Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister, to vex her, to uncover her nakedness, beside the other in her life time.
Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister ... in her life-time, х 'ishaah (H802) 'el (H413) 'ªchotaah (H269)] - one wife to her sister. This passage has been interpreted in two very different and indeed opposite ways: One class of commentators, taking the words in an idiomatic sense, consider the law a prohibition of polygamy-`Neither shalt thou take one wife to another.' Another, accepting the words in their natural meaning-`Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister'-view the statute as forbidding an imitation of Jacob in marrying two sisters, and understand it thus: 'Thou shalt not marry the sister of thy present wife, to vex her in her life-time; although thou mayest take a stranger, and even her sister on her decease.'
The subject has provoked much discussion, and, whether viewed as a question of Scriptural interpretation or of social polity, is of great interest and importance. Among commentators, Poole, Dwight, and Chalmers ('Daily Scripture Readings') espouse the former opinion, while Dr. Patrick, Henry, Scott, and Adam Clarke support the latter. We believe that the marginal reading is the true one, and that this statute does not bear upon the quoestio vexata of marriage with a deceased wife's sister. Whatever arguments may be adduced as to the lawfulness or unlawfulness, the expediency or inexpediency of such a matrimonial relation, the passage before us cannot, on sound principles of criticism, be enlisted in the service; because it forms part of a context which enumerates various crimes to be sternly interdicted, among which was the contemporary practice of marrying two sisters. (In the copious literature produced by the recent agitation of this question in Britain and America, the following works may be mentioned as the most valuable: Professor Bush's 'Notes on Leviticus,' in which the question, owing to the interest it has excited in America, is treated at great length; 'Marriage with a Deceased Wife's Sister, including an Examination of Professor Bush's Notes,' by J.F. Denham, 8vo, pp. 60; also Denham's article, 'Marriage,' in Kitto's 'Biblical Cyclopaedia;' 'Hebrew Wife,' by
S.E. Dwight, of the American Bar; 'Enquiry into the Christian Law as to the Relationships which bar Marriage,' by William Lingsay, D.D., Professor of Sacred Languages and Biblical Criticism in the United Presbyterian Church, 1855,12 mo, pp. 230, particularly ch. 8:, entitled, 'The textual rendering of Leviticus 18:18 shown to be preferable to the marginal one;' 'The Men of Glasgow and the Women of Scotland: Reasons for Differing from the Dr. Symington's View of the Levitical Marriage Law,' by Thomas Binney, London, 8vo; Archdeacon Hare's 'Notes to his Annual Charge,' 1850; 'Domestic Life in Palestine,' by Mary Eliza Rogers: 'Report of the Arguments of Counsel and of the Judgments of Lord Denman and the other Judges of the Court of Queen's Bench, in the case of the Queen versus Chadwick (in error), in Michaelmas Term, 1847,' by James Cock Evans, Esq., of Lincoln's Inn, Barrister-at-Law, 8vo, pp. 30, London; 'Facts and Opinions tending to show the Scriptural Lawfulness of Marriage with a Deceased Wife's Sister,' Marriage Law Reform Association, London.)