Leviticus 19:19-37

You Shall Keep My Statutes

19 " 'You must keep my statutes: [as for] your domestic animals, you shall not cause two differing kinds to breed; [as for] your field, you shall not sow two differing kinds of seed; and, a garment of two differing kinds [of] woven material should not be worn on you.
20 " 'And when a man lies with a woman [and there is] an emission of semen and she [is] a female slave promised to a man, but she indeed has not been ransomed or freedom has not be given to her, [there] shall be an obligation to compensate; they shall not be put to death, because she has not been freed.
21 And he shall bring his guilt offering to Yahweh at the tent of assembly's entrance: a ram [for] a guilt offering.
22 And the priest shall make atonement for him {before} Yahweh with the ram of the guilt offering for his sin that he {committed}, and so his sin that he {committed} shall be forgiven him.
23 " 'And when you have come into the land and you plant any tree for food, {you shall regard its fruit as unharvestable}; [for] three years it shall be forbidden for you; it shall not be eaten.
24 But in the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy, offerings of praise for Yahweh.
25 And in the fifth year you shall eat its fruit to increase its yield for you; I [am] Yahweh your God.
26 " 'You must not eat [anything] with the blood; you shall not practice divination, nor shall you interpret signs.
27 You shall not round off the corner [hair] of your head, and you shall not trim the corner of your beard.
28 And you shall not make a slash in your body for a dead person, nor shall you make on yourselves a tattoo's mark; I [am] Yahweh.
29 " 'You shall not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, {lest the land be prostituted and the land fill up with depravity}.
30 You shall keep my Sabbaths, and you shall revere my sanctuary; I [am] Yahweh.
31 " 'You shall not turn to the mediums and to the soothsayers; you shall not seek [them] to become unclean with them; I [am] Yahweh your God.
32 " '{Before} old age you shall get up, and you shall show respect for an old person; and you shall revere your God; I [am] Yahweh.
33 " 'And when an alien dwells with you in your land, you shall not oppress him.
34 The alien who is dwelling with you shall be like a native among you, and you shall love him like yourself, because you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I [am] Yahweh your God.
35 " 'You shall not commit injustice in regulation, in measurement, in weight, or volume.
36 You must have honest balances, honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin; I [am] Yahweh your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt.
37 " '[Thus] you shall keep all my statutes and all my regulations, and you shall do them; I [am] Yahweh.'"

Leviticus 19:19-37 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO LEVITICUS 19

This chapter contains various laws, ceremonial and moral, tending to the sanctification of men, in imitation of the holy God, Le 19:1,2; as concerning the reverence of parents, and observing the sabbaths, Le 19:3; against idolatry, Le 19:4; about offering and eating of peace offerings, Le 19:5-8; concerning harvest and gleaning of fields and vineyards, Le 19:9,10; respecting the breach of several of the commandments of the law, as the eighth, ninth, and third, particularly, Le 19:11-13; and others relating to the ill usage of the deaf and blind, and having respect to persons rich or poor in judgment, and acting the part of a tale bearer among people, Le 19:14-16; and bearing hatred and ill will to any of their neighbours, Le 19:17,18; and others forbidding mixtures in the generation of cattle, sowing fields, and wearing apparel, Le 19:19; and concerning the punishment of a man that lay with a bondmaid, and the offering he should bring for his atonement, Le 19:20-22; then follow certain laws concerning fruit trees, when the fruit of them should be eaten, Le 19:23-25; and concerning eating with blood, using enchantments, and observing times, and managing the hair of the head and beard, and avoiding to make any marks, prints, and cuttings in the flesh for the dead, Le 19:26-28; a caution not to prostitute a daughter to whoredom, and to observe the sabbath, and reverence the sanctuary of God, and pay no regard to wizards and familiar spirits, Le 19:29-31; to show reverence to ancient persons, and not to vex and distress strangers, Le 19:32-34; and to do no injustice in weight and measure, Le 19:35,36; all which instructions are to be carefully observed, and put in execution, Le 19:37.

Footnotes 58

Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.