What Does Leviticus 21:13 Mean in the King James?

And he shall take a wife in her virginity.

Leviticus 21:13 · 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.

THE KEY

The Hebrew verb for “take” also means “receive,” while the verse names virginity as a specific boundary of the high priest’s marriage.

THE MEANING

The verse gives the high priest a precise marriage condition: he takes a wife in her virginity. It names the husband, the wife, and the condition plainly, within a rule for his priestly role.

THE ROOT

לָקַח

lāqaḥ

GROWS FROM

לקח

To take or receive.

The verse uses ⁨לָקַח⁩ (lāqaḥ, “take”) in the Hebrew expression for taking a wife. The related noun ⁨לֶקַח⁩ (leqaḥ, “instruction”) can name what is received or taken in, showing how this root extends from taking to receiving.

ALSO GROWS

lāqaḥ: Take; receive.

לָקַח

This is the verb used for the priest taking a wife.

leqaḥ: Instruction; teaching.

לֶקַח

This related noun can mean what is received or taken in, extending the root’s sense beyond the act of taking.

THE PATTERN

Scripture gives marriage a defined shape by naming whom one is joined to and the condition attached to that union.

And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.

Genesis 24:67 · KJVThe verse names the taking of Rebekah and her becoming Isaac’s wife as a concrete union.

Neither shall they take for their wives a widow, nor her that is put away: but they shall take maidens of the seed of the house of Israel, or a widow that had a priest before.

Ezekiel 44:22 · KJVThis priestly rule, like Leviticus, states who may be taken as a wife and which conditions govern that marriage.

For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

2 Corinthians 11:2 · KJVThe marriage bond becomes an image of a defined union, expressed through one husband and the image of a chaste virgin.

THE THREAD

Neither shall they take for their wives a widow, nor her that is put away: but they shall take maidens of the seed of the house of Israel, or a widow that had a priest before.

Ezekiel 44:22 · KJV

Ezekiel repeats the same Hebrew verb for “take” alongside the word for “virgins” in a priestly marriage rule. That echo places Leviticus’s sentence within a defined boundary for priestly marriage.

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