the Third Week after Easter
free while helping to build churches and support pastors in Uganda.
Click here to learn more!
Read the Bible
Good News Translation
Leviticus 18:18
Bible Study Resources
Concordances:
- Nave'sDictionaries:
- AmericanEncyclopedias:
- CondensedParallel Translations
"'You shall not take a wife to her sister, to be a rival, to uncover her nakedness, while her sister is yet alive.
Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister, to vex her, to uncover her nakedness, beside the other in her life time.
And you must not take as wife a woman with her sister, to be a rival-wife, to expose her nakedness before her during her life.
"‘While your wife is still living, you must not take her sister as another wife. Do not have sexual relations with her.
You must not take a woman in marriage and then marry her sister as a rival wife while she is still alive, to have sexual intercourse with her.
'You shall not marry a woman in addition to her sister as a rival while she is alive, to uncover her nakedness.
'And you shall not marry a woman in addition to her sister as a second wife while she is alive, to uncover her nakedness.
Also thou shalt not take a wife with her sister, during her life, to vexe her, in vncouering her shame vpon her.
And you shall not marry a woman in addition to her sister as a rival while she is alive, to uncover her nakedness.
As long as your wife is alive, don't cause trouble for her by taking one of her sisters as a second wife.
You are not to take a woman to be a rival with her sister and have sexual relations with her while her sister is still alive.
And thou shalt not take a wife to her sister, to vex her, to uncover her nakedness beside her, during her life.
"While your wife is still living, you must not take her sister as another wife. This will make the sisters become enemies. You must not have sexual relations with your wife's sister.
And you shall not take a woman as a rival wife to her sister, uncovering her nakedness while her sister is still alive.
And you shall not take to wife a sister of your wife, to distress her, to uncover her nakedness, beside the other in her life time.
You are not to marry a woman as a rival to her sister and have sexual intercourse with her during her sister’s lifetime.
And you shall not take a wife with her sister, to vex her , to uncover her nakedness, beside the other in her lifetime.
Thou shalt not take a wife and hir sister also, to vncouer hir preuytie, whyle she is yet alyue.
And thou shalt not take a wife to her sister, to be a rival to her, to uncover her nakedness, besides the other in her life-time.
And you may not take as wife a woman and at the same time her sister, to be in competition with her in her life-time.
Thou shalt not take a wyfe and her sister also, to vexe her, that thou wouldest vncouer her nakednesse vpon her in her lyfe [tyme].
And thou shalt not take a woman to her sister, to be a rival to her, to uncover her nakedness, beside the other in her lifetime.
Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister, to vexe her, to vncouer her nakednes besides the other, in her life time.
Thou shalt not take a wife in addition to her sister, as a rival, to uncover her nakedness in opposition to her, while she is yet living.
And thou shalt not take a woman to her sister, to be a rival to her, to uncover her nakedness, beside the other in her life time.
You must not take your wife's sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is still alive.
Thou schalt not take `the sister of thi wijf, in to concubynage of hir, nethir thou schalt schewe `the filthe of hir, while thi wijf lyueth yit.
`And a woman unto another thou dost not take, to be an adversary, to uncover her nakedness beside her, in her life.
And you shall not take a wife to her sister, to be a rival [to her], to have sex with her, besides the other in her life-time.
Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister, to vex [her], to uncover her nakedness besides the other in her life-[time].
You shall not take a wife to her sister, to be a rival [to her], to uncover her nakedness, besides the other in her lifetime.
Nor shall you take a woman as a rival to her sister, to uncover her nakedness while the other is alive.
"While your wife is living, do not marry her sister and have sexual relations with her, for they would be rivals.
While your wife is still living do not marry her sister making her as important to you. Do not take off her sister's clothes.
And you shall not take a woman as a rival to her sister, uncovering her nakedness while her sister is still alive.
And, a woman unto her sister, shalt thou not take, - to cause rivalry, by uncovering her shame besides her own while she is living.
Thou shalt not take thy wife’s sister for a harlot, to rival her: neither shalt thou discover her nakedness, while she is yet living.
And you shall not take a woman as a rival wife to her sister, uncovering her nakedness while her sister is yet alive.
"Don't marry your wife's sister as a rival wife and have sex with her while your wife is living.
'You shall not marry a woman in addition to her sister as a rival while she is alive, to uncover her nakedness.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
wife: or, one wife to another, Genesis 4:19, Genesis 29:28, Exodus 26:3
to vex her: Genesis 30:15, 1 Samuel 1:6-8, Malachi 2:15
Reciprocal: Genesis 29:27 - week Genesis 31:50 - afflict 1 Kings 11:1 - together with
Cross-References
he looked up and saw three men standing there. As soon as he saw them, he ran out to meet them. Bowing down with his face touching the ground,
he said, "Sirs, please do not pass by my home without stopping; I am here to serve you.
And the Lord said to himself, "I will not hide from Abraham what I am going to do.
His descendants will become a great and mighty nation, and through him I will bless all the nations.
