Leviticus 19
19
Moral and Religious Laws
1The Lord told Moses 2#Lv 11.44,45; 1 P 1.16. to say to the community of Israel:
I am the Lord your God. I am holy, and you must be holy too! 3-4#Ex 20.12; Dt 5.16; Ex 20.8; Dt 5.12; Lv 26.1; Ex 20.23; 34.17; Dt 17.2-7. Respect your father and your mother, honor the Sabbath, and don't make idols or images. I am the Lord your God.
5When you offer a sacrifice to ask my blessing,#19.5 sacrifice … to ask my blessing: See the note at 3.1. be sure to follow my instructions. 6You may eat the meat either on the day of the sacrifice or on the next day, but you must burn anything left over on the third day. 7If you eat any of it on the third day, the sacrifice will be disgusting to me, and I will reject it. 8In fact, you will be punished for not respecting what I say is holy, and you will no longer belong to the community of Israel.
9 #
Lv 23.22; Dt 24.19-22. When you harvest your grain, always leave some of it standing along the edges of your fields and don't pick up what falls on the ground. 10Don't strip your grapevines clean or gather the grapes that fall off the vines. Leave them for the poor and for those foreigners who live among you. I am the Lord your God.
11 #
Ex 20.15; Dt 5.19;
Ex 20.16; Dt 5.20. Do not steal or tell lies or cheat others.
12 #
Ex 20.7; Dt 5.11; Mt 5.33. Do not misuse my name by making promises you don't intend to keep. I am the Lord your God.
13 #
Dt 24.14,15. Do not steal anything or cheat anyone, and don't fail to pay your workers at the end of each day.#19.13 to pay … end of each day: Day laborers needed their wages to buy food for their evening meal, which was the main meal of the day.
14 #
Dt 27.14-26. I am the Lord your God, and I command you not to make fun of the deaf or to cause a blind person to stumble.
15 #
Ex 23.6-8; Dt 16.19. Be fair, no matter who is on trial—don't favor either the poor or the rich.
16Don't be a gossip, but never hesitate to speak up in court, especially if your testimony can save someone's life.#19.16 but never … someone's life: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
17 #
Mt 18.15. Don't hold grudges. On the other hand, it's wrong not to correct someone who needs correcting. 18#Mt 5.43; 19.19; 22.39; Mk 12.31; Lk 10.27; Ro 13.9; Ga 5.14; Jas 2.8. Don't be angry or try to take revenge. I am the Lord, and I command you to love others as much as you love yourself.
19 #
Dt 22.9-11. Breed your livestock animals only with animals of the same kind, and don't plant two kinds of seed in the same field or wear clothes made of different kinds of material.
20If a man has sex with a slave woman who is promised in marriage to someone else, he must pay a fine, but they are not to be put to death. After all, she was still a slave at the time.#19.20 time: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 20. 21-22The man must bring a ram to the entrance of the sacred tent and give it to a priest, who will then offer it as a sacrifice to me, so the man's sins will be forgiven.
23After you enter the land, you will plant fruit trees, but you are not to eat any fruit from them for the first three years. 24In the fourth year the fruit must be set apart, as an expression of thanks 25to me, the Lord God. Do this, and in the fifth year, those trees will produce an abundant harvest of fruit for you to eat.
26 #
Gn 9.4; Lv 7.26,27; 17.10-14; Dt 12.5-19,23,24; 15.23;
Dt 18.10,11. Don't eat the blood of any animal.
Don't practice any kind of witchcraft.
27-28 #
Lv 21.5; Dt 14.1. I forbid you to shave any part of your head or beard or to cut and tattoo yourself as a way of worshiping the dead.
29 #
Dt 23.17. Don't let your daughters serve as temple prostitutes—this would bring disgrace both to them and the land.
30 #
Lv 26.2. I command you to respect the Sabbath and the place where I am worshiped.
31 #
Dt 18.10,11; 1 S 28.1-3; 2 K 23.4; Is 8.19. Don't make yourselves disgusting to me by going to people who claim they can talk to the dead.
32I command you to show respect for older people and to obey me with fear and trembling.
33 #
Ex 22.21; Dt 24.17,18; 27.14-26. Don't mistreat any foreigners who live in your land. 34Instead, treat them as well as you treat your own people and love them as much as you love yourself. Remember, you were once foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
35-36 #
Dt 25.13-16; Pr 20.10; Ez 45.10. Use honest scales and don't cheat when you weigh or measure anything.
I am the Lord your God. I rescued you from Egypt, 37and I command you to obey my laws.
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Leviticus 19: CEV
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Leviticus 19
19
“I Am God, Your God”
1-2 God spoke to Moses: “Speak to the congregation of Israel. Tell them, Be holy because I, God, your God, am holy.
3“Every one of you must respect his mother and father.
“Keep my Sabbaths. I am God, your God.
4“Don’t take up with no-god idols. Don’t make gods of cast metal. I am God, your God.
5-8“When you sacrifice a Peace-Offering to God, do it as you’ve been taught so it is acceptable. Eat it on the day you sacrifice it and the day following. Whatever is left until the third day is to be burned up. If it is eaten on the third day it is polluted meat and not acceptable. Whoever eats it will be held responsible because he has violated what is holy to God. That person will be cut off from his people.
9-10“When you harvest your land, don’t harvest right up to the edges of your field or gather the gleanings from the harvest. Don’t strip your vineyard bare or go back and pick up the fallen grapes. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am God, your God.
11“Don’t steal.
“Don’t lie.
“Don’t deceive anyone.
12“Don’t swear falsely using my name, violating the name of your God. I am God.
13“Don’t exploit your friend or rob him.
“Don’t hold back the wages of a hired hand overnight.
14“Don’t curse the deaf; don’t put a stumbling block in front of the blind; fear your God. I am God.
15“Don’t pervert justice. Don’t show favoritism to either the poor or the great. Judge on the basis of what is right.
16“Don’t spread gossip and rumors.
“Don’t just stand by when your neighbor’s life is in danger. I am God.
17“Don’t secretly hate your neighbor. If you have something against him, get it out into the open; otherwise you are an accomplice in his guilt.
18“Don’t seek revenge or carry a grudge against any of your people.
“Love your neighbor as yourself. I am God.
19“Keep my decrees.
“Don’t mate two different kinds of animals.
“Don’t plant your fields with two kinds of seed.
“Don’t wear clothes woven of two kinds of material.
20-22“If a man has sex with a slave girl who is engaged to another man but has not yet been ransomed or given her freedom, there must be an investigation. But they aren’t to be put to death because she wasn’t free. The man must bring a Compensation-Offering to God at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, a ram of compensation. The priest will perform the ritual of atonement for him before God with the ram of compensation for the sin he has committed. Then he will stand forgiven of the sin he committed.
23-25“When you enter the land and plant any kind of fruit tree, don’t eat the fruit for three years; consider it inedible. By the fourth year its fruit is holy, an offering of praise to God. Beginning in the fifth year you can eat its fruit; you’ll have richer harvests this way. I am God, your God.
26“Don’t eat meat with blood in it.
“Don’t practice divination or sorcery.
27“Don’t cut the hair on the sides of your head or trim your beard.
28“Don’t gash your bodies on behalf of the dead.
“Don’t tattoo yourselves. I am God.
29“Don’t violate your daughter by making her a whore—the whole country would soon become a brothel, filled with sordid sex.
30“Keep my Sabbaths and revere my Sanctuary: I am God.
31“Don’t dabble in the occult or traffic with mediums; you’ll pollute your souls. I am God, your God.
32“Show respect to the aged; honor the presence of an elder; fear your God. I am God.
33-34“When a foreigner lives with you in your land, don’t take advantage of him. Treat the foreigner the same as a native. Love him like one of your own. Remember that you were once foreigners in Egypt. I am God, your God.
35-36“Don’t cheat when measuring length, weight, or quantity. Use honest scales and weights and measures. I am God, your God. I brought you out of Egypt.
37“Keep all my decrees and all my laws. Yes, do them. I am God.”
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.