Commandments · Negative commandments

Not to have sexual relations with one's daughter

#492 Negative commandment Leviticus 18:10

The cited verse

The Hebrew (Masoretic Text)

עֶרְוַת בַּת־בִּנְךָ אוֹ בַת־בִּתְּךָ לֹא תְגַלֶּה עֶרְוָתָן כִּי עֶרְוָתְךָ הֵנָּה

In Maimonides’ words

How Maimonides defines this commandment in his Sefer HaMitzvot — his own words, shown as a primary source.

הזהירנו מגלות ערות הבת עצמה, וזה לא התבאר בפירוש בתורה ולא בא בכתוב ערות בתך לא תגלה, ואמנם ממה שהזכיר בת הבן או בת הבת תקה ממנו ראיה לבאור הדבר והגלותו כי הוא אסר בת הבן ובת הבת וכל שכן הבת. ובגמרא דיבמות (דף ג') אמרו בתו עיקר איסורה מדרשא אתיא דאמר רבא אמר לי רב יצחק בר אבדימי אתיא הנה הנה אתיא זמה זמה, רוצה לומר שהוא אמר בבת בנך ובבת בתך כי ערותך הנה ואמר באיסור אשה ובתה ובת בנה ובת בתה שארה הנה זמה היא כמו שבאיסור אשה ובתה נאסרה בתה כן באיסור בת בנו ובת בתו נאסרה בתו גם כן, ואמר בעונש איש אשר יקח את אשה ואת אמה זמה היא באש ישרפו אותו ואתהן כמו כן אשה ובת בנה ובת בתה בשריפה בעבור שבא בהן זמה וגמרינן לה מגזרה שוה זמה זמה והוא הדין לבתו ובת בנו ובת בתו לענין עונש דגמרינן להו מגזרה שוה דהנה הנה דגבי בת בנו ובת בתו כתיב הנה כמו שבא באשה ובתה. ולשון גמרא דכריתות (דף ה') אל תהי גזרה שוה קלה בעיניך שהרי בתו אחד מגופי תורה ולא למדה הכתוב אלא מגזרה שוה אתיא הנה הנה זמה זמה, והבן אמרם לא למדה תורה ולא אמר לא למדוה כי אלו הדברים כלם קבלה מהנביא ע"ה פירוש מקובל כמו שבארנו בפתיחת חבורנו הגדול בפירוש המשנה, ואמנם שתק הכתוב מלזכרה להיותה אפשר להתלמד בגזרה שוה, וזהו ענין אמרם לא למדה הכתוב אלא מגזרה שוה והבן אמרם מגופי תורה. הנה התבאר מכל מה שקדם שהעובר על לאו בתו ובת בנו ובת בתו הוא בשריפה, ואם לא נחקרה העדות בכרת אם היה מזיד, ואם היה שוגג באחת מהן יקריב חטאת קבועה:

He prohibited us from sexual intercourse with the daughter herself. But this was not explicitly made clear in the Torah; and, "the nakedness of your daughter you shall not uncover," did not appear in Scripture. However since it mentioned the daughter of the son and the daughter of the daughter, you can take it as a proof to clarify the matter and reveal it: Since He forbade the daughter of the son and the daughter of the daughter - all the more so, the daughter [herself]! And in the Gemara of Yevamot (Yevamot 3a), they said, "[With regard to] his daughter, the main aspect of this prohibition is derived by homiletical interpretation. As Rava said, 'Rav Yitzḥak bar Avdimi said to me, "[This prohibition is derived by means of a verbal analogy of the words,] theirs (hena), and they (hena); and lewdness (zimah) and lewdness (zimah)."'" [This] means to say that He said about the daughter of your son and daughter of your daughter, "for theirs (hena) is your own nakedness" (Leviticus 18:10). And He [also] said about the prohibition of a woman and her daughter and the daughter of her son and the daughter of her daughter, "they (hena) are kin; it is lewdness" (Leviticus 18:17). Just like with the prohibition of a woman and her daughter, her [actual] daughter is forbidden; so [too] with the prohibition of a daughter of his son and the daughter of his daughter, is his [actual] daughter also forbidden. And He said about the punishment of "a man who took a woman and her mother, it is lewdness; they shall be burned in fire, he and them" (Leviticus 20:14). [So] likewise is a woman and the daughter of her son and the daughter of her daughter [punished] with burning, because, "lewdness," appeared [also] about them - so we learn it from the verbal analogy [created by the common use of the word,] zimah. And regarding this punishment, the same is the law for his daughter and the daughter of his son and the daughter of his daughter. As we learn it about them from the verbal analogy [created by the common use of the word,] hena. For hena is written about the daughter of his son and the daughter of his daughter, just like it appears with a woman and her daughter. And the language of the Gemara, Keritot (Keritot 5a), is, "A verbal analogy should never be regarded lightly in your eyes, as [the prohibition of] one’s daughter is one of the essential laws of the Torah, and Scripture taught it only through a verbal analogy. It came from [the common use of] hena, and [the common use of] zimah." And understand their saying, "Scripture taught it only," and not saying, "and they (the Rabbis) taught it only" - for all of these things are a tradition from the prophet (Moshe), peace be upon him. It is an explanation that was received, as we explained at the beginning of our great composition, the Commentary of the Mishnah. However Scripture [itself] refrained from mentioning it, since it was possible to have it learned from a verbal analogy. And that is the content of their saying, "Scripture taught it only through a verbal analogy." And it is sufficient that they said, "one of the essential laws of the Torah." Behold it is explained from all that precedes that one who transgresses the negative commandment of his daughter and the daughter of his daughter and the daughter of his son is [punished] with burning. But if the testimony was not ratified, it is with excision if it was volitional. And if he was inadvertent regarding one of them, he must sacrifice a fixed sin-offering.

