A MOTHER-IN-LAW — specifically a WIFE’S mother: the feminine of choten, the title Exodus gives Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law (Exodus 3:1, 18:1, already on these pages). ⭐ The noun stands in one verse of the Hebrew Bible, Deuteronomy 27:23, and that verse is a curse: cursed is he who lies with his mother-in-law. The law it restates, Leviticus 18:17 and 20:14 (already on these pages), says a woman and her mother and has no word for the relationship at all. ⚠ A HUSBAND’S mother is a different noun, chamot — Naomi’s word, Orpah kissed her mother-in-law (Ruth 1:14, already on these pages). English and Spanish have one word for both; Hebrew has two, and uses one of them once. The TLB reads ‘his widowed mother-in-law’, supplying a widowhood the Hebrew does not state. → first discussed at Deut 27:23