Deuteronomy 22:30

30 A man cannot marry his father's former wife so that his father's private matters are not exposed.

Deuteronomy 22:30 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 22:30

A man shall not take his father's wife
Not marry her, whether his own mother, or a stepmother; or even, as Aben Ezra thinks, anyone that was deflowered by his father. Jarchi interprets it of his father's brother's wife, which he was obliged to marry by virtue of the law in ( Deuteronomy 25:5 )

nor discover his father's skirt;
or lie with her his father had thrown his skirt over, or married; and which being the first, is mentioned here as a sample to all the rest forbidden ( Leviticus 18:7 ) or, as Bishop Patrick expresses it, is a "short memorandum", to make them careful to observe all the other laws respecting incestuous marriages and copulations there delivered.

Deuteronomy 22:30 In-Context

28 If a man meets up with a young woman who is a virgin and not engaged, grabs her and has sex with her, and they are caught in the act,

29 the man who had sex with her must give fifty silver shekels to the young woman's father. She will also become his wife because he has humiliated her. He is never allowed to divorce her.

30 A man cannot marry his father's former wife so that his father's private matters are not exposed.

Footnotes

• [a]. 23:1 in Heb
• [b]. Or so that he doesn’t uncover his father’s skirt