Leviticus 19: Be holy, and love your neighbor as yourself

In plain English: Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

In plain English: "Speak to the whole community of the Israelites and tell them, 'You are to be holy, because I, Yahweh your God, am holy.

Good to know: Nearly the same words are in Leviticus 11:44 and 20:26. 1 Peter 1:16 quotes them: "You shall be holy, for I am holy."

In plain English: Each of you is to respect (literally: fear) his mother and his father. You are to keep my Sabbaths. I am Yahweh your God.

The Hebrew word: "Respect" is yare, to fear. The dictionary gives it as "to fear; morally, to revere". It is the same word as "fear your God" in verses 14 and 32, and "reverence my sanctuary" in verse 30.

Good to know: Here the mother is named first. In Exodus 20:12 it is "your father and your mother".

In plain English: Do not turn to idols (literally: worthless things), and do not make gods of melted metal for yourselves. I am Yahweh your God.

In plain English: When you offer a sacrifice of peace offerings (or: fellowship offerings) to Yahweh, offer it so that you may be accepted.

In plain English: It is to be eaten on the day you offer it and on the next day. Anything left until the third day is to be burned with fire.

In plain English: If any of it is eaten on the third day, it is spoiled (or: unclean meat). It will not be accepted,

In plain English: and everyone who eats it will carry his guilt, because he has profaned (treated as common) what is holy to Yahweh. That person is to be cut off from his people.

In plain English: When you harvest your land, do not harvest all the way to the corners (or: edges) of your field, and do not gather what is left behind after your harvest.

Good to know: In Ruth 2:2 Ruth, a foreigner from Moab, asks to go and glean in the field. Leviticus 23:22 repeats the rule.

In plain English: Do not go back over your vineyard, and do not gather the grapes that have fallen in your vineyard. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner. I am Yahweh your God.

In plain English: You are not to steal. You are not to deceive. You are not to lie to one another.

In plain English: You are not to swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am Yahweh.

In plain English: You are not to oppress your neighbor or rob him. You are not to keep a hired worker's wages overnight until morning.

In plain English: You are not to curse the deaf or put something in front of the blind to make them fall. You are to fear your God. I am Yahweh.

In plain English: You are not to do wrong in judging. You are not to favor the poor (literally: lift up the face of the poor), and you are not to give special honor to the great. You are to judge your neighbor fairly.

In plain English: You are not to go around spreading slander (or: gossip) among your people. You are not to put your neighbor's life in danger (or: stand by while it is in danger; literally: stand on the blood of your neighbor). I am Yahweh.

The Hebrew words: "Endanger the life of your neighbor" is literally "stand on the blood of your neighbor". The small Hebrew word al can mean on, over, against or by: in Genesis 18:8 the same two Hebrew words are "He stood by them".

What changes: Read as "stand by", the verse says you are not to stand idle while your neighbor's life is in danger. Many Jewish readers take it that way. Read as "stand against", it says you are not to act against his life, for example as a false witness.

In plain English: You are not to hate your brother in your heart. You are surely to correct (or: rebuke) your neighbor, so that you do not carry sin because of him (or: so that you do not share in his sin).

In plain English: You are not to take revenge or hold a grudge against anyone of your people, but you are to love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh.

The Hebrew word: "Neighbor" is rea, which the dictionary gives as "an associate (more or less close)".

How it is translated: This Bible says "neighbor" in 98 of the 173 verses that use the word, and "friend" in 39.

Good to know: In the New Testament Jesus quotes this verse (Matthew 22:39, Mark 12:31), and Romans 13:9, Galatians 5:14 and James 2:8 quote it too. In Luke 10:29 a man asks Jesus, "Who is my neighbor?"

Church tradition: Here the neighbor is "the children of your people", and verse 34 gives the same command for the foreigner living in the land. Jewish and Christian readers have long discussed how far "neighbor" reaches. The verse gives the command and ends, "I am Yahweh".

In plain English: You are to keep my rules. Do not let two kinds of your animals breed together. Do not sow your field with two kinds of seed. Do not wear clothing made of two kinds of material mixed together.

The Hebrew words: "Two kinds" is kilayim. "Two kinds of material" is sha'atnez, which the dictionary gives as "cloth of linen and wool carded and spun together". Kilayim is in only one other verse, Deuteronomy 22:9, and sha'atnez in only one other, Deuteronomy 22:11, which says "wool and linen woven together".

