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Leviticus 18:13

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex) Leviticus 18:13 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.
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Cite this verse

Leviticus 18:13 (World English Bible). Public Domain. Lemma interlinear Bible study tool, https://lemma.gebible.app/v/leviticus/18/13.

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

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

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

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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 →

9
words
8
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 conjunction
  • 1 particle

Verb forms

  • תְגַלֵּ֑ה Piel · Imperfect

Repetition

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

  • אִמְּךָ֖ mother H517 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 17 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 9 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.

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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 18:13 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

עֶרְוַ֥ת אֲחֽוֹת אִמְּךָ֖ לֹ֣א תְגַלֵּ֑ה כִּֽי שְׁאֵ֥ר אִמְּךָ֖ הִֽוא

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

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Leviticus 18:13 Septuagint · lemma form

ἀσχημοσύνη ἀδελφή μήτηρ σύ οὐ ἀποκαλύπτω οἰκεῖος γάρ μήτηρ σύ εἰμί

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

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 אִמָךְ לָא תְגַלֵי אֲרֵי קָרִיבַת אִמָךְ 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 אִמָךְ לָא תִבְזֵי אֲרוּם קְרֵיבַת בְּשַר אִמָךְ הִיא

    The nakedness of thy mother's sister thou shall not dishonour; for she is of kin to thy mother'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 18:13 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 18:13 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother’s sister: for she [is] thy mother’s near kinswoman.

Ver. 13. {See Trapp on "Lev 18:12"}

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.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(13) Thy mother’s sister.—Equally forbidden is the aunt by the mother’s side. The law which obtained in the time of Christ also defines this prohibition to extend to a mother’s sister or half-sister by the same father or mother, whether born in wedlock or out of it. It is remarkable that the administrators of the law during the second Temple understood this last prohibition strictly to apply to alliances between nephews and aunts, but not vice versâ to marriages between nieces and uncles. They regarded intermarriage between uncle and niece as an especially meritorious act, and interpreted the promises “then shalt thou call and the Lord shall answer” (Isa_58:9) to refer more particularly to the man “who loves his neighbours, befriends his relations, marries his brother’s daughter, and lends money to the poor in the hour of need.” This is in accordance with the fact that not only do we find that Nahor married Milcah the daughter of his brother Haran(Gen_11:29), but that Othniel, the son of Kenaz, married his niece Achsah, being the daughter of Caleb, his father’s brother (Jos_15:17; Jdg_1:13). Hence among the Jews to this day intermarriages between uncles and nieces is of common occurrence.

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 mother's sister,.... Which is the same relation as before, an aunt by the mother's side; wherefore, if such a marriage was unlawful, this must also, and for the same reason:

for she is thy mother's near kinswoman; the same phraseology is used here as in the preceding verse; See Gill on Lev 18:12; and by the same rule a woman might not marry her uncle, whether by father or mother's side, the relation being the same, and this reaches to great-uncle and great-aunt; instances of women marrying their uncles, and men their aunts, among the Heathens, have been given, as among the Persians and Lacedaemonians by Herodotus (l), and among the Romans by Tacitus (m), but were, in his time, new things with the latter.

(l) Erato, sive, l. 6. c. 71. Polymnia, sive, l. 7. c. 224, 239. (m) Annal. l. 12. c. 5, 6, 7.

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

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 9 words (8 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. How does Exodus 21:10, which shares the word «flesh», read alongside this verse?
  3. What does the repetition of “mother” (2× in this one verse) do in this verse?
  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. «תְגַלֵּ֑ה» is a Piel Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
  6. Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

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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).

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