complete verse (Leviticus 20:21)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Leviticus 20:21:

  • Kupsabiny: “If a man marries the wife of his brother that is something that is unclean/unholy. He and the woman shall die without getting children.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “If anyone has intercourse with his elder brother’s or younger brother’s wife he has made his elder or younger brother to feel shame. and they will die without children."’” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “If a man has-(intimate)-relations with a wife of his sibling/(brother), he has-put- his sibling/(brother) -to-shame. And because what they have-done (is) dirty/unclean, they will- just -die without children.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “‘If a man marries his brother’s wife while his brother is still living, that is disgraceful. He has dishonored his brother; and they both will die without having any children.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Leviticus 20:21

Takes: see verse 14 and 18.17, 18.

Some have seen in this verse a contradiction of the law given in Deuteronomy 25.5, which allows the brother of a dead man to marry his brother’s widow. But in this case the brother is still alive, and so this is a case of adultery. If necessary one may add the implicit information “while he [the brother] is still alive.”

Impurity: this word indicates both ritual uncleanness and the idea of abhorrence, or of something to be avoided.

Childless: see verse 20.

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 .