Imamat 18:2

18:2 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘I am the Lord your God!

Imamat 18:4

18:4 You must observe my regulations ¹  and you must be sure to walk in my statutes. ²  I am the Lord your God.

Imamat 18:6

Laws of Sexual Relations

18:6 “‘No man is to approach any close relative ³  to have sexual intercourse with her. ⁴  I am the Lord. ⁵ 

Imamat 18:21

18:21 You must not give any of your children as an offering to Molech, ⁶  so that you do not profane ⁷  the name of your God. I am the Lord!

Imamat 19:3-4

19:3 Each of you must respect his mother and his father, ⁸  and you must keep my Sabbaths. I am the Lord your God. 19:4 Do not turn to idols, ⁹  and you must not make for yourselves gods of cast metal. I am the Lord your God.

Imamat 19:12

19:12 You must not swear falsely ¹⁰  in my name, so that you do not profane ¹¹  the name of your God. I am the Lord.

Imamat 19:14

19:14 You must not curse a deaf person or put a stumbling block in front of a blind person. ¹²  You must fear ¹³  your God; I am the Lord.

Imamat 19:16

19:16 You must not go about as a slanderer among your people. ¹⁴  You must not stand idly by when your neighbor’s life is at stake. ¹⁵  I am the Lord.

Imamat 19:18

19:18 You must not take vengeance or bear a grudge ¹⁶  against the children of your people, but you must love your neighbor as yourself. ¹⁷  I am the Lord.

Imamat 19:25

19:25 Then in the fifth year you may eat its fruit to add its produce to your harvest. ¹⁸  I am the Lord your God.

Imamat 19:28

19:28 You must not slash your body for a dead person ¹⁹  or incise a tattoo on yourself. ²⁰  I am the Lord.

Imamat 19:32

19:32 You must stand up in the presence of the aged, honor the presence of an elder, and fear your God. I am the Lord.

Imamat 19:37

19:37 You must be sure to obey all my statutes and regulations. ²¹  I am the Lord.’”

Imamat 22:16

22:16 and so cause them to incur a penalty for guilt ²²  when they eat their holy offerings, ²³  for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.’”

Imamat 22:30

22:30 On that very day ²⁴  it must be eaten; you must not leave any part of it ²⁵  over until morning. I am the Lord.

Imamat 22:32-33

22:32 You must not profane my holy name, and I will be sanctified in the midst of the Israelites. I am the Lord who sanctifies you, 22:33 the one who brought you out from the land of Egypt to be your God. ²⁶  I am the Lord.”

Imamat 24:22

24:22 There will be one regulation ²⁷  for you, whether a foreigner or a native citizen, for I am the Lord your God.’”

Imamat 25:17

25:17 No one is to oppress his fellow citizen, ²⁸  but you must fear your God, because I am the Lord your God.

Imamat 26:28

26:28 I will walk in hostile rage against you ²⁹  and I myself will also discipline you seven times on account of your sins.

Imamat 26:32

26:32 I myself will make the land desolate and your enemies who live in it will be appalled.

[18:4]  ¹ tn Heb “My regulations you shall do”; KJV, NASB “my judgments”; NRSV “My ordinances”; NIV, TEV “my laws.”

[18:4]  sn The Hebrew term translated “regulation” (מִשְׁפָּט, mishpat) refers to the set of regulations about to be set forth in the following chapters (cf. Lev 19:37; 20:22; 25:18; 26:46). Note especially the thematic and formulaic relationships between the introduction here in Lev 18:1-5 and the paraenesis in Lev 20:22-26, both of which refer explicitly to the corrupt nations and the need to separate from them by keeping the Lord’s regulations.

[18:4]  ² tn Heb “and my statutes you shall keep [or “watch; guard”] to walk in them.”

[18:6]  ³ tn Heb “Man, man shall not draw near to any flesh (שְׁאֵר, shÿ’er) of his body/flesh (בָּשָׂר, basar).” The repetition of the word “man” is distributive, meaning “any (or “every”) man” (GKC 395-96 §123.c; cf. Lev 15:2). The two words for “flesh” are combined to refer to emphasize the physical familial relatedness (see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 282, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 119).

[18:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “to uncover [her] nakedness” (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV), which is clearly euphemistic for sexual intercourse (see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 282, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 119). This expression occurs a number of times in the following context and is generally translated “have sexual intercourse with [someone],” although in the case of the father mentioned in the following verse the expression may be connected to the shame or disgrace that would belong to the father whose wife’s sexuality is violated by his son. See the note on the word “mother” in v. 7.

[18:6]  ⁵ sn The general statement prohibiting sexual intercourse between close relatives serves as an opening summary statement for the following section, which gives details concerning which degrees of relationship are specifically forbidden.

[18:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “And from your seed you shall not give to cause to pass over to Molech.” Smr (cf. also the LXX) has “to cause to serve” rather than “to cause to pass over.” For detailed remarks on Molech and Molech worship see N. H. Snaith, Leviticus and Numbers (NCBC), 87-88; P. J. Budd, Leviticus (NCBC), 259-60; and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 333-37, and the literature cited there. It could refer to either human sacrifice or a devotion of children to some sort of service of Molech, perhaps of a sexual sort (cf. Lev 20:2-5; 2 Kgs 23:10, etc.). The inclusion of this prohibition against Molech worship here may be due to some sexual connection of this kind, or perhaps simply to the lexical link between זֶרַע (zera’) meaning “seed, semen” in v. 20 but “offspring” in v. 21.

