Deuteronomy 22:30

30 “A man must not marry his father’s former wife, for this would violate his father.

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 “Suppose a man has intercourse with a young woman who is a virgin but is not engaged to be married. If they are discovered,

29 he must pay her father fifty pieces of silver. Then he must marry the young woman because he violated her, and he may never divorce her as long as he lives.

30 “A man must not marry his father’s former wife, for this would violate his father.

Footnotes

• [a]. Verse 22:30 is numbered 23:1 in Hebrew text.