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Leviticus 19

1Yahweh spoke to Moses: 2“Speak to the whole congregation of the sons of Israel and tell them: You must be holy, because I, Yahweh your God, am holy. 3Each of you must revere your mother and your father, and you must keep my Sabbaths. I am Yahweh your God. 4Do not turn to idols, and do not make cast-metal gods for yourselves. I am Yahweh your God.

5“When you slaughter a peace sacrifice to Yahweh, you must slaughter it for acceptance on your behalf. 6It must be eaten on the day you slaughter it or on the next day; what remains until the third day must be burned in the fire. 7If any is eaten on the third day, it is an offensive thing; it will not be accepted. 8Whoever eats it will bear their guilt, because they have profaned what is holy to Yahweh. That person must be cut off from their people.

9“When you reap the harvest of your land, you must not reap your field right to its edge or gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10You must not strip your vineyard bare or gather its fallen grapes. Leave them for the poor and the resident foreigner. I am Yahweh your God.

11“You must not steal, deal falsely, or lie to one another. 12You must not swear falsely by my name, profaning the name of your God. I am Yahweh. 13You must not oppress your neighbor or rob them. A hired worker’s wages must not remain with you overnight until morning. 14You must not curse a deaf person or place a stumbling block before a blind person. You must fear your God. I am Yahweh. 15You must not act unjustly in judgment. You must not favor the poor or show deference to the great. You must judge your neighbor justly. 16You must not go about as a slanderer among your people, and you must not stand by while your neighbor’s blood is shed. I am Yahweh. 17You must not hate your brother in your heart. You must frankly rebuke your neighbor, so that you do not bear sin because of them. 18You must not take revenge or hold a grudge against the sons of your people. You must love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh.

19“You must keep my statutes. You must not mate your livestock with a different kind. You must not sow your field with two kinds of seed, and you must not wear a garment woven of two different kinds of material. 20If a man lies with a woman for intercourse and she is a slave designated for another man, but has not been redeemed or given her freedom, there must be an inquiry. They must not be put to death, because she has not been freed. 21He must bring his reparation offering to Yahweh at the entrance of the tent of meeting—a ram as a reparation offering. 22The priest must make atonement for him before Yahweh with the ram of the reparation offering for the sin he committed, and he will be forgiven for the sin he committed.

23“When you enter the land and plant any tree for food, you must treat its fruit as uncircumcised. For three years it is to be uncircumcised for you; it must not be eaten. 24In the fourth year all its fruit is to be holy, a celebration of praise to Yahweh. 25In the fifth year you may eat its fruit, to increase its yield for you. I am Yahweh your God. 26You must not eat over the blood. You must not practice divination or interpret omens. 27You must not round off the edges of your head or destroy the edge of your beard. 28You must not make cuts in your flesh for the dead or put incised marks on yourselves. I am Yahweh. 29Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, so that the land does not prostitute itself and become full of depravity. 30You must keep my Sabbaths and revere my sanctuary. I am Yahweh. 31Do not turn to mediums or spiritists. Do not seek them out, making yourselves unclean by them. I am Yahweh your God.

32“You must rise before gray hair, honor the presence of an elder, and fear your God. I am Yahweh. 33When a resident foreigner lives with you in your land, you must not mistreat them. 34The resident foreigner living with you must be like a native-born person among you. You must love them as yourself, because you were resident foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God. 35You must not act unjustly in judgment, in measuring length, weight, or capacity. 36You must have honest scales, honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin. I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. 37You must keep all my statutes and all my judgments and carry them out. I am Yahweh.”

Translation notes 10

19:2–4 — Holy; mother and father. The command concerns the whole congregation, and the chapter joins worship, family life, justice, and care for vulnerable people. Verse 3 names the mother first. “Revere” and “fear” elsewhere in the chapter translate the same Hebrew verb in different relationships.

19:5–8 — Acceptance; offensive thing. The wording continues the sacrificial acceptance language of chapters 1 and 7. “Of your own free will” is a traditional alternative in verse 5, but the acceptance and rejection clauses here favor acceptance on the offerers’ behalf. “Offensive thing” represents the same difficult term as in 7:18; “defiled” or “forbidden” are alternatives. The text does not explain the rule as food hygiene.

19:9–10 — Field edges; gleanings. The harvest is deliberately left incomplete so that the poor and resident foreigner can gather food. The text distinguishes unreaped edges, leftover grain, grapes left on the vine, and fallen grapes.

19:16–18 — Blood; rebuke; love. “Stand by while your neighbor’s blood is shed” interprets a difficult expression, literally “stand upon your neighbor’s blood.” It can concern a threat to life, including judicial wrongdoing. The final clause of verse 17 can mean avoiding shared guilt by giving a rebuke, or avoiding sin in the way one rebukes. “Brother” refers here to a fellow member of the people. Verse 34 separately commands love for the resident foreigner in the same terms as love for the neighbor.

19:19 — Mixed kinds. Three prohibitions concern breeding animals, sowing a field, and clothing. The last uses the specialized term often rendered “mixed fabric.” Deuteronomy 22:11 specifies wool and linen; the present verse does not name the two fibers. The draft does not supply a universal explanation for all three rules.

19:20–22 — Slave; inquiry. The woman is enslaved and designated for another man; the exact contractual status is uncertain. The rare word translated “inquiry” has also been understood as punishment or compensation. The draft leaves its outcome unspecified. The text explicitly relates the absence of the death penalty to her not having been freed, and requires the man’s ram and atonement. It does not state her consent or assign her an offering.

19:23–25 — Uncircumcised fruit. The draft retains the striking circumcision language for fruit that must not be eaten. The fourth year’s fruit is holy and associated with praise; ordinary consumption begins in the fifth. The purpose clause may promise increased yield or describe the addition of this fruit to the available harvest.

19:26–28 — Blood; hair; marks. “Eat over the blood” preserves an obscure expression. Eating meat with blood still in it and eating in a blood-related divination rite are major interpretations. The hair and flesh commands occur among prohibitions of divination and rites associated with the dead. “Incised marks” is traditionally “tattoos”; the exact marking practice and its scope are disputed. The text does not expressly limit the marks to one deity or owner.

19:31 — Mediums and spiritists. These terms concern seeking knowledge through the dead or spirits. The Hebrew can designate the spirits themselves or the people who consult or mediate them. The draft does not identify the terms with every kind of prediction or with a modern religious organization.

19:32, 35–36 — Gray hair; honest measures. Gray hair stands for an aged person. The ephah is a dry-volume measure and the hin a liquid-volume measure. The repeated adjective translated “honest” is the same word family used for judging justly in verse 15; no precise modern conversion is imposed on the law.