Leviticus 1 - In Depth Bible Commentaries

18:17 ‘xQ;ti al{Ü HT'ªBi-tB;-ta,w> Hn"ùB.-tB;-ta,( hLe_g:t. al{å HT'ÞbiW hV'²ai tw:ïr>[,`awhi( hM'îzI hN"hEß hr"ïa]v; Ht'êw"r>[, tALåg:l. Nakedness of a woman and her daughter youshall not uncover! (The) daughter of her son, and daughter of her daughter, you shall not take (as69 70wife) to uncover her nakedness; they are her flesh; it is confusion!68(...continued)Deuteronomy 25:5-10 provides an exception to this prohibition, in the event of thedeath of the brother before any children are born to his relationship with his wife. If that shouldhappen, the dead man’s brother is under obligation to have sexual relationship with his brother’swidow, enabling the brother’s “name” to continue through the birth of a male child.Levine notes that “Verse 16 completes the primary list of incestuous [meaning, havingsexual relations with those closely related] relatives. Verses 17-18 deal with two cases wheremarriage into the family engenders additional prohibitions, on the principle that certain of theraev. (‘flesh’) relatives of a man’s wife are also forbidden.” (P. 121)69Noth changes from “her” to “your,” as does the Greek translation.70Or, “wickedness.” The noun is hM'îzI, which means literally “plan,” or “device,” or “wick-edness.” See S. Stengrimsson,’s article in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament IVpp. 87-90, where he shows how from the root verb ~m;z" , “to consider,” “to purpose,” “todevise,” have come the nouns, ~m'z", hM'zIm., hM'zI, and hM'zI. He states that “The use of theverb... reveals a rather uniform picture. Semantically it is neither negative nor positive; thenature of the action is determined by the object or other words that are added...The subject ofthe verb can be either Yahweh (6 times) or human beings (7 times). Depending on the context,Yahweh can plan either good or ill; human planning usually has negative overtones(Proverbs 31:16 is an exception).” (P. 88)Heb EngThe noun ~m'z" is found only in Psalm 140:9 / 8 , where the psalmist prays thatYHWH will frustrate the desires and plans of the wicked.The noun, hM'zIm., occurs 19 times, 5 in Psalms, 8 in Proverbs, 2 in Job, and 4 inJeremiah. Three of these passages speak of YHWH’s purpose or plan which no human canthwart, and which will come to pass without fail. All of the other passages have to do withhuman plans, which are largely negative. Steingrimsson states that “The negative meaning inthese examples is not inherent in the word itself, but derives from the context. The word canlikewise take on distinctly positive overtones when it is used in Wisdom Literature as one of123(continued...)