Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Leviticus 19:18

Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: I [am] the LORD.

Lev 19:18

Thou shalt not avenge.

Forgive and forget

In another place we read, For vengeance is Mine, and I will repay. Wrest not Gods sword therefore out of His hand, sit not down in His seat, nor make thyself a god, for fear of the end. Well, let Him go then, I will not avenge, but sure I will remember Him; forgive I may, but never forget, &c. See what followeth in the very next words of this verse, Neither shalt thou be mindful of a wrong against the children of thy people. Remembering, then, you see, is condemned as well as avenging, and therefore it standeth you upon both to forgive and to forget, or else the Lord shall forget you out of His Book of Life. Nay, see more: all this is not yet enough, but we must love also our neighbours, and that even as ourselves, or else we perish. For, I am the Lord, saith the verse, that is, One that seeth and hateth and will smite thee in that strength that thou canst not resist nor endure. Foolish politic, think, then, of piety, and abhor that policy that devoureth piety and destroyeth thee. Thou canst not live ever, but must die, and come unto judgment. (Bp. Babington.)

Penalty of the desire to avenge

Small birds have an intense natural antipathy of nocturnal birds of prey. If one of these birds happens to be seen out of its lurking-place during the day they assail it vigorously, resent its intrusion, and avenge the oppression exercised over them during the night by combined attacks. This antipathy has been taken advantage of for the purpose of catching birds ever since the days of Aristotle. The catcher imitates, for instance, the voice of an owl about an hour before sunset, when the birds will flock together and perch on the trees or bushes in the suspected neighbourhood. The twigs, &c., having been previously covered with bird-lime, the birds pay their liberty and perhaps life as the penalty of their desire to avenge themselves on the owl. (Scientific lllustrations.)

Brotherly affection

Euclid showed in himself the true symptoms of brotherly affection, who, when his brother in his rage made a rash vow, saying, Let me not live, if I be not revenged on my brother; Euclid turns the speech contrary way, Nay, let me not live, if I be not reconciled to my brother; let me not live, if we be not as good friends as ever we were before. Shall a heathen thus outstrip us Christians? nature be stronger than grace? the bonds of flesh tie faster and surer than the bonds of grace? We call on God our Father, we acknowledge, or should do, one Church our mother, we are bred up in the same school of the Cross, fed at the same table of the Lord, incorporated into the same communion of saints. If these and the like considerations cannot knit our hearts in love one to another, the very heathens will rise up in judgment against us, and condemn us. (J. Spencer.)

Victory over self the best way to gain others

Winthrop, the Puritan Governor of Massachusetts, had a wonderful control of his own passions. On one occasion, one of the officers of the colony wrote him a sharp letter, complaining of his official acts. He sent back the letter–would not keep such a letter of provocation by him. By and by, the writer of the letter, while there was a scarcity of food in the colony, sent to buy some of Winthrops cattle. Receive them, said the governor, as a gift in token of my goodwill. The offender wrote back: Sir, your overcoming of yourself hath overcome me. This way of dealing with offenders was loved by him.

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Nor bear any grudge, Heb. nor keep, either,

1. The injury here supposed in thy memory: so it is opposed to those who say they will forgive, but not forget an injury. Or,

2. Anger or hatred in thy heart: so this verb is used Jer 3:12; Nah 1:2. Thy neighbour; by which he understands not the Israelites only, as some would persuade us, but every other man with whom we converse, as plainly appears,

1. By comparing this place with Lev 19:34, where this very law is applied to strangers.

2. Because the word

neighbour is explained by another man, Lev 20:10; Rom 13:8; see more on Exo 20:16.

As thyself; with the same sincerity, though not equality, of affection, as to thyself.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

18. thou shalt love thy neighbour asthyselfThe word “neighbour” is used as synonymouswith “fellow creature.” The Israelites in a later agerestricted its meaning as applicable only to their own countrymen.This narrow interpretation was refuted by our Lord in a beautifulparable (Lu 10:30-37).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Thou shalt not avenge,…. That is, not avenge ourselves on him that has done us an ill thing, but leave it to him to whom vengeance belongs, see Ro 12:19; which is done when a man does an ill thing for another, or denies to grant a favour which he has been denied by another; Jarchi thus illustrates it, one says to him (his neighbour) lend me thy sickle; he answers, no (I will not); on the morrow (the neighbour comes, who had refused, and) says to him, lend me thy hatchet; he replies, I will not lend thee, even as thou wouldest not lend me; this is vengeance: this was reckoned mean and little, a piece of weakness with the very Heathens b:

nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people; those of the same place, city, or kingdom; or “not observe” c the injury done, take no notice of it, nor lay it up in the mind and memory, but forget it; or “not keep” d or retain enmity, as the Targum of Jonathan supplies it; and so do an ill turn, or refuse to do a good one; or if that is done, yet upbraids with the former unkindness; for upbraiding with unkindness shows that a grudge is retained, though the suit is not denied:

but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself; sincerely and heartily, as a man loves himself, doing all the good to him as a man does to himself, or would have done to himself, and hindering all the mischief done to him he would have himself preserved from: Jarchi observes, that it was a saying of R. Akiba, that this is

“the great universal in the law,”

and it does indeed comprehend the whole of the second table of the law, and is the summary of it, and is pretty much the same our Lord says of it, that it is the second and great commandment, and like unto the first, on which two all the law and the prophets hang, Mt 22:37; and so the Apostle Paul makes all the laws of the second table to be comprehended in this, Ro 13:9;

I [am] the Lord; the Creator of all men, and who has commanded them to love one another, and to whom alone vengeance belongs, and who expects obedience to the above laws of his.

b —–quippe minuti, c. Juvenal. Satyr. 13. c “et non observabis”, Montanus. d “Non servabis”, Pagninus, Drusius “neque iram asservato”; Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Verse 18:

God’s child is not to seek revenge for personal wrongs, see Pr 20:22; 24:9; Mt 5:38-41; Ro 12:19-21.

A grudge is a weight which is heavy only to the one who bears it, and it will eventually destroy him, see Eph 4:26, 27. One who carries a grudge is to divest himself of it as soon as he becomes aware of it, Mt 5:21-24.

Jesus refers to the last clause of this verse as the second greatest of all the commandments, Mt 5:34; 19:19; 22:39; Mr 12:31; Lu 10:27. See also Ro 13:9; Ga 5:14; 1Jo 4:7, 11, 20; 3:14.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

Hence it clearly appears that God had a further object than that men should not kill each other, for He not only restrains their hands, but requires their hearts to be pure from all hatred. For, since the desire of vengeance is the fountain and cause of enmities, it follows that under the word kill is condensed whatever is opposed to brotherly love. And this is confirmed by the antithesis, that none should hate his brother, but rather love him as himself. We need, then, seek for no other expositor of the Commandment but God Himself, who pronounces those to be guilty of murder who are affected with any malevolence, and not only those who, when offended, desire to return evil for evil, but those who do not sincerely love their neighbors, even when with justice they deem them to be their enemies. Wherefore, in order that God may absolve us from spiritual murder, let us learn to purify our hearts from all desire of vengeance, and, laying aside hatred, to cultivate fraternal affection with all men.

Although the latter part of the verse embraces the sum of the whole Second Table, yet, because love is contrasted with vengeance, I have not thought fit to separate things which are so properly connected with each other, especially when one depends on the other. The precept is indeed only given with reference to the children of Abraham, because the crime of vengeance would be more atrocious between those who were bound together by fraternal rights; yet it is not to be doubted but that God generally condemns the vice. In the schools (16) this sentence was grossly corrupted; for, since the rule (as they say) is superior to what is regulated by it. they have invented a preposterous precept, that every one should love himself first, and then his neighbors; of which subject I will treat more fully elsewhere. The word נטר, natar, meaning to guard, when used without any addition, is equivalent to bearing an injury in mind; as we also say in French: “ garder une injure. ” (17)

(16) Fr. , “Les Theologiens de la Papaute.” C. refers elsewhere to this scholastic maxim: “Nor is the argument worth a straw, That the thing regulated must always be inferior to the rule. The Lord did not make self-love the rule, as if love towards others was subordinate to it; but whereas, through natural pravity, the feeling of love usually rests on ourselves, He shows that it ought to diffuse itself in another direction — that is, should be prepared to do good to our neighbor with no less alacrity, ardor, and solicitude, than to ourselves.” — Inst., book 2, 8, Section 54. “Again, when Moses commanded us to love our neighbors as ourselves, he did not intend to put the love of ourselves in the first place, so that a man may first love himself and then love his neighbors: as the sophists of the Sorbonne are wont to cavil, that the rule must always go before what it regulates. ” — Harm. of the Evangelists, (C. Society’s Trans.,) vol. 3, p. 59.