[18:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “and you shall not profane.” Regarding “profane,” see the note on Lev 10:10 above.

[19:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “A man his mother and his father you [plural] shall fear.” The LXX, Syriac, Vulgate, and certain Targum mss reverse the order, “his father and his mother.” The term “fear” is subject to misunderstanding by the modern reader, so “respect” has been used in the translation. Cf. NAB, NRSV “revere”; NASB “reverence.”

[19:4]  ⁹ sn Regarding the difficult etymology and meaning of the term for “idols” (אֱלִילִים, ’elilim), see B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 126; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 304; N. H. Snaith, Leviticus and Numbers (NBC), 89; and Judith M. Hadley, NIDOTTE 1:411. It appears to be a diminutive play on words with אֵל (’el, “god; God”) and, perhaps at the same time, recalls a common Semitic word for “worthless; weak; powerless; nothingness.” Snaith suggests a rendering of “worthless godlings.”

[19:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “And you shall not swear to the falsehood.”

[19:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and you shall not profane”; NAB “thus profaning.”

[19:14]  ¹² tn Heb “You shall not curse a deaf [person] and before a blind [person] you shall not put a stumbling block.”

[19:14]  ¹³ tn Heb “And you shall fear.” Many English versions (e.g., KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV) regard the Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) as adversative in force here (“but”).

[19:16]  ¹⁴ tn The term רָכִיל (rakhil) is traditionally rendered “slanderer” here (so NASB, NIV, NRSV; see also J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 304, 316), but the exact meaning is uncertain (see the discussion in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 129). It is sometimes related to I רָכַל (“to go about as a trader [or “merchant”]”; BDB 940 s.v. רָכַל), and taken to refer to cutthroat business dealings, but there may be a II רָכַל, the meaning of which is dubious (HALOT 1237 s.v. II *רכל). Some would render it “to go about as a spy.”

[19:16]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “You shall not stand on the blood of your neighbor.” This part of the verse is also difficult to interpret. The rendering here suggests that one will not allow a neighbor to be victimized, whether in court (cf. v. 15) or in any other situation (see the discussion in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 129).

[19:18]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and you shall not retain [anger?].” This line seems to refer to the retaining or maintaining of some vengeful feelings toward someone. Compare the combination of the same terms for taking vengeance and maintaining wrath against enemies in Nahum 1:2 (see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 305).

[19:18]  ¹⁷ sn Some scholars make a distinction between the verb אָהַב (’ahav, “to love”) with the direct object and the more unusual construction with the preposition לְ (lamed) as it is here and in Lev 19:34 and 2 Chr 19:2 only. If there is a distinction, the construction here probably calls for direct and helpful action toward one’s neighbor (see the discussion in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 305, and esp. 317-18). Such love stands in contrast to taking vengeance or bearing a grudge against someone and, in NT terms, amounts to fulfilling the so-called “golden rule” (Matt 7:12).

[19:25]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “to add to you its produce.” The rendering here assumes that the point of this clause is simply that finally being allowed to eat the fruit in the fifth year adds the fruit of the tree to their harvest. Some take the verb to be from אָסַף (’asaf, “to gather”) rather than יָסַף (yasaf, “to add; to increase”), rendering the verse, “to gather to you the produce” (E. S. Gerstenberger, Leviticus [OTL], 260, and see the versions referenced in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 306). Others take it to mean that by following the regulations given previously they will honor the Lord so that the Lord will cause the trees to increase the amount of fruit they would normally produce (Hartley, 303, 306; cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[19:28]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “And slash for the soul you shall not give.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul, person, life”) can sometimes refer to a “dead person” (cf. Lev 21:1, 5; 22:5). See J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 306, 320-21.

[19:28]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and a writing of incision you shall not give in you.”

[19:37]  ²¹ tn Heb “And you shall keep all my statutes and all my regulations and you shall do them.” This appears to be a kind of verbal hendiadys, where the first verb is a modifier of the action of the second verb (see GKC 386 §120.d, although שָׁמַר [shamar, “to keep”] is not cited there; cf. Lev 22:31).

[22:16]  ²² tn Heb “iniquity of guilt”; NASB “cause them to bear punishment for guilt.” The Hebrew word עָוֹן (’avon, “iniquity”) can designate either acts of iniquity or the penalty (i.e., punishment) for such acts.

[22:16]  ²³ sn That is, when the lay people eat portions of offerings that should have been eaten only by priests and those who belonged to priestly households.

[22:30]  ²⁴ tn Heb “On that day”; NIV, NCV “that same day.”

[22:30]  ²⁵ tn Heb “from it.”

[22:33]  ²⁶ tn Heb “to be to you for God.”

[24:22]  ²⁷ tn Heb “a regulation of one”; KJV, ASV “one manner of law”; NASB “one standard.”

[25:17]  ²⁸ tn Heb “And you shall not oppress a man his fellow citizen.”

[26:28]  ²⁹ tn Heb “in rage of hostility with you”; NASB “with wrathful hostility”; NRSV “I will continue hostile to you in fury”; CEV “I’ll get really furious.”