"I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me: for now, O Ephraim, thou committest whoredom, and Israel is defiled." ()
"They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God: for the spirit of whoredoms is in the midst of them, and they have not known the LORD." ()
"Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people: for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loved a reward upon every cornfloor." ()
"They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah: therefore he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins." ()
"I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the firstripe in the fig tree at her first time: but they went to Baalpeor, and separated themselves unto that shame; and their abominations were according as they loved." ()
  • Micah 1 links the hire imagery to idols and graven images. Nahum 3 describes the city selling nations through whoredoms and witchcraft and identifies Nineveh. These strengthen the need to identify the collective subject.

"And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces, and all the hires thereof shall be burned with the fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate: for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot, and they shall return to the hire of an harlot." ()
"Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the wellfavoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts." ()
"And it shall come to pass, that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her? whence shall I seek comforters for thee?" ()
  • Judges 11:1-11 reports Jephthah's parentage; Judges 16:1-3 reports Samson's deed and escape; 1 Kings 3:16-28 identifies the women in a maternity dispute. A report, a person’s parentage or an escape is not a command or permission to repeat sexual wrongdoing.

"Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valour, and he was the son of an harlot: and Gilead begat Jephthah." ()
"Then went Samson to Gaza, and saw there an harlot, and went in unto her." ()
"Then came there two women, that were harlots, unto the king, and stood before him." ()
  • Proverbs 23:26-35 warns of the whore as a pit; Proverbs 29:1-4 warns of squandered wealth. These reinforce warning rather than supply an exhaustive definition.

"For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit." ()
"Whoso loveth wisdom rejoiceth his father: but he that keepeth company with harlots spendeth his substance." ()
  • Joel 3 accuses nations of trading people for an harlot and wine; the trafficked person's suffering is not identified as that person's chosen sexual offense. Amos 7 predicts the wife’s humiliation and captivity in judgment on Amaziah's opposition. A prediction of harm is not permission to inflict it. These preserve actor and sentence-kind distinctions.

"And they have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink." ()
"Therefore thus saith the LORD; Thy wife shall be an harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be divided by line; and thou shalt die in a polluted land: and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land." ()

Ruled out

  • All sex or all marital sexual delight is sinful. That would contradict the honour given to marriage and its bed and the positive commendation of delight in the wife.

"Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." ()
"Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love." ()
  • Fornication means only paid prostitution, only idol worship, or only intercourse between two unmarried people. The explicitly named father's-wife case cannot be excluded by any such restriction. It is a kind of fornication, not a definition limiting the whole category to incest.

"It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife." ()
  • Mutual desire or describing a relationship as loving makes every sexual act permissible. The account of mutual male desire still calls the conduct unseemly, and neighbour-love explicitly includes the prohibition of adultery. The idolatry setting in Romans is a stated cause and context, not an exception clause authorizing the same act when absent.

"And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet." ()
"For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." ()
  • Only physical intercourse can be sexually wrong. This makes Jesus' statement about adultery already in the heart false.

"But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." ()
  • Every temptation is committed sexual sin, or every occurrence of desire means sinful sexual lust. Temptation without sin is explicitly described; desire can also have a good object. The context must identify the object and purpose.

"For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." ()
"And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer:" ()
  • Being forced makes the victim the sexual offender. The law differentiates the parties and directs that nothing be done to the one forced.

"But unto the damsel thou shalt do nothing; there is in the damsel no sin worthy of death: for as when a man riseth against his neighbour, and slayeth him, even so is this matter:" ()
  • Being under grace, having liberty, or the all-things-lawful statement permits fornication. The same writers expressly reject that inference.

"What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid." ()
"For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another." ()
"Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body." ()
  • A socially recognized marriage makes every union lawful, every divorce allows remarriage, or every later marriage is adultery. The first two fail Jesus' adultery judgment; the last fails the widow's express liberty.

"And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery." ()
"The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord." ()
  • Every use of fornication or adultery must denote literal intercourse, or every use must mean only idolatry. The city is expressly identified in Revelation, whereas the father's-wife deed is expressly identified in Corinthians. Both uses must be kept.

"And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth." ()
"It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife." ()
  • A forbidden sexual past is an unchangeable verdict on a person. The same passage that warns says some recipients had been those things and describes their change.

"And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." ()
  • Scripture never recognizes plural wives or any established bond described as concubinage. The texts do recognize those households and bonds. They may not be erased to produce a retrospective slogan, and neither may they be made a general command to acquire partners. Jesus' explicit creation argument supplies the positive pattern in the answer.

"And I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things." ()
"And her husband arose, and went after her, to speak friendly unto her, and to bring her again, having his servant with him, and a couple of asses: and she brought him into her father's house: and when the father of the damsel saw him, he rejoiced to meet him." ()

Verdicts

  1. Scripture teaches abstinence from fornication as part of holiness before God. In the ordinary sexual sense asked about, sexual immorality is sexual conduct contrary to God's commands about holiness and marriage. The definition includes acts, prohibited partners, betrayal and the inward sexual wrongdoing Jesus names. It is broader than one English noun in every possible setting.

