Bible Strands
Leviticus 18:16
You must not have sexual relations with your brother’s wife; that would shame your brother.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God addresses the Israelites in the wilderness, issuing direct legal boundaries for family and marital conduct. The command appears within a structured list of prohibited kinship unions.
The words — תְגַלֵּ֑ה (te.ga.Leh) means "you will uncover," paired with עֶרְוַ֥ת ('er.Vat), literally "nakedness." Together they function as a technical idiom for sexual relations.
The thread — The prohibition reappears in Leviticus 20:21, which labels the act an impurity and restates the uncovered nakedness formula. Deuteronomy 25:5 later regulates levirate marriage, demonstrating that the boundary is structural rather than absolute.
Why it lands — The text draws a strict line to prevent marital overlap within a single family unit. It requires readers to treat kinship ties as legally bounded rather than emotionally or socially negotiable.
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 brother’s wife: it is thy brother’s nakedness.
Cross-references
- Leviticus 20:21 If a man marries his brother’s wife, it is an act of impurity. He has uncovered the nakedness of his brother; they shall be childless.
- Deuteronomy 25:5 When brothers dwell together and one of them dies without a son, the widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother is to take her as his wife and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law for her.
- Matthew 22:24 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses declared that if a man dies without having children, his brother is to marry the widow and raise up offspring for him.
- Mark 12:19 “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man is to marry his brother’s widow and raise up offspring for him.
- Matthew 14:3 Now Herod had arrested John and bound him and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife,
- Mark 6:17 For Herod himself had ordered that John be arrested and bound and imprisoned, on account of his brother Philip’s wife Herodias, whom Herod had married.
- Luke 3:19 But when he rebuked Herod the tetrarch regarding his brother’s wife Herodias and all the evils he had done,