Lemma

Word-by-word Hebrew & Greek with Strong's lexicon

Link to this page

https://lemma.gebible.app/v/leviticus/18/12

Patron login

Leviticus 18:12

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex) Leviticus 18:12 appears in the Hebrew Old Testament. The text above is from the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Each word links to its Strong’s number, a concise gloss, and parsing drawn from the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible morphology. Click any word for its full Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB) entry.
Download image
Cite this verse

Leviticus 18:12 (World English Bible). Public Domain. Lemma interlinear Bible study tool, https://lemma.gebible.app/v/leviticus/18/12.

Show BibTeX & RIS
BibTeX
RIS
English Translation
You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's sister: she is your father's near kinswoman.
World English Bible · Public Domain
Download a study sheet

One document with this verse’s original text, its word-by-word gloss line, the meaning frame, cross-references with their text, attributed commentary, and full source and license credits — printable, and it pastes into notes with its structure intact.

This verse Autodidact and up

Study sheet (.html) Plain text (.txt)

A passage Seminary Student

Up to 50 verses in one chapter. A passage sheet keeps up to 6 commentary sources and 12 cross-references per verse, in the order this page ranks them, and says so on the sheet whenever that leaves anything out. Ask for a single verse and you get the Autodidact verse sheet above.

Everything on this page stays free to read, with no account — the sheet is a download of what is already on screen, not access to it.

Want to remove ads? Support Godless Engineer
Compare translations 3

The same verse in 3 English versions, stacked beneath the original-language interlinear above. Click any original word for its lexicon entry.

Each is an independent rendering of the whole verse — the interlinear is not word-aligned to these translations.

Highlighted words mark where these versions differ — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment.

  • World English Bible Public Domain
    You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's sister: she is your father's near kinswoman.
  • King James Version Public Domain
    Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father's sister: she is thy father's near kinswoman.
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
    The nakedness of the sister of your father, you shall not uncover. She is the flesh of your father.

unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult).

Versions to compare (up to 4)

3 of 4 selected

Open full comparison →
Show all 18 translations

Every available English version of this verse, each an independent rendering of the whole verse.

  • World English Bible Public Domain
    You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's sister: she is your father's near kinswoman.
  • Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
    You must not have sexual relations with your father’s sister; she is your father’s close relative.
  • Majority Standard Bible Public Domain
    You must not have sexual relations with your father’s sister; she is your father’s close relative.
  • King James Version Public Domain
    Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father's sister: she is thy father's near kinswoman.
  • American Standard Version (1901) Public Domain
    Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father's sister: she is thy father's near kinswoman.
  • Revised Version (1885) Public Domain
    Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father’s sister: she is thy father’s near kinswoman.
  • Geneva Bible (1599) Public Domain
    Thou shalt not vncouer the shame of thy fathers sister: for she is thy fathers kinswoman.
  • Douay-Rheims (1899) Public Domain
    Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father's sister: because she is the flesh of thy father.
  • Young's Literal Translation Public Domain
    `The nakedness of a sister of thy father thou dost not uncover; she `is' a relation of thy father.
  • Literal Standard Version CC BY-SA 4.0
    You do not uncover the nakedness of a sister of your father; she [is] a relation of your father.
  • Unlocked Literal Bible CC BY-SA 4.0
    Do not sleep with your father's sister. She is a close relative to your father.
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
    The nakedness of the sister of your father, you shall not uncover. She is the flesh of your father.
  • Darby Bible Public Domain
    The nakedness of thy father's sister shalt thou not uncover: she is thy father's near relation.
  • World Messianic Bible Public Domain
    “‘You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s sister. She is your father’s near kinswoman.
  • Webster's Bible Public Domain
    Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father's sister: she is thy father's near kinswoman.
  • Free Bible Version CC BY-SA 4.0
    Don't have sex with your father's sister. She is a close relative of your father.
  • Bible in Basic English Public Domain
    You may not have sex connection with your father's sister, for she is your father's near relation.
  • JPS Tanakh (1917) Public Domain
    Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father's sister: she is thy father's near kinswoman.

Literal Standard Version (2020), Covenant Press — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). Unlocked Literal Bible (unfoldingWord) — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult). Free Bible Version, Dr. Jonathan Gallagher — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org).

