Statutes of Jehovah

(Leviticus 19:1 - 19:37)

Jehovah spoke to Moses and told him to give the following instructions to the entire community of Israel, "Be holy because I, your god Jehovah is holy."

"You all must show respect to your mother and father, and you must observe the Sabbath.  Thus says your god Jehovah.

"Do not fall back into worshiping idols or casting brazen images of gods for yourself.  Thus says your god Jehovah.

"When you make a peace offering to Jehovah make sure you that you carry it out with proper procedures so that it may be accepted on your behalf.  The sacrifice should be eaten on the day that it is offered -- or the next day, but by the third day, anything left over should be burned up.  If it is eaten on the third day, it is spoiled and, therefore, I will not accept it.  Because they have desecrated what is sacred to Jehovah, those who eat it will be subject to punishment and should be banished from the community.

"When you harvest your crops, do not reap to the edges of your fields or gather up the remains.  And in regard to your vineyards, do not pick them entirely clean or collect all the grapes that have fallen to the ground.  Leave them for the poor and for the foreigners living among you.  Thus says your god Jehovah.

"Do not steal.  Do not deceive or lie to one another.  And do not swear falsely in my name, profaning the name of your god.  Thus says Jehovah. 

"Do not defraud your neighbor or steal from him.  Do not make those who work for you wait until the next day to receive their wages.

"Don't mock the deaf or trip up the blind. 

"You must respect your god.  Thus says Jehovah.

"In legal matters do not pervert justice either by favoring the poor or by deferring to the rich and powerful, but judge all your people with equal fairness.

"Do not spread slanderous gossip among your neighbors.

"Do not take advantage of your neighbor's death.  Thus says Jehovah.

"Do not bear resentment in your heart against any of your tribe.  Reprove your neighbor when he is in the wrong so that you will not share his guilt.   Nor should you seek vengeance against your neighbor, or bear a grudge against him, but respect him as yourself.  Thus says Jehovah. 

“Keep my statutes!

"Do not permit your livestock to breed with other species.  Do not plant a field of yours with more than one kind of crop.  And do not wear garments composed of two different kinds of materials.

"If a man has sexual relations with a female slave that has been promised to another man but the transfer of ownership has not taken place and she has not been given her freedom, there should be legal sanction.  However, since she is not a free woman, but still a slave, the death penalty is not appropriate.  Instead, the male offender should make a guilt offering to Jehovah, bringing a ram to the Sacrificial Altar.  There, before the entrance to the Sanctum, the priest will make atonement for him with the sacrificed ram, and the sin he has committed will be forgiven.

"When you cultivate the land and plant fruit trees, refrain from harvesting the fruit for three years.  You are prohibited from eating the fruit for those three years.  On the fourth year, the entire harvest is to be consecrated to Jehovah as an offering of thanksgiving.  But, on the fifth year, the fruit may then be eaten.  Following this practice, and your harvests will increase.  Thus says your god Jehovah.

"Do not eat any food with blood in it.

"Do not practice fortune telling or augury.

"You should not shave the hair off the sides of your head or shape the edges of your beard.

"Do not cut or scourge yourself during mourning, or put any mark on your body.  Thus says Jehovah.

"Do not disgrace your daughter by making her a prostitute, or the country will be filled with whores and promiscuity. 

"Keep the Sabbath as a day of rest and regard with reverence my Tabernacle.  Thus says Jehovah.

"Do not consult mediums or necromancers or defile yourself by association with them.  Thus says your god Jehovah.

"Stand in the presence of your elders and honor the aged, for, by doing so, you show respect to your god.  Thus says Jehovah.

"When a foreigner lives among you, do not abuse him; he should be treated as if he were a native-born inhabitant.  Respect him as you would yourself.  Remember that you were once foreigners living in Egypt.  Thus says your god Jehovah.

"Do not be dishonest when making measurements of  length, width, and volume.  You should  employ accurate scales with true weights -- an honest ephah and an honest hin.

"I am Jehovah your god, the one who brought you out of Egypt.  You must not only honor my statutes and ordinances, but put them into practice.  Thus says Jehovah."

Notes
1.  Jehovah, who has already laid out the Ten Commandments and other lists of statutes he demands the Israelites observe, has another go at listing do's and don't's, reiterating what he has already discussed, but also broaching new areas.  Some, like not stealing, or refraining from selling your daughter into prostitution (which seems like a moral no-brainer), are of consequence, while others, like restrictions on trimming your beard, seem like mere tribal customs, significant only in that they may serve to distinguish the Israelites from other peoples.  (Maintaining a unique ethnic identity was always a high priority for the Israelite and, later, Jewish people.)

2.  The Ten Commandments prohibits the making and worshiping of idols.  This prohibition is restated, but with the implication that the Israelites used to be idol worshipers and are here warned against falling back into their former bad habits.  It is not made clear if this pertained to the adoration of household spirits, some other god, or Jehovah himself.
 
