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Webster's Bible Translation

Leviticus 18:18

Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister, to vex [her], to uncover her nakedness besides the other in her life-[time].

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Abomination;   Incest;   Marriage;   Polygamy;   The Topic Concordance - Sexual Activities;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Affinity;   Marriage;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Fornication;   Marriage;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Family Life and Relations;   Immorality, Sexual;   Incest;   Sexuality, Human;   Worship;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Leviticus;   Marriage;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Bastard;   Incest;   Leviticus;   Naked;   Pentateuch;   Sex, Biblical Teaching on;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Canon of the Old Testament;   Congregation, Assembly;   Crimes and Punishments;   Deuteronomy;   Hexateuch;   Holiness;   Law;   Leviticus;   Marriage;   Priests and Levites;   Sanctification, Sanctify;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Afffinity;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Marriage;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Witness;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Incest;   Sister;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - Peculiarities of the Law of Moses;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Bastard;   Genesis;   Husband's Brother;   Law in the Old Testament;   Leviticus;   Relationships, Family;   Woman;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Chastity;   Daniel ben Moses Al-ḳumisi;   Ethics;   Incest;   Marriage;   Marriage Laws;   Oholah;  

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
"'You shall not take a wife to her sister, to be a rival, to uncover her nakedness, while her sister is yet alive.
King James Version
Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister, to vex her, to uncover her nakedness, beside the other in her life time.
Lexham English Bible
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.
New Century Version
"‘While your wife is still living, you must not take her sister as another wife. Do not have sexual relations with her.
New English Translation
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.
Amplified Bible
'You shall not marry a woman in addition to her sister as a rival while she is alive, to uncover her nakedness.
New American Standard Bible
'And you shall not marry a woman in addition to her sister as a second wife while she is alive, to uncover her nakedness.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Also thou shalt not take a wife with her sister, during her life, to vexe her, in vncouering her shame vpon her.
Legacy Standard Bible
And you shall not marry a woman in addition to her sister as a rival while she is alive, to uncover her nakedness.
Contemporary English Version
As long as your wife is alive, don't cause trouble for her by taking one of her sisters as a second wife.
Complete Jewish Bible
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.
Darby Translation
And thou shalt not take a wife to her sister, to vex her, to uncover her nakedness beside her, during her life.
Easy-to-Read Version
"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.
English Standard Version
And you shall not take a woman as a rival wife to her sister, uncovering her nakedness while her sister is still alive.
George Lamsa Translation
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.
Good News Translation
Do not take your wife's sister as one of your wives, as long as your wife is living.
Christian Standard Bible®
You are not to marry a woman as a rival to her sister and have sexual intercourse with her during her sister’s lifetime.
Literal Translation
And you shall not take a wife with her sister, to vex her , to uncover her nakedness, beside the other in her lifetime.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Thou shalt not take a wife and hir sister also, to vncouer hir preuytie, whyle she is yet alyue.
American Standard Version
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.
Bible in Basic English
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.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
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].
JPS Old Testament (1917)
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.
King James Version (1611)
Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister, to vexe her, to vncouer her nakednes besides the other, in her life time.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
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.
English Revised Version
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.
Berean Standard Bible
You must not take your wife's sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is still alive.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
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.
Young's Literal Translation
`And a woman unto another thou dost not take, to be an adversary, to uncover her nakedness beside her, in her life.
Update Bible Version
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.
World English Bible
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.
New King James Version
Nor shall you take a woman as a rival to her sister, to uncover her nakedness while the other is alive.
New Living Translation
"While your wife is living, do not marry her sister and have sexual relations with her, for they would be rivals.
New Life Bible
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.
New Revised Standard
And you shall not take a woman as a rival to her sister, uncovering her nakedness while her sister is still alive.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And, a woman unto her sister, shalt thou not take, - to cause rivalry, by uncovering her shame besides her own while she is living.
Douay-Rheims Bible
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.
Revised Standard Version
And you shall not take a woman as a rival wife to her sister, uncovering her nakedness while her sister is yet alive.
THE MESSAGE
"Don't marry your wife's sister as a rival wife and have sex with her while your wife is living.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
'You shall not marry a woman in addition to her sister as a rival while she is alive, to uncover her nakedness.

Contextual Overview

6 None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover [their] nakedness: I am the LORD. 7 The nakedness of thy father, or the nakedness of thy mother, shalt thou not uncover: she [is] thy mother, thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. 8 The nakedness of thy father's wife shalt thou not uncover: it [is] thy father's nakedness. 9 The nakedness of thy sister, the daughter of thy father, or daughter of thy mother, [whether] born at home, or born abroad, [even] their nakedness thou shalt not uncover. 10 The nakedness of thy son's daughter, or of thy daughter's daughter, [even] their nakedness thou shalt not uncover: for theirs [is] thy own nakedness. 11 The nakedness of thy father's wife's daughter, begotten by thy father, (she [is] thy sister) thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. 12 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father's sister: she [is] thy father's near kinswoman. 13 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother's sister: for she [is] thy mother's near kinswoman. 14 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father's brother, thou shalt not approach to his wife: she [is] thy aunt. 15 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy daughter-in-law: she [is] thy son's wife, thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.

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

Genesis 18:2
And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw [them], he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground,
Genesis 18:3
And said, My Lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant:
Genesis 18:17
And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do;
Genesis 18:18
Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?
Genesis 18:25
That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?
Genesis 18:26
And the LORD said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.
Genesis 26:4
And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give to thy seed all these countries: and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed:
Psalms 72:17
His name shall endure for ever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and [men] shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed.
Galatians 3:8
And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel to Abraham, [saying], In thee shall all nations be blessed.
Galatians 3:14
That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

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 עליה "apud vel prope eam"; so על 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 “bind” or “pack together”. 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.


 
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