Chapter Nineteen
Moral, ceremonial, and juridical laws regulating the life of Israel according to the ideal of holiness
Leviticus 19:1. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Leviticus 19:2. Speak to the entire assembly of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. An indication of the fundamental law of the life of Israel and its individual members: the appropriation into one’s own possession of that holiness which in the absolute sense belongs only to God (see Lev 11:44), the sanctification of the life of Israel by following God’s institutions and ordinances, which encompassed the whole life of God’s people. The laws concerning the clean and unclean symbolically expressed this idea of the sanctification of Israel.
Leviticus 19:3. You shall each fear your mother and your father and keep My sabbaths. I am the Lord, your God. Among the laws, the commandments of the Decalogue are first recalled: concerning the honor of parents (see Exod 20:8) and the observance of the sabbath (see Exod 31:13)—commandments expressed in the positive form (and not the negative, like all the other commandments of the Decalogue).
Leviticus 19:4. Do not turn to idols and do not make for yourself molten gods. I am the Lord, your God. Prohibition of idolatry (see Exod 20:4-6). Idols are called elilim, “nothings” (see 1 Cor 8:4), and molten gods.
Leviticus 19:5. When you offer a sacrifice of well-being to the Lord, you shall offer it so that you may gain acceptance: Leviticus 19:6. It shall be eaten on the day you offer it and on the following day; but anything left until the third day shall be burned in fire; Leviticus 19:7. If it is eaten on the third day, it is an abomination; it will not be acceptable. Leviticus 19:8. Whoever eats it shall bear his iniquity, for he has profaned what is holy to the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from his people. Repetition of the laws concerning the peace offering, namely concerning the use of its meat (see Lev 7:15-18), for guidance in the personal religious life of each person.
Leviticus 19:9. When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the corners of your field, and you shall not pick up the gleanings of your harvest, Leviticus 19:10. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, and you shall not pick up the grapes that have fallen in your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord, your God. In verses 9–18, certain rules concerning justice, honesty, mercy, and love for the neighbor are given. First, the right of the poor is protected, and foreigners—strangers living among Israel—are placed on the same level. With great humanity, the lawgiver requires that these people not be forgotten by owners and property holders in gathering grain, grapes, and of course other produce (see Lev 23:22; Deut 24:19-21). The amount of the portion left for the poor—the unreaped corner of the field (peah), what remained or was forgotten in the field and vineyard—was left to the discretion of each individual, to generosity and compassion. In the Mishnah, where an entire tractate, “Peah,” is devoted to this point, the minimum of the mentioned donations (in particular the unreaped corner) is determined as 1/60 of all the owner’s property.
Leviticus 19:11. You shall not steal, you shall not lie, and you shall not deal falsely with one another. Leviticus 19:12. And you shall not swear falsely by My name, and you shall not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord [your God]. Leviticus 19:13. You shall not defraud your neighbor and you shall not rob. The wages of an employee shall not remain with you until morning. The 8th commandment of the Decalogue is recalled, and crimes against it are warned against—the appropriation of another’s property in all forms of this sin: secret theft, open robbery with violence, fraudulent deception with false oath, unjust withholding of wages from a day laborer (see Deut 24:14-15; Jer 32:13; Mal 3:5; Jas 5:4).
Leviticus 19:14. You shall not curse the deaf, and you shall not place a stumbling block before the blind; you shall fear [the Lord] your God. I am the Lord [your God]. Leviticus 19:15. You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not show partiality to the poor nor show favoritism to the great; you shall judge your neighbor with justice. Mockery and malice toward people with grave physical defects—deafness and blindness—reveal a lack of fear of God in a person and consciousness of God’s omniscience; moreover, the insulted were deprived of the ability to seek retaliation against their offenders. Therefore a terrible curse of God (see Deut 27:18) against offenders was meant to protect the helpless. On the other hand, with regard to the weak, such as the poor, any unfair lenience is prohibited (see Exod 23:1-3), which would be inadmissible with regard to the strong.
