Bible Strands
Leviticus 18:8
You must not have sexual relations with your father’s wife; it would dishonor your father.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God addresses Moses to deliver this command to the assembled Israelite community, functioning as a direct legal prohibition within the wilderness covenant code.
The words — The Hebrew תְגַלֵּ֑ה (te.ga.Leh) means "you will uncover," paired with עֶרְוַ֥ת ('er.Vat), literally "nakedness," framing the act as a violation of exposed intimacy.
The thread — The same prohibition appears in Leviticus 20:11, which prescribes death for the act, and in Deuteronomy 22:30 and 27:20, which condemn it as dishonoring the father’s marriage bed.
Why it lands — The text explicitly forbids sexual relations with a father’s wife to prevent dishonoring the father, requiring readers to uphold strict familial boundaries without exception.
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
The nakedness of thy father’s wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father’s nakedness.
Cross-references
- Leviticus 20:11 If a man lies with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness. Both must surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.
- Deuteronomy 22:30 A man is not to marry his father’s wife, so that he will not dishonor his father’s marriage bed.
- Deuteronomy 27:20 ‘Cursed is he who sleeps with his father’s wife, for he has violated his father’s marriage bed.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’
- 1 Corinthians 5:1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is intolerable even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife.
- Amos 2:7 They trample on the heads of the poor as on the dust of the earth; they push the needy out of their way. A man and his father have relations with the same girl and so profane My holy name.
- Genesis 49:4 Uncontrolled as the waters, you will no longer excel, because you went up to your father’s bed, onto my couch, and defiled it.
- Genesis 35:22 While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went in and slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard about it. Jacob had twelve sons:
- 2 Samuel 16:21 Ahithophel replied, “Sleep with your father’s concubines, whom he has left to take care of the palace. When all Israel hears that you have become a stench to your father, then the hands of all who are with you will be strengthened.”
- Ezekiel 22:10 In you they have uncovered the nakedness of their fathers; in you they violate women during their menstrual impurity.