“ ‘You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter. You shall not take her son’s daughter, or her daughter’s daughter, to uncover her nakedness. They are near kinswomen. It is wickedness.
Parallel Translations
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“ ‘You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter. You shall not take her son’s daughter, or her daughter’s daughter, to uncover her nakedness. They are near kinswomen. It is wickedness.
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Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, neither shalt thou take her son’s daughter, or her daughter’s daughter, to uncover her nakedness; for they are her near kinswomen: it is wickedness.
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Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter; thou shalt not take her son's daughter, or her daughter's daughter, to uncover her nakedness: they are near kinswomen; it is lewdness.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Commandments (3)
The laws of the Torah, each cited and shown as a primary source.
Cross-references (3)
Passages linked to Leviticus 18:17 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Leviticus 20:14 “ ‘If a man takes a wife and her mother, it is wickedness. They shall be burned with fire, both he and they, that there may be no wickedness among you.
- Deuteronomy 27:23 ‘Cursed is he who lies with his mother-in-law.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
- Amos 2:7 They trample on the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and deny justice to the oppressed; and a man and his father use the same maiden, to profane my holy name;
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (10 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Lev 18:17 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of…
Lev 18:17 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, neither shalt thou take her son’s daughter, or her daughter’s daughter, to uncover her nakedness; [for] they [are] her near kinswomen: it [is] wickedness.
Ver. 17. It is wickedness.] Wickedness with a witness; and yet avowed for lawful by some odious upstart sectaries, who teach that those marriages are most laudable that are betwixt persons nearest in blood, brother and sister, father and daughter, mother and son, &c. This they shame not to set forth in print. {a}
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{a} Hist. Davidis Georg., pp. 28, 29; Little Non-such, pp. 5-7.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Of a woman and her daughter, to wit, thy…
Of a woman and her daughter, to wit, thy step-daughter, and so thy step-son’s daughter, &c.
It is wickedness; because they are very near to thy wife by consanguinity, as coming directly from her; and therefore they are as near to thee by affinity, which binds as much as consanguinity; the wife, who is only related by affinity, being nearer to a man than any other by consanguinity, they two being made one flesh, and therefore the same distance is to be observed in both of them.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Thou shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman…
Thou shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter,.... That is, if a man marries a woman, and she has a daughter, which is the man's daughter-in-law, after the death of his wife he may not marry this daughter; for this daughter is of the same flesh with her mother, who became one flesh with the man she married, and therefore his relation to her daughter is too near to marry her: Jarchi says, if he does not marry the woman, but only deflower her, it is free for him to marry her daughter; but Aben Ezra says, if he has lain with the mother, the daughter is forbidden; however, if he married either of them, the other was forbidden; he could not marry them both, neither in the lifetime of them both, nor after the death of either of them:
neither shalt thou take her son's daughter, or her daughter's daughter, to uncover her nakedness; not any of her granddaughters, either in the line of her son or daughter; that is, might not lie with either of them, or marry them, and much less then marry her own daughter, these being a further remove from her:
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for they are her near kinswomen; one or other of them, even every one of them, "the rest" and residue "of her" (r), of her flesh, who together made one flesh with her; and therefore not to be married to her husband, either in her life, or after her death:
it is wickedness: a very great wickedness, abominable in the sight of God, and to be detested by man as vile and impious; it is whoredom, as the Targum of Jonathan renders it.
(r) "reliquiae sunt ipsae", Tigurine version.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Lev 18:17. A woman and her daughter — If…
Lev 18:17. A woman and her daughter — If a man married a widow that had a daughter, he was not allowed to marry this daughter, either while the mother was alive or after her death.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Daughter, together, or successively; even if she were the…
Daughter, together, or successively; even if she were the child of another husband. --- Incest. Hebrew, "a crime." Aquila, "an abomination." Septuagint, "an impiety."
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 17. A woman and her daughter — This verse…
17. A woman and her daughter — This verse prohibits the successive marriage of a man with a woman and her daughter or granddaughter on account of their near blood relationship.
Wickedness — This word zimmah is elsewhere generally translated lewdness, and signifies a gross violation of decency or principle.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (17) A woman and her daughter.—That is, if a…
(17) A woman and her daughter.—That is, if a man marries a widow who has a daughter by a former husband, or if he forms an alliance with a woman who has a daughter out of wedlock, he is forbidden to marry also the daughter. But though this prohibition is directed against a peculiar form of polygamy. there can hardly be any doubt that, as the administrators of the law during the second Temple interpreted it, if he married either of them and she died, he could not marry the other any more, and that this prohibition did not apply to cases of illicit commerce. Criminal intercourse with one did not preclude him from marrying the other. For contracting the kind of polygamy here forbidden, the offenders were punished with death by fire. (See Lev_20:14.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain The ninth form of incest prohibited is intercourse with…
The ninth form of incest prohibited is intercourse with a stepdaughter, or step-granddaughter, or mother-in-law. The expression made use of, Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, covers the case of a man"s own daughter, and it is singular that it is only in this incidental manner that it is specifically named. But it has been already disposed of by the general command, None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness.
The daughter being nearest of kin, this command was sufficient without further specification. The niece and probably the wife"s sister are forbidden by the same general rule (see following note).
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0
translationWords
evil
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life
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 18:17 As with all examples listed in ch 18,…
18:17 As with all examples listed in ch 18, marrying a woman together with her daughter or granddaughter was prohibited because of the disruption it would cause in the family order. It would violate the intimacy of the family group by forcing a wife to compete for her husband’s affections against a much younger woman. The penalty for this act was death by burning (20:14).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.