This book examines many of the laws in the Torah governing sexual relations and the often implicit motivations underlying them. It also considers texts beyond the laws in which legal traditions and ideas concerning sexual behavior intersect and provide insight into ancient Israel's social norms. The book includes extended treatments on the nature and function of marriage and divorce in ancient Israel, the variation in sexual rules due to status and gender, the prohibition on male-with-male sex, and the different types of sexualities that may have existed in ancient Israel.
The essays draw on a variety of methodologies and approaches, including narrative criticism, philological analysis, literary theory, feminist and gender theory, anthropological models, and comparative analysis. They cover content ranging from the narratives in Genesis, to the laws of Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy, to later re-interpretations of pentateuchal laws in Jeremiah and texts from the Second Temple period. Overall, the book presents a combination of theoretical discussion and close textual analysis to shed new light on the connections between law and sexuality within the Torah and beyond.

Hilary Lipka is an instructor in the Religious Studies Department at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
Bruce Wells is Associate Professor in the Middle Eastern Studies Department at the University of Texas at Austin in Austin, Texas, USA.

Preface
Abbreviations
List of Contributors
Introduction Hilary Lipka and Bruce Wells
Chapter 1. Categories of Sexuality Indigenous to Biblical Legal Materials David Tabb Stewart
Chapter 2. The Daughter Sold into Slavery and Marriage Pamela Barmash
Chapter 3. Rachel's Betrothal Contract and the Origins of Contract Law F. Rachel Magdalene
Chapter 4. Judah, Tamar, and the Law of Levirate Marriage Eryl W. Davies
Chapter 5. On the Beds of a Woman: The Leviticus Texts on Same-Sex Relations Reconsidered Bruce Wells
Chapter 6. The Offense, Its Consequences, and the Meaning of ??? in Leviticus 19:29 Hilary Lipka
Chapter 7. Priestly Marriage Restrictions Sarah Shectman
Chapter 8. The Inheritance Injunction of Numbers 36: Zelophehad's Daughters and the Intersection of Land Inheritance and Sex Regulation M. L. Case
Chapter 9. Reproducing Torah: Human and Divine Sexuality in the Book of Deuteronomy Steffan Mathias
Chapter 10. Divorce in Archaic Crete: Comparative Perspectives on Deuteronomy 24:1-4 Anselm C. Hagedorn
Chapter 11. Divorce Instruction and Covenantal Unfaithfulness: A New Examination of the Reuse of Deuteronomy 24:1-4 as Metaphor in Jeremiah 3:1-10 Kenneth Bergland
Chapter 12. Sexual Relations and the Transition from Holy People to Human Sanctuary in Second Temple Times Hannah Harrington
Index of Ancient Sources
Index of Subjects
Index of Authors