The Law · Chapter 19 of 27
Leviticus 19
God calls Israel to be holy because he is holy, then unfolds what holiness looks like in daily life. The chapter weaves worship and ethics together: honoring parents, keeping sabbaths, leaving harvest for the poor, honest dealing, fair wages, care for the deaf and blind, impartial justice, and the command to love your neighbor as yourself. The refrain I am the LORD seals each cluster of commands.
What happens in Leviticus 19
The LORD tells Moses to speak to the whole congregation: be holy, for I am holy. What follows is a rich mixture of duties. Revere mother and father, keep the sabbaths, shun idols. Peace offerings must be eaten in time. At harvest, leave the corners and gleanings for the poor and the stranger. Do not steal, lie, defraud, or hold back a laborer's wages overnight. Do not curse the deaf or trip the blind. Judge without partiality to poor or mighty.
Do not slander or hate your brother, but rebuke him honestly; do not take vengeance or bear a grudge, but love your neighbor as yourself. Further commands govern mixed seed and cloth, sacred fruit, avoidance of occult practices, respect for the aged, kindness to the stranger who is to be loved as oneself, and honest weights and measures. Each section returns to I am the LORD.
Leviticus 19 in context
This is the heart of the Holiness Code, echoing the Ten Commandments and expanding them into everyday relationships. Holiness here is not withdrawal but neighborliness; the sanctuary spills into the field, the market, and the courtroom.
Israel is to image God's character in the ordinary transactions of life. The mingling of ritual and social commands shows that for God there is no divide between worship and justice.
Main themes of Leviticus 19
Leviticus 19 (KJV)
1And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy. 3Ye shall fear every man his mother, and his father, and keep my sabbaths: I am the LORD your God. 4Turn ye not unto idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods: I am the LORD your God. 5And if ye offer a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the LORD, ye shall offer it at your own will. 6It shall be eaten the same day ye offer it, and on the morrow: and if ought remain until the third day, it shall be burnt in the fire. 7And if it be eaten at all on the third day, it is abominable; it shall not be accepted. 8Therefore every one that eateth it shall bear his iniquity, because he hath profaned the hallowed thing of the LORD: and that soul shall be cut off from among his people. 9And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest. 10And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the LORD your God. 11Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another. 12And ye shall not swear by my name falsely, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD. 13Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob him: the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning. 14Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumblingblock before the blind, but shalt fear thy God: I am the LORD. 15Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour. 16Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people: neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbour: I am the LORD. 17Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him. 18Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD. 19Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed: neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee. 20And whosoever lieth carnally with a woman, that is a bondmaid, betrothed to an husband, and not at all redeemed, nor freedom given her; she shall be scourged; they shall not be put to death, because she was not free. 21And he shall bring his trespass offering unto the LORD, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, even a ram for a trespass offering. 22And the priest shall make an atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering before the LORD for his sin which he hath done: and the sin which he hath done shall be forgiven him. 23And when ye shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food, then ye shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised: three years shall it be as uncircumcised unto you: it shall not be eaten of. 24But in the fourth year all the fruit thereof shall be holy to praise the LORD withal. 25And in the fifth year shall ye eat of the fruit thereof, that it may yield unto you the increase thereof: I am the LORD your God. 26Ye shall not eat any thing with the blood: neither shall ye use enchantment, nor observe times. 27Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard. 28Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD. 29Do not prostitute thy daughter, to cause her to be a whore; lest the land fall to whoredom, and the land become full of wickedness. 30Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD. 31Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God. 32Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the LORD. 33And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. 34But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God. 35Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure. 36Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt. 37Therefore shall ye observe all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: I am the LORD.
Verses to carry from Leviticus 19
“Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy.”Leviticus 19:2
“Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.”Leviticus 19:18
“But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.”Leviticus 19:34
New Testament quotation
How Leviticus 19 points to Jesus
When a lawyer asked Jesus which command is greatest, he joined love for God with verse 18: thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, saying on these hang all the law and the prophets. Paul agreed that all the commandments are summed up in this word. So this ancient verse becomes, in Jesus, the beating heart of the whole moral law. Yet Jesus did more than quote it. He lived it perfectly, loving the leper, the outcast, and even his enemies, then laid down his life for neighbors who were his enemies.
The parable of the good Samaritan stretched neighbor to include anyone in need, and the command to love the stranger in verse 34 finds its fullest picture there. In Christ the call to holy love is both fulfilled and poured into us by his Spirit.
Questions about Leviticus 19
Why does God tie holiness to how we treat the poor, the deaf, and the blind?
Because holiness reflects his own character, and God defends the vulnerable. Leaving harvest for the poor, refusing to curse the deaf or trip the blind, and paying wages promptly all reveal a holiness that is neighbor-directed. To be like God is to use one's advantages to protect rather than exploit those who cannot protect themselves. Worship and justice are one fabric.
How did Jesus use verse 18, and what did he add to it?
He named it the second greatest commandment, hanging all the law upon it alongside love for God. He then widened its reach, teaching in the good Samaritan that neighbor includes even the despised outsider, and urging love of enemies. He fulfilled it by dying for those who were far off, and he gives his Spirit so that his people can love as he first loved them.
Reflection
Holiness, in this chapter, is startlingly ordinary: pay the worker today, leave grain for the hungry, tell the truth, do not nurse a grudge. God meets us not only in the sanctuary but in the field and the marketplace. Ask where love of neighbor is being asked of you in the plain tasks of today.
A prayer from Leviticus 19
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