Leviticus 20:17

17 Whosoever shall take his sister by his father or by his mother, and shall see her nakedness, and she see his nakedness, it is a reproach: they shall be destroyed before the children of their family; he has uncovered his sister's nakedness, they shall bear their sin.

Leviticus 20:17 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 20:17

And if a man shall take his sister, his father's daughter, or
his mother's daughter
Take her to be his wife, or commit lewdness with her, whether she be his sister by both father and mother's side, or whether by one only, either way she is his sister, and it is not lawful to marry her, or lie with her, see ( Leviticus 18:9 ) : and see her nakedness, and she see his nakedness;
which is not to be understood of an immodest view, exposing to each other what should not be seen, and pleasing themselves wills such obscene sights, but of the act of lying together, for so it is afterwards explained by a phrase frequently used to express that action by; and it denotes, as Aben Ezra observes, their mutual consent and agreement in it: it [is] a wicked thing;
and by no means to be done; it is a breach of a former law, it is a scandalous and reproachful thing, and the word is sometimes used for reproach, as in ( Proverbs 14:34 ) ; and they shall be cut off in the sight of their people;
by death, either by the hand of the civil magistrate, or by the hand of God, by the pestilence, as the Targum of Jonathan; Ben Gersom interprets it, of their dying childless, as in some following cases, ( Leviticus 20:20 Leviticus 20:21 ) ; he hath uncovered his sister's nakedness;
or lay with her, which explains a preceding clause: he shall bear his iniquity;
the punishment of it, and he alone, as Aben Ezra observes.

Leviticus 20:17 In-Context

15 And whosoever shall lie with a beast, let him die the death; and ye shall kill the beast.
16 And whatever woman shall approach any beast, so as to have connexion with it, ye shall kill the woman and the beast: let them die the death, they are guilty.
17 Whosoever shall take his sister by his father or by his mother, and shall see her nakedness, and she see his nakedness, it is a reproach: they shall be destroyed before the children of their family; he has uncovered his sister's nakedness, they shall bear their sin.
18 And whatever man shall lie with a woman that is set apart , and shall uncover her nakedness, he has uncovered her fountain, and she has uncovered the flux of her blood: they shall both be destroyed from among their generation.
19 And thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father's sister, or of the sister of thy mother; for that man has uncovered the nakedness of one near akin: they shall bear their iniquity.

The Brenton translation of the Septuagint is in the public domain.