What Does Leviticus 20:17 Mean?
And if a man take his sister, his father's daughter or his mother's daughter, and see her nakedness, and she see his nakedness; it is a disgrace; they shall be cut off before the eyes of the children of their people. He has uncovered his sister's nakedness; he shall bear his crookedness.
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 if a man shall take his sister, his father’s daughter, or his mother’s daughter, and see her nakedness, and she see his nakedness; it is a wicked thing; and they shall be cut off in the sight of their people: he hath uncovered his sister’s nakedness; he shall bear his iniquity.THE KEY
The Hebrew family of גלה, “uncover,” also includes forms for revelation and exile, making the exposure in this verse resonate with its closing sentence of being cut off from the people.
THE MEANING
This verse names sexual relations between a man and his sister, whether they share a father or a mother, as a violation of kinship boundaries. Both see one another naked, and he is named as the one who uncovers her; the text calls this wicked and pronounces severance from the people. He bears the iniquity.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that mutual exposure cancels responsibility: the verse says they are cut off, then specifically names him as the one who bears the iniquity.
THE ROOT
גִּלָּה
gillah
GROWS FROM
גלה
Uncover, reveal, disclose.
“uncovered” in this verse is gillah. The closing clause is active: גִּלָּה says he exposes her nakedness, beyond the mutual seeing already named. Forms from גלה also speak of what is revealed and of sending into exile, so the root’s range resonates with the verse’s explicit sentence of being cut off.
ALSO GROWS
niglah: Be revealed; become visible.
נִגְלָה
This form names what comes into view, echoing the verse’s movement from seeing to active exposure.
higlah: Uncover or reveal; send away into exile.
הִגְלָה
This causative form carries the same root consonants into the sense of removal, resonating with the verse’s stated consequence of being cut off.
וְנִכְרְתוּ
ve-nikhretu
GROWS FROM
כרת
Cut, sever.
“they shall be cut off” in this verse is ve-nikhretu. The Hebrew verb כרת carries the force of severing. That same verb forms כרת ברית, “cut a covenant,” so the verse’s sanction uses a word that elsewhere names the making of a bond.
ALSO GROWS
karat berit: Cut a covenant; enter into covenant.
כָּרַת בְּרִית
This phrase shows the same verb marking a bond made, while כרת in this verse names a severance from the people.
keritut: Severance; divorce, as in a bill of divorcement.
כְּרִיתֻת
This noun applies the same root to the dissolution of a bond, extending the image of separation found in the verse’s communal consequence.
THE PATTERN
Sexual violation within kinship is treated as a rupture with consequences for the whole community.
Do not draw near to any flesh of your flesh, to uncover nakedness. I am the LORD.Cursed be he who lies with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen.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
And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.Both verses use עֶרְוָה (ʿerwah, nakedness) for exposure within a family relation. Genesis pairs seeing a father’s nakedness with telling his brothers, while Leviticus names uncovering a sister’s nakedness and communal severance; the shared word carries the family exposure into view.
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