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Leviticus 19
1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
2 Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy.
3 Ye shall fear every man his mother, and his father, and keep my sabbaths: I am the LORD your God.
4 Turn ye not unto idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods: I am the LORD your God.
5 And if ye offer a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the LORD, ye shall offer it at your own will.
6 It shall be eaten the same day ye offer it, and on the morrow: and if ought remain until the third day, it shall be burnt in the fire.
7 And if it be eaten at all on the third day, it is abominable; it shall not be accepted.
8 Therefore every one that eateth it shall bear his iniquity, because he hath profaned the hallowed thing of the LORD: and that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
9 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest.
10 And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the LORD your God.
11 Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another.
12 And ye shall not swear by my name falsely, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.
13 Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob him: the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning.
14 Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumblingblock before the blind, but shalt fear thy God: I am the LORD.
15 Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour.
16 Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people: neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbour; I am the LORD.
17 Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.
18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.
19 Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed: neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee.
20 And whosoever lieth carnally with a woman, that is a bondmaid, betrothed to an husband, and not at all redeemed, nor freedom given her; she shall be scourged; they shall not be put to death, because she was not free.
21 And he shall bring his trespass offering unto the LORD, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, even a ram for a trespass offering.
22 And the priest shall make an atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering before the LORD for his sin which he hath done: and the sin which he hath done shall be forgiven him.
23 And when ye shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food, then ye shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised: three years shall it be as uncircumcised unto you: it shall not be eaten of.
24 But in the fourth year all the fruit thereof shall be holy to praise the LORD withal.
25 And in the fifth year shall ye eat of the fruit thereof, that it may yield unto you the increase thereof: I am the LORD your God.
26 Ye shall not eat any thing with the blood: neither shall ye use enchantment, nor observe times.
27 Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard.
28 Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD.
29 Do not prostitute thy daughter, to cause her to be a whore; lest the land fall to whoredom, and the land become full of wickedness.
30 Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD.
31 Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.
32 Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the LORD.
33 And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him.
34 But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
35 Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure.
36 Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt.
37 Therefore shall ye observe all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: I am the LORD.
- #1: YHWH tells Moses...
- #2: ... to tell the Israelites to be holy, because I, your god, am holy.
- #3: Everyone should fear their parents and observe the sabbaths. (Yeah, it's supposed to mean "respect," but tell me that "fear" doesn't suggest to you a little edge, a little intimidation? Some later translations steer away from "fear," some do not. We still say "fear of God" and "godfearing," don't we? Because the implication of quivering obiesence is still part of the deal, no?)
- #4: No idols. "I am the LORD your God." (Fasten your redundancy belts. Mr. Bible Writer Man's Alzheimer's is kicking in.)
- #5: And if ye offer a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the LORD, ye shall offer it at your own will. (LOL over this order for freely given "peace offerings," both because of the commanding tone and because it follows yet another ominous "I am the LORD your God" warning shot.
- #6: Peace offerings should be eaten over one or two days. Burn any leftovers.
- #7: It's unacceptable to eat a three-day-old peace offering.
- #8: You'll be sinful if you eat a peace offering after its expiration date, because you're besmirching a holy thing, and your punishment will be excommunication.
- #9: When you harvest your land, leave the crops in the corners, and don't pick up crops that fell on the ground.
- #10: Don't pick up the dropped fruit in your vineyard, and don't pick every last piece of fruit in it. That stuff is for poor people and strangers. BTW, "I am the LORD your God."
- #11: Don't steal, double-deal, or lie.
- #12: Don't falsely take oaths in my name or swear using my name. And, if I may my drop my own name once again, "I am the LORD."
- #13: Don't cheat or rob your neighbor. Don't hold out your hired hands' pay overnight.
- #14: Don't curse deaf people or place obstacles in the path of blind people; instead, "fear thy God: I am the LORD."
- #15: Don't be an unjust judge. Don't favor either the poor (unfortunately phrased as "thou shalt not respect the person of the poor") or lean toward the mighty.
- #16: Don't go slandering about, and don't "stand against the blood of thy neighbour; I am the LORD." (The latter point is a bit vague, I guess it means not to root, root, root — or shoot, shoot shoot — against the home team.)
- #17: Don't hate your brother or sin against your neighbor, but do speak up if he's doing wrong, lest you be adjudged guilty, too.
