What Does Leviticus 21:13 Mean?
And he shall take a wife in her virginity.
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 he shall take a wife in her virginity.THE KEY
The Hebrew verb for “take” also means “receive,” while the verse names virginity as a specific boundary of the high priest’s marriage.
THE MEANING
The verse gives the high priest a precise marriage condition: he takes a wife in her virginity. It names the husband, the wife, and the condition plainly, within a rule for his priestly role.
THE ROOT
לָקַח
lāqaḥ
GROWS FROM
לקח
To take or receive.
“shall take” in this verse is lāqaḥ. The verse uses לָקַח (lāqaḥ, “take”) in the Hebrew expression for taking a wife. The related noun לֶקַח (leqaḥ, “instruction”) can name what is received or taken in, showing how this root extends from taking to receiving.
ALSO GROWS
lāqaḥ: Take; receive.
לָקַח
This is the verb used for the priest taking a wife.
leqaḥ: Instruction; teaching.
לֶקַח
This related noun can mean what is received or taken in, extending the root’s sense beyond the act of taking.
THE PATTERN
Scripture gives marriage a defined shape by naming whom one is joined to and the condition attached to that union.
And Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.Neither shall they take for their wives a widow, nor a woman driven away; but they shall take maidens of the seed of the house of Israel, or a widow who had a priest before.For I burn for you with God's own burning. I have fitted you to one husband, so that I may stand you beside the Anointed One as a pure virgin.THE THREAD
Neither shall they take for their wives a widow, nor a woman driven away; but they shall take maidens of the seed of the house of Israel, or a widow who had a priest before.Ezekiel repeats the same Hebrew verb for “take” alongside the word for “virgins” in a priestly marriage rule. That echo places Leviticus’s sentence within a defined boundary for priestly marriage.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us