“‘If a man takes his sister—his father’s daughter, or his mother’s daughter—and sees her nakedness, and she sees his nakedness, it is a shameful thing. They shall be cut off in the sight of the children of their people. He has uncovered his sister’s nakedness. He shall bear his iniquity.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 17. A crime. Hebrew chesed, commonly signifies an act of piety or goodness, as if Moses intended to insinuate that such marriages were at first lawful. Thalmud. Seld. Jur. verse 8.) But a softer term is used to denote a great impiety, as the Hebrews say to bless, when they mean to curse, or to blaspheme; ( Calmet.) and the Greeks call the furies Eumenides, or “the good-natured.”—One another’s. Hebrew “He hath uncovered his sister’s,” and so forth Whether they saw what was indecent or not, if they admitted of any unlawful commerce, they were to be stoned to death. Bible.