Leviticus 18:17
עֶרְוַת אִשָּׁה וּבִתָּהּ לֹא תְגַלֵּה אֶֽת־בַּת־בְּנָהּ וְאֶת־בַּת־בִּתָּהּ לֹא תִקַּח לְגַלּוֹת עֶרְוָתָהּ שַׁאֲרָה הֵנָּה זִמָּה הִֽוא
✦ Hebrew interlinear
Tap a word to see its entry
✦ The same verse in five languages
עֶרְוַ֥ת אִשָּׁ֛ה וּבִתָּ֖הּ לֹ֣א תְגַלֵּ֑ה אֶֽת־בַּת־בְּנָ֞הּ וְאֶת־בַּת־בִּתָּ֗הּ לֹ֤א תִקַּח֙ לְגַלּ֣וֹת עֶרְוָתָ֔הּ שַׁאֲרָ֥ה הֵ֖נָּה זִמָּ֥ה הִֽוא
ἀσχημοσύνην γυναικὸς καὶ θυγατρὸς αὐτῆς οὐκ θυγατρὸς αὐτῆς οὐκ ἀποκαλύψεις· τὴν θυγατέρα τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτῆς καὶ τὴν θυγατέρα τῆς θυγατρὸς αὐτῆς οὐ λήμψῃ ἀποκαλύψαι τὴν ἀσχημοσύνην αὐτῶν· οἰκεῖαι γάρ σού εἰσιν, ἀσέβημά ἐστιν.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Turpitudinem uxoris tuæ et filiæ ejus non revelabis. Filiam filii ejus, et filiam filiæ illius non sumes, ut reveles ignominiam ejus: quia caro illius sunt, et talis coitus incestus est.
“‘No tendrás relaciones sexuales con una mujer y también con su hija. Tampoco te acostarás con su nieta, ya sea hija de su hijo o hija de su hija. Son parientes cercanas, y hacer eso es una perversidad.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
La desnudez de la mujer y de su hija no descubrirás: no tomarás la hija de su hijo, ni la hija de su hija, para descubrir su desnudez: son parientas, es maldad.
You must not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter. You are not to marry her son ’s daughter or her daughter ’s daughter and have sexual relations with her. They are close relatives; it is depraved.
✦ What the text says
Summary
Leviticus 18:17 prohibits a man from uncovering the nakedness of a woman together with that of her daughter, and specifically forbids taking the daughter of her son or the daughter of her daughter to uncover their nakedness. The verse closes by classifying such relatives as sha'arah ("relatives", H7608) and the act as zimmah ("wickedness", H2154).
Key words
- 'er.Vat ("[the] nakedness of", H6172) — feminine singular construct noun, appearing twice (also as 'er.va.Tah), marking the object that must not be "uncovered"; construct form links it directly to the woman in question.
- te.ga.Leh ("you will uncover", H1540I) — piel (intensive) imperfect, second person masculine; the piel stem intensifies the verbal action of exposing/removing covering, and the imperfect gives it a durative or prohibitive-future force alongside lo' ("not", H3808).
- ti.Kach ("you will take", H3947G) — qal (simple) imperfect, second person masculine; a plain, non-intensive verb of "taking," distinct from the piel verb used for "uncovering," showing two separate prohibited actions (taking and uncovering).
- sha.'a.Rah ("[are] relative[s]", H7608) — feminine singular noun functioning predicatively with the pronoun He.nah ("they", H2007, feminine plural), stating a category/status rather than describing an action.
- zi.Mah ("[is] wickedness", H2154) — feminine singular noun paired with hi' ("it", H1931, feminine singular pronoun), forming a second nominal predicate that labels the described act.
What the text says
The Hebrew sentence is built from two parallel prohibition clauses, each using lo' ("not", H3808) plus an imperfect verb, followed by a closing double nominal clause. The first clause uses te.ga.Leh (piel imperfect of H1540I, "uncover") governing the construct chain 'er.Vat 'i.Shah u.vi.Tah — "the nakedness of a woman and her daughter" — treating mother and daughter's nakedness as a single forbidden object. The second clause shifts verbs: ti.Kach (qal imperfect of H3947G, "take") governs the object marker 'et before two further construct chains, bat-be.Nah ("daughter of her son") and bat-bi.Tah ("daughter of her daughter"), i.e., granddaughters through son or daughter. This second clause is followed by an infinitive, le.ga.Lot ("to uncover", H1540I), explaining the purpose of "taking." The final line uses two short nominal (verbless) clauses: sha.'a.Rah He.nah ("relatives they [are]") and zi.Mah hi' ("wickedness it [is]"), each pairing a predicate noun with a personal pronoun, a common Hebrew construction for categorical statements without a copula verb.
Differences between versions
The LXX text as given contains a repeated phrase — "καὶ θυγατρὸς αὐτῆς οὐκ θυγατρὸς αὐτῆς οὐκ ἀποκαλύψεις" — duplicating "and her daughter... you shall not uncover," which does not correspond to a repetition in the Hebrew. The Vulgate renders the first noun as "uxoris tuae" ("your wife"), inserting a possessive ("your") not present in the Hebrew 'i.Shah ("a woman", H0802G), and translates sha.'a.Rah ("relatives", H7608) as "caro illius" ("her flesh"), a bodily-kinship metaphor differing from the Hebrew term for "relative."
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.