(17) Addition in Fr. , “Et pourtant il faut suppleer ou injure ou rancune; and, therefore, injury or grudge must be supplied.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

18. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. What every man’s mind ought to be towards his neighbor, could not be better expressed in many pages that in this one sentence. We are all of us not only inclined to love ourselves more than we should, but all our powers hurry us away in this direction; nay, φιλαυτία (self-love) blinds us so much as to be the parent of all iniquities. Since, therefore, whilst we are too much given to love ourselves, we forget and neglect our brethren, God could only bring us back to charity by plucking from our hearts that vicious passion which is born with us and dwells deeply in us; nor, again, could this be done except by transferring elsewhere the love which exists within us. On this point no less has the dishonesty betrayed itself than the ignorance and folly of those (185) who would have the love of ourselves come first: “The rule (say they) is superior to the thing regulated by it; and according to God’s commandment, the charity which we should exercise towards others is formed upon the love of ourselves as its rule.” As if it were God’s purpose to stir up the fire which already burns too fiercely. Naturally, as I have said, we are blinded by our immoderate self-love; and God, in order to turn us away from this, has substituted our neighbors, whom we are to love no less than ourselves; nor will any one ever perform what Paul teaches us to be a part of charity, viz., that she “seeketh not her own,” ( 1Co 13:5,) until he shall have renounced himself.

Not only those with whom we have some connection are called our neighbors, but all without exception; for the whole human race forms one body, of which all are members, and consequently should be bound together by mutual ties; for we must bear in mind that even those who are most alienated from us, should be cherished and aided even as our own flesh; since we have (186) seen elsewhere that sojourners and strangers are placed in the same category (with our relations; (187)) and Christ sufficiently confirms this in the case of the Samaritan. (Luk 10:30.)

(185) “Les docteurs Papistes.” — Fr. See ante on Lev 19:18, p. 23.

(186) On Lev 19:33, ante p. 118.

(187) Added from Fr.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(18) Thou shalt not avenge.As the preceding verse enjoins upon us to reprove the offender, this verse forbids us to avenge the wrong even when the rebuke has proved ineffectual, thus demanding the greatest sacrifice on the part of the injured person. The administrators of the law during the second Temple illustrate what is meant by avenge by the following example. When a disobliging person who is in need applies to you to lend him something, and you reply, I will not lend you even as you would not lend me, this is to avenge. (Comp. also Rom. 12:19.)

Nor bear any grudge.The law goes further still. It enjoins that the injured man is to banish from memory the injury he has suffered, though the offender has made no reparation. The spiritual authorities during the time of Christ regarded the simple reference to the injury when a kindly act is performed to our adversary as a violation of this injunction. They illustrated it by the following example. When an adversary applies to you to lend him something, and you actually comply with his request, but in so doing you say, I lend it you, I will not act as you have acted, for you have refused to lend me, this is a violation of the command not to bear any grudge. He who at the reconciliation with his adversary readily forgives his transgressions, his own trespasses will also be readily forgiven in the day of judgment, is the oft-repeated precept of the sages during the second Temple. Again, He who suffers injuries and does not return injury for injury, he who is reviled? 1 does not revile again, fulfils acts of love and rejoice in suffering; of him it is said, Those that love him are like the sun, which comes forth in its might from all dark clouds beaming with light (Jdg. 5:31).

Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.This sublime precept formed the centre around which clustered the ethical systems propounded by some of the most distinguished Jewish teachers during the second Temple. When Hillel was asked by one who wished to learn the sum and substance of the Divine Law in the shortest possible time, this sage replied by giving a paraphrase of the precept before us in a negative form, What thou dost not wish that others should do to thee, that do not thou to others; this is the whole Law, the rest is only its interpretation. Now go and learn. Christ gives it in the positive form (Mat. 7:12; Luk. 6:31; Rom. 13:8-10).

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

18. Love thy neighbour See Mat 5:43, note. “The traditional division of the law of Moses into moral, ceremonial, and juristic laws may serve to facilitate a general view of theocratic ordinances; but it is incorrect if it seeks to express a distinction within the law, and to claim various dignity for various parts. For the most inward commandment, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,” stands beside “Thou shalt not sow thy field with two kinds of seed.” Oehler.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments