What Does Leviticus 18:12 Mean in the King James?
Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father’s sister: she is thy father’s near kinswoman.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The prohibition turns on what desire cannot erase: your father’s sister remains your father’s own flesh.
THE MEANING
This boundary speaks now: your father’s sister remains your father’s kin, and desire does not dissolve that bond. The verse places her closeness at the center of why her nakedness is not yours to uncover.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that sexual desire can make a close family relation irrelevant.
THE ROOT
שְׁאֵר
she'er
GROWS FROM
שאר
Remain, be left; what remains.
The word translated “near kinswoman” is she’er, a word for flesh or kin. Its root family also names what remains, presenting this bond as enduring fleshly belonging, not a title that desire can erase.
ALSO GROWS
she'erit: Remnant; what remains.
שְׁאֵרִית
This branch makes the root’s sense of remaining explicit, echoing the enduring kinship named in the verse.
she'ar: The rest; a remainder.
שְׁאָר
This form shares the same root consonants and reinforces the idea of what remains or is left.
תְגַלֵּה
tegalleh
GROWS FROM
גלה
Uncover, reveal; make visible what is concealed.
“uncover” in this verse is tegalleh. The verb makes covered nakedness visible. The same root appears in forms meaning “revealed” or “appeared,” so the verse’s language foregrounds exposure, then grounds its boundary in kinship.
ALSO GROWS
galuy: Exposed; revealed.
גָּלוּי
This form names the state of being uncovered, bringing out the exposure contained in the verse’s verb.
niglah: Was revealed; appeared.
נִגְלָה
This form shares the root גלה and describes what comes into view after concealment is removed.
THE PATTERN
Sexual boundaries remain shaped by kinship, even when desire presses against them.
None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am the LORD.And one hath committed abomination with his neighbour’s wife; and another hath lewdly defiled his daughter in law; and another in thee hath humbled his sister, his father’s daughter.It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.THE THREAD
And thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother’s sister, nor of thy father’s sister: for he uncovereth his near kin: they shall bear their iniquity.This verse repeats the same uncovering verb and calls both a mother’s and father’s sister near kin. Exposure is the action named; enduring kinship is the reason the boundary stands.
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