What Does Leviticus 18:7 Mean in the King James?
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.
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 Hebrew verb for “uncover” also means “reveal,” making this a boundary against turning the parent-child bond into sexual exposure.
THE MEANING
This verse places a sexual boundary at the parent-child bond: your father’s or mother’s nakedness is not yours to expose. It repeats the prohibition around the mother and gives the reason plainly: she is your mother. The relationship itself marks the limit.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that belonging to a family grants sexual access to its members; here, kinship is the boundary itself.
THE ROOT
תְגַלֶּה
tegalleh
GROWS FROM
גלה
galah
To uncover, expose, or reveal; in another usage, to go into exile or be carried away.
The English “uncover” can sound merely visual, but גלה (galah, “uncover” or “reveal”) also forms exile language. That shared root gives the exposure here a further shade of rupture: it breaches the place kinship establishes.
ALSO GROWS
gillah: He uncovered or exposed.
גִּלָּה
This verb from the same root makes the act of exposure explicit in the command.
niglah: Was revealed or appeared.
נִגְלָה
Here the root names something becoming visible, showing that “uncover” can carry the sense of disclosure as well as physical exposure.
golah: Exile; people carried away.
גּוֹלָה
This related form carries the root toward displacement, adding a resonance of rupture to the boundary the verse names.
THE PATTERN
Family relation defines sexual boundaries, and the text names their violation as exposure within the household.
None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am the LORD.And the man that lieth with his father’s wife hath uncovered his father’s nakedness: both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.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 the man that lieth with his father’s wife hath uncovered his father’s nakedness: both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.The Hebrew root גלה (galah, “uncover” or “reveal”) appears in both verses. Leviticus 20:11 makes the family relation explicit and states death as the consequence without softening it.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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