Leviticus 18:2

18:2 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘I am the Lord your God!

Leviticus 18:4

18:4 You must observe my regulations ¹  and you must be sure to walk in my statutes. ²  I am the Lord your God.

Leviticus 19:3-4

19:3 Each of you must respect his mother and his father, ³  and you must keep my Sabbaths. I am the Lord your God. 19:4 Do not turn to idols, ⁴  and you must not make for yourselves gods of cast metal. I am the Lord your God.

Leviticus 19:25

19:25 Then in the fifth year you may eat its fruit to add its produce to your harvest. ⁵  I am the Lord your God.

Leviticus 24:22

24:22 There will be one regulation ⁶  for you, whether a foreigner or a native citizen, for I am the Lord your God.’”

Leviticus 25:17

25:17 No one is to oppress his fellow citizen, ⁷  but you must fear your God, because I am the Lord your God.

¹ tn Heb “My regulations you shall do”; KJV, NASB “my judgments”; NRSV “My ordinances”; NIV, TEV “my laws.”

² tn Heb “and my statutes you shall keep [or “watch; guard”] to walk in them.”

¹ tn Heb “A man his mother and his father you [plural] shall fear.” The LXX, Syriac, Vulgate, and certain Targum mss reverse the order, “his father and his mother.” The term “fear” is subject to misunderstanding by the modern reader, so “respect” has been used in the translation. Cf. NAB, NRSV “revere”; NASB “reverence.”

¹ sn Regarding the difficult etymology and meaning of the term for “idols” (אֱלִילִים, ’elilim), see B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 126; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 304; N. H. Snaith, Leviticus and Numbers (NBC), 89; and Judith M. Hadley, NIDOTTE 1:411. It appears to be a diminutive play on words with אֵל (’el, “god; God”) and, perhaps at the same time, recalls a common Semitic word for “worthless; weak; powerless; nothingness.” Snaith suggests a rendering of “worthless godlings.”

¹ tn Heb “to add to you its produce.” The rendering here assumes that the point of this clause is simply that finally being allowed to eat the fruit in the fifth year adds the fruit of the tree to their harvest. Some take the verb to be from אָסַף (’asaf, “to gather”) rather than יָסַף (yasaf, “to add; to increase”), rendering the verse, “to gather to you the produce” (E. S. Gerstenberger, Leviticus [OTL], 260, and see the versions referenced in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 306). Others take it to mean that by following the regulations given previously they will honor the Lord so that the Lord will cause the trees to increase the amount of fruit they would normally produce (Hartley, 303, 306; cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

¹ tn Heb “a regulation of one”; KJV, ASV “one manner of law”; NASB “one standard.”

¹ tn Heb “And you shall not oppress a man his fellow citizen.”