The Sages teach that both in Egypt and in Canaan, the Israelites were like a beautiful flower growing in thorny surroundings. They were surrounded by sinners steeped in sexual immorality. They also underscore the severity of the sin of promiscuity, which is apt to introduce indiscriminate killing into the world.

Rabbi Berekhya said: The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses: Go tell the Israelites: My children, when you were in Egypt, you were like a lily among the thorns. Now you are coming to the land of Canaan [and will again be surrounded by sinners]; continue to be like a lily among the thorns. Be vigilant that you do not perform the actions of these Egyptians or the actions of those Canaanites…. Rabbi Yishmael taught: “You shall not do the practices of the land of Egypt…and the practices of the land of Canaan…I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 18:3–4). And if not [i.e., if you do engage in those practices], it is as if I am not the Lord your God. Rabbi Hiyya taught: “I am the Lord your God” is repeated twice (18:2, 4). The repetition serves to say: I am the One who punished in the past the generation of the flood, the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the people of Egypt, and I am destined to punish in the future anyone who acts in accordance with the actions of those people. The generation of the flood consisted of dignitaries who were eliminated from the world because they were steeped in lewdness. Rabbi Simlai said: Any place that you find promiscuity, death comes to the world and indiscriminately kills the good and the evil. (Vayikra Rabba [Margaliyot] 23)