Leviticus 18:9 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Leviticus 18:9
The nakedness of thy sister, the daughter of thy father, or daughter of thy mother, whether she be born at home, or born abroad, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover.
a sister (used very widely (like brother) · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
daughter
בַתvat-
H1323
a daughter (used in the same wide sense as other terms… · noun, common feminine singular construct
father
אָבִ֙יךָ֙'a.Vi.kha
H1
father · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
daughter
בַתvat-
H1323
a daughter (used in the same wide sense as other terms… · noun, common feminine singular construct
mother
אִמֶּ֔ךָ'i.Me.kha
H517
a mother (as the bond of the family) · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
born
מוֹלֶ֣דֶתmo.Le.det
H4138
nativity (plural birth-place) · noun, common feminine singular construct
home
בַּ֔יִתBa.yit
H1004
a house (in the greatest variation of applications · noun, common masculine singular absolute
born
מוֹלֶ֣דֶתmo.Le.det
H4138
nativity (plural birth-place) · noun, common feminine singular construct
abroad
ח֑וּץChutz
H2351
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
nakedness
עֶרְוָתָֽן'er.va.Tan
H6172
nudity · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine plural
uncover
תְגַלֶּ֖הte.ga.Leh
H1540
to denude (especially in a disgraceful sense) · verb, piel imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
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 20:17 And if a man shall take his sister, his father’s daughter, or his mother’s daughter, and see her nakedness, and she see his nakedness; it is…
Deuteronomy 27:22 Cursed be he that lieth with his sister, the daughter of his father, or the daughter of his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Ezekiel 22:11 And one hath committed abomination with his neighbour’s wife; and another hath lewdly defiled his daughter in law; and another in thee hath…
2 Samuel 13:11-14 And when she had brought them unto him to eat, he took hold of her, and said unto her, Come lie with me, my sister.
Leviticus 18:11 The nakedness of thy father’s wife’s daughter, begotten of thy father, she is thy sister, thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.
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…
Any that is near of kin - כל שאר בשרו col shear besaro, any remnant of his flesh, i.e., to any particularly allied to his own family, the prohibited degrees in which are specified from the 7th to the 17th verse (Lev 18:7-17) inclusive. Notwithstanding the prohibitions here, it must be evident that in the infancy of the world, persons very near of kin must have been joined in matrimonial alliances; and that even brothers must have matched with their own sisters. This must have been the case in the family of Adam. In these first instances necessity required this; when this necessity no longer existed, the thing became inexpedient and improper for two reasons:
1. That the duties owing by nature…
The Church Fathers
You will not discover the nakedness of your sister, daughter of your father or daughter of your mother, born at home or born outside the home: it is their nakedness. The one born at home is understood as the father's daughter. The one born outside the home is understood as the mother's daughter, if perhaps the mother had had it from a previous husband and had come with her home when she married her father. The Scripture advises not to discover the nakedness of his sister. Here seems not to have forbidden, and almost overlooked, the concubus with the sister born of both parents. Because the text does not say: You will not discover the nakedness of your sister, daughter of your father and mother, but of your father or your mother. But who does not see that also that is forbidden with much more reason? Because if it is not lawful to discover the nakedness of a sister, daughter of either of the two parents, how much less the daughter of both! Why does it also prohibit concubinage with one's nieces, saying about the son or about the daughter: You will not discover the nakedness of the daughter of your father's wife (Lv 18,11). If what had been said had stopped here, we would understand that the concubinage with the stepmother's daughter, born by her from a previous husband and not the sister of the individual who is forbidden, whether daughter of the father, would also have been forbidden. , whether daughter of the mother. But when adding: Daughter of your father, who is your sister. You will not discover her nakedness, (Lv 18,11) it is shown that this prohibition was made because of the sister, since she had been the daughter of the father and the stepmother, of whom we had already spoken before. Or the author wanted to prohibit it again more clearly, because before it was very dark? The Scripture does this many times.
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.…
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).
The nakedness of thy sister,.... To lie with one in so near a relation is exceeding criminal, and for which the law curses a man, Deuteronomy 27:22; and to marry her is not lawful; for though it was necessary for the propagation of mankind that a man should marry his sister, for who else could Cain and Abel marry? yet afterwards, when there was an increase of mankind, and there were people enough remote from each other, it became unlawful for persons in such near ties of consanguinity to marry with each other; though the Egyptians did, in imitation of Isis and Osiris (e), and so the Persians, following the example of Cambyses (f):
the daughter of thy father, or the daughter of thy mother; w…
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…
By the sister, the daughter of father or mother, we are to understand only the step-or half-sister, who had either the same father or the same mother as the brother had. The clause, "whether born at home or born abroad," does not refer to legitimate or illegitimate birth, but is to be taken as a more precise definition of the words, daughter of thy father or of thy mother, and understood, as Lud. de Dieu supposes, as referring to the half-sister "of the first marriage, whether the father's daughter left by a deceased wife, or the mother's daughter left by a deceased husband," so that the person marrying her would be a son by a second marriage. Sexual intercourse with a half-sister is describ…
Sexual relations with a full sister dishonored both parents, and relations with a half sister dishonored one parent.
Rashi on Leviticus 18:9
בת אביך [THE NAKEDNESS OF THY SISTER] THE DAUGHTER OF THY FATHER [OR THE DAUGHTER OF THY MOTHER… THOU SHALT NOT UNCOVER] — Also the daughter of a woman raped by one's father is implied by the term מולדת בית או מולדת חוץ.
.בת — WHETHER SHE BE BORN IN THE HOUSE OR WHETHER SHE BE BORN OUTSIDE THE HOUSE — This means, thy sister, thy father's daughter, whether according to the law we can say to thy father, "Keep her mother as your wife" or whether we have to say to him, "Divorce her mother", as, for instance, when she is a ממזרת (the issue of a union forbidden in the Torah under the penalty of כרת) or a נתינה (the daughter of a Gibeonite woman, cf. Joshua 9:27, forbidden under the penalty of מלק…
