Leviticus 18:16
in Leviticus 18You must not have sexual relations with your brother’s wife; that would shame your brother.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother’s wife: it is thy brother’s nakedness.
KJV
Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother’s wife: it is thy brother’s nakedness.
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This verse in Leviticus 18
Commentary
5 notes on this verseThy brother’s wife - This was an illegal marriage, unless the brother died childless. In that case it was not only lawful for her to marry her brother-in-law, but he was obliged by the law, Deu 25:5, to take her to wife.
This site's exposition
thou shalt not approach to his wife
on Leviticus 18:14-16
These three are relations by marriage, the uncle's wife, the son's wife and the brother's wife, and none of them shares his blood. Judah and Tamar at Genesis 38 is the case of verse 15, and Deuteronomy 25:5 sets a named exception beside verse 16 by requiring a man to raise up seed to a brother who died childless. John the Baptist applies verse 16 to a king at Mark 6:18, telling Herod it is not lawful for him to have his brother's wife, and it costs him his head.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
5 ), for reasons which held good only in that commonwealth; and therefore now that those reasons have ceased the exception ceases, and the law is in force, that a man must in no case marry his brother's widow.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-citation-number+unbalanced-parens
Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother's wife,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Thy brother’s wife - That is, if she had children. See Deu 25:5. The law here expressed was broken by Antipas in his connection with Herodias Mat 14:3-4.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
IT IS ‘ZIMAH’ (LEWDNESS). Onkelos translated: “it is a sinful plan,” and Rashi commented thereon, “because your evil inclination counsels you to sin.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 7 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
8 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| עֶרְוַ֥ת | ʾervat | [the] nakedness of | H6172 → | 54 times |
| אֵֽשֶׁת־ | ʾeshet- | [the] wife of | H802 → | 781 times |
| אָחִ֖יךָ | ʾachikha | brother your | H251 → | 630 times |
| לֹ֣א | lo' | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| תְגַלֵּ֑ה | tegaleh | you will uncover | H1540 → | 186 times |
| עֶרְוַ֥ת | ʾervat | [is] [the] nakedness of | H6172 → | 54 times |
| אָחִ֖יךָ | ʾachikha | brother your | H251 → | 630 times |
| הִֽוא׃ ס | hi' | it | H1931 → | 1879 times |
עֶרְוַ֥ת[the] nakedness of
ʾervatH6172 →54 times
אֵֽשֶׁת־[the] wife of
ʾeshet-H802 →781 times
אָחִ֖יךָbrother your
ʾachikhaH251 →630 times
לֹ֣אnot
lo'H3808 →5168 times
תְגַלֵּ֑הyou will uncover
tegalehH1540 →186 times
עֶרְוַ֥ת[is] [the] nakedness of
ʾervatH6172 →54 times
אָחִ֖יךָbrother your
ʾachikhaH251 →630 times
הִֽוא׃ סit
hi'H1931 →1879 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Matthew 22:24“Teacher,” they said, “Moses declared that if a man dies without having children, his brother is to marry the widow and raise up offspring for him.
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 25:5–10
When brothers dwell together and one of them dies without a son, the widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother is to take her as his wife and fulfill the duty…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Deuteronomy 25:5–10
Through
Deuteronomy 25:5When brothers dwell together and one of them dies without a son, the widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother is to take her as his wife and fulfill the duty…
it leads to
- Luke 20:28
“Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man is to marry his brother’s widow and raise up offspring for him.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Mark 12:19
“Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man is to marry his brother’s widow and raise up offspring for him.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Matthew 22:24
“Teacher,” they said, “Moses declared that if a man dies without having children, his brother is to marry the widow and raise up offspring for him.
- Genesis 38:8–9
Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife. Perform your duty as her brother-in-law and raise up offspring for your brother.”
- Ruth 1:12–13
Return home, my daughters. Go on, for I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was hope for me to have a husband tonight and to bear sons,
- Luke 20:28
Through
Mark 6:17For Herod himself had ordered that John be arrested and bound and imprisoned, on account of his brother Philip’s wife Herodias, whom Herod had married.
it leads to
- Luke 3:19–20
But when he rebuked Herod the tetrarch regarding his brother’s wife Herodias and all the evils he had done,
- Matthew 11:2
Meanwhile John heard in prison about the works of Christ, and he sent his disciples
- Luke 3:19–20
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Leviticus
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.