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Leviticus 18:8

in Leviticus 18

You must not have sexual relations with your father’s wife; it would dishonor your father.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

The nakedness of thy father’s wife shalt thou not uncover; it is thy father’s nakedness.

KJV

The nakedness of thy father’s wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father’s nakedness.

This verse in Leviticus 18

Commentary

3 notes on this verse

This site's exposition

None of you shall approach

on Leviticus 18:6-8

Verse 6 is the heading and everything through verse 18 works it out. The Hebrew behind near of kin is she'er besaro, the remnant of his flesh, so the stated ground of the law is shared flesh rather than shared descent. The Babylonian Talmud, which reached its form around 500 AD, records at Megillah 31a that this chapter is the synagogue reading for the afternoon of the Day of Atonement, which puts the list of forbidden relations on the one day of the year the nation is cleansed.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

The nakedness of thy father's wife shalt thou not uncover,....

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

Compare the case of Reuben, Gen 49:3-4. See 1Co 5:1.

The words behind it

8 Hebrew words

Every 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.

  • עֶרְוַ֥ת[the] nakedness of

    ʾervatH617254 times

  • אֵֽשֶׁת־[the] wife of

    ʾeshet-H802781 times

  • אָבִ֖יךָfather your

    ʾavikhaH11212 times

  • לֹ֣אnot

    lo'H38085168 times

  • תְגַלֵּ֑הyou will uncover

    tegalehH1540186 times

  • עֶרְוַ֥ת[is] [the] nakedness of

    ʾervatH617254 times

  • אָבִ֖יךָfather your

    ʾavikhaH11212 times

  • הִֽוא׃ סit

    hi'H19311879 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each 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

    Deuteronomy 22:30

    A man is not to marry his father’s wife, so that he will not dishonor his father’s marriage bed.

    it leads to

    • Deuteronomy 27:20

      ‘Cursed is he who sleeps with his father’s wife, for he has violated his father’s marriage bed.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • 1 Corinthians 5:1

      It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is intolerable even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Leviticus 20:11

      If a man lies with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness. Both must surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

  • Through

    1 Corinthians 5:1

    It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is intolerable even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife.

    it leads to

    • Revelation 21:8

      But to the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This…

    • Revelation 2:21

      Even though I have given her time to repent of her immorality, she is unwilling.

    • Colossians 3:5

      Put to death, therefore, the components of your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.

    • Ephesians 5:3

      But among you, as is proper among the saints, there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed.

    • Galatians 5:19

      The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery;

Where this verse is studied

On this page

About Leviticus

Moses and Aaron Appear before Pharaoh, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Moses and Aaron Appear before Pharaoh, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.

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 and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763).