Leviticus 19

Moral and Ceremonial Laws

1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,2 Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.3 Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father, and keep My Sabbaths: I am the Lord your God.4 Do not turn to idols, nor make for yourselves molded gods: I am the Lord your God.5 And if you offer a sacrifice of a peace offering to the Lord, you shall offer it of your own free will.6 It shall be eaten the same day you offer it, and on the next day. And if any remains until the third day, it shall be burned in the fire.7 And if it is eaten at all on the third day, it is an abomination. It shall not be accepted.8 Therefore everyone who eats it shall bear his iniquity, because he has profaned the hallowed offering of the Lord; and that person shall be cut off from his people.9 When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest.10 And you shall not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I am the Lord your God.11 You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another.12 And you shall not swear by My name falsely, nor shall you profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.13 You shall not cheat your neighbor, nor rob him. The wages of him who is hired shall not remain with you all night until morning.14 You shall not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but shall fear your God: I am the Lord.15 You shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty. In righteousness you shall judge your neighbor.16 You shall not go about as a talebearer among your people; nor shall you take a stand against the life of your neighbor: I am the Lord.17 You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him.18 You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.19 You shall keep My statutes. You shall not let your livestock breed with another kind. You shall not sow your field with mixed seed. Nor shall a garment of mixed linen and wool come upon you.20 Whoever lies carnally with a woman who is betrothed to a man as a concubine, and who has not at all been redeemed nor given her freedom, for this there shall be scourging; but they shall not be put to death, because she was not free.21 And he shall bring his trespass offering to the Lord, to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, a ram as a trespass offering.22 The priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering before the Lord for his sin which he has committed. And the sin which he has committed shall be forgiven him.23 When you come into the land, and have planted all kinds of trees for food, then you shall count their fruit as uncircumcised. Three years it shall be as uncircumcised to you. It shall not be eaten.24 But in the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy, a praise to the Lord.25 And in the fifth year you may eat its fruit, that it may yield to you its increase: I am the Lord your God.26 You shall not eat anything with the blood, nor shall you practice divination or soothsaying.27 You shall not shave around the sides of your head, nor shall you disfigure the edges of your beard.28 You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you: I am the Lord.29 Do not prostitute your daughter, to cause her to be a harlot, lest the land fall into harlotry, and the land become full of wickedness.30 You shall keep My Sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary: I am the Lord.31 Give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits; do not seek after them, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.32 You shall rise before the gray headed and honor the presence of an old man, and fear your God: I am the Lord.33 And if a stranger dwells with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him.34 The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.35 You shall do no injustice in judgment, in measurement of length, weight, or volume.36 You shall have honest scales, honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.37 Therefore you shall observe all My statutes and all My judgments, and perform them: I am the Lord.

LEVITICUS 19

Moral and Religious Laws

1 The [Lord] told Moses

2 t to say to the community of Israel:
I am the [Lord] your God. I am holy, and you must be holy too!

3-4 t Respect your father and your mother, honor the Sabbath, and don't make idols or images. I am the [Lord] your God.
5 When you offer a sacrifice to ask my blessing, t be sure to follow my instructions. 6 You 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. 7 If you eat any of it on the third day, the sacrifice will be disgusting to me, and I will reject it.

8 In 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  t 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.

10 Don'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  t Do not steal or tell lies or cheat others.

12  t Do not misuse my name by making promises you don't intend to keep. I am the [Lord] your God.

13  t Do not steal anything or cheat anyone, and don't fail to pay your workers at the end of each day.t

14  t 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  t Be fair, no matter who is on trial—don't favor either the poor or the rich.

16 Don't be a gossip, but never hesitate to speak up in court, especially if your testimony can save someone's life.t
17  t Don't hold grudges. On the other hand, it's wrong not to correct someone who needs correcting.

18 t 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  t 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.
20 If 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.t

21-22 The 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.
23 After you enter the land, you will plant fruit trees, but you are not to eat any fruit from them for the first three years. 24 In the fourth year the fruit must be set apart, as an expression of thanks

25 to 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  t Don't eat the blood of any animal.
Don't practice any kind of witchcraft.

27-28  t 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  t Don't let your daughters serve as temple prostitutes—this would bring disgrace both to them and the land.

30  t I command you to respect the Sabbath and the place where I am worshiped.

31  t Don't make yourselves disgusting to me by going to people who claim they can talk to the dead.

32 I command you to show respect for older people and to obey me with fear and trembling.
33  t Don't mistreat any foreigners who live in your land.

34 Instead, 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  t Use honest scales and don't cheat when you weigh or measure anything.
I am the [Lord] your God. I rescued you from Egypt, 37 and I command you to obey my laws.