Word by word

More ways to search: Search by grammar → Find every occurrence → Compare this word →

Practice this passage: Drill this verse → Learn its vocabulary →

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

8
words
7
distinct lemmas
Pentateuch
section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is שְׁאֵ֥ר flesh H7607 — appearing just 16 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

שְׁאֵ֥ר flesh H7607 occurs in 16 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

  • 1 verb
  • 5 nouns
  • 1 pronoun
  • 1 particle

Verb forms

  • תְגַלֵּ֑ה Piel · Imperfect

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

  • אָבִ֖יךָ father H1 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 16 words from the Hebrew and 18 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 8 Hebrew tokens and 11 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Download image

Cross-references

2

Topical passages linked to Leviticus 18:12 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

  • Leviticus 20:19 "'You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother's sister, nor of your father's sister; for he has made naked his close relative: they shall bear their iniquity.
  • Exodus 6:20 Amram took Jochebed his father's sister to himself as wife; and she bore him Aaron and Moses: and the years of the life of Amram were a hundred and thirty-seven years.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Leviticus 18:12 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

עֶרְוַ֥ת אֲחוֹת אָבִ֖יךָ לֹ֣א תְגַלֵּ֑ה שְׁאֵ֥ר אָבִ֖יךָ הִֽוא

You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's sister: she is your father's near kinswoman.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Leviticus 18:12 Septuagint · lemma form

ἀσχημοσύνη ἀδελφή πατήρ σύ οὐ ἀποκαλύπτω οἰκεῖος γάρ πατήρ σύ εἰμί

You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's sister, for she is near akin to your father.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

2

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

  1. Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)
    עֶרְיַת אֲחַת אֲבוּךְ לָא תְגַלֵי קָרִיבַת אֲבוּךְ הִיא

    (no public-domain English translation for this verse)

    Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

  2. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)
    עֶרְיַית אֲחַת אַבָּךְ לָא תִבְזֵי קְרֵיבַת בְּשַר אַבָּךְ הִיא

    The nakedness of thy father's sister thou shalt not dishonour; she is of kin to thy father's flesh.

    Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Leviticus 18:12 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Lev 18:12 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father’s sister: she [is] thy father’s near kinswoman.

Ver. 12. She is thy father’s near kins woman.] As near as may be: and therefore nature abhorreth any such copulation.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Tyndale Open Study Notes

Tyndale Open Resources

18:12-13 your father’s sister . . . mother’s sister: These actions would dishonor your father or mother.

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

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

Or, secrets.

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

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(12) Thy father’s sister.—According to the law which obtained in the time of Christ this prohibition not only extended to the father’s half-sisters, but even when they were begotten by the grandfather illegitimately. It is remarkable that Moses himself was the offspring of such an alliance, since his father Amram married his own aunt Jochebed, who was the sister of his father. (See Exo_6:20.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father's sister,.... His aunt by his father's side, an instance of which we have in Amram, Exo 6:20; and Maimonides says (i), an aunt was forbidden whether she was a father's sister in lawful wedlock or in fornication:

she is thy father's near kinswoman; or, the rest of thy father (k); the residue of his flesh, one of the same flesh and blood with him; wherefore, as he could not marry her himself, so his son likewise was too near akin to enter into such a relation with her.

(i) Hilchot Issure Biah, c. 2. sect. 5. (k) "reliquiarum patris tui", Tigurine version.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Thy father’s sister - The instance of Amram and Jochebed Exo 6:20 seems to show that marriage with an aunt was not considered wrong by the Israelites when they were in Egypt.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Father. Nearly related, and springing from the same source. (Menochius)

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).

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

Thy aunt by the father’s side, as the next verse speaks of the aunt by the mother’s side. If Amram’s example be alleged to the contrary, See Poole "Exo 6:20".

Thy father’s near kinswoman, Heb. thy father’s flesh, a member and product of the same flesh from which thy father came.

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

The Pulpit Commentary

Vers. 12-15. Fifthly, incest with a paternal or maternal aunt is forbidden; sixthly, with an aunt by marriage; seventhly, with a daughter-in-law. The last of these finds its place in Ezekiel"s catalogue of abominations. (Eze_22:11; cf. Gen_28:18)

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

Keil & Delitzsch

C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch

Marriage or conjugal intercourse with the sister of either father or mother (i.e., with either the paternal or maternal aunt) was prohibited, because she was the blood-relation of the father or mother. שׁאר = בּשׂר שׁאר (Lev 18:6, as in Lev 20:19; Lev 21:2; Num 27:11), hence שׁארה, blood-relationship (Lev 18:17).

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.)

unfoldingWord translationNotes

Door43 World Missions Community

Do not go near her for that purpose

"Do not go to her in order to sleep with her"

translationWords

had relations with

dishonor

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

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Leviticus, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 8 words (7 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is shᵉʼêr (“flesh”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

  1. What does “flesh” (shᵉʼêr) contribute to the verse as a whole?
  2. Exodus 21:10 shares the word «flesh» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
  3. “father” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
  4. The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
  5. The verb «תְגַלֵּ֑ה» is Piel Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
  6. Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Tyndale Open Study Notes read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

Reading settings

Reading text

Shown beneath each verse's original-language words.

Old Testament
Old Testament edition

Read the OT as the Masoretic Hebrew (MT) or the Greek Septuagint (LXX).

English shown for the Greek Septuagint (in the Hebrew ↔ Greek comparison).

Comparing translations? Open the Compare panel on any verse page to stack up to four side by side.