3.  There are some interesting references to charitable practices, most notably the provision that farmers and fruit growers leave some of their crop for the poor and destitute.  It was a widespread and common practice, though, up until modern times, for the poor to be allowed to glean harvested fields and not be chased off the land as trespassers by angry farmers. 
 
4.  Considering that the Israelites were anything if not xenophobic, it is surprising how accommodating they were expected to be of foreigners and resident aliens.  The laws of hospitality, however, are ancient, if not prehistoric.
 
5.  In addition to many sound precepts, such as equal justice under the law, honest sales practices, and a prohibition against vengeance seeking, there are some more sophisticated moral concepts that involve attitudes rather than actions.  This is the first biblical exhortation to "love your neighbor as yourself."  (Since the word love is used in so many different ways and often ambiguously, I have used what I believe to be the more accurate "respect.")  There is also a prohibition against nurturing grudges and harboring resentments that foreshadows the Christian view that one should forgive one's enemies.  Here, though, it seems the proscription against resentment, grudges, and revenge applies only to fellow Israelites and maybe neighbors, not enemies.   At this early point in history the tribalistic mentality and conditional morality was universal: one treats members of the tribe, the in group, differently than the out group.

6.  One should not allow your livestock to breed with other animals.  Why was this a matter of concern to Jehovah?  One would think that mating cows with rams would be unproductive in any case.  Is this a prohibition against selective breeding, perhaps seen as unnatural?  Was it wrong, for instance, to mate different breeds of cattle?  The prohibition, perhaps of more symbolic than practical significance, reinforces Jehovah’s preference for and insistence upon homogeneity and uniformity.  And a distaste for man tampering with the natural world.

7.  Planting a field with only one crop might make agronomic sense, but wearing clothes made of different materials, where's the harm in that?  (The cotton-nylon blend, the fur collar, the leather arm patches are sadly, but emphatically non-Levitical.)  Clothes at that time were made primarily of wool, linen, leather or animal skins.  What was the reference here?  Was there some connotation of sinful luxury or abnormality in clothes of more than one fabric, such as wool and linen? 
 
8.  The provision on the cutting of the hair and the beard is anything but clear.  It is hard to figure out precisely what is being prohibited.  I believe Jehovah meant to outlaw Egyptian and Canaanite styles, specifically square-cut beards, shaven heads with side locks (which Egyptian youths wore), and “round” haircuts.  That the hair on the sides of the head be not cut, which is probably not what is meant at all, is followed today by ultra-orthodox Jews, resulting in what most people regard as an extremely unbecoming hair style.   That the beard be not shaped makes a little more sense.  Many ancient peoples sported highly dressed beards, sometimes braided or artfully sculpted.  Jehovah probably did not want his people to imitate styles that suggested cultures he regarded as decadent.   It should be mentioned that this provision did not mean that the beard should not be cut at all, only that the edges of it not be so evenly trimmed that it gave the appearance of being artificial and dressed.  Jehovah, ever eschewing the artifices of civilization, wanted his people to be not only simple and obedient, but natural, down-to-earth, folksy, and shaggy-bearded, and not like the sophisticated Egyptians.
 
9.  Jehovah specifically prohibits two types of mystical activity, fortune-telling and communication with the dead.  There is no suggestion that either of these activities are bogus, only that they should not be practiced.  This is mere protection of turf: the proclamations of dead might compete with Jehovah's message and fortune tellers would surely be rivals for his prophets.  Moreover, mediums of any sort would infringe upon the prerogatives of his priests who must maintain their monopoly on communing with the divine.  (Of course, one may safely conclude that these statutes were likely devised not by Jehovah, but by his priests, to safeguard their professional interests, to further their own agenda, and to enhance their influence and control over the people.)

10.  The provision against cutting or marking the body is misunderstood.   Most translations say "cut for the dead," which seems senseless.  The reference is to cutting or scourging oneself while grieving the death of a love one.  This was the custom among some ancient peoples, certainly the Amorites and the Scythians and perhaps even the Egyptians and the Canaanites.  “Tattooing” is often used in most translations, but this not the correct term, since tattooing, as we know it, a Polynesian custom, was unknown in the ancient Middle East.  The reference is to the practice of marking the body, perhaps with paint or a hot iron.  The marks on the skin, symbols or pictures, may have had religious significance.  This was the custom among some ancient tribes, but our knowledge of the matter is sparse.

11.  The prohibition against fathers inducing their daughters to become prostitutes probably references the custom of among many peoples, the Babylonians, the Greeks, the Phoenicians, and the Canaanites to operate temple brothels and to attach religious sanction to such promiscuous sex.  

12.  An ephah was a dry measure equal to .6 bushels.  The hin, a liquid measure, was approximate to a gallon.