Hebrew: Sefer HaMitzvot, Warsaw 1883 (public domain). English: Sefaria Edition, trans. Rabbi Francis Nataf, 2021 (CC0). Via Sefaria; translator’s footnotes omitted.

Literary form: a prohibition

Applicability

How the catalog describes where and when this commandment applies. These are independent descriptions, not a verdict on which laws still count.

  • Recorded as practiced today

Classical halakhic consequences

The consequences the classical halakhah attaches to this commandment, grouped by who imposes them. Where a category has none recorded, that absence is itself meaningful.

Imposed by a court

  • Death by burning (sereifah)

At the hands of Heaven

  • Karet — being 'cut off'

Ritual remedy

  • A sin-offering (ḥatat)

How the streams of Judaism treat this commandment

The streams of Judaism read the same commandment differently — an ongoing plurality, not a ranking. Each position below is reported as the catalog records it; none is presented as the correct one.

  • Orthodox Binding
  • Conservative Binding
  • Reform As the catalog records it: binding ethical
  • Reconstructionist As the catalog records it: binding ethical
  • Karaite Binding

24 of 613 commandments have been examined in depth so far — this one is queued.

How later traditions received this commandment

How later traditions read or reworked this commandment, each attributed to its own voice. The catalog’s own classification of each reception is shown as it records it, never adopted as GEBible’s.

Qumran (the Dead Sea Scrolls)

  • 11QTa (Temple Scroll) 66:11-17 The catalog describes this reception as: legislative expansion (expands the Lev 18 incest register, esp. aunt/niece/half sister cases; no explicit father daughter clause)

Rabbinic aggadah

  • Genesis Rabbah 51:8-9 (Lot pericope, not a direct exposition of the Lev 18 daughter prohibition) The catalog describes this reception as: narrative allusion

Philo of Alexandria

  • De Specialibus Legibus 3.12-28 (incest/forbidden-degrees section) rationalized it

Josephus

  • Ant. 3.274-275 (general summary of incest prohibitions; locus approximate, not daughter-specific) affirmed it

The Qur'an and hadith

  • Q 4:23 carried a parallel

Beside the older legal codes of its world

The commandment set beside the ancient Near-Eastern legal collections scholars compare it to — a descriptive comparison, not a claim of dependence.

  • code of hammurabi father-daughter incest, penalty of banishment from the city Relationship to the parallel: parallel with divergence §154 Roth, Law Collections 2nd ed. (1997)
  • hittite laws enumerates prohibited incestuous unions including father-daughter, son-mother, and son-stepmother; penalties vary and are not uniformly capital across all listed cases Relationship to the parallel: parallel with divergence §189 Hoffner, The Laws of the Hittites (1997)

Where this commandment meets modern human-rights frameworks

One modern normative lens, attributed to it — not GEBible’s assessment. Each row names the framework it measures against and the catalog’s own classification of the relation.

This framework catalogues tensions; it records agreement in only one of its entries. The near-total tension rate is the shape of the instrument, not a finding.

No tension with the catalogued modern frameworks is recorded here.

Source & licence

The commentary, cross-references, reception, and modern-conflict analysis in this section are drawn from a public compilation of the 613 commandments, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. The cited biblical text is rendered from GEBible’s own public-domain reading corpus. CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab). GEBible’s presentation of this material is offered under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 terms.