What Does Deuteronomy 27:20 Mean?
Cursed be he who lies with his father's wife, for he uncovers his father's wing. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Cursed be he that lieth with his father’s wife; because he uncovereth his father’s skirt. And all the people shall say, Amen.THE KEY
The verse names sex with a father’s wife as uncovering the father himself, making the act a breach of kinship as well as sex.
THE MEANING
This verse names sex with a father’s wife as a curse-bearing act and as the uncovering of the father’s covering. The people’s “Amen” places that judgment in a shared voice, so the breach is spoken openly rather than kept private.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that a sexual act concerns only the two people in it dissolves here: the verse names the father’s exposed covering and places the whole people in the response.
THE ROOT
גִלָּה
gillah
GROWS FROM
גלה
to uncover, expose, reveal
“uncovereth” in this verse is gillah. The Hebrew verb names an exposure: something hidden is brought into view. Here, that exposure is tied to the father’s covering, making the act a breach of the household relation, not merely a private detail.
ALSO GROWS
megalleh: one who uncovers or reveals
מְגַלֶּה
This branch names the agent who brings something into view, echoing the verse’s direct naming of what the act exposes.
niglah: was revealed or appeared
נִגְלָה
This branch describes what comes into view, showing the exposed state implied by the verb in the verse.
כְּנַף
kenaf
GROWS FROM
כנף
wing, edge, extremity
“his father's wing” in this verse is kenaf. The word translated “skirt” also means “wing” or “edge,” linking the garment’s edge with the image of a wing. The phrase makes the father’s covering part of the violation’s meaning, while the verse also states the sexual act plainly.
ALSO GROWS
kanaph: wing or edge
כָּנָף
The word’s range joins the garment’s edge in this verse to the image of a wing.
kenafayim: wings
כְּנָפַיִם
The plural preserves the same root and makes the wing image explicit, illuminating the covering sense carried by “skirt.”
אָמֵן
amen
GROWS FROM
אמן
firm, steady, reliable
The people’s “Amen” carries the root sense of firmness: their response gives the judgment a shared, spoken assent. The same root appears in words for trust and steadiness.
ALSO GROWS
emunah: trust, leaning your full weight on what is firm
אֱמוּנָה
This branch shows the root’s movement from firmness to trust, illuminating the people’s spoken assent.
ne'eman: firm, steady, reliable
נֶאֱמָן
This branch makes the root’s sense of reliability explicit, a quality carried in the people’s “Amen.”
THE PATTERN
A sexual boundary crossed within a household is named as a breach of kinship and brought into the open.
Do not uncover the nakedness of your father's wife. It is your father's nakedness.It is heard commonly that there is the trade of bodies among you, and such trade as is not even named among the nations, that one should hold his father's wife.THE THREAD
Do not uncover the nakedness of your father's wife. It is your father's nakedness.The verb translated “uncovereth” in Deuteronomy and “uncover” in Leviticus comes from the Hebrew root גלה (galah), meaning to uncover or expose. Leviticus makes the image explicit: the exposed nakedness is the father’s, revealing why Deuteronomy describes the act as uncovering his skirt.
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