Bible Strands
Leviticus 18:13
You must not have sexual relations with your mother’s sister, for she is your mother’s close relative.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Yahweh addresses the Israelite community through Moses, placing this rule within a sequential legal code that catalogs prohibited kinship unions. The verse sits directly between regulations concerning a father’s sister and a father’s brother’s wife.
The words — תְגַלֵּ֑ה (te.ga.Leh) means "you will uncover," and שְׁאֵ֥ר (she.'Er) means "relative" or "kin." Paired with לֹ֣א (lo'), "not," they form the structural command against exposing the nakedness of a maternal aunt.
The thread — The text belongs to a systematic boundary-mapping that treats family lines as fixed categories for sexual prohibition. It runs parallel to Leviticus 18:12’s paternal aunt rule and Leviticus 18:14’s rule regarding a paternal uncle’s wife, establishing a symmetrical framework of restricted relations.
Why it lands — The verse demands the maintenance of clear family boundaries by forbidding sexual union with a maternal aunt. It requires readers to treat kinship lines as inviolable structural limits rather than negotiable social arrangements.
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
Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother’s sister: for she is thy mother’s near kinswoman.