“Uncover the nakedness”
None of you are to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the LORD. (Leviticus 18:6 BSB)
What it sounds like today
A rule that might seem to be about modesty or seeing relatives undressed.
The cultural key
The chapter's repeated formula, translated here 'to have sexual relations,' is in Hebrew literally 'to uncover the nakedness of' (galah ervah). It is the legal-euphemistic idiom for sexual intercourse, used verse after verse to define the forbidden degrees of relationship (the incest laws). Read woodenly, 'uncover the nakedness of your father' might sound like a rule about accidentally seeing a relative undressed, but the phrase is a fixed idiom for the sexual act itself. (This is also why Ham's 'seeing his father's nakedness' in Genesis 9, and Noah's furious response, have prompted long debate about what actually occurred.) Recognizing the euphemism is essential: these are not modesty rules but laws prohibiting sexual relations within close family. A modern reader may misread the delicate wording; the first hearers understood 'uncover nakedness' as plain shorthand for sex.
Recovered meaning
'To uncover the nakedness of' is the Hebrew legal euphemism for sexual intercourse, not for merely seeing someone undressed. The chapter's repeated phrase defines forbidden sexual relationships within the family.