What Does Leviticus 20:18 Mean?
And if a man lies down with a woman in her separation, and uncovers her nakedness, he has uncovered her spring, and she has uncovered the spring of her blood. Both of them shall be cut off from among their people.
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 lie with a woman having her sickness, and shall uncover her nakedness; he hath discovered her fountain, and she hath uncovered the fountain of her blood: and both of them shall be cut off from among their people.THE KEY
The same Hebrew verb describes both uncoverings, and the sentence then cuts both participants off.
THE MEANING
The verse makes the exposure reciprocal: the man uncovers her fountain, and she uncovers the fountain of her blood. It says both are cut off from among their people. The sentence places the act, the mutual exposure, and the shared severance together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The exposure and its stated consequence are not assigned to her alone: the verse says both are cut off.
THE ROOT
גִּלָּה
gillāh
GROWS FROM
גלה
To uncover or reveal, bringing what is covered into view.
“discovered / uncovered” in this verse is gillāh. The verse uses this root for both the man uncovering her source and her uncovering the fountain of her blood. The English shifts from “discovered” to “uncovered,” but Hebrew repeats one verb-family, making the exposure mutual before the sentence makes the consequence mutual.
ALSO GROWS
megalleh: Uncovering; revealing
מְגַלֶּה
This form retains the consonants ג־ל־ה and names the act of bringing something hidden into view.
niglah: Is revealed; appears
נִגְלָה
This form retains the same root consonants but presents what was hidden as becoming visible.
וְנִכְרְתוּ
wenikhretu
GROWS FROM
כרת
To cut or sever.
The verb translated “cut off” comes from כרת, whose basic sense is to cut or sever; here the stated result is separation from among the people. The same root appears in כָּרַת בְּרִית (karat berit, “cut a covenant”), where cutting marks a binding relation, while this verse uses the image for severance.
ALSO GROWS
karat: To cut; to sever
כָּרַת
This is the root verb behind the shared consequence stated at the end of the verse.
keritut: A cutting off; divorce
כְּרִיתוּת
This noun carries the same root consonants כ־ר־ת and names a separation.
THE PATTERN
What is covered can be brought into view, so it no longer remains outside the field of sight.
He uncovers the depths out of darkness, and brings out to light the deepest darkness.And now I will uncover her disgrace before the eyes of her lovers, and no one will snatch her from my hand.For there is nothing covered that will not be uncovered, and nothing hidden that will not be known.THE THREAD
And now I will uncover her disgrace before the eyes of her lovers, and no one will snatch her from my hand.Hosea uses the same Hebrew root גלה for “discover” that Leviticus uses for both “discovered” and “uncovered.” The exposure in Hosea is public and paired with a consequence, opening the repeated link between uncovering and what follows it in Leviticus.
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