Leviticus 19: The 24 Commandments

Synopsis:

God issues a new set of commandments. This one is a bit more complete and concise than the other ones.
1) Fear your mother and father
2) Don’t make molten gods
3) Make voluntary peace sacrifices to God and eat it within 2 days. After 3 days it is an abomination. And if you eat it you will be cut off from the people.
4) When you reap your harvest and glean your fields, leave some for the poor
5) Don’t lie, cheat or steal
6) Don’t defraud your neighbors
7) Don’t curse the deaf or make life hard for the blind
8) Don’t harm the poor or judge them harshly
9) Don’t be a gossip
10) Don’t hate your brother or rebuke your neighbor
11) Don’t avenge any grudge
12) Don’t cross breed your cattle or your plants
13) If you have sex with a bondmaid that belongs to someone else, it doesn’t count as adultery to her because she wasn’t free
14) Trespass offerings will be rams
15) Don’t eat the fruit off trees until they are at least 3 years old, the 4th year fruit belongs to the Lord. After that, it’s all yours
16) Don’t eat any blood
17) Don’t round the corners of your head or your beard
18) Don’t cut designs on your skin or get a tattoo.
19) Don’t prostitute out your daughter
20) Keep the Sabbath
21) Don’t seek out wizards
22) Honor old people
23) Be nice to strangers
24) Don’t use bad weights or measures.

In other words:

There are now 24 commandments, not 10

Favorite commandment:

15) Don’t eat fruit from newly planted trees for 4 years. Leviticus 19:23-25

So obvious it shouldn’t have to be said

19) Don’t prostitute your daughter (Leviticus 19:29) What annoys me about this though is that the reason given is so that the whole land doesn’t fall to whoredom. Not because there is anything inherently wrong with prostituting your daughter.

Oddest Commandment:

21) Don’t seek out wizards. Sort of comes out of nowhere – but I suppose it was a problem. (Leviticus 19:31)

Moral Lessons learned:

These are my favorites that I think are still relevant today:

• When you reap your harvest and glean your fields, leave some for the poor (Leviticus 19:9,10)
• Don’t lie, cheat or steal (Leviticus 19:11,12)
• Don’t defraud your neighbors (Leviticus 19:13)
• Don’t curse the deaf or make life hard for the blind Leviticus 19:14)
• Don’t harm the poor or judge them harshly (Leviticus 19:15)
• Don’t be a gossip (Leviticus 19:16)
• Don’t hate your brother or rebuke your neighbor (Leviticus 19:17)
• Don’t avenge any grudge (Leviticus 19:18)
• Don’t prostitute out your daughter (Leviticus 19:29)
• Honor old people (Leviticus 19:32)
• Be nice to strangers (Leviticus 19:33)
• Don’t use bad weights or measures. (Leviticus 19:36)