Discovery BoxLeviticus 19:16-37
Context19:16 You must not go about as a slanderer among your people. 1 You must not stand idly by when your neighbor’s life is at stake. 2 I am the Lord. 19:17 You must not hate your brother in your heart. You must surely reprove your fellow citizen so that you do not incur sin on account of him. 3 19:18 You must not take vengeance or bear a grudge 4 against the children of your people, but you must love your neighbor as yourself. 5 I am the Lord. 19:19 You must keep my statutes. You must not allow two different kinds of your animals to breed, 6 you must not sow your field with two different kinds of seed, and you must not wear 7 a garment made of two different kinds of fabric. 8
19:20 “‘When a man has sexual intercourse with a woman, 9 although she is a slave woman designated for another man and she has not yet been ransomed, or freedom has not been granted to her, there will be an obligation to pay compensation. 10 They must not be put to death, because she was not free. 19:21 He must bring his guilt offering to the Lord at the entrance of the Meeting Tent, a guilt offering ram, 11 19:22 and the priest is to make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering before the Lord for his sin that he has committed, 12 and he will be forgiven 13 of his sin 14 that he has committed.
19:23 “‘When you enter the land and plant any fruit tree, 15 you must consider its fruit to be forbidden. 16 Three years it will be forbidden to you; 17 it must not be eaten. 19:24 In the fourth year all its fruit will be holy, praise offerings 18 to the Lord. 19:25 Then in the fifth year you may eat its fruit to add its produce to your harvest. 19 I am the Lord your God.
19:26 “‘You must not eat anything with the blood still in it. 20 You must not practice either divination or soothsaying. 21 19:27 You must not round off the corners of the hair on your head or ruin the corners of your beard. 22 19:28 You must not slash your body for a dead person 23 or incise a tattoo on yourself. 24 I am the Lord. 19:29 Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, 25 so that the land does not practice prostitution and become full of lewdness. 26
19:30 “‘You must keep my Sabbaths and fear my sanctuary. I am the Lord. 19:31 Do not turn to the spirits of the dead and do not seek familiar spirits 27 to become unclean by them. I am the Lord your God. 19:32 You must stand up in the presence of the aged, honor the presence of an elder, and fear your God. I am the Lord. 19:33 When a foreigner resides 28 with you in your land, you must not oppress him. 19:34 The foreigner who resides with you must be to you like a native citizen among you; so 29 you must love him as yourself, because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. 19:35 You must not do injustice in the regulation of measures, whether of length, weight, or volume. 30 19:36 You must have honest balances, 31 honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin. 32 I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt. 19:37 You must be sure to obey all my statutes and regulations. 33 I am the Lord.’”
[19:16] 1 tn The term רָכִיל (rakhil) is traditionally rendered “slanderer” here (so NASB, NIV, NRSV; see also J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 304, 316), but the exact meaning is uncertain (see the discussion in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 129). It is sometimes related to I רָכַל (“to go about as a trader [or “merchant”]”; BDB 940 s.v. רָכַל), and taken to refer to cutthroat business dealings, but there may be a II רָכַל, the meaning of which is dubious (HALOT 1237 s.v. II *רכל). Some would render it “to go about as a spy.”
[19:16] 2 tn Heb “You shall not stand on the blood of your neighbor.” This part of the verse is also difficult to interpret. The rendering here suggests that one will not allow a neighbor to be victimized, whether in court (cf. v. 15) or in any other situation (see the discussion in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 129).
[19:17] 3 tn Heb “and you will not lift up on him sin.” The meaning of the line is somewhat obscure. It means either (1) that one should rebuke one’s neighbor when he sins lest one also becomes guilty, which is the way it is rendered here (see NIV, NRSV, NEB, JB; see also B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 129-30, and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 303, and the discussion on pp. 316-17), or (2) one may rebuke one’s neighbor without incurring sin just as long as he does not hate him in his heart (see the first part of the verse; cf. NASB, NAB).
[19:18] 4 tn Heb “and you shall not retain [anger?].” This line seems to refer to the retaining or maintaining of some vengeful feelings toward someone. Compare the combination of the same terms for taking vengeance and maintaining wrath against enemies in Nahum 1:2 (see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 305).
