Leviticus 18:10

Summary

Leviticus 18:10 prohibits a man from uncovering the 'ervah ("nakedness", H6172) of his granddaughter, whether she is his son's daughter or his daughter's daughter. The text grounds this prohibition in a stated reason: her 'ervah is equated with the man's own 'ervah.

Key words

• 'erVat ("nakedness of", H6172) — feminine singular construct, opening the verse; establishes the object under discussion, repeated three times with different suffixes across the verse.
• teGalleh ("you will uncover", H1540I) — Piel imperfect, second person masculine singular; the Piel stem carries an intensive or deliberate nuance for the act of "uncovering," and the imperfect expresses a prohibition governed by the preceding lo' ("not", H3808).
• 'ervaTan ("their nakedness", H6172 + H9029) — the noun 'ervah with a third person feminine plural suffix, referring back jointly to both granddaughters named in the first clause.
• ki ("for/that", H3588A) — subordinating particle introducing the causal clause that supplies the rationale for the prohibition.
• 'ervatKha ("your nakedness", H6172 + H9021) — same noun with second person masculine singular suffix, used in the closing clause to identify the addressee's own 'ervah with that of the granddaughters.

What the text says

The verse is built around three occurrences of the construct noun 'ervah, each carrying a different pronominal suffix, which structures the logic of the prohibition. The first occurrence, 'erVat bat-binKha ("nakedness of the daughter of your son"), together with the parallel vat-bitteKha ("daughter of your daughter"), names two categories of granddaughter through construct chains (X of Y). Both are joined by the conjunction 'o ("or", H0176A), indicating that the same rule applies regardless of which line of descent produces the granddaughter.

The prohibition itself is carried by the negation lo' followed by the Piel imperfect teGalleh, addressed to a second masculine singular subject ("you"). The object of this verb is 'ervaTan, "their nakedness," where the third feminine plural suffix -an (H9029) refers back to both granddaughters as a combined group, even though each was introduced separately in the preceding clause.

The final clause, introduced by ki ("for/that"), gives the grounds for the prohibition: 'ervatKha hennah, literally "your nakedness, they [are]." Here the noun 'ervah reappears with the second-person suffix -Kha ("your"), and the independent pronoun hennah ("they", feminine plural, H2007) stands as the predicate, identifying the granddaughters' 'ervah with that of the addressee himself. The construct chains throughout (X of Y of Z) allow Hebrew to compress the genealogical relationship without a separate verb "to be."

Differences between versions

The LXX renders 'ervah consistently as ἀσχημοσύνη ("shame, indecency"), matching the Hebrew's repeated key term. The Vulgate translates the second granddaughter as neptis ex filia ("granddaughter through the daughter"), a more explanatory phrasing than the Hebrew's parallel construct bat-bittekha. The BSB and SBLIBRE render the closing causal clause dynamically ("that would shame your family" / "deshonrarla a ella es deshonrarte a ti mismo"), interpreting the Hebrew's direct identification of "your nakedness" with "their nakedness" as a statement about shame or dishonor rather than a literal equivalence of 'ervah.