Bestiality

Sexual relations between humans and animals are forbidden in three Mosaic statutes. The legislation appears in the covenant code of Exodus and in the Holiness Code of Leviticus, prescribing the death penalty for both the human offender and, where the woman is the offender, the animal as well.

The Capital Statute in Exodus

The earliest formulation appears among the laws of the covenant code. "Whoever lies with a beast will surely be put to death" (Exod 22:19). The wording is brief and absolute, with no qualifying clauses.

The Holiness Code Prohibition

Leviticus 18 frames the act as a defilement and a perversion, and it extends the prohibition explicitly to women as well as men. "And you will not have any sex with any animal and defile yourself with it; neither will any woman have any sex with an animal: it is perverted" (Lev 18:23). The label "perverted" places the act within the catalog of sexual defilements that the chapter says drove the previous inhabitants out of the land.

The Penalty in Leviticus 20

The penalty section of the Holiness Code restates the rule with the matched penalty for both parties. "And if a woman has any sex with an animal, you will kill the woman, and the animal: they will surely be put to death; their blood will be on them" (Lev 20:16). The animal is killed alongside the human offender — the prohibition applies to the act regardless of which party is treated as the agent.