[19:18] 5 sn Some scholars make a distinction between the verb אָהַב (’ahav, “to love”) with the direct object and the more unusual construction with the preposition לְ (lamed) as it is here and in Lev 19:34 and 2 Chr 19:2 only. If there is a distinction, the construction here probably calls for direct and helpful action toward one’s neighbor (see the discussion in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 305, and esp. 317-18). Such love stands in contrast to taking vengeance or bearing a grudge against someone and, in NT terms, amounts to fulfilling the so-called “golden rule” (Matt 7:12).
[19:19] 6 tn Heb “Your animals, you shall not cross-breed two different kinds.”
[19:19] 7 tn Heb “you shall not cause to go up on you.”
[19:19] 8 sn Cf. Deut 22:11 where the Hebrew term translated “two different kinds” (כִּלְאַיִם, kil’ayim) refers to a mixture of linen and wool woven together in a garment.
[19:20] 9 tn Heb “And a man when he lies with a woman the lying of seed.”
[19:20] 10 sn That is, the woman had previously been assigned for marriage to another man but the marriage deal had not yet been consummated. In the meantime, the woman has lost her virginity and has, therefore, lost part of her value to the master in the sale to the man for whom she had been designated. Compensation was, therefore, required (see the explanation in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 130-31).
[19:21] 11 sn On the guilt offering see the note on Lev 5:15 above.
[19:22] 12 tn Heb “on his sin which he has sinned.”
[19:22] 13 tn Heb “there shall be forgiveness to him” or “it shall be forgiven to him.”
[19:22] 14 tn Heb “from his sin.”
[19:23] 15 tn Heb “tree of food”; KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV “trees for food.”
[19:23] 16 tn Heb “you shall circumcise its fruit [as] its foreskin,” taking the fruit to be that which is to be removed and, therefore, forbidden. Since the fruit is uncircumcised it is forbidden (see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 306, and esp. B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 131-32).
[19:23] 17 tn Heb “it shall be to you uncircumcised.”
[19:24] 18 tn See B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 132, where the translation reads “set aside for jubilation”; a special celebration before the
[19:25] 19 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
[19:26] 20 tn Heb “You shall not eat on the blood.” See the extensive remarks in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 319-20, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 132-33. The LXX has “on the mountains,” suggesting that this is a prohibition against illegitimate places and occasions of worship, not the eating of blood.
[19:26] 21 tn Heb “You shall not practice divination and you shall not practice soothsaying”; cf. NRSV “practice augury or witchcraft.” For suggestions regarding the practices involved see B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 133, and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 320.
[19:27] 22 tc Heb “and you [singular] shall not ruin the corner of your [singular] beard.” Smr, LXX, Syriac, and Tg. Ps.-J. have the plural pronouns (i.e., “you” and “your” plural) rather than the singular of the MT.
[19:28] 23 tn Heb “And slash for the soul you shall not give.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul, person, life”) can sometimes refer to a “dead person” (cf. Lev 21:1, 5; 22:5). See J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 306, 320-21.
[19:28] 24 tn Heb “and a writing of incision you shall not give in you.”
[19:29] 25 tn Heb “to make her practice harlotry.” Some recent English versions regard this as religious or temple prostitution (cf. TEV, CEV).
[19:29] 26 tn Heb “and the land become full of lewdness.” Regarding the term “lewdness,” see the note on Lev 18:17 above.
[19:31] 27 sn The prohibition here concerns those who would seek special knowledge through the spirits of the dead, whether the dead in general or dead relatives in particular (i.e., familiar spirits; see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 321, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 134). Cf. Lev 20:6 below.
[19:33] 28 tn Heb “And when a sojourner sojourns.”
[19:34] 29 tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.
[19:35] 30 tn That is, liquid capacity (HALOT 640 s.v. מְשׂוּרָה). Cf. ASV, NIV, NRSV, TEV “quantity”; NAB, NASB “capacity.”
[19:36] 31 tn Heb “balances of righteousness,” and so throughout this sentence.
[19:36] 32 sn An ephah is a dry measure which measures about four gallons, or perhaps one third of a bushel, while a hin is a liquid measure of about 3.6 liters (= approximately 1 quart).
[19:37] 33 tn Heb “And you shall keep all my statutes and all my regulations and you shall do them.” This appears to be a kind of verbal hendiadys, where the first verb is a modifier of the action of the second verb (see GKC 386 §120.d, although שָׁמַר [shamar, “to keep”] is not cited there; cf. Lev 22:31).
