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Read the Bible

George Lamsa Translation

Matthew 14:4

For John had said to him, It is unlawful to have her as your wife.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Adultery;   Herod;   Incest;   John;   Malice;   Oath;   Persecution;   Politics;   Prisoners;   Rulers;   Women;   Thompson Chain Reference - Courage;   Courage-Fear;   Courageous Reformers;   John the Baptist;   Leaders;   Reformers, Courageous;   Religious;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Herod;   John;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Government;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - John the Baptist;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Hutchinsonians;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Antipas;   Herodias;   John the Baptist;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Head;   Herod;   Marriage;   Violence;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Mss;   Salome;   Text of the New Testament;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Herod;   Herod ;   John the Baptist;   Machaerus;   Quotations (2);   Simple, Simplicity ;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Herod, Family of;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Herod;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Chief parables and miracles in the bible;   Herod;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Her'od;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Anitipas;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - John, the Baptize;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Chronology of the New Testament;   Herod;   Herodias;   Jesus Christ (Part 2 of 2);   John the Baptist;   Salome;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
since John had been telling him, “It’s not lawful for you to have her.”
King James Version (1611)
For Iohn said vnto him, It is not lawfull for thee to haue her.
King James Version
For John said unto him, It is not lawful for thee to have her.
English Standard Version
because John had been saying to him, "It is not lawful for you to have her."
New American Standard Bible
For John had been saying to him, "It is not lawful for you to have her."
New Century Version
John had been telling Herod, "It is not lawful for you to be married to Herodias."
Amplified Bible
for John had said to him, "It is not lawful (morally right) for you to have her [living with you as your wife]."
Geneva Bible (1587)
For Iohn saide vnto him, It is not lawfull for thee to haue her.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
For John had been saying to him, "It is not lawful for you to have her."
Legacy Standard Bible
For John had been saying to him, "It is not lawful for you to have her."
Berean Standard Bible
because John had been telling him, "It is not lawful for you to have her."
Complete Jewish Bible
since Yochanan had told Herod, "It violates the Torah for you to have her as your wife."
Darby Translation
For John said to him, It is not lawful for thee to have her.
Easy-to-Read Version
John had told him, "It is not right for you to be married to Herodias."
Good News Translation
For some time John the Baptist had told Herod, "It isn't right for you to be married to Herodias!"
Lexham English Bible
because John had been saying to him, "It is not permitted for you to have her."
Literal Translation
For John said to him, It is not lawful for you to have her.
American Standard Version
For John said unto him, It is not lawful for thee to have her.
Bible in Basic English
Because John had said to him, It is not right for you to have her.
Hebrew Names Version
For Yochanan said to him, "It is not lawful for you to have her."
International Standard Version
For John had been telling him, "It is not lawful for you to have her."Leviticus 18:16; 20:21;">[xr]
Etheridge Translation
for Juchanon had said to him, It is not lawful that she should be to thee a wife.
Murdock Translation
For John had said to him: It is no lawful for her to be thy wife.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
For Iohn sayde vnto hym: it is not lawfull for thee to haue her.
English Revised Version
For John said unto him, It is not lawful for thee to have her.
World English Bible
For John said to him, "It is not lawful for you to have her."
Wesley's New Testament (1755)
For John had said to him, It is not lawful for thee to have her.
Weymouth's New Testament
because John had persistently said to him, "It is not lawful for you to have her."
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
For Joon seide to him, It is not leueful to thee to haue hir.
Update Bible Version
For John said to him, It is not lawful for you to have her.
Webster's Bible Translation
For John had said to him, It is not lawful for thee to have her.
New English Translation
because John had repeatedly told him, "It is not lawful for you to have her."
New King James Version
Because John had said to him, "It is not lawful for you to have her."
New Living Translation
John had been telling Herod, "It is against God's law for you to marry her."
New Life Bible
For John had said to him, "It is against the Law for you to have her."
New Revised Standard
because John had been telling him, "It is not lawful for you to have her."
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
for John had been saying to him, It is not allowed thee, to have her.
Douay-Rheims Bible
For John said to him: It is not lawful for thee to have her.
Revised Standard Version
because John said to him, "It is not lawful for you to have her."
Tyndale New Testament (1525)
For Ihon sayde vnto him: Yt is not lawfull for the to have her.
Young's Literal Translation
for John was saying to him, `It is not lawful to thee to have her,'
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
For Ihon sayde vnto him: It is not laufull for ye to haue her.
Mace New Testament (1729)
for John had said to him, it is not lawful for thee to have her.
Simplified Cowboy Version
John had told the King that it was wrong for him to marry his brother's wife.

