What Does Leviticus 18:19 Mean?
Do not draw near to a woman to uncover her nakedness while she is driven apart in her soiling.
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
Also thou shalt not approach unto a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is put apart for her uncleanness.THE KEY
The boundary begins at nearness itself: the verse forbids approaching before it forbids uncovering.
THE MEANING
This verse names a woman’s menstrual separation as a boundary around sexual access: a man does not draw near to uncover her nakedness while she is in that condition. The limit holds at the approach, before any uncovering takes place.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that sexual desire makes access available at any time; here, the woman’s bodily condition marks a boundary.
THE ROOT
תִּקְרַב
tiqrav
GROWS FROM
ק־ר־ב
q-r-b
Draw near; come close.
“draw near” in this verse is tiqrav. The prohibition attaches first to nearness: the verb itself names movement into proximity. Its sibling קָרְבָּן (qorbān), meaning drawing near, shows that approach is a consequential act before exposure occurs.
ALSO GROWS
qarov: Near, close.
קָרוֹב
This branch makes the shared idea of proximity explicit: the verse’s boundary concerns coming near.
qorbān: Drawing near.
קָרְבָּן
The same root names drawing near as a meaningful act, echoing the verse’s focus on approach itself.
THE PATTERN
Sexual access is bounded by bodily conditions and explicit periods of abstention.
And if a woman flows, and her flow in her flesh is blood, she shall be in her separation seven days, and whoever touches her shall be soiled until evening.and has not eaten upon the mountains, nor lifted up his eyes to the dung idols of the house of Israel, nor defiled his neighbor's wife, nor drawn near to a woman in her separation,Do not withhold from one another, unless you sound together for a season, so that you may make room for fasting and prayer, and come together again lest the Adversary test you for lack of grip.THE THREAD
and has not eaten upon the mountains, nor lifted up his eyes to the dung idols of the house of Israel, nor defiled his neighbor's wife, nor drawn near to a woman in her separation,Ezekiel uses the same Hebrew root ק־ר־ב (q-r-b), meaning draw near, for coming near to a menstruous woman. The echo shows the boundary beginning at approach, before the uncovering named in Leviticus.
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