Leviticus 19
The Call to Holiness 1–2
Basic Obligations: Family and Worship 3–4
Laws of the Peace Offering 5–8
Justice and Care for the Poor 9–10
Honesty and Integrity 11–18
Prohibitions on Mixtures and Customs 19–22
Agricultural and Tree Laws 23–25
Avoiding Pagan Practices 26–31
Respect for the Elderly and the Alien 32–34
Honesty in Commerce 35–37
Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain
Study Notes for Leviticus 19
Verse 2
Ye shall be holy — Qadosh means set apart as sacred. The command goes to ‘all the congregation’, not to the priests alone, and its ground is the LORD’s own holiness, as already in 11:44–45. Peter takes it up for believers: ‘Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy’ (1 Pet 1:16).
Verse 3
fear every man his mother, and his father — The verb is yare, to revere, and the mother is named first, the reverse of Ex 20:12, ‘Honour thy father and thy mother’. The parents are joined to ‘my sabbaths’ (Ex 20:8), and the same yare is used of God in v.14 and of the sanctuary in v.30.
Verse 6
until the third day — These are the terms of the peace offering (zebach, sacrifice) in 7:15–18: the thanksgiving offering was eaten the same day, a vow or freewill offering that day and ‘on the morrow’, and ‘the remainder of the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day shall be burnt with fire’ (7:17). Eaten on the third day, it ‘shall not be accepted’ (7:18).
Verse 9
the corners of thy field — Pe’ah is the edge, left standing for the poor; v.10 adds the vineyard, ‘for the poor and stranger’. A forgotten sheaf is treated the same way (Deut 24:19), and the rule is repeated at the harvest feast (23:22). Ruth the Moabitess gleaned in this manner, asking to ‘glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace’ (Ruth 2:2).
Verse 12
swear by my name falsely — Sheqer is falsehood. An oath calls on the LORD’s name, so a false one ‘profanes’ it (chalal, to make common). The verse applies Ex 20:7, ‘Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain’. Christ cites the old rule as ‘Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths’ (Matt 5:33).
Verse 13
all night until the morning — Lun is to lodge for the night: the hired man’s pay is not to stay overnight with the employer. Deut 24:15 gives the reason, ‘for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it’, and says ‘neither shall the sun go down upon it’. James 5:4 hears wages ‘kept back by fraud’ crying out to ‘the Lord of sabaoth’.
Verse 14
the deaf… the blind — The deaf (cheresh) cannot hear the curse, and the blind cannot see the ‘stumblingblock’ (mikshol) put ‘before’ them. The only check the verse names is ‘thou shalt fear thy God’, the same verb (yare) as in v.3. Deut 27:18 pronounces a curse on ‘he that maketh the blind to wander out of the way’.
Verse 15
respect the person of the poor — The Hebrew is to ‘lift the face’ (nasa panim) of someone, which is partiality, and the verse forbids it toward the poor and the mighty alike. Judgment is ‘in righteousness’ (tsedeq). Deut 1:17 gives the ground: ‘Ye shall not respect persons in judgment… for the judgment is God’s.’
Verse 16
as a talebearer among thy people — Rakil is the scandal-monger who goes about with reports, and ‘go up and down’ is the verb halak, to walk. To ‘stand against the blood of thy neighbour’ is to act against his life. Ezekiel finds it in Jerusalem: ‘men that carry tales to shed blood’ (Ezek 22:9). Compare Ex 23:1, ‘Thou shalt not raise a false report’.
Verse 17
in any wise rebuke — Yakach is to reprove. The command is set against hatred ‘in thine heart’ (levav): the unspoken grudge is answered by speaking to the brother. Christ gives the same order, ‘If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him’ (Luke 17:3; cf. Matt 18:15). ‘Open rebuke is better than secret love’ (Prov 27:5).
