Leviticus 18:6
No man shall approach to her that is near of kin to him, to uncover her nakedness. I am the Lord.
Open Leviticus 18:6 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Omnis homo ad proximam sanguinis sui non accedet, ut revelet turpitudinem ejus. Ego Dominus.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Ἄνθρωπος ἄνθρωπος πρὸς πάντα οἰκεῖα σαρκὸς αὐτοῦ οὐ προσελεύσεται ἀποκαλύψαι ἀσχημοσύνην· ἐγὼ Κύριος.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- אִ֥ישׁ אִישׁ֙ אֶל כָּל שְׁאֵ֣ר בְּשָׂר֔וֹ לֹ֥א תִקְרְב֖וּ לְגַלּ֣וֹת עֶרְוָ֑ה אֲנִ֖י יְהוָֽה
Haydock's commentary
Approach to marry, much less to gratify his sensual appetite. (Haydock)
To him. Hebrew, "None shall approach to any of their descendants;" ad omnes reliquias carnis suæ; to any of those who spring from the same stock. The Jews assert, that all are bound by the law of nature to abstain from their own mother and sister, from another's wife, and from unnatural conjunctions. (Selden, Jur. v. 11.) (Calmet)
Nakedness, or turpitude, which title the body deserves, when it is used in a manner contrary to the law of God.
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St John Chrysostom Homilies on First Corinthians, Homily XXXIV
For, “marry not,” saith the Lord, ( Lev. xviii. 6 .) “thy sister, nor thy father’s sister, nor any damsel which hath such consanguinity with thee,” as utterly hinders the marriage;” naming the degrees of such relationship. It is enough for thine affection towards them that ye were the fruit of the same birth-pangs, and that the others are in a different relation to thee. Why dost thou narrow the breadth of love? Why dost thou idly throw away a ground of affection towards her, such as that thou mightest thereby provide thyself with distinct source for affection to spring from; I mean, by taking a wife from another family, and through her a chain of kinsmen, both mother, and father, and brethren, and their connexions!
St Basil The Letters, To Diodorus
4. I, however, maintain that this point has not been left in silence, but that the lawgiver has made a distinct prohibition. The words “None of you shall approach to any one that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness,” embraces also this form of kinsmanship, for what could be more akin to a man than his own wife, or rather than his own flesh? “For they are no more twain but one flesh.” So, through the wife, the sister is made akin to the husband. For as he shall not take his wife’s mother, nor yet his wife’s daughter, because he may not take his own mother nor his own daughter, so he may not take his wife’s sister, because he may not take his own sister. And, on the other hand, it will not be lawful for the wife to be joined with the husband’s kin, for the rights of relationship hold good on both sides. …