What Does Leviticus 20:21 Mean in the King James?

And if a man shall take his brother’s wife, it is an unclean thing: he hath uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless.

Leviticus 20:21 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The brother’s bond remains inside the act: what looks like a private taking is named as an exposure of kinship.

THE MEANING

This verse places the sexual bond inside a wider family relationship: the brother’s nakedness is exposed, and the act is called unclean. It states the consequence without softening it: they are childless. The brother’s place remains part of what this union touches.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The verse undoes the belief that sexual intimacy concerns only the two people who enter it; here, the brother’s bond remains part of the act’s meaning.

THE ROOT

טָמֵא

ṭāmēʾ

GROWS FROM

טמא

ṭ-m-ʾ: to be unclean or impure; to defile.

The root joins the condition “unclean” to the act “defile”: ⁨טֻמְאָה⁩ (ṭumʾāh, impurity) names a state, while ⁨טִמֵּא⁩ (ṭimmēʾ, to defile) names an action from the same consonants. That shared seed makes “unclean” more than a label; it carries the act’s status into the relationship it crosses.

ALSO GROWS

ṭumʾāh: Impurity, uncleanness.

טֻמְאָה

This noun names the condition formed from the same consonants as the verse’s word for “unclean.”

ṭimmēʾ: To defile, make unclean.

טִמֵּא

This verb shows the action side of the same root family: the state and the act share one seed.

THE PATTERN

A sexual bond carries the kinship ties it crosses, so its meaning is shaped by the whole family relation.

Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother’s wife: it is thy brother’s nakedness.

Leviticus 18:16 · KJVThe verse names the brother’s bond as part of the sexual boundary, just as Leviticus 20:21 does.

If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband’s brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband’s brother unto her.

Deuteronomy 25:5 · KJVHere a brother’s marriage bond shapes a specific duty toward his widow, showing that the family relation governs the meaning of the union.

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.

1 Corinthians 5:1 · KJVThe father’s bond remains central to how the sexual relationship is named and judged.

THE THREAD

Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you:

Leviticus 18:24 · KJV

The Hebrew root ⁨טמא⁩ (ṭ-m-ʾ, to be unclean or to defile) appears in both verses: here in “unclean,” and there in “defile” and “are defiled.” The shared root connects the named condition with the acts the text says produce it.

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