to denude (especially in a disgraceful sense) · verb, piel imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
nakedness
עֶרְוַ֥ת'er.Vat
H6172
nudity · noun, common feminine singular construct
brother’s
אָחִ֖יךָ'a.Chi.kha
H251
a brother (used in the widest sense of literal relation… · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
wife
אֵֽשֶׁת'e.shet-
H802
a woman · noun, common feminine singular construct
brother’s
אָחִ֖יךָ'a.Chi.kha
H251
a brother (used in the widest sense of literal relation… · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
nakedness
עֶרְוַ֥ת'er.Vat
H6172
nudity · noun, common feminine singular construct
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Leviticus 20:21 And if a man shall take his brother’s wife, it is an unclean thing: he hath uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless.
Deuteronomy 25:5 If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husban…
Matthew 22:24 Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.
Mark 12:19 Master, Moses wrote unto us, If a man’s brother die, and leave his wife behind him, and leave no children, that his brother should take his…
Matthew 14:3-4 For Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him in prison for Herodias’ sake, his brother Philip’s wife.
Mark 6:17 For Herod himself had sent forth and laid hold upon John, and bound him in prison for Herodias’ sake, his brother Philip’s wife: for he had…
Luke 3:19 But Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him for Herodias his brother Philip’s wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done,
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Leviticus 18:6-18
These laws relate to the seventh commandment, and, no doubt, are obligatory on us under the gospel, for they are consonant to the very light and law of nature: one of the articles, that of a man's having his father's wife, the apostle speaks of as a sin not so much as named among the Gentiles, Co1 5:1. Though some of the incests here forbidden were practised by some particular persons among the heathen, yet they were disallowed and detested, unless among those nations who had become barbarous, and were quite given up to vile affections. Observe,
I. That which is forbidden as to the relations here specified is approaching to them to uncover their nakedness, Lev 18:6.
1. It is chiefly intended…
None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him--Very great laxity prevailed amongst the Egyptians in their sentiments and practice about the conjugal relation, as they not only openly sanctioned marriages between brothers and sisters, but even between parents and children. Such incestuous alliances Moses wisely prohibited, and his laws form the basis upon which the marriage regulations of this and other Christian nations are chiefly founded. This verse contains a general summary of all the particular prohibitions; and the forbidden intercourse is pointed out by the phrase, "to approach to." In the specified prohibitions that follow, all of which are included in this general sum…
Thy 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.
John Gill on Leviticus 18:16
Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother's wife,.... Neither debauch her nor after the death of the brother marry her, that is, unless he dies without issue; and then, by another law, he was obliged to marry her, Deuteronomy 25:5; hence the Targum of Jonathan adds; by way of explanation."in the life of thy brother, or after his death, if he has children,''but then that law was but an exception from this general rule, and so did not make it void in other respects, but bound it the more strongly; and besides, it was a special and peculiar law to the Jews, until the Messiah came to make it manifest of what tribe and family he came; and the reason of it ceasing, the law itself is ceas…
The Church Fathers
You will not discover the nakedness of your brother's wife: it is your brother's nakedness. We wonder if this is forbidden, living the brother or when he has already died, and the problem is not small. For if we were to say that the Scripture has spoken of the wife of the living brother, resorting to a general precept, which forbids a man to approach his neighbor's wife, obviously this would also be understood (Cf Ex 20,17). Why then distinguish in a very careful way with particular prohibitions these people, calling domestic, from the others? Because what it prohibits about the woman of the father, that is to say, of the stepmother, refers to while the father lives and not when he has already died. Well, if the father lives, who does not see that it is much more forbidden, if the wife of any other man is forbidden to be stained with adultery? Therefore, it seems that it refers to those people who, not having husbands, could join in marriage if it were not forbidden by law, as it is said to be the custom among the Persians. But then, if we understood that, when the brother was dead, it was forbidden to marry the wife of the brother, we are presented with the precept that the Scripture imposes when it comes to leaving offspring to a dead brother without children (Cf Dt 25,5). And therefore, compared this prohibition with that mandate, so that there is no contradiction between them, we must think that there is an exception, that is, it is not lawful for anyone to marry the wife of a deceased brother, if the dead left offspring . Or that this would be forbidden, so that it would not be lawful to marry the brother's wife even if she had separated by repudiation of the living brother. Because then, as the Lord says, Moses, because of the hardness of the Jews, would have allowed them to give the libel of repudiation (Cf Mt 19,8). And because of this dismissal it could be thought that anyone could marry lawfully with his brother's wife, when he did not fear adultery, since he would have separated from her by repudiation.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Affinity — Relationship by alliance (2 Chr. 18:1) or by marriage (1 Kings 3:1). Marriages are prohibited within certain degrees of affinity, enumerated Lev. 18:6-17. Consanguinity is relationship by blood.
Marriage — Was instituted in Paradise when man was in innocence (Gen. 2:18-24). Here we have its original charter, which was confirmed by our Lord, as the basis on which all regulations are to be framed (Matt.…
Witness — More than one witness was required in criminal cases (Deut. 17:6; 19:15). They were the first to execute the sentence on the condemned (Deut. 13:9; 17:7; 1 Kings 21:13; Matt. 27:1; Acts 7:57, 58).…
Abomination · .Incest — .Incest
Copulation · Forbid — Forbid
Incest · General references — General references
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Leviticus 18:5
5. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments; which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the Lord.
5. Custodite statuta mea, et judicia mea, quae homo si faciat, rivet in ipsis.
5. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes. Although Moses introduces this passage, where he exhorts the Israelites to cultivate chastity in respect to marriage, and not to fall into the incestuous pollutions of the Gentiles, yet, as it is a remarkable one, and contains general instruction, from whence Paul derives his definition of the righteousness of the Law, (Romans 10:5,) it seems to me to come in very appropriately here, inasmuch as it sanctions and confirms the Law by the promise…
Marriage with a brother's wife was a sin against the brother's nakedness, a sexual defilement, which God would punish with barrenness. This prohibition, however, only refers to cases in which the deceased brother had left children; for if he had died childless, the brother not only might, but was required to marry his sister-in-law (Deu 25:5).
Tyndale Open Study Notes on Leviticus 18:16
Sexual relations with your sister-in-law would be adulterous and disgrace your brother. The exception was the law of levirate marriage (see Deut 25:5-10), which called for a man to marry his brother’s widow in order to produce an heir who was considered the dead brother’s son.
Rashi on Leviticus 18:15
אשת בנך [THE NAKEDNESS OF THY DAUGHTER-IN-LAW THOU SHALT NOT UNCOVER; SHE IS] THY SON'S WIFE — By using the apparently redundant words: “she is thy son's wife" Scripture says, as it were: I command this about such a woman only when thy son has a legal matrimonial relation (אישות) to her, thus excluding a woman who has been raped by him (אנוסה) or a Canaanitish maid-servant, or a non-Jewess (cf. Sifra, Kedoshim, Chapter 10 10)).
