Leviticus 18:7-16

18:7 You must not ¹  expose your father’s nakedness by having sexual intercourse with your mother. ²  She is your mother; you must not have intercourse with her. 18:8 You must not have sexual intercourse with your father’s wife; she is your father’s nakedness. ³  18:9 You must not have sexual intercourse with your sister, whether she is your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, ⁴  whether she is born in the same household or born outside it; ⁵  you must not have sexual intercourse with either of them. ⁶  18:10 You must not expose the nakedness of your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter by having sexual intercourse with them, because they are your own nakedness. ⁷  18:11 You must not have sexual intercourse with the daughter of your father’s wife born of your father; she is your sister. You must not have intercourse with her. ⁸  18:12 You must not have sexual intercourse with your father’s sister; she is your father’s flesh. ⁹  18:13 You must not have sexual intercourse with your mother’s sister, because she is your mother’s flesh. 18:14 You must not expose the nakedness of your father’s brother; you must not approach his wife to have sexual intercourse with her. ¹⁰  She is your aunt. ¹¹  18:15 You must not have sexual intercourse with your daughter-in-law; she is your son’s wife. You must not have intercourse with her. 18:16 You must not have sexual intercourse with your brother’s wife; she is your brother’s nakedness. ¹² 

[18:7]  ¹ tn The verbal negative here is the same as that used in the Ten Commandments (Exod 20:4-5, 7, 13-17). It suggests permanent prohibition rather than a simple negative command and could, therefore, be rendered “must not” here and throughout the following section as it is in vv. 3-4 above.

[18:7]  ² tn Heb “The nakedness of your father and [i.e., even] the nakedness of your mother you shall not uncover.”

[18:8]  ³ tn Heb “the nakedness of your father she is.” See the note on v. 7 above. This law refers to another wife of the man’s father, who is not that man’s mother. The laws in the Pentateuch sometimes assume the possibility that a man may have more than one wife (cf., e.g., Deut 21:15-17).

[18:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “the daughter of your father or the daughter of your mother.”

[18:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “born of house or born of outside.” CEV interprets as “whether you grew up together or not” (cf. also TEV, NLT).

[18:9]  ⁷ tc Several medieval Hebrew mss, Smr, LXX, and Syriac have “her nakedness” rather than “their nakedness,” thus agreeing with singular “sister” at the beginning of the verse.

[18:10]  ⁷ sn That is, to have sexual intercourse with one’s granddaughter would be like openly exposing one’s own shameful nakedness (see the note on v. 7 above).

[18:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “The nakedness of the daughter of your father’s wife born of your father, she is your sister; you must not uncover her nakedness.” That is, a half sister, the daughter of the man’s father by another wife, who is not the man’s mother, is to be considered a true sister. Therefore, the man must not have sexual intercourse with her.

[18:12]  ¹¹ tc A few medieval Hebrew mss, the LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate all read “because she is the flesh of your father,” like the MT of v. 13.

[18:14]  ¹³ tn Heb “you must not draw near to his wife.” In the context this refers to approaching one’s aunt to have sexual intercourse with her, so this has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:14]  ¹⁴ tn As in v. 12 (see the note there), some mss and versions have “because she is your aunt.”

[18:16]  ¹⁵ sn Regarding the last clause, see the notes on vv. 7 and 10 above.