Verse 18
love thy neighbour as thyself — Ahab is to love, and it follows the forbidden vengeance and grudge. Christ calls it the second great commandment (Matt 22:39). Paul says ‘all the law is fulfilled in one word’ (Gal 5:14), and James calls it ‘the royal law according to the scripture’ (James 2:8). The same words are said of the stranger in v.34.
Verse 19
mingled seed — Three pairings are forbidden: cattle ‘with a diverse kind’, a field with ‘mingled seed’, and ‘a garment mingled of linen and woollen’. The last is shaatnez, a word found only here and in Deut 22:11. Deut 22:9 gives the seed rule for the vineyard, ‘lest the fruit… be defiled’.
Verse 20
not at all redeemed — The woman is a shiphchah, a bondmaid, betrothed but neither ransomed (padah) nor freed. Her case differs from the free betrothed woman of Deut 22:23–24, where both are stoned. Here ‘she shall be scourged’ (biqqoreth, a word found only here), and the man brings ‘a ram for a trespass offering’ and is forgiven (vv.21–22).
Verse 23
as uncircumcised — The fruit of the first three years is counted as having a foreskin: orlah is the word for ‘foreskin’ in Gen 17:11. In the fourth year the fruit is ‘holy to praise the LORD withal’, and in the fifth ‘shall ye eat of the fruit thereof’ (vv.24–25). Jeremiah uses the same figure of the heart: ‘all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart’ (Jer 9:26).
Verse 26
with the blood — Blood was forbidden to Noah, ‘flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat’ (Gen 9:4), and to Israel because ‘the life of the flesh is in the blood’ (17:11). The Jerusalem council still asks Gentile believers to abstain ‘from blood’ (Acts 15:20). ‘Enchantment’ (nachash) and ‘observe times’ (anan) are listed in Deut 18:10.
Verse 27
the corners of your heads — The word for corner is pe’ah, the same as the field’s edge in v.9. No reason is stated here. The rule on the beard is repeated for priests in 21:5, ‘neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard’.
Verse 28
cuttings in your flesh for the dead — The ban is repeated in Deut 14:1, ‘Ye are the children of the LORD your God: ye shall not cut yourselves’, and for priests in 21:5. The prophets of Baal ‘cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets’ (1 Kings 18:28). ‘Print any marks’ translates two words, ketoveth and qaaqa, each found only here.
Verse 30
reverence my sanctuary — The two commands of v.3 return. The sabbaths are kept again, and the verb yare, used there of parents, is now used of the sanctuary (miqdash). Lev 26:2 repeats the verse word for word. Ecclesiastes 5:1 gives the manner in the house of God: ‘be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools’.
Verse 31
familiar spirits — Ob is the medium’s spirit and yiddeoni a ‘knowing one’, the wizard; to turn to them is to be ‘defiled by them’. The penalty is given in 20:6, 27. Saul sought ‘a woman that hath a familiar spirit’ at Endor (1 Sam 28:7), and Isaiah asks, ‘should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?’ (Isa 8:19).
Verse 32
the hoary head — Seybah is grey hair. The verb ‘honour’ is hadar, the one forbidden in v.15 toward ‘the mighty’ in judgment; here the old man’s face is the one to honour. Again the verse ends ‘fear thy God’ (yare). ‘The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness’ (Prov 16:31).
Verse 34
as one born among you — Ezrach is the native-born. The command uses the words of v.18, ‘love him as thyself’, now of the stranger (ger), with the reason ‘for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt’. Ex 12:49 sets the same footing in law: ‘One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you.’
Verse 35
meteyard — Middah is a measure and a standard of measure, named with weight (mishqal) and liquid measure (mesurah). Verse 36 names the standards: ‘Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin’. Deut 25:13–15 forbids ‘divers weights, a great and a small’ in the bag.
Verse 37
all my statutes, and all my judgments — Chuqqah (statute) and mishpat (judgment) are the pair of 18:5, ‘keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them’. The chapter has used both: ‘Ye shall keep my statutes’ introduced the mixed kinds (v.19), and ‘judgment’ is the word of vv.15 and 35.