You must not have sexual relations with your father’s wife; it would dishonor your father.
Parallel translations
- WEB “‘You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife. It is your father’s nakedness.
- KJV The nakedness of thy father’s wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father’s nakedness.
- NKJV The nakedness of your father’s wife you shall not uncover; it is your father’s nakedness.
- NASB You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife; it is your father’s nakedness.
- NLT “Do not have sexual relations with any of your father’s wives, for this would violate your father.
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 one's father's wife are forbidden as a violation of the father.
Overview
This protects the marriage bond of one's parents, treating an offense against the father's wife as an offense against the father himself. It guards the integrity of the family from internal corruption. Paul later confronts a case of this very sin in the Corinthian church, showing the enduring moral force of the principle.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Lev 20:11If a man lies with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness. Both must surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.
- 1 Cor 5:1It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is intolerable even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife.
- Deut 27:20‘Cursed is he who sleeps with his father’s wife, for he has violated his father’s marriage bed.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’
- Deut 22:30A man is not to marry his father’s wife, so that he will not dishonor his father’s marriage bed.
- Amos 2:7They trample on the heads of the poor as on the dust of the earth; they push the needy out of their way. A man and his father have relations with the same girl and so profane My holy name.
- Gen 49:4Uncontrolled as the waters, you will no longer excel, because you went up to your father’s bed, onto my couch, and defiled it.
- Gen 35:22While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went in and slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard about it. Jacob had twelve sons:
- Ezek 22:10In you they have uncovered the nakedness of their fathers; in you they violate women during their menstrual impurity.
- 2 Sam 16:21–22Ahithophel replied, “Sleep with your father’s concubines, whom he has left to keep the palace. When all Israel hears that you have become a stench to your father, then the hands of all who are with you will be strengthened.”
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 18:8 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.