Deuteronomy 22:30

22:30 The phrase his father’s former wife does not refer to a man’s own mother because incest was a more serious crime (see Lev 18:7-8, 29).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

He shall not lie with his stepmother, meaning hereby all other degrees forbidden, Lev. 18.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 30. A man shall not take his father's wife] This is to be understood as referring to the case of a stepmother. A man in his old age may have married a young wife, and on his dying, his son by a former wife may desire to espouse her: this the law prohibits. It was probably on pretence of having broken this law, that Solomon put his brother Adonijah to death, because he had desired to have his father's concubine to wife, 1Kg 2:13-25.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

30. (Heb. ch. Deu_23:1.) Against Intercourse with a Father’s Wife, cp. Deu_27:20, and H, Lev_18:8; Lev_20:11, where the prohibition is extended to other female relatives. Either D’s law is earlier than H’s or D did not know of H’s. Its limitation to this special case is explained by the fact that such intercourse had been regarded as proof of succession to the father’s property (2Sa_3:7; 2Sa_16:22, 1Ki_2:22) and was become frequent (Eze_22:10); probably the survival of a practice general in early times (but condemned by J, Gen_35:22; Gen_49:4).

Thus among the ancient Arabs a man succeeded to his father’s wives along with other heritable property, but this was forbidden by the Korân, iv. 26. For instances in Syria see W. R. Smith, Kinship, etc., 86–90, OTJC2, 369 f. By § 158 of Ḫammurabi a man caught after his father’s death with a step-mother who has borne children, is cut off from his father’s house; by § 157 incest is punished by burning. Cp. H, Lev_18:7.

uncover, etc.] Deu_27:20, for the sense see Rth_3:9, Eze_16:8, and cp. the Ar. parallel quoted through W. R. Smith in Driver’s Deut. 259, n. 1.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Covering. See Leviticus xx. 11. A wife should be hidden from all but her husband. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Shall not take to wife. So this respects the state, and the next branch speaks of the act only.

His father’s wife; his mother-in-law. See Lev 18:8; 20:11; 1Co 5:1.

His father’s skirt, i.e. the skirt of the mother’s garment, i.e. the nakedness, which is here called his father’s skirt, because his father and mother were one flesh, or because his father alone had the right to uncover it. The phrase is taken from the ancient custom or ceremony of the bridegroom’s spreading the skirt of his garment over the bride, to signify his right to her, and authority over her, and his obligation to the marriage duty. See Rth 3:9; Eze 16:8.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

30. A man shall not take his father’s wife — Comp. Lev_18:7-8.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

To these is appended a general prohibition of incestuous connections, the first provision in the earlier law being cited as a sort of index to the whole. (Lev_18:7, etc.)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Take - To wife. So this respects the state, and the next branch speaks of the act only.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

(or Deu 23:1) This verse, in which the prohibition of incest is renewed by a repetition of the first provision in the earlier law (Lev 18:7-8), is no doubt much better adapted to form the close of the laws of chastity and marriage, than the introduction to the laws which follow concerning the right of citizenship in the congregation of the Lord.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

must not take his father's wife as his own

The full meaning of this statement can be made explicit. AT: "must not marry his father's former wife, even if she is not his mother" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.