52 Beginning with 22:30, the verse numbers through 23:25 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (), with 22:30 = 23:1 , 23:1 = 23:2 , 23:2 = 23:3 , etc., through 23:25 = 23:26 . With 24:1 the verse numbers in the and are again the same.
53 Heb “take.” In context this refers to marriage, as in the older English expression “take a wife.”
54 This presupposes either the death of the father or their divorce since it would be impossible for one to marry his stepmother while his father was still married to her.
55 Heb “uncover his father’s skirt” (so , ). This appears to be a circumlocution for describing the dishonor that would come to a father by having his own son share his wife’s sexuality (cf. , “dishonor his father’s bed”).

In other versions

“A man shall not take his father’s wife, so that he does not uncover his father’s nakedness.

A man is not to marry his father’s wife; he must not dishonor his father’s bed.

“A man is not to marry his father’s wife; he must not violate his father’s marriage bed.

“A man must not marry his father’s former wife, for this would violate his father.

A man may not take the wife of his father, and so he may not dishonor his father.

A man shall not take his father’s wife, nor discover his father’s skirt.

Public Domain