1Yahweh spoke to Moses and said, 2“Speak to the entire assembly of the people of Israel and say to them: Be holy for I, Yahweh, your God, am holy. 3Each of you must revere his mother and father; and you shall keep my sabbaths; I am Yahweh, your God.
4Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves molten gods; I am Yahweh, your God.
5When you offer a sacrifice of peace offering to Yahweh, sacrifice it so that you may be accepted. 6It shall be eaten on the day you offer it or on the next day. And whatever remains shall be burned on the third day. 7If it is eaten on the third day it is unclean and will not be accepted. 8Whoever eats it will pay for his sin, for he has profaned a holy thing of Yahweh and this person shall be cut off from his people.
Love your neighbor as yourself
9 ① When you reap the harvest of your land do not reap to the extreme limits of your field or gather the gleanings after your harvest. 10Do not strip your vineyard bare and do not gather the grapes that have fallen; leave them for the needy and the stranger. I am Yahweh, your God.
11Do not steal or lie or deceive one another. 12Do not swear falsely by my name so as to profane the name of your God; I am Yahweh.
13Do not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired man are not to remain with you all night until morning. 14You shall not curse a deaf man nor put a stumbling block in the way of the blind; but you shall fear your God; I am Yahweh.
15Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor nor bow to the great; you are to judge your neighbor fairly so as not to share in his guilt. 16Do not go about as a slanderer of your people and do not seek the death of your neighbor; I am Yahweh.
17Do not hate your brother in your heart; rebuke your neighbor frankly so as not to share in his guilt. 18Do not seek revenge or nurture a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself; I am Yahweh.
19 ② Keep my practices. You shall not let your cattle breed with another kind. You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed and you shall not wear clothing made of two different materials.
20If a man lies with a woman who is a slave promised to another man, and she has not been ransomed or given her freedom, there shall be punishment. They shall not be put to death because she was not free, 21but he shall bring a ram as a guilt offering to Yahweh for himself, to the door of the Tent of Meeting. 22The priest is to make atonement for him before Yahweh with the ram of the guilt offering, and the sin he has committed will be forgiven.
23When you enter the land and plant all kinds of trees for food, you shall count the fruit as unclean. For three years it shall be unclean for you and it must not be eaten. 24In the fourth year all the fruit shall be holy, an offering of praise to the Lord. 25But in the fifth year you may eat of the fruit, that its yield may increase for you. I am Yahweh, your God.
26Do not eat anything over the blood nor practice divination or astrology. 27Do not round off the side-growth of your heads or clip off the edges of your beard. 28Do not make cuttings in your flesh on account of the dead or make tattoo marks on yourselves. I am Yahweh.
29You shall not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, lest the land turn to prostitution and be filled with wickedness.
30Keep my sabbaths and revere my sanctuary. I am Yahweh.
31Do not turn to mediums or spiritists for you will be defiled by them. I am Yahweh, your God.
32Rise in the presence of the aged and honor the elderly; in doing this you honor your God. I am Yahweh.
33When a stranger stays with you in your land, do him no wrong. 34He shall be to you as the native among you. Love him as yourself for you have been strangers in the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh, your God.
35Do no wrong in judgment or in measure or weight or quantity. 36Use honest scales and honest weights and exact containers. I am Yahweh, your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
37You shall keep all my laws and all my practices and follow them. I am Yahweh.”
- Lev 19,9 Among so many laws which show the still primitive level of God's people, we marvel to find some prescriptions that teach deeply human attitudes often lacking in us. These prescriptions, addressed to a race of small farmers, must be interpreted in order to adapt them to the circumstances of our present lives. They teach us that the right of ownership is not absolute and that it never justifies oppression of the poor, nor does it excuse us from helping them. We are ordered to care for our brothers and sisters to assure everyone what is necessary to live. Do not seek revenge... but love your neighbor as yourself. Here, neighbor means the brother of the same race. They must be loved and there must be solidarity with them because God embraces with the same love all those who belong to his people. Such a solidarity with those of one's own nation exists in all religions but there is as well the aggression or hostility towards the foreigner. When Jesus speaks to us of love which does not cease at the frontiers of a people (Lk 10:25; Mt 5:43), it will not be a simple extension of the term neighbor: it will be the discovery of another relation beyond the solidarity practiced naturally by humans as in the case with certain animals. Lev 19,19 Various customs of pagan religions were also forbidden. Mediums and fortune-tellers were also forbidden just as in Deuteronomy 18:10. The stranger shall be to you as the native among you. You will note that the Bible, which forbids sharing with pagan foreigners, always insists on respecting the alien living in Israel. Along with widows and orphans, foreigners are the most defenseless and they must be protected.
- Lev 19,9 Among so many laws which show the still primitive level of God's people, we marvel to find some prescriptions that teach deeply human attitudes often lacking in us. These prescriptions, addressed to a race of small farmers, must be interpreted in order to adapt them to the circumstances of our present lives. They teach us that the right of ownership is not absolute and that it never justifies oppression of the poor, nor does it excuse us from helping them. We are ordered to care for our brothers and sisters to assure everyone what is necessary to live. Do not seek revenge... but love your neighbor as yourself. Here, neighbor means the brother of the same race. They must be loved and there must be solidarity with them because God embraces with the same love all those who belong to his people. Such a solidarity with those of one's own nation exists in all religions but there is as well the aggression or hostility towards the foreigner. When Jesus speaks to us of love which does not cease at the frontiers of a people (Lk 10:25; Mt 5:43), it will not be a simple extension of the term neighbor: it will be the discovery of another relation beyond the solidarity practiced naturally by humans as in the case with certain animals. Lev 19,19 Various customs of pagan religions were also forbidden. Mediums and fortune-tellers were also forbidden just as in Deuteronomy 18:10. The stranger shall be to you as the native among you. You will note that the Bible, which forbids sharing with pagan foreigners, always insists on respecting the alien living in Israel. Along with widows and orphans, foreigners are the most defenseless and they must be protected.