Surely you won't kill the innocent with the guilty. That's impossible! You can't do that. If you did, the innocent would be punished along with the guilty. That is impossible. The judge of all the earth has to act justly."
The Lord answered, "If I find fifty innocent people in Sodom, I will spare the whole city for their sake."
I will give you as many descendants as there are stars in the sky, and I will give them all this territory. All the nations will ask me to bless them as I have blessed your descendants.
May the king's name never be forgotten; may his fame last as long as the sun. May all nations ask God to bless them as he has blessed the king.
The scripture predicted that God would put the Gentiles right with himself through faith. And so the scripture announced the Good News to Abraham: "Through you God will bless all people."
Christ did this in order that the blessing which God promised to Abraham might be given to the Gentiles by means of Christ Jesus, so that through faith we might receive the Spirit promised by God.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister,.... Both of them together, as Jarchi; two sisters at one and the same time; so the Targum of Jonathan,
"a woman in the life of her sister thou shall not take;''
that is, in marriage, that sister being his wife; for the sense of the Targumist can never be that a man might not take a woman for his wife, she having a sister living, but not to take one sister to another, or marry his first wife's sister, whether, as Maimonides s says, she was sister by father or mother's side, in marriage or in fornication:
to vex [her], to uncover her nakedness; two reasons are given, why, though polygamy, or having more wives than one, was connived at, yet it was not allowed that a man should have two sisters; partly, because they would be more apt to quarrel, and be more jealous and impatient of one another, if more favour was shown or thought to be shown to one more than another; and partly, because it was a filthy and unbecoming action to uncover the nakedness of one, or lie with one so nearly related to his wife:
besides her in her life [time]; from whence some have concluded, and so many of the Jewish writers t, that a man might marry his wife's sister after her death, but not while she was living; but the phrase, "in her lifetime", is not to be joined to the phrase "thou shall not take a wife"; but to the phrases more near, "to vex her in her lifetime", or as long as she lived, and "to uncover her nakedness by her" u, on the side of her, as long as she lived; for that a wife's sister may be married to her husband, even after her death, cannot be lawful, as appears from the general prohibition, Leviticus 18:6; "none of you shall approach to him that is near of kin to him"; and yet it is certain that a wife's sister is near akin to a man; and from the prohibition of marriage with an uncle's wife, with the daughter of a son-in-law, or of a daughter-in-law, Leviticus 18:14; now a wife's sister is nearer of kin than either of these; and from the confusion that must follow in case of issue by both, not only of degrees but appellation of kindred; one and the same man, who as a father of children, and the husband of their mother's sister, stands in the relation both of a father and an uncle to his own children; the woman to the children of the deceased sister stands in the relation both of a stepmother, and of a mother's sister or aunt, and to the children that were born of her, she stands in the relation both of a mother and an uncle's wife; and the two sorts of children are both brethren and own cousins by the mother's side, but of this Leviticus 18:14- : for more; some understand this of a prohibition of polygamy, rendering the words, "thou shall not take one wife to another"; but the former sense is best; polygamy being not expressly forbidden by the law of Moses, but supposed in it, and winked at by it; and words of relation being always used in all these laws of marriage, in a proper and not in an improper sense: there is a pretty good deal of agreement between these laws of Moses and the Roman laws; by an edict of Dioclesian and Maximian w, it was made unlawful to contract matrimony with a daughter, with a niece, with a niece's daughter, with a grandmother, with a great-grandmother, with an aunt by the father's side, with an aunt by the mother's side, with a sister's daughter, and a niece from her, with a daughter-in-law to a second husband, with a mother-in-law, with a wife or husband's mother, and with a son's wife; and several of these laws are recommended by Phocylydes, an Heathen poet, at least in a poem that hears his name; and the marriage of a wife's sister after her death has been condemned by several Christian councils x.
s Hilchot Issure Biah, c. 2. sect. 9. t Misn. Yebamot, c. 4. sect. 13. Vajikra Rabba, sect. 22. fol. 164. 1. Peaicta, Ben Gersom in loc. u ×¢××× "apud vel prope eam"; so ×¢× is sometimes used; see Nold. part. Concord. Ebr. p. 691. w Apud Mosaic. & Roman. Leg. Collat. ut supra. (tit. 6. a Pithaeo) x Concil. Illiber. can. 61. Aurat. can. 17. Auxer. can. 30.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
To vex her - literally, to âbindâ or âpack togetherâ. The Jewish commentators illustrate this by the example of Leah and Rachel Genesis 29:30.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Leviticus 18:18. A wife to her sister — Thou shalt not marry two sisters at the same time, as Jacob did Rachel and Leah; but there is nothing in this law that rendered it illegal to marry a sister-in-law when her sister was dead; therefore the text says, Thou shalt not take her in her life time, to vex her, alluding probably to the case of the jealousies and vexations which subsisted between Leah and Rachel, and by which the family peace was so often disturbed. Some think that the text may be so understood as also to forbid polygamy.
