Leviticus 19:9-15 Love Your Neighbor (Part A)

Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS 30 Oct 