complete verse (Leviticus 20:20)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Leviticus 20:20:

  • Kupsabiny: “If a man marries a wife of a brother to his father. he has brought evil/sin to his father. He and that woman will be held responsible and they shall die without getting children.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “If anyone has intercourse with the wife of his father’s elder or younger brother, he has caused his father’s elder or younger brother to feel shame. They will be guilty of their sin. And they will die without children.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “If a man has-sexual-intercourse with the wife of his uncle, he has-put- his uncle -to-shame. The two of them are-to-answer-for/are-responsible-for (this), and they will- just -die without children.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “‘If a man has sex with his aunt, he has dishonored his uncle. I will punish both of them by causing them to die without having any children.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Leviticus 20:20

Lies with: see verse 11 and 15.18.

Uncle: the word used in this verse designates the brother of one’s father or a paternal uncle. See 10.4.

Childless: the root word here means “stripped,” but it has traditionally been understood to mean “deprived of children.” It is so translated in Genesis 15.2 to describe Abram. But in this context it is more likely that it means “stripped of posterity,” indicating not only that the guilty parties would not bear any children, but also that any offspring that they already had (separately) would be taken from them. In Jeremiah 22.30 Good News Translation translates the same word “lose his children.” In this verse one may translate “they must die without leaving any descendants,” or “they shall have no one to carry on the family name,” or some similar expression. New English Bible renders it “they shall be proscribed….” One commentator suggests “struck off the list.”

Quoted with permission from Péter-Contesse, René and Ellington, John. A Handbook on Leviticus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1990. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .