Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Leviticus 18:7
The nakedness of thy father, or the nakedness of thy mother, shalt thou not uncover: she [is] thy mother; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.
Or – It might be rendered and, or rather, even; that is, which belongs to both parents as being one flesh (Gen 2:24; compare Lev 18:8, Lev 18:14). These prohibitions are addressed to men.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Of thy father, or of thy mother, Heb. and of thy mother, put for that is, or to wit, as it is oft used. Here it notes that the nakedness of the father, and the nakedness of the mother, are one and the same thing, because they two are one flesh, and therefore her nakedness is his also; which further appears, because the mother only is mentioned in the following words, which contain the reason of the law.
She is thy mother; and therefore even nature teacheth thee to abhor such incest. Yet the Persians used to marry their mother; therein worse than the very camels, whom no force will drive to that act with their dams.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
The nakedness of thy father, or the nakedness of thy mother,
shall thou not uncover,…. By uncovering a father’s nakedness is not meant anything similar to what befell Noah, which Ham beheld with pleasure, and the other two sons of Noah studiously and with reverence to their father covered; nor any sodomitical practice of a son with his father; as Gersom interprets it; but the same is meant by both phrases, and the words are by many interpreters thus rendered, “the nakedness of thy father, that is x, the nakedness of thy mother thou shalt not uncover”: for what is the mother’s is the father’s, and uncovering the one is uncovering the other; wherefore the mother only is made mention of in the next clause, where the reason of this prohibition is given:
she [is] thy mother, thou shalt not uncover her nakedness; that is, not lie with her, nor marry her, because she is his mother that bore him, of whom he was born, and therefore ought not to become his wife, or be taken into his bed; such a marriage must be incestuous and shocking; such were the marriages of Oedipus with his mother Jocasta, and of Nero with Agrippina; though the words will bear another sense, that a woman may not marry her father, which may be meant by the first clause, nor a man his mother, intended in the next; and where indeed it is not expressed, females in the same degree of relation are included with the males, and under the same prohibition; and so the Targum of Jonathan explains this, a woman shall not have to do with her father, nor a man with his mother; as Lot’s two daughters had with him, and the Persians with their mothers; among whom such incestuous marriages and copulations were frequent, and especially among their Magi y who might not perform their office unless they had lain with their mothers, sisters, and daughters z, or were begotten in such incest a: a man guilty of such incestuous copulations was cursed by the law of Moses,
De 27:20; this is contrary to nature, what the brute creation abhors; a camel will not cover its dam: Aristotle b reports of one who was betrayed into it by his keeper, who, after he had discovered it, fixed his teeth in him and slew him; and he also relates of a horse after that he had ignorantly done the same, ran away in great haste and cast himself down from a precipice headlong.
x “id est, nuditatem vel pudenda”, Vatablus, Fagius, Piscator. y Sex. Empir. Pyrrh. l. 3. c. 24. z Patricides apud Selden. de jure natur. Gent. l. 5. c. 11. p. 624. a “Nam magus ex matre et gnato nascatur oportet.” Catull. Epigr. 91. b Hist. Animal. l. 9. c. 47.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(7) The nakedness of thy father, or the nakedness of thy mother.The rendering of the Authorised Version is based upon the interpretation which obtained during the second Temple, according to which this injunction is addressed both to the daughter and the son. The daughter must not marry or have commerce with the father, nor the son with the mother. Hence the Chaldee Version of Jonathan translates it the woman shall not lie with her father, and the man shall not lie with his mother. Accordingly the case here contemplated is that of Lots daughters (Gen. 19:31-38). This passage may, however, be translated literally, the nakedness of thy father, and the nakedness of thy mother shalt thou not uncover. That is, they being both one flesh, the nakedness of the one is the nakedness of the other. Amongst the Persians and other eastern nations, marriage between son and mother was allowed.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
7. Nakedness of thy father Here the “father” is grammatically the possessor. It is the wife’s nakedness, as the Hebrew properly rendered shows, where the “or” is rendered “even;” thus “the nakedness of thy father, even the nakedness of thy mother.” Since the husband and wife are one flesh, what is predicated of the wife may be predicated of him. The last clause of the verse implies that the command is directed only to a son, and refers only to his mother.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Lev 18:7 The nakedness of thy father, or the nakedness of thy mother, shalt thou not uncover: she [is] thy mother; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.
Ver. 7. She is thy mother. ] And so it is against nature to lie carnally with her. Aristotle a tells of a camel that killed his keeper for causing him to cover his dam, and of a horse that cast himself down headlong after he had done the like.
a Hist. Animal., lib. ix. cap. 47.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
father. See Gen 19:31-38.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Lev 20:11, Eze 22:10
Reciprocal: Gen 19:32 – seed Gen 19:33 – drink Gen 19:36 – General Lev 18:6 – to uncover
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Lev 18:7. The nakedness of thy father, or of thy mother This is but one fact, though expressed two ways, as appears from Lev 18:8, compared with Lev 20:11. The expression imports, that such an action is doing the greatest dishonour to ones father and mother.