Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Leviticus 19:2
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.
Ye shall be holy … – These words express the keynote to the whole book of Leviticus, being addressed to the whole nation. There does not appear to be any systematic arrangement in the laws which follow. They were intended as guards to the sanctity of the elect people, enforcing common duties by immediate appeal to the highest authority. Compare Lev 18:24-30 note.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Lev 19:2
Ye shall be holy.
The object of Gods laws
The position of this come mand at the head of the long list of precepts which follows is most significant and instructive. It sets before us the object of the whole ceremonial and moral law, and, we may add, the supreme object of the gospel also, namely, to produce a certain type of moral and spiritual character, a holy manhood; it, moreover, precisely interprets this term, so universally misunderstood and misapplied among all nations, as essentially consisting in a spiritual likeness to God: Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy. These words evidently at once define holiness and declare the supreme motive to the attainment and maintenance of a holy character. This, then, is brought before us as the central thought in which all the diverse precepts and prohibitions which follow find their unity; and, accordingly, we find this keynote of the whole law echoing, as it were, all through this chapter, in the constant refrain, repeated herein no less than fourteen–twice seven–times; I am the Lord! I am the Lord your God! (S. H. Kellogg, D. D.)
A fountain of purity
One summer day, a few years ago, strolling for rest and pleasure near the mouth of the Columbia river, where there is a large rise and fall of the tide, I came, at low tide, upon a splendid spring of pure, fresh water, clear as crystal, gushing up from between the rocks that two hours before had formed a part of the rivers bed. Twice a day the soiled tide rises above that beautiful fountain and covers it over; but there it is, down deep under the salt tide, and when the tide has spent its force and gone back again to the oceans depths, it sends out its pure waters fresh and clear as before. So if the human heart be really a fountain of love to Christ it will send out its streams of fresh, sweet waters, even into the midst of the salt tides of politics or business. And the man who carries such a fountain into the days worry and struggle will come again at night, when the worlds tide has spent its force, with clean hands, sweet spirit, and conscience void of offence toward God and man. (S. S. Chronicle.)
Holiness silences the profane
Holiness has a mighty influence upon others. It stops the mouths of the ungodly, who are ready to reproach religion and throw the dirt of professors sins on the face of profession itself. They say frogs will cease croaking when a light is brought near them; the light of a holy conversation hangs, as it were, a padlock on profane lips. (W. Gurnall.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Ye shall be holy, separated from all the forementioned defilements, and entirely consecrated to God, and obedient to all his laws and statutes.
I the Lord your God am holy, both in my essence, and in all my laws, which are holy and just and good, and in all my actions; whereas the gods of the heathens are unholy both in their laws and institutions, whereby they allow and require filthy and abominable actions; and in their practices, some of them having given wicked examples to their worshippers.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2. Speak unto all the congregationof the children of IsraelMany of the laws enumerated in thischapter had been previously announced. As they were, however, of ageneral application, not suited to particular classes, but to thenation at large, so Moses seems, according to divine instructions, tohave rehearsed them, perhaps on different occasions and to successivedivisions of the people, till “all the congregation of thechildren of Israel” were taught to know them. The will of God inthe Old as well as the New Testament Church was not locked up in therepositories of an unknown tongue, but communicated plainly andopenly to the people.
Ye shall be holy: for I . . .am holySeparated from the world, the people of God wererequired to be holy, for His character, His laws, and service wereholy. (See 1Pe 1:15).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel,…. They could not be all spoke to together, but tribe after tribe, or family after family; or rather the heads of the tribes, and at most the heads of families were convened, and the following instructions were given, to be communicated to their respective tribes and families. Jarchi says this section was spoken in the congregation, because the greater part of the body of the law, or the more substantial parts of it, depend upon it; and indeed all the ten commandments are included in it, with various other laws, both judicial and ceremonial. Aben Ezra remarks, that all the congregation are spoken to, to include the proselytes, because they had been warned of incests, as the Israelites, in the preceding chapter, [See comments on Le 18:26];
and say unto them, ye shall be holy: a separate people from all others, abstaining from all the impurity and idolatry they are cautioned against in the foregoing chapter, and observing the holy precepts expressed in this:
for I the Lord your God [am] holy; in his nature, essence, originally, independently, immutably, and perfectly; and the more holy they were, the more like they would be to him; [See comments on Le 11:44] and
[See comments on Le 11:45]; where the same words are used, after the laws given about creatures clean and unclean to be eaten, as here, after those about impure copulations and incests.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The commandment in Lev 19:2, “to be holy as God is holy,” expresses on the one hand the principle upon which all the different commandments that follow were based, and on the other hand the goal which the Israelites were to keep before them as the nation of Jehovah.
