Leviticus 19

Commandments for Holinessⓘ

Be holy: honor parents and avoid idols¹Then the Lord said to Moses, ²“Speak to the whole congregation of Israel and tell them: Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.^a

³Each of you must respect his mother and father, and you must keep My Sabbaths. I am the Lord your God.

⁴Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves molten gods. I am the Lord your God.

Eating the peace offering on time⁵When you sacrifice a peace offering to the Lord, you shall offer it for your acceptance. ⁶It shall be eaten on the day you sacrifice it, or on the next day; but what remains on the third day must be burned up. ⁷If any of it is eaten on the third day, it is tainted and will not be accepted. ⁸Whoever eats it will bear his iniquity, for he has profaned what is holy to the Lord. That person must be cut off from his people.

Love Your Neighborⓘ

Leaving harvest for the poor⁹When you reap the harvest of your land, you are not to reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. ¹⁰You must not strip your vineyard bare or gather its fallen grapes. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God.

Honesty, justice, and love of neighbor¹¹You must not steal. You must not lie or deceive one another.

¹²You must not swear falsely by My name and so profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.

¹³You must not defraud your neighbor or rob him.

You must not withhold until morning the wages due a hired hand.

¹⁴You must not curse the deaf or place a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God. I am the Lord.

¹⁵You must not pervert justice; you must not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the rich; you are to judge your neighbor fairly.

¹⁶You must not go about spreading slander among your people.

You must not endanger the life^b of your neighbor. I am the Lord.

¹⁷You must not harbor hatred against your brother in your heart. Directly rebuke your neighbor, so that you will not incur guilt on account of him. ¹⁸✦Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against any of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself.^c I am the Lord.

Keep My Statutesⓘ

Mixing and a wronged slave girl¹⁹You are to keep My statutes. You shall not crossbreed two different kinds of livestock; you shall not sow your fields with two kinds of seed; and you shall not wear clothing made of two kinds of material.

²⁰If a man lies carnally with a slave girl promised to another man but who has not been redeemed or given her freedom, there must be due punishment. But they are not to be put to death, because she had not been freed. ²¹The man, however, must bring a ram to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting as his guilt offering to the Lord. ²²The priest shall make atonement on his behalf before the Lord with the ram of the guilt offering for the sin he has committed, and he will be forgiven the sin he has committed.

Fruit of new trees²³When you enter the land and plant any kind of tree for food, you shall regard the fruit as forbidden.^d For three years it will be forbidden to you and must not be eaten. ²⁴In the fourth year all its fruit must be consecrated as a praise offering to the Lord. ²⁵But in the fifth year you may eat its fruit; thus your harvest will be increased. I am the Lord your God.

Avoiding pagan practices²⁶You must not eat anything with blood still in it.

You must not practice divination or sorcery.

²⁷You must not cut off the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard.

²⁸You must not make any cuts in your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the Lord.

²⁹You must not defile your daughter by making her a prostitute, or the land will be prostituted and filled with depravity.

³⁰You must keep My Sabbaths and have reverence for My sanctuary. I am the Lord.

³¹You must not turn to mediums or spiritists; do not seek them out, or you will be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God.

Respect for elders, foreigners, and honest measures³²You are to rise in the presence of the elderly, honor the aged, and fear your God. I am the Lord.

³³When a foreigner resides with you in your land, you must not oppress him. ³⁴You must treat the foreigner living among you as native-born and love him as yourself, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

³⁵You must not use dishonest measures of length, weight, or volume. ³⁶You shall maintain honest scales and weights, an honest ephah,^e and an honest hin.^f I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

³⁷You must keep all My statutes and all My ordinances and follow them. I am the Lord.”