It isn't metaphoric. This and many other laws where given to the Jews to stop their sinful behavior, as they had picked up many things from the Egyptian pagans. So these laws where there to help prepare them for the coming of Christ. None of this should be taken into consideration now! These laws where temporary and with the fact that people try to accuse all christians of being homophobes because of this is extremely annoying. There's also another one of these laws that stated that married couples could get divorced. This was because husbands would kill their wife's if they found a better one. Does this mean that we should all get divorced if we find someone better? No. For Christians, Marriage is a sacrament and you should never get divorced, you honestly should try to work it out unless you're in an abusive relationship, but I won't go into that. The human heart was not made for divorce.