Contextual Overview

1 AT that time Herod the tetrarch heard the news about Jesus. 2 And he said to his servants, This man is John the Baptist; he has risen from the dead; this is why great miracles are wrought by him. 3 For Herod had arrested John, and bound him, and put him in prison, because of Herodias, his brother Philip''s wife. 4 For John had said to him, It is unlawful to have her as your wife. 5 So Herod wanted to kill him, but he was afraid of the people, because they accepted him as a prophet. 6 When Herod''s birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the guests, and it pleased Herod. 7 He therefore swore to her with oaths, that he would give her anything that she asked. 8 And she, because she was instructed by her mother, said, Give me right here on a tray the head of John the Baptist. 9 And the king was very sorry; but because of the oaths and the guests, he commanded that it be given to her. 10 So he sent and had John beheaded in the prison.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Leviticus 18:16, Leviticus 20:21, Deuteronomy 25:5, Deuteronomy 25:6, 2 Samuel 12:7, 1 Kings 21:19, 2 Chronicles 26:18, 2 Chronicles 26:19, Proverbs 28:1, Isaiah 8:20, Mark 6:18, Acts 24:24, Acts 24:25

Reciprocal: 1 Samuel 13:13 - Thou hast done 1 Kings 18:18 - I have not 2 Chronicles 16:10 - put him Proverbs 24:25 - them Proverbs 28:4 - but Jeremiah 34:6 - General Daniel 4:22 - thou Daniel 5:22 - thou Matthew 18:8 - if Luke 1:17 - power Luke 3:19 - General

Cross-References

Ezekiel 17:15
But he shall revolt against the king of Babylon, and shall send his ambassadors into Egypt, that they might give him horses and a large army. But he who does such things shall not prosper, nor shall he be delivered.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For John said unto him,.... John having heard of this incestuous marriage, went to Herod, and reproved him to his face for it; and, as Luke says, "for all the evils he had done", Luke 3:19 for he was a very wicked man, and guilty of many flagitious crimes: John, in so doing, showed his zeal for holiness, his hatred of sin, his courage and faithfulness in reproving thus freely so great a man; and made it manifest, that he came in the spirit of Elijah: what he said to him was,

it is not lawful for thee to have her, being forbidden, Leviticus 18:16 for though by another law it was right to marry a brother's wife, after his decease, when he left no issue, yet this was not the case here; Philip was now living, and, had he been dead, such a marriage would have been unlawful, because there was issue; she had a daughter, who afterwards is said to dance before Herod; and besides, he himself had another wife, whom he put away; so that his sin was a very aggravated and complicated one: lying with a brother's wife, was one of those sins which, according to the Jewish h canons, deserved cutting off, or death by the hand of God. Josephus i gives another reason of the imprisonment and death of John, that Herod feared that the people of the Jews, through his means, would be moved to sedition, and revolt from his government; which might be what Herodias suggested to him, or what he gave out himself, to cover the true cause of his proceedings: but the true reason is, what is here given, and is to be confirmed by the testimony of Jewish writers. One of their chronologers k delivers the account in these express words:

"Herod Antipater was a very wicked and pernicious man, many of the wise men of Israel he slew with the sword; and he took to wife, his brother Philip's wife, whilst he was living; and because John the high priest (for so through mistake they call him) הוכיחו על זה "reproved him for this"; (see Luke 3:19) he slew him with the sword, with many of the wise men of Israel.''

And, says their historian l,

"also he, Herod, slew John, because he said unto him, it is forbidden thee to take the wife of Philip, and he slew him; this is that John that practised baptism.''

h Misn. Ceritot, c. 1. sect. 1. i Antiqu. lsss. 18. c. 6. k Ganz. Tzemach David, par. 1. fol. 25. 2. l Joseph. Gorionides, 1. 5. c. 45.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For Herod had laid hold on John ... - See Mark 6:17-20; Luke 3:19-20. This Herodias was a granddaughter of Herod the Great. She was first married to Herod Philip, by whom she had a daughter, Salome, probably the one that danced and pleased Herod. Josephus says that this marriage of Herod Antipas with Herodias took place while he was on a journey to Rome. He stopped at his brother’s; fell in love with his wife; agreed to put away his own wife, the daughter of Aretas, King of Petraea; and Herodias agreed to leave her own husband and live with him. They were living, therefore, in adultery; and John, in faithfulness, though at the risk of his life, had reproved them for their crimes. Herod was guilty of two crimes in this act:

  1. Of “adultery,” since she was the wife of another man.
  2. Of “incest,” since she was a near relation, and such marriages were expressly forbidden, Leviticus 18:16.



Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Matthew 14:4. For John said unto him, It is not lawful for thee to have her. — Here is an instance of zeal, fidelity, and courage, highly worthy of imitation. Plainness, mildness, and modesty, are qualifications necessary to be observed when we reprove the great. The best service a subject can render his prince is to lay before him, in the plainest but most respectful manner, what the law of God requires of him, and what it forbids. How unutterable must the punishment of those be who are chaplains to princes, or great men, and who either flatter them in their vices, or wink at their sins!


 
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