God’s Word Translation
Leviticus 18:16
16Never have sexual intercourse with your sister-in-law. She is your brother’s wife.
Leviticus 18:16 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother’s wife: it is thy brother’s nakedness.
- New International Version (NIV)“ ‘Do not have sexual relations with your brother’s wife; that would dishonor your brother.
- English Standard Version (ESV)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother's wife; it is your brother's nakedness.
- New King James Version (NKJV)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness.
Context of Leviticus 18:16
14Never have sexual intercourse with the wife of your father’s brother. She, too, is your aunt. 15Never have sexual intercourse with your daughter-in-law. She is your son’s wife. Never have sexual intercourse with her. Never have sexual intercourse with your sister-in-law. She is your brother’s wife. 17Never have sexual intercourse with a woman and her daughter or a woman and her granddaughter. They are related. Doing this is perverted. 18While your wife is living, never marry her sister as a rival wife and have sexual intercourse with her.
Read all of Leviticus 18Leviticus 18:16 word by word
עֶרְוַ֥ת אֵֽשֶׁת־אָחִ֖יךָ לֹ֣א תְגַלֵּ֑ה עֶרְוַ֥ת אָחִ֖יךָ הִֽוא׃ סRead the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Leviticus 18:16
- Leviticus 20:21Whoever marries his brother’s wife violates his brother’s marriage and does an unclean thing. That man and woman will have no children.
- Deuteronomy 25:5When brothers live together and one of them dies without having a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother must marry her and sleep with her. He must do his duty as her brother-in-law.
- Matthew 14:3Herod had arrested John, tied him up, and put him in prison. Herod did this for Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip.
- Matthew 22:24“Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies childless, his brother should marry his widow and have children for his brother.’
- Mark 6:17Herod had sent men who had arrested John, tied him up, and put him in prison. Herod did that for Herodias, whom he had married. (She used to be his brother Philip’s wife.)
- Mark 12:19“Teacher, Moses wrote for us, ‘If a man dies and leaves a wife but no child, his brother should marry his widow and have children for his brother.’
- Luke 3:19John spoke out against the ruler Herod because Herod had married his own sister-in-law, Herodias. He also spoke out against Herod for all the evil things he had done.
Commentaries on Leviticus 18:16
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 16Thy brother's wife - This was an illegal marriage, unless the brother died childless. In that case it was not only lawful for her to marry her brother-in-law, but he was obliged by the law, Deuteronomy 25:5, to take her to wife.Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 16Thy brother‘s wife - That is, if she had children. See Deuteronomy 25:5. The law here expressed was broken by Antipas in his connection with Herodias Matthew 14:3-4.Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 16Having sexual relations with your sister-in-law would be adulterous and would disgrace your brother. An exception was the law of levirate marriage (see Deuteronomy 25:5–10). This required a man to marry his brother’s widow to produce an heir who was considered the dead brother’s son.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1-302-4. I am the Lord your God--This renewed mention of the divine sovereignty over the Israelites was intended to bear particularly on some laws that were widely different from the social customs that obtained both in Egypt and Canaan; for the enormities, which the laws enumerated in this chapter were intended to put down, were freely practised or publicly sanctioned in both of those countries; and, indeed, the extermination of the ancient Canaanites is…Read the comment
Topics related to Leviticus 18:16
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Leviticus 18
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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