“‘You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife. It is your brother’s nakedness.
Parallel translations
- KJV Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother’s wife: it is thy brother’s nakedness.
- BSB You must not have sexual relations with your brother’s wife; that would shame your brother.
- NKJV You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness.
- NASB You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness.
- NLT “Do not have sexual relations with your brother’s wife, for this would violate your brother.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Relations with a brother's wife are forbidden as a violation of the brother.
Overview
This guards the marriage bond of one's brother, treating such an act as an offense against him. (The later levirate provision for a deceased brother without heirs is a distinct, regulated exception, not a contradiction.) The principle protects marital faithfulness and the honor due within the family God has joined together.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Deut 25:5If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies, and has no son, the wife of the dead shall not be married outside to a stranger. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her, and take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her.
- Lev 20:21“‘If a man takes his brother’s wife, it is an impurity. He has uncovered his brother’s nakedness. They shall be childless.
- Mark 12:19“Teacher, Moses wrote to us, ‘If a man’s brother dies, and leaves a wife behind him, and leaves no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up offspring for his brother.’
- Matt 22:24saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up offspring for his brother.’
- Matt 14:3–4For Herod had laid hold of John, and bound him, and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife.
- Luke 3:19but Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him for Herodias, his brother’s wife, and for all the evil things which Herod had done,
- Mark 6:17For Herod himself had sent out and arrested John, and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, for he had married her.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Every sacrifice, every priest, and every day of atonement points beyond itself to the one perfect offering and the great High Priest who, by his own blood, makes the unclean holy once for all.
How Leviticus 18:16 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.