What Does Leviticus 18:14 Mean?
Do not uncover the nakedness of your father's brother. Do not draw near to his wife. She is your aunt.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father’s brother, thou shalt not approach to his wife: she is thine aunt.THE KEY
Calling her “thine aunt” makes the kinship bond itself the reason this approach is forbidden.
THE MEANING
This verse names a clear boundary around your father’s brother’s marriage: his wife is your aunt, and sexual approach to her is forbidden. The prohibition treats this as a breach of kinship, not a private desire detached from family bonds.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that an uncle’s wife lies outside your kinship obligations simply because she is not your blood relative.
THE ROOT
תְגַלֵּה
tegalleh
GROWS FROM
ג-ל-ה
g-l-h
to uncover, expose, reveal
“uncover” in this verse is tegalleh. The Hebrew verb makes the euphemism visible: this is described as exposing what should remain covered. The same verb appears in Leviticus 20:20, which makes explicit that the exposure violates the uncle’s kinship as well as approaching his wife.
ALSO GROWS
niglāh: be revealed, become visible
נִגְלָה
This form carries the same movement from hidden to exposed, clarifying the force of “uncover.”
gilluy: disclosure, revealing
גִּלּוּי
This noun names the act of making something exposed; here that language marks sexual access as a boundary-crossing exposure.
תִקְרָב
tiqrav
GROWS FROM
ק-ר-ב
q-r-b
to come near, approach, draw near
“draw near” in this verse is tiqrav. The English “approach” can sound like a mere step toward someone; this root also names nearness and a drawing near. Here that movement is forbidden because the woman is your aunt.
ALSO GROWS
qārōb: near, close
קָרוֹב
The shared root links approaching with becoming near, making the prohibited act a crossing of relational distance.
qorbān: a drawing near
קָרְבָּן
This word shares the root’s sense of drawing near; here the approach is marked as out of bounds by the kinship relation.
THE PATTERN
Scripture treats sexual access to a close relative’s spouse as a breach of kinship, not an isolated private relationship.
Do not uncover the nakedness of your father's wife. It is your father's nakedness.It is heard commonly that there is the trade of bodies among you, and such trade as is not even named among the nations, that one should hold his father's wife.THE THREAD
If a man lies down with his uncle's wife, he has uncovered his uncle's nakedness. They shall bear their falling short; they shall die bare of children.The same verb for “uncover” appears here, where the act with an uncle’s wife is stated directly and its consequence is named. The parallel shows that the exposure implicates the uncle’s kinship as well as the forbidden approach to his wife.
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