The big idea
In short: love the actual person. Being holy reaches wages, courts, fields, and grudges. It is summed up as “thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (19:18). The same love is owed to the foreigner (19:34).
Exodus frees the people. Leviticus teaches them to live near God every day.
The rule underneath: Law 2 · Love the actual person
Love the person in front of you: neighbor, stranger, enemy.
Keep it: Trust grows and people are cared for.
Break it: Faith turns into talk, and real people get hurt.
Shows up in: Micah, Proverbs, Mark, Romans, James
Other rules in this book: Protect the weakest, Rest, Tell the truth
Live it: Playbook 02 · How to love
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.Leviticus 19:18 · KJV
At a glance
- What it is
- The third book of the Torah (the first five books of the Bible). 27 chapters of instructions for worship, purity, and daily life, told as God speaking to Moses at Sinai. Chapters 17–26 repeat one line, “ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy” (19:2).
- Who wrote it
- Synagogues and churches have long said Moses. Many scholars think it came from Israel’s priests, some before the exile (when Babylon carried the people away) and some during or after it. debated
- The key word
- Holy means set apart for God. Here it covers the kitchen, the body, the field, the market, and the court, not just the altar.
- Why it matters
- Jesus (Mark 12:31), Paul (Romans 13:9), and James (2:8) all quote its love command. Jesus reads his mission in jubilee words (Luke 4:18–19).
- In which Bibles
- The same book in Jewish, Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox Bibles.
- Read it in
- About 2½ hours.
What it says
1–7 · Offerings. Five kinds of offering: some burned whole, some shared as a meal, some to clean up after wrongdoing. If you cheated someone, you pay it back plus a fifth first, and only then bring your offering (6:1–7).
8–10 · Priests. Aaron and his sons are ordained. Two of them offer “strange fire” and die (10:1–2). The holy place is not a place to improvise.
11–15 · Clean and unclean. Which animals may be eaten, and how people become ritually unclean through childbirth, skin disease, mold, and body fluids. Unclean here mostly does not mean sinful. It is a state you deal with before you come near the sanctuary.
16 · The Day of Atonement. Once a year the high priest cleans the sanctuary. One goat is offered; a second carries the people’s wrongs into the desert (16:21–22). That is where English gets the word “scapegoat.”
17–27 · “Be holy.” Rules on blood and sex (17–18; 20), the festival calendar (23), and the sabbath year and jubilee (25). Chapter 19 is the heart. In one chapter it covers parents and the Sabbath, leaving the edges of the field for the poor, and paying workers the same day. It also covers fair courts, no gossip, no grudges, love of neighbor, respect for the old, love for the foreigner, and honest scales.
Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumblingblock before the blind, but shalt fear thy God: I am the LORD.Leviticus 19:14 · KJV
25 · Jubilee. Every fiftieth year, land goes back to the families who lost it and debt-slaves go free. The reason is stated plainly:
The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.Leviticus 25:23 · KJV
Go deeper
- Original words. Qadosh, “holy,” means set apart. Reaʿ, neighbor (19:18), could mean a fellow Israelite, and 19:34 extends the same love to the ger, the foreigner.
- Structure. Worship (1–10), purity (11–16), and holiness in daily life (17–27). Leviticus sits at the center of the five books of the Torah, with the Day of Atonement (16) near its own middle.
- How the laws interlock. Law 2 is spelled out as Law 7 (same-day wages, 19:13), Law 4 (gleaning, 19:9–10), Law 5 (no talebearing, 19:16), and Laws 9–10 (the sabbath year and jubilee, 25).
Hard parts
What do Christians do with Leviticus?
What it says Leviticus gives sacrifices, food laws, and purity rules alongside the love command (19:18).
The rule underneath Love God and love the actual person. The New Testament keeps quoting Leviticus 19 as binding (Mark 12:31; Romans 13:9; James 2:8).
What people added The New Testament treats the sacrifices as fulfilled in Christ (Hebrews 8–10), declares foods clean (Mark 7:19; Acts 10), and does not require non-Jewish believers to keep the ritual law (Acts 15). Many Christians sort the laws into moral, ritual, and civil; the text itself does not use those labels. debated Jewish tradition keeps many of these laws in adapted form.
Women’s bodies and purity
What it says Childbirth and menstruation make a woman ritually unclean (12; 15:19–30), and a daughter’s birth doubles the time (12:5). Men’s discharges make them unclean too (15:1–18).
The rule underneath Ritual uncleanness is not guilt. It limits access to the sanctuary, not a person’s worth.
What people added Some readers see these laws as ancient ideas about life and blood; others see them as weighing more heavily on women. Later traditions applied them in very different ways.
Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13
What it says “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination” (18:22). Leviticus 20:13 sets the death penalty. The same chapter also sets death for cursing a parent and for adultery (20:9–10).
The rule underneath Never use a person as a tool, and love the stranger as yourself (19:34).
What people added Many churches read these verses as a lasting moral rule that the New Testament confirms. Others read them as tied to purity codes or to particular ancient practices. Almost no one today applies the death penalties in the chapter. Churches have split; this page does not settle it.
The jubilee, and foreign slaves
What it says Every fiftieth year land returns to its families and Israelite debt-slaves go free (25:10). The same chapter lets Israel buy foreign slaves and keep them for life (25:44–46).
The rule underneath Everything is gift: “the land is mine” (25:23). Protect the weakest.
What people added There is no clear record that Israel ever kept the jubilee. Abolitionists argued that the chapter’s own reason, “they are my servants” (25:42), reaches every human being.
Translation notes that change meaning
- “Atonement.” The Hebrew kipper means to wipe clean or ransom. Much of the book is about cleaning the sanctuary, not only forgiving people.
- “Sin offering.” Many scholars prefer “purification offering,” since it is also required after childbirth, which is not a sin.
- “Scapegoat” (16:8). William Tyndale coined the word in 1530. Many modern versions keep the Hebrew name “Azazel,” which may be a place or a desert spirit. debated
- “Leprosy.” The Hebrew covers many skin conditions and even mold on walls, not the disease now called leprosy.
Where it leads
- 02 · How to love: 19:18 and 19:34, love for the neighbor and the foreigner.
- 07 · How to keep margin: gleaning (19:9–10), same-day wages (19:13), no interest from the poor (25:36–37), and jubilee.
- 03 · How to protect the weak: fair courts that favor neither the poor nor the powerful (19:15), and one law for everyone (24:22).
- Also feeds 08 rest (Sabbath and the land’s rest), 04 speech (no talebearing, 19:16), and 10 repair (pay back plus a fifth).
One thing to do
This week
Remove one stumbling block
Leviticus 19:14 says don’t put a stumbling block in front of the blind. Find one place where you gain because someone can’t see: fine print, jargon, a hidden fee, a rule nobody explained. This week remove it, or explain it plainly to the person it affects. Then read all of chapter 19 and write in your journal which other verse caught you.
How to read it. Don’t start at chapter 1. Read chapter 19, then 25, then 16. Then go back to 1–7 and ask: what does it cost to come near God, and who pays? Notice how often the refrain comes back: “I am the LORD.”