- #18: Don't hold or carry out grudges against fellow Israelites. Instead "love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD." (That's a great and famous sentiment, though people unsurprisingly always leave out the heavyhanded "I am the LORD" part. It's also "do as I say, not as I do" advice from the sky guy who carries out revenge over four generations).
- #19: "Keep my statutes. Don't let your cattle crossbreed, and don't mix different types of seed in your field. Likewise, linen-wool blends are verboten. (Other translations come down against all blended fabrics. Also, "Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with..." is the first time I've seen "gender" used as a verb. I wonder if they had songs like "I Wanna Gender You Up, Baby.")
- #20: If you fuck a slave that's supposed to marry another guy, she'll be "scourged" (Which can mean "chastised" or "whipped." Why should you be punished — you're just the free man who took advantage of a slave?) The two of you "shall not be put to death, because she was not free." (Given the implication that other adulterers are put to death, this means that banging someone's slave is more moral than fornicating with a free woman. Something to teach your children.)
- #21: The slave-fucker needs to bring a ram to the tabernacle as a trespass offering.
- #22: By killing the ram, the priest atones for the slave-fucking, and the transgression is forgiven.
- #23: When you "come into the land" (when you arrive in Canaan, I presume) and plant all kinds of fruit trees, the fruit in the first three years is considered "uncircumcised" (i.e., "spiritually impure.").
- #24: Fourth-year fruit is a holy offering to YHWH.
- #25: After a mere five years, you get to eat fruit from your trees.
- #26: Don't eat blood (since when?), and don't "use enchantment, nor observe times." (Apparently "observe times" refers to fortune-telling and augury.)
- #27: Don't "round the corners of your heads" or "mar the corners of thy beard." (Not sure I follow this style statement, but whatever.)
- #28: Don't cut your flesh for the dead (sure, no skin off my nose) or "print any marks upon you: I am the LORD" (tattoos are taboo).
- #29: Don't make your daughter into a whore, because then this place would be full of whores and wickedness. (Is that really the best argument they could come up with?)
- #30: Observe the Sabbath and revere my temple. "I am the LORD."
- #31: "Regard not them that have familiar spirits" (cool phrase that, apparently meaning psychics and the like), neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God (Seeing a wizard is to "be defiled." Dumbledore can't catch a break in this book.).
- #32: "Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the LORD." That is, stand in respect for old people. And fear God (psst, he is the Lord).
- #33: Don't be mean to strangers.
- #34: Treat strangers as if they were natives, after all you were strangers in Egypt. "I am the LORD your God." (But we're still supposed to keep 'em away from our holy food, right?)
- #35: Don't cheat when you're measuring stuff.
- #36: Give honest weights (just like Toledo scales).
- #37: Therefore ('cuz why?), follow all my rules and judgments. "I am the LORD."
1 comment:
As I've mentioned before, this is part of the Holiness Code, which is a distinct document slightly pre-dating the original Priestly Source. The differences in writing style between it and the rest of the Priestly Source can be striking; the very constant "I am Yahweh" is one of the obvious examples.
As I've also mentioned before, this is the Priestly Source's version of the Covenant Code (which is back in Exodus); this chapter is one of those that are particularly similar in subject matter to the Covenant Code (and its certainly worth comparing it). Several verses are paralleled in the other codes, such as the, the verse (4) about molten idols, the verse about taking Yahweh's name in vain (12), the one about the sabbath (3), and parents, and the verse about stealing (11).
Verse 5. The thing about "sacrifice of peace offerings" is that the original word in their name is "sacrifice" not "peace"; they are the original form of sacrifice - better translated as a "Slaughter offering".
Verse 6-7 arises from the way days were counted - days were considered to start in the evening and continue the next morning. Thus evening then morning = 1 day; the day afterwards wouldn't be on the same day. Under later Egyptian influence, the day being counted as morning then evening meant that the earlier period seemed like "two" days, the day following the earlier period would thus be day 3 not 2. The original rule is that it must be consumed before the next evening comes.
For verse 8, the second part - the bit about excommunication - is a later addition.
