What Does Leviticus 18:22 Mean in the King James?
Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
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
Hebrew repeats one root for “lie” and “lyings,” making the prohibition about a specified sexual act.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks as a direct prohibition: a male is not to lie with another male in the sexual manner the sentence calls “the lyings of a woman.” It names the act “an abomination,” the verse’s explicit and severe classification.
THE ROOT
תִשְׁכַּב
tishkav from shakav
GROWS FROM
שכב
sh-k-b
to lie down; to lie with
“lie with” in this verse is tishkav from shakav. The clause uses תִשְׁכַּב (tishkav, “you shall lie”) and מִשְׁכְּבֵי (mishkevei, “lyings of”) from the same root. The KJV’s “as with womankind” smooths over that repetition, so the Hebrew ties its prohibition to a specific act-pattern.
ALSO GROWS
shakhav: to lie down, sleep, or lie with
שָׁכַב
This is the verb in the prohibition; it names the act directly.
mishkav: bed or lying place; a way of lying
מִשְׁכָּב
The plural construct מִשְׁכְּבֵי in this verse comes from the same root as the verb, linking the act to the “lyings” named in the comparison.
THE PATTERN
Scripture states the prohibition as a boundary around male-male intercourse in both legal wording and direct description of conduct.
If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.THE THREAD
If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.The paired verse repeats the שכב (sh-k-b, “lie”) root in its two clauses. It then states the death penalty and “their blood shall be upon them,” making the force of the prohibition, and its violence, explicit.
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