18 " 'Do not take your wife's sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is living.
18 Neither shalt thou take a wife
18 And you shall not take a woman as a rival wife to her sister, uncovering her nakedness while her sister is still alive.
18 "Don't marry your wife's sister as a rival wife and have sex with her while your wife is living.
18 Nor shall you take a woman as a rival to her sister, to uncover her nakedness while the other is alive.
18 "While your wife is living, do not marry her sister and have sexual relations with her, for they would be rivals.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Leviticus 18:18
Chapter Contents
Unlawful marriages and fleshly lusts.
Here is a law against all conformity to the corrupt usages of the heathen. Also laws against incest, against brutal lusts, and barbarous idolatries; and the enforcement of these laws from the ruin of the Canaanites. God here gives moral precepts. Close and constant adherence to God's ordinances is the most effectual preservative from gross sin. The grace of God only will secure us; that grace is to be expected only in the use of the means of grace. Nor does He ever leave any to their hearts' lusts, till they have left him and his services.