Verses 9 and 10 are basically being treated as rules for charity. Its important to remember exactly who it is that its to be left for, because when you see this law again, in Deuteronomy, its a slightly different group of people. The real reason for the laws is the a corn-dolly like rule; the "corn spirit"/"tree-spirit"/whatever was considered to live in the field - cutting 100% of the field would make the spirit homeless, which was considered "bad", so a small amount of the field had to be left (corn-dollys are a similar principle, except that instead of preserving part of the field, the straw is woven into a dolly, left in a house over winter, and then ploughed back into the ground in the new year)
Verse 14 is particularly significant in Judaism. From this tiny verse, the whole principle of honesty rests (in Judaism). This is because "blind" was taken metaphorically by Judaism - the verse was seen as meaning "don't mislead people"; it was even read to mean "don't help someone sin, unless they were going to anyway, and could have done so without your intervention". Its even taken to mean "don't hit children"; fundamentalist Jews claim that if children were hit, then they would fight back, for which would have to be executed.
Verse 16 is an oblique reference to bearing false witness. More literally, it refers to lying which results in someone being executed.
Verse 19 refers to Shaatnez - mixtures - it probably refers to the more specific mixtures listed than mixtures in general. It probably arose because mixtures were seen as somehow sacred, and therefore belonging to the sanctuaries; the rule in Deuteronomy forbidding transvestitism has the same origin.
verse 20 derives from slaves being treated as property not as people. In the septuagint its BOTH people who are punished; its only the masoretic that makes it just the woman. verses 21-22 are a later addition by one of the priestly writers, and verse 20 itself is out of place - it was probably originally in the next chapter.
verse 23 refers to "uncircumcised" in the same way that children younger than 8 days were "uncircumcised". It means "not ready" rather than "spiritually impure". Basically, its "leave it for 3 years, as it won't be ready until then".
verse 26 is particularly interesting, because the KJV is a dishonest translation and the masoretic text on which it is based differs substantially from the septuagint. The masoretic actually says "Don't eat things with blood, and don't perform necromancy or augury"; necromancy = manipulating the dead, augury = divination based on the flight patterns of birds. The KJV has dishonestly generalised this into banning ALL witchcraft (not only necromancy) and divination (not only augury). The septuagint version is "Don't eat on the mountains, don't employ auguries, and don't perform bird-haruspicy"; it doesn't ban necromancy at all, instead banning haruspicy (divination by looking at animal entrails); it doesn't forbid augury outright, just the employing of people who do it; and it does ban eating on mountains (that's one of those wierd little laws that NEVER gets mentioned). The latter ban refers to "high places" - ancient sanctuaries that were on hill tops; it would seem to be an attempt at prohibiting worship at the older sanctuaries (like mount Ebal, mount Seir, and mount Sinai!!!!) in favour of more centralised religion (with the temple in Jerusalem ironically being at a place known as MOUNT zion - [even though its more of a mild hill]).
verse 27 refers to offering hair to the dead. This was an earlier funerary practice; if you look at some of the older biblical texts like the Book of Amos, you'll see the opposite view expressed - these things being positively encouraged, as being ordered by Yahweh. At some point the Aaronids objected to it; this is probably because it doesn't involve them - a religious practice not involving the priests, which obviously they hated. Extremist Jews follow verse 27 particularly strongly, hence why they all have flowing beards, and ideosyncratically long locks of sideburns (the long locks - referred to as "payot" ["corners"] - are often curled); in medieval Italy, however, Jews argued that it only forbaded CUTTING, and hence depilatory creams and pumice stones were perfectly acceptable, allowing them to look clean shaven. There's a get-out clause for everything.
verse 28 continues the same context - old funerary practices, now suddenly being forbidden. Specifically it refers to memorial tattoos and blood-letting (the latter giving "life" - which is "in the blood" - to the dead [in the underworld]).
verse 31. It refers to spiritualists ("mediums"), not psychics, and refers to fortune-tellers rather than what we now call "wizards". But Dumbledore would already have fallen foul of Leviticus 18:22, if you took it the way the KJV presents it.
"hoary" means pale white. "hoarfrost", for example, is frozen dew - which produces the pale tinge to grass on winter mornings. A "hoary head" is a head with pale white hair; EXCLUDING albinos, this refers to old people (effectively meaning "grey haired").
verses 33-34 are really saying "there is only one law in the land, regardless of your nationality". Rather than Blackwater in Iraq, for example.
verse 35 is somewhat hypocritically dishonest. The Ephah and Hin weren't in the original Israelite measurement system - they don't fit very easily into it, as they are decimal measurements, while the rest of the system is based on 3s and 4s; Egypt's measurement was decimal, Sumeria's was 3s and 4s - originally it was Sumeria that had the influence over Israel, but gradually Egyptian influence came to bear.
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