What Does Leviticus 18:15 Mean in the King James?
Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy daughter in law: she is thy son’s wife; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.
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 repeated “uncover” brackets the declaration that she is the son’s wife, making the relationship itself the boundary.
THE MEANING
This verse names a present relational boundary: the daughter-in-law is her husband’s wife, and her nakedness is forbidden to her father-in-law. The repeated prohibition leaves no opening for household closeness to become sexual access.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the lie that a father’s place in the household gives him sexual access to his son’s wife; the verse names her relationship and repeats the prohibition.
THE ROOT
תְגַלֶּה
tegalleh
GROWS FROM
גלה
To uncover, expose, or reveal; in another usage, this root also appears in words for going into exile.
The verb translated “uncover” belongs to a root that also means “reveal” and appears in the language of exile. Here, “nakedness” and the kinship clause anchor it in sexual exposure, while its wider range lets the word carry the sense of what is brought out from covering.
ALSO GROWS
galah: Uncover, reveal; also go into exile in another use of the root.
גָּלָה
This root’s range links uncovering with exposure; in this verse, the surrounding words specify the sexual sense.
niglah: Be revealed or uncovered.
נִגְלָה
This related form makes visible the root’s movement from hidden to exposed, sharpening the force of the prohibition.
THE PATTERN
Kinship creates a sexual boundary that household closeness does not erase.
None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am the LORD.A man shall not take his father’s wife, nor discover his father’s skirt.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
A man shall not take his father’s wife, nor discover his father’s skirt.Deuteronomy uses the same root, גלה (galah, uncover), for the mirrored boundary involving a father’s wife. Together, the verses show the prohibition holding across both directions of the family bond.
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