What Does Leviticus 20:11 Mean?
And the man who lies down with his father's wife has uncovered his father's nakedness. Both of them shall surely die; their blood is upon them.
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
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 KEY
The root of “uncovered” makes this an act of exposure that violates a kinship boundary, and the verse places the blood consequence on both participants.
THE MEANING
The verse names the union as an exposure of the father’s nakedness. Its sentence is blunt: both participants are put to death, and their blood is upon them. The consequence is assigned to both.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that only the man bears responsibility: the verse explicitly places the sentence on both participants.
THE ROOT
גִּלָּה
gillāh
GROWS FROM
גלה
To uncover or reveal; to bring into view what was concealed.
Here, גִּלָּה (gillāh, uncovered) names an act of exposure: the father’s nakedness is what the union brings into view. The root keeps the kinship boundary in frame, while the closing clause places the blood consequence on both participants.
ALSO GROWS
megalleh: One who uncovers or reveals.
מְגַלֶּה
This form retains the root’s consonants גלה and shows the act of uncovering as a recognizable family of words.
hitgallah: To become visible or reveal oneself.
הִתְגַּלָּה
This form also retains גלה and describes what was concealed becoming visible, echoing the exposure named in the verse.
THE PATTERN
In scripture, nakedness marks what stands exposed, with its meaning shaped by the relationship around it.
And the two were both naked, Adam and his wife, and were not ashamed.Do not uncover the nakedness of your father, or your mother's. She is your mother. Do not uncover her nakedness.And no creation is hidden before him, but all things are naked and bared at the throat to the eyes of him to whom our account belongs.THE THREAD
Do not uncover the nakedness of your father, or your mother's. She is your mother. Do not uncover her nakedness.The verb translated “uncover” in Leviticus 18:7 and “uncovered” here comes from the same root, גלה (galah, uncover or reveal). The earlier verse states the boundary; this verse names the exposure and its consequence.
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