Lev 19:3 The first thing required is reverence towards parents and the observance of the Lord’s Sabbaths-the two leading pillars of the moral government, and of social well-being. To fear father and mother answers to the honour commanded in the decalogue to be paid to parents; and in the observance of the Sabbaths the labour connected with a social calling is sanctified to the Lord God.
Lev 19:4 Lev 19:4 embraces the first two commandments of the decalogue: viz., not to turn to idols to worship them (Deu 31:18, Deu 31:20), nor to make molten gods (see at Exo 34:17). The gods beside Jehovah are called elilim , i.e., nothings, from their true nature.
Lev 19:5-8 True fidelity to Jehovah was to be shown, so far as sacrifice, the leading form of divine worship, was concerned, in the fact, that the holiness of the sacrificial flesh was strictly preserved in the sacrificial meals, and none of the flesh of the peace-offerings eaten on the third day. To this end the command in Lev 7:15-18 is emphatically repeated, and transgressors are threatened with extermination. On the singular in Lev 19:8, see at Gen 27:29, and for the expression “shall be cut off,” Gen 17:14.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(2) Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel.The importance which the Lawgiver Himself attaches to this epitome of the whole Law, as this section is called, may be seen from the fact that God commands Moses to address these precepts to all the congregation of the children of Israela phrase which occurs nowhere else in Leviticus in this formula, and which is only to be found once more in the whole Pentateuch (Exo. 12:3), at the institution of the Passover, the great national festival which commemorates the redemption of the Israelites from Egypt.
I the Lord your God.Around this solemn declaration, which is repeated no less than sixteen times, both in its full and shorter form (see Lev. 19:1), cluster the different precepts of this section. It is this solemn formula which links together the various injunctions in the chapter before us. As the Lord who is their God is Himself holy, they who are His people must also be holy, or as the saying which obtained during the second Temple expresses it, the surroundings of the king must bear the moral impress of the sovereign; or, in other words, your nearness to God not only demands. that your conduct should not be in contradiction to His holy nature, but that your life should bear the impress and reflect the image of God. (See Lev. 11:44; Mat. 5:48; 1Pe. 1:15.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. Ye shall be holy Inward and outward holiness is the aim of all the laws of God. He seeks to cleanse the heart, the fountain of action, and the very seat of character. See Introduction, (8.)
For I am holy This implies that man is bound to realize his loftiest ideal of purity, and that the revelation of God’s holiness is that ideal. The grounds of obligation for Israel were: 1.) the nature of God, holiness; 2.) his act of creation, Isa 43:1; Isaiah 3.) his act of deliverance from Egypt, Exo 20:2.
Changing the third to the redemption from sin, procured by Jesus Christ, we have the New Testament grounds of obligation for all men. See Lev 11:44, notes.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Lev 19:2 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.
Ver. 2. Ye shall be holy. ] Ritually and really. See Trapp on “ Lev 11:44 “ See Trapp on “ Mat 5:48 “ See Trapp on “ 1Pe 1:16 “ See Trapp on “ 1Jn 3:3 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
all the congregation, &c. Only here in Leviticus, and once more in the Pentateuch (Exo 12:3).
children. Hebrew sons.
holy = set apart. See note on Exo 3:5.
I the LORD, &C. There are fifteen groups in this body of laws (Lev 19), seven ending with the longer formula, “I am the LORD your God” (23, 4, 10, 25, 31, 34, 36), and eight with the shorter formula “I am the LORD” (12, 14, 16, 18, 28, 30, 32, 37)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Ye shall: Lev 11:44, Lev 11:45, Lev 20:7, Lev 20:26, Lev 21:8, Exo 19:6, Isa 6:3, Isa 6:4, Amo 3:3, Mat 5:48, 2Co 6:14-16, 2Co 7:1, 1Pe 1:15, 1Pe 1:16
Reciprocal: Exo 15:11 – glorious Exo 22:31 – holy Exo 28:36 – HOLINESS Exo 29:46 – I am Num 15:40 – be holy Deu 14:2 – General Deu 27:10 – General Jos 24:19 – holy Job 6:10 – the Holy One Psa 93:5 – holiness Psa 99:5 – he is holy 1Th 4:7 – God Heb 12:10 – partakers
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Lev 19:2. Ye shall be holy Separated from all the forementioned defilements, and entirely consecrated to God, and obedient to all his laws. I am holy Both in my essence, and in all my laws, which are holy, and just, and good.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
19:2 Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be {a} holy: for I the LORD your God [am] holy.
(a) That is, void of all pollution, idolatry and superstition both of soul and body.