Tuesday, 12 March 2024

Gems from Leviticus

Today’s Office of Readings gave us this gem to meditate on, from the Book of Leviticus, chapter 19, basically what’s in the 10 Commandments, but expanded to remind us more deeply of our duties towards each other:

Each of you revere your mother and father, and keep my sabbaths.....Do not turn aside to idols, nor make molten gods for yourselves........When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not be so thorough that you reap the field to its very edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest......Likewise, you shall not pick your vineyard bare, nor gather up the grapes that have fallen.......These things you shall leave for the poor and the alien.....You shall not steal........You shall not deceive or speak falsely to one another.....You shall not swear falsely by my name, thus profaning the name of your God.....You shall not exploit your neighbor......You shall not commit robbery...... You shall not withhold overnight the wages of your laborer.....You shall not insult the deaf, or put a stumbling block in front of the blind......You shall not act dishonestly in rendering judgment......Show neither partiality to the weak nor deference to the mighty, but judge your neighbor justly.....You shall not go about spreading slander among your people...... You shall not hate any of your kindred in your heart.....Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against your own people......You shall love your neighbor as yourself......Keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary......Stand up in the presence of the aged, show respect for the old, and fear your God.....When an alien resides with you in your land, do not mistreat such a one......You shall treat the alien who resides with you no differently than the natives born among you; you shall love the alien as yourself......Do not act dishonestly in using measures of length or weight or capacity. I am the Lord your God.

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