Leviticus 18:15

Summary

Leviticus 18:15 prohibits a man from uncovering the 'ervah ("nakedness", H6172) of his daughter-in-law, grounding the prohibition in her identity as the wife of his son. The verse restates the same core action twice, framing the woman's identity as the reason for the prohibition.

Key words

• 'Ervat ("nakedness of", H6172) — feminine singular construct; opens the verse and reappears at the end ('ervatah, "her nakedness"), forming an envelope structure around the verse.
• kallatekha ("your daughter-in-law", H3618H) — feminine singular construct with 2nd person masculine suffix; identifies the addressee's relation to the woman.
• teghalleh ("you will uncover", H1540I) — piel imperfect, 2nd masculine singular, repeated twice; the piel stem intensifies the basic verb "to uncover," and the imperfect conveys a durative or future prohibition rather than a single completed act.
• 'esheth ("wife of", H0802H) — feminine singular construct; links the woman to her husband, the addressee's son, rather than defining her independently.
• hi' ("she", H1931) — independent personal pronoun; grammatically unnecessary for basic sense but adds emphasis, isolating and identifying the referent before the second prohibition is stated.

What the text says

The verse divides into two parallel clauses, each built on the same verb teghalleh ("you will uncover", H1540I) with 'ervah ("nakedness", H6172) as its object. The first clause names the woman by relationship — kallatekha ("your daughter-in-law", H3618H) — and issues the prohibition directly. The second clause pauses to restate her identity through the emphatic pronoun hi' ("she", H1931) and the phrase 'esheth binkha ("wife of your son", H0802H + H1121A), before repeating the prohibition with the pronominal suffix -ah ("her") attached to 'ervah. This repetition is not redundant in the Hebrew structure: the middle clause (“she is your son's wife”) functions as the stated grounds separating the two identical verbal prohibitions, so the sentence moves from command, to justification, to command again.

The piel stem of ghalah ("to uncover") used in teghalleh carries an intensive nuance distinct from the simpler qal form, and its imperfect aspect frames the prohibition as applying to ongoing or repeated potential action rather than a single instance.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the middle clause as syngenēs gar sou estin ("for she is your kin") in the portion preceding this segment (visible in the fuller Greek text), while the Hebrew clause here states 'esheth binkha hi' ("she is the wife of your son"); the Greek text supplied for this verse itself, however, translates gynē gar huiou sou estin ("for she is the wife of your son"), matching the Hebrew relational term. The Vulgate similarly renders uxor filii tui est ("she is the wife of your son"), consistent with the Hebrew. Modern versions (BSB, SBLIBRE) render teghalleh ("you will uncover") idiomatically as "have sexual relations," expanding the literal "uncover nakedness" idiom found in the Hebrew and reflected more literally in RV1909 ("no descubrirás").