Leviticus 18:12

Summary

Leviticus 18:12 prohibits uncovering the 'ervat ("nakedness of", H6172) of the sister of one's father. The verse grounds this prohibition by identifying her as she'er ("relative of", H7607) the father, closing with an emphatic pronoun confirming her identity.

Key words

• 'Er.vat ("nakedness of", H6172) — feminine singular construct noun, opening the construct chain that names the forbidden category; it governs the following genitive relations.
• 'achot- ("sister of", H0269) — feminine singular construct, links 'ervat to the specific family member in question, forming a double construct chain ("nakedness of the sister of your father").
• te.ga.Leh ("you will uncover", H1540I) — piel imperfect, second person masculine singular; the piel stem intensifies the verbal action beyond a simple qal "to uncover", and the imperfect conveys a standing prohibition applicable to ongoing/future situations.
• she.'Er ("relative of", H7607) — masculine singular construct noun, used here to supply the rationale for the prohibition by naming the kinship category.
• hi' ("she", H1931) — independent personal pronoun placed at the end of the clause, functioning as an emphatic copula-like confirmation ("she is...").

What the text says

The verse is built on two parallel construct chains. The first, 'ervat 'achot-'avikha ("the nakedness of the sister of your father"), identifies the forbidden object precisely: not "your aunt" as a single lexical unit, but a layered genitive construction — nakedness belonging to the sister belonging to the father belonging to "you" (via the pronominal suffix -kha, H9021, repeated twice). This construct stacking is characteristic of Biblical Hebrew's way of building specific kinship descriptions without a possessive adjective.

The prohibition itself, lo' tegalleh ("you will not uncover"), uses the piel imperfect of the verb for "to uncover" — the piel stem here carries an intensive or specifically consummative nuance compared to a plain qal action, and the imperfect aspect frames this as a durative rule rather than a single-instance command.

The second half of the verse, she'er 'avikha hi' ("she is a relative of your father"), restates the rationale using a different noun for kinship, she'er (H7607), rather than 'achot (H0269) used earlier. The clause ends with the independent pronoun hi' ("she", H1931), which in Hebrew nominal clauses functions to affirm or identify the subject — here confirming that the referent uncovering is forbidden is indeed this specific relative.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders she'er ("relative", H7607) as oikeia (roughly "member of the household/kin"), while the Vulgate uses caro ("flesh") for the same term — both differing lexical choices for the Hebrew kinship noun, though conveying a similar relational sense. The BSB and SBLIBRE translate tegalleh as "have sexual relations" rather than a literal "uncover", making explicit what the Hebrew idiom of "uncovering nakedness" implies.