"For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:" ()
"For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness." ()
  1. The positive pattern is the man and his wife, joined as one flesh and faithful to one another. Sexual union belongs within that marriage relation; sex before marriage and with someone who is not one's spouse does not become proper through affection, mutual willingness, payment or plans to marry. This is supported by the given alternative to fornication, including the instruction to unmarried people to marry. Marriage is honourable, and marital pleasure is not itself sin.

"And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female," ()
"And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?" ()
"Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." ()
"Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband." ()
"But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn." ()
"Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." ()
"Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love." ()
  1. The concrete wrongs established include adultery, joining a harlot, prohibited family unions, same-sex sexual acts, intercourse with animals, and forcing sexual acts on another. The case of a father's wife is expressly called a kind of fornication. Same-sex conduct is described adversely in Romans through the women's exchange and the men's departure from the natural use of the woman; the sentence about men is explicit. These are conclusions about conduct, not an undisclosed person's identity, motives or standing.

"And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death." ()
"Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid." ()
"It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife." ()
"For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:" ()
"And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet." ()
"Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion." ()
"But if a man find a betrothed damsel in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her: then the man only that lay with her shall die:" ()

The law and prophets also expressly prohibit intercourse during menstruation. This must be retained when their sexual prohibitions are described; it must not disappear while adjacent verses are used. Their bodily-purity and covenant setting must be stated, without equating a bodily condition with chosen sexual sin or claiming that every earlier washing and sacrifice must be reproduced.

"Also thou shalt not approach unto a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is put apart for her uncleanness." ()
"And hath not eaten upon the mountains, neither hath lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, neither hath defiled his neighbour's wife, neither hath come near to a menstruous woman," ()
  1. Being sexually assaulted is not the victim's sexual immorality. Scripture distinguishes the one forced from the offender. The text's case and its stated evidence should not be transformed into a universal rule that absence of a cry proves consent.

"But unto the damsel thou shalt do nothing; there is in the damsel no sin worthy of death: for as when a man riseth against his neighbour, and slayeth him, even so is this matter:" ()
"For he found her in the field, and the betrothed damsel cried, and there was none to save her." ()
  1. Jesus includes looking in order to lust as adultery already in the heart. Sexual wrong is not confined to completed intercourse. Job's treatment of eyes, heart and the neighbour's door reinforces that connection. Temptation as such is distinguishable from sin, and lawful affection must not be condemned as though all desire were evil.

"But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." ()
"I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?" ()
"For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." ()
  1. Marriage carries reciprocal duties and requires love and honour. It is no exemption for coercive harm or degrading use. Consent in 1 Corinthians 7:5 is expressly about temporary abstinence; that verse must not be misquoted as a separately stated legal test for every possible marital act.

"The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife." ()
"Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency." ()
"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;" ()
"Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." ()

A marriage label alone does not settle whether a union is lawful. Jesus condemns the divorce-and-remarriage cases he names, and his fornication exception must be retained. Widowhood is expressly distinguished. No undisclosed remarriage or abandonment case is adjudicated.

"And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery." ()
"The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord." ()
  1. Sexual wrongdoing is serious before God; the judgment warnings are real. The same passage also describes washing, sanctification and justification of people who formerly lived in the named wrongs. Repentance and change must not be omitted or presented as permission to continue. No verdict on the questioner's salvation, forgiveness or final fate is earned.

"Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind," ()
"Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God." ()
"And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." ()
  1. Scripture sometimes uses sexual unfaithfulness to portray abandoning God or a city's corruption. Its own explanations establish that figurative use. This distinction answers the question about literal sexual conduct without falsifying those passages or using them to cancel bodily prohibitions.

"The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD." ()
"Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the LORD." ()
"And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth." ()

Open

The broad definition and the concrete wrongs listed above are supported; they are not left open by a lack of an identical modern phrase. No claim of Scripture's silence or of an exhaustive list is earned. Broad unread lexical hits remain listed in RECORD.md, and the question supplies no particular act requiring a further case ruling.

Several local identifications remain unforced, without changing that answer:

  • Vessel in 1 Thessalonians 4:4 can be read through bodily imagery or through the wife imagery. The indexed parallels keep both in view. Under either reading, the express command to abstain from fornication and the requirements of holiness and honour remain.

"That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;" ()
"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." ()
"Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered." ()
"For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:" ()
  • The precise difference intended by strange flesh in Jude 1:7 is not decided by the word number. The preceding angels and the angelic visitors permit an angel/human-boundary reading; the demand for men also permits the forbidden-partner emphasis. Both retain sexual wrongdoing and the violent demand. Neither supplies a permission or erases the independent Romans/Leviticus teaching.

"And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." ()
"Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." ()
"And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground;" ()
"And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them." ()
  • Revelation 2's seduction may involve actual sexual acts entwined with idolatry or sexual imagery for covenant betrayal. No independent biography was supplied. Under either reading, the named deeds are condemned and repentance is required; 1 Corinthians 5-7 independently establishes the literal sexual boundary.

"Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols." ()
"And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not." ()
"Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds." ()

The misaligned token index at 1 Corinthians 6:9 and the clothing uses of G3120 do not establish a precise definition of effeminate for this record. No condemnation of an entire temperament, appearance or modern identity should be inferred from that defect. The explicit sexual acts in the other gathered passages carry the answer. This is a limit of the index-based check, not a claim that Scripture lacks meaning.

"Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind," ()
"But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings' houses." ()