Church tradition: Jewish law still keeps the rules on mixed kinds and on cloth of wool and linen. Many churches do not keep them and read them as part of the laws for Israel. Readers differ on how to apply them today.

In plain English: If a man has sexual relations with a woman who is a slave, promised to another man, and she has not been bought free or given her freedom, there is to be punishment (or: an inquiry, or: payment of damages). They are not to be put to death, because she was not free.

The Hebrew words: "Slave girl" is shiphchah, a female slave of the household. "Pledged to be married" is necherefet, from a verb that the dictionary gives as "to pull off", and "specifically, to betroth". This Bible says "reproach" or "defy" in 28 of the 40 verses that use it, and "pledged" only here. "They shall be punished" is biqqoreth, a word found only in this verse. The dictionary gives it as "properly, examination, i.e. (by implication) punishment".

What changes: Readers take biqqoreth as punishment, as an inquiry into the case, or as a payment of damages. The Hebrew says only "there shall be biqqoreth", and does not say who receives it. Verses 21 and 22 say the man brings a guilt offering.

Good to know: This is the law of that time and place, as the text records it. Jewish and Christian traditions differ on what it means now.

In plain English: He is to bring his guilt offering (or: trespass offering) to Yahweh, to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting: a ram for a guilt offering.

In plain English: With the ram of the guilt offering the priest is to make atonement for him before Yahweh for the sin he has committed, and the sin he has committed will be forgiven him.

In plain English: When you come into the land and plant any kind of fruit tree, you are to count its fruit as forbidden (literally: uncircumcised). For three years it is forbidden to you. It is not to be eaten.

The Hebrew word: "Forbidden" is arel, uncircumcised. In 31 of the 32 verses that use the word this Bible says "uncircumcised"; only here it says "forbidden".

In plain English: In the fourth year all its fruit is to be holy, an offering of praise to Yahweh.

In plain English: In the fifth year you may eat its fruit, so that it will give you more and more. I am Yahweh your God.

In plain English: You are not to eat anything with the blood (or: eat over the blood). You are not to practice divination or fortune telling.

In plain English: You are not to cut the hair round at the sides of your head, or spoil the edges of your beard.

The Hebrew word: "Sides" and "edge" are pe'ah, the same word as the "corners" of the field in verse 9.

Church tradition: Some Jewish men keep this rule by leaving the side locks of their hair uncut. Many churches do not keep it. Readers differ on how to apply it today.

In plain English: You are not to make cuts in your body for the dead (literally: for a soul), and you are not to tattoo (or: brand) any marks on yourselves. I am Yahweh.

The Hebrew words: "For the dead" is literally "for a soul" (nephesh). "Tattoo any marks" is two Hebrew words, ketovet qa'aqa. The dictionary gives ketovet as "a letter or other mark branded on the skin", and qa'aqa as "an incision or gash". Each of the two is found only in this verse.

Church tradition: Jewish law reads this verse as forbidding tattoos. Some readers tie it to the mourning customs named in the same verse. Churches differ on how to apply it today.

In plain English: Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, or the land will turn to prostitution and the land will be full of wickedness.

In plain English: You are to keep my Sabbaths and honor (literally: fear) my sanctuary. I am Yahweh.

In plain English: Do not turn to mediums or to those who call up spirits. Do not seek them out, and so become unclean by them. I am Yahweh your God.

The Hebrew words: "Mediums" is ov, and "wizards" is yiddeoni, which the dictionary gives as "properly, a knowing one; specifically, a conjurer".

How it is translated: For ov this Bible says "familiar spirit" in 12 of the 16 verses that use the word, as in 1 Samuel 28:7, the woman at Endor, and "mediums" in 3.

In plain English: You are to stand up in the presence of the gray-haired and honor the old, and you are to fear your God. I am Yahweh.

In plain English: If a foreigner lives with you in your land, you are not to do him wrong.

In plain English: The foreigner who lives with you is to be to you like someone born among you. You are to love him as yourself, because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God.

The Hebrew word: "Stranger" is ger, which the dictionary gives as "properly, a guest; by implication, a foreigner". In Leviticus this Bible says "foreigner" in 17 of the 18 verses that use the word. "Love him as yourself" uses the same words as verse 18.

In plain English: You are not to do wrong in judging, in measures of length, weight, or amount.

In plain English: You are to 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.

Good to know: An ephah is a measure for grain and a hin is a measure for liquids, as the dictionary gives them.

In plain English: You are to keep all my rules and all my rulings, and do them. I am Yahweh.'"