Leviticus 19:16. You shall not go about as a talebearer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor. I am the Lord [your God]. Leviticus 19:17. You shall not hate your brother in your heart; you shall reprove your neighbor, and you shall not incur sin because of him. Leviticus 19:18. You shall not take revenge and you shall not hold a grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord [your God]. The law of love and good will toward the neighbor, here commanded (Lev 19:18), is preceded by negative prescriptions: 1) not to slander the neighbor and generally not to be instrumental in the ruin of the neighbor (see Exod 23:7) or (according to the interpretation of Hebrew authorities) even to avoid not helping him in the face of his impending ruin (Lev 19:16); 2) not to be carried away by feelings of revenge toward the neighbor, avoiding especially secret hatred toward him, preferring to it open rebuke of him (Lev 19:17; Vulg.: non oderis fratrem tuum in corde tuo, sed publice argue eum). Immediately following the prohibition against “taking revenge” is the positive “royal law according to Scripture” (Jas 2:8)—the law of love for the neighbor as for yourself. From the comparison of verse 18 with verse 34 it is clear that by the name “neighbor” here is meant not simply a fellow countryman, but also generally a person, for instance, a foreigner who has settled among the Hebrews, a stranger. Nevertheless, the national exclusivity of the Hebrews early prompted them to limit the obligation of this commandment only to the bounds of their own people (Grotius: proximum hic, ut et in omnibus Mosis legibus, Israelitam solum, aut extraneum legi subjectum intelligunt Hebraei).
Leviticus 19:19. You shall keep My statutes; you shall not crossbreed your cattle with another kind; your field you shall not sow with two kinds of seed; you shall not put on a garment of two kinds of material, of wool and linen. Without direct connection to what precedes, a prescription is given to keep the “statutes” of God—the boundaries set at creation for different types of existence, and together with it the moral laws of God. Specifically it is forbidden (see Deut 22:9-11) to artificially mix what is different (Hebrew kifaim—the title of an entire Mishnaic tractate developing the thought of this verse, Lev 19:19): 1) the breeding of mixed cattle; 2) the sowing of one plot with different seeds; and 3) the preparation of clothing from tissues of different fibers (schaatnez—an Egyptian or Coptic word)—not only a chemical (according to the interpretation of Jewish tradition) but also a mechanical joining in one garment of wool and linen (see Deut 22:11), the main materials of Hebrew clothing. Apart from respect for the laws laid down by the Creator, this prescription could arouse horror in people regarding the abominations mentioned in Lev 18:22-24; understood in an allegorical sense it could protect the Hebrews from mixing with pagans (blessed Theodoret, question 27).
Leviticus 19:20. If a man lies with a woman who is a slave designated for another man but who has not been ransomed or given her freedom, there shall be a penalty; they shall not, however, be put to death, because she has not been freed: Leviticus 19:21. But he shall bring his guilt offering to the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting, a ram as a guilt offering; Leviticus 19:22. And the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering before the Lord for the sin he has committed, and he shall be forgiven for the sin he has committed. A guilt offering for the seduction and defilement of a slave girl who is engaged (if she were free, death of the seducer would be required, Deut 18:25-26, or of the seduced, Lev 18:23-24).
Leviticus 19:23. When you come to the land [which the Lord your God will give you] and plant any tree for food, you shall consider its fruit as forbidden: three years it shall be forbidden for you; it shall not be eaten; Leviticus 19:24. And in the fourth year all its fruit shall be devoted to celebration for the Lord; Leviticus 19:25. And in the fifth year you may eat of its fruit, so that your crop may yield for you more. I am the Lord, your God. A law—like certain other ones (Lev 14:34)—that was to come into force only when Israel entered Canaan and began actually settled life. As soon as a fruit tree is planted, the law regulates the use of its fruit by dividing the tree’s life into 3 following periods: 1) For the first 3 years the fruit is forbidden for consumption, as something uncultured, “uncircumcised”—unclean (see Isa 52:1; Jer 6:10); 2) in the 4th year, the entire fruit harvest of the tree is to be consecrated to Jehovah, as thanksgiving (hitlulim, Vulg.: laudabilis, Old Church Slavonic: “praiseworthy”) for the fruit-bearing of the tree—as the firstfruits of its fruit; 3) from the 5th year on, the fruit of the tree belongs to its owner, and to him—for the exact observance of the law’s prescription—is promised “increase” (Old Church Slavonic; Hebrew: lehosiph—for increase) of fruits (LXX: prosthema hymin ta gennmata). The basis and significance of the law is not so much agricultural and practical (the benefit of proper tree care, the elimination of harm from consuming raw underdeveloped fruit), though the law may have had this in view, as it is religious-theocratic—the consecration to Jehovah of the first products in order to sanctify the entire integrity of the objects used by man for his benefit: completely analogous to the dedication of the firstborn of cattle (Exod 13:12). This provision was developed by the Talmudists into an entire tractate “Orlah” (“uncircumcised”).
Leviticus 19:26. You shall not eat meat with the blood; you shall not practice divination or seek omens. Leviticus 19:27. You shall not round off the hair on your head, and you shall not shave off the edges of your beard. Leviticus 19:28. You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead, and you shall not tattoo any marks upon you. I am the Lord [your God]. Leviticus 19:29. Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, so that the land does not become full of debauchery. Leviticus 19:30. You shall keep My sabbaths and you shall revere My sanctuary. I am the Lord. Leviticus 19:31. Do not turn to those who consult with spirits of the dead, and do not seek out wizards to be defiled by them. I am the Lord, your God. Prohibition of certain superstitions that existed in the cult and life of the Egyptians and other peoples with whom Israel came into contact: 1) consuming meat with blood (Lev 19:26, see Lev 7:26), according to the explanation of the rabbis, from an animal still alive—probably a superstitious practice connected to the belief in a special power of blood; the reading of the LXX is different: epi ton oreon (Old Church Slavonic: “do not eat on the mountains”), which may point to a custom of pagans to slaughter their sacrifices on mountains; in connection with this, 2) all kinds of divination (Hebrew nachasch; LXX: oionizesthai, Vulg.: augurari—divination by the flight of birds) and soothsaying (Lev 19:26, see Lev 20:6); 3) the cutting of hair on the head and beard (see Jer 9:25) with pagan-superstitious purposes, as, for instance, ancient Arabs, according to Herodotus 3:8, shaved hair on their temples in honor of the god Orotal, whom the Greeks associated with Bacchus; 4) mutilation of the body with cuts in honor of the dead (see Deut 14:1), in particular tattooing: both were in widespread use among the peoples of the East, as remains to this day among savages, for example, on the Caroline Islands (see Jer 16:6; 1 Sam 18:28); 5) religious (for instance, in honor of Astarte-Melita, see Gen 38) prostitution, which would defile the land and the sanctuary of Jehovah; 6) the summoning of the dead and witchcraft in general (LXX: engastrimythois, Old Church Slavonic: “ventriloquists”—ventriloquism; see blessed Theodoret, question 29).
Leviticus 19:32. You shall rise up before the aged and show respect to the old, and fear your [the Lord] your God. I am the Lord [your God]. Leviticus 19:33. When a foreigner lives with you in your land, you shall not wrong him: Leviticus 19:34. The foreigner who lives with you shall be to you as one of your own, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord, your God. Leviticus 19:35. You shall do no injustice in judgment, in measure, in weight, or in quantity: Leviticus 19:36. You shall have honest scales, honest weights, an honest dry measure, and an honest liquid measure. I am the Lord, your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Moral and social prescriptions: a) concerning respect for the elderly (under zaqen the rabbis arbitrarily understand only sages), which commands honoring the divine authority (Lev 19:33-34); b) love for the neighbors (Lev 19:18) must extend to foreigners who have settled in the land of Israel and accepted its laws (see Exod 22:21); c) strict justice and honesty in judgment, in commerce, and in all social relations—“in judgment, in measure, in weight, and in quantity.”
Leviticus 19:37. You shall keep all My statutes and all My ordinances and perform them. I am the Lord [your God]. The exhortation to exact observance of the laws and statutes, whose holiness is guarded by the authority of Jehovah, is repeated.