Lewdness

Lewdness (Hebrew zimmah; Greek aselgeia) in Scripture denotes gross sexual immorality and shameless moral license. The Hebrew zimmah often designates crimes of particular flagrancy — incest, prostitution, and sexual violence condemned in Leviticus 18–20 and denounced by Ezekiel in his extended allegory of Jerusalem and Samaria as adulterous women who forgot the LORD (Ezek. 16; 23). In the New Testament, aselgeia ("licentiousness" or "debauchery") appears in lists of sins of the flesh incompatible with life in the Spirit (Gal. 5:19; 1 Pet. 4:3; 2 Pet. 2:7).