Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 27:22
‘Cursed is he who sleeps with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Moses pronounces a covenant curse to the assembled tribes of Israel, continuing a liturgical pattern where each prohibition is followed by a corporate response. The address occurs as the people prepare to enter the Promised Land, mirroring the adjacent curses on bestiality (Deuteronomy 27:21) and in-law relations (Deuteronomy 27:23).
The words — אָר֗וּר ('a.Rur) = [is] cursed and שֹׁכֵב֙ (sho.Khev) = [one who] lies. These terms establish the act as a formal violation triggering divine condemnation rather than mere social disapproval.
The thread — The prohibition against sibling sexual relations runs through Leviticus 18:9 and Leviticus 20:17, and is cataloged among Israel’s repeated moral failures in Ezekiel 22:11. Each reference reinforces the same boundary without altering the core definition.
Why it lands — The text requires readers to recognize family boundaries as non-negotiable covenant limits and to verbally affirm ("Amen") the community’s shared responsibility to uphold sexual ethics. It asks for unambiguous compliance, not cultural negotiation.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Cursed be he that lieth with his sister, the daughter of his father, or the daughter of his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Cross-references
- Leviticus 18:9 You must not have sexual relations with your sister, either your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere.
- Leviticus 20:17 If a man marries his sister, whether the daughter of his father or of his mother, and they have sexual relations, it is a disgrace. They must be cut off in the sight of their people. He has uncovered the nakedness of his sister; he shall bear his iniquity.
- Ezekiel 22:11 One man commits an abomination with his neighbor’s wife; another wickedly defiles his daughter-in-law; and yet another violates his sister, his own father’s daughter.
- 2 Samuel 13:1 After some time, David’s son Amnon fell in love with Tamar, the beautiful sister of David’s son Absalom.
- 2 Samuel 13:8 So Tamar went to the house of her brother Amnon, who was lying down. She took some dough, kneaded it, made cakes in his sight, and baked them.