Bible Strands
Leviticus 18:20
You must not lie carnally with your neighbor’s wife and thus defile yourself with her.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God speaks through Moses to the Israelites assembled at Sinai, placing this command within a broader list of boundary markers for communal holiness.
The words — תִתֵּ֥ן (ti.Ten) = you will give and שְׁכָבְתְּ/ךָ֖ (she.kha.ve.te./Kha) = your copulation, which the text literally frames as offering one’s sexual acts to another man’s wife.
The thread — The prohibition appears in Exodus 20:14, the corresponding penalty is outlined in Leviticus 20:10, and Jesus cites the command in Matthew 5:27.
Why it lands — The text demands the reader treat another man’s marriage as a boundary not to cross, explicitly warning that doing so brings personal defilement.
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
Moreover thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbour’s wife, to defile thyself with her.
Cross-references
- Exodus 20:14 You shall not commit adultery.
- Leviticus 20:10 If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress must surely be put to death.
- Matthew 5:27 You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’
- 1 Corinthians 6:9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts,
- Hebrews 13:4 Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.
- Deuteronomy 5:18 You shall not commit adultery.
- 2 Samuel 11:3 So David sent and inquired about the woman, and he was told, “This is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”
- Proverbs 6:25 Do not lust in your heart for her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes.
- Deuteronomy 22:22 If a man is found lying with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.
- Deuteronomy 22:25 But if the man encounters a betrothed woman in the open country, and he overpowers her and lies with her, only the man who has done this must die.