Leviticus 19:18

18 Thou shalt not seek vengeance, neither thou shalt be mindful of the wrong of thy citizens (nor shalt thou remember the wrong-doings of thy fellow citizens); thou shalt love thy friend as thyself; I am the Lord.

Leviticus 19:18 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 19:18

Thou shalt not avenge
That is, not avenge ourselves on him that has done us an ill thing, but leave it to him to whom vengeance belongs, see ( Romans 12:19 ) ; which is done when a man does an ill thing for another, or denies to grant a favour which he has been denied by another; Jarchi thus illustrates it, one says to him (his neighbour) lend me thy sickle; he answers, no (I will not); on the morrow (the neighbour comes, who had refused, and) says to him, lend me thy hatchet; he replies, I will not lend thee, even as thou wouldest not lend me; this is vengeance: this was reckoned mean and little, a piece of weakness with the very Heathens ^F2: nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people;
those of the same place, city, or kingdom; or "not observe" ^F3 the injury done, take no notice of it, nor lay it up in the mind and memory, but forget it; or "not keep" ^F4 or retain enmity, as the Targum of Jonathan supplies it; and so do an ill turn, or refuse to do a good one; or if that is done, yet upbraids with the former unkindness; for upbraiding with unkindness shows that a grudge is retained, though the suit is not denied: but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself;
sincerely and heartily, as a man loves himself, doing all the good to him as a man does to himself, or would have done to himself, and hindering all the mischief done to him he would have himself preserved from: Jarchi observes, that it was a saying of R. Akiba, that this is

``the great universal in the law,''

and it does indeed comprehend the whole of the second table of the law, and is the summary of it, and is pretty much the same our Lord says of it, that it is the second and great commandment, and like unto the first, on which two all the law and the prophets hang, ( Matthew 22:37-40 ) ; and so the Apostle Paul makes all the laws of the second table to be comprehended in this, ( Romans 13:9 ) ; I [am] the Lord;
the Creator of all men, and who has commanded them to love one another, and to whom alone vengeance belongs, and who expects obedience to the above laws of his.

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 -----quippe minuti Juvenal. Satyr. 13.
F3 (rjt alw) "et non observabis", Montanus.
F4 "Non servabis", Pagninus, Drusius; "neque iram asservato"; Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Leviticus 19:18 In-Context

16 Thou shalt not be a slanderer, that is, a false accuser, neither a privy backbiter in the people (nor a backbiter in private among the people); thou shalt not stand against the blood of thy neighbour; I am the Lord.

17 Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart, but reprove thou him openly, lest thou have sin on him. (Thou shalt not hate thy brother in private, but rather, reprove thou him openly, lest thou sin because of him.)

18 Thou shalt not seek vengeance, neither thou shalt be mindful of the wrong of thy citizens (nor shalt thou remember the wrong-doings of thy fellow citizens); thou shalt love thy friend as thyself; I am the Lord.

19 Keep ye my laws (Obey ye my laws). Thou shalt not make thy beasts to engender with the beasts of another kind. Thou shalt not sow a field with diverse seed. Thou shalt not be clothed in a cloak which is woven of two things.

20 If a man sleepeth with a woman by fleshly knowing of seed, which woman is an handmaid, or bond, yea, a noble woman of kin, and nevertheless is not again-bought by price, neither rewarded with freedom, she shall be beaten [both shall be scourged], and they shall not die, for she was not free. (If a man sleepeth with a woman by fleshly knowing of seed, which woman is a slave-girl, or a bondwoman, and betrothed to another, but nevertheless not bought back with money, or rewarded with freedom, she shall be beaten/both of them shall be scourged, but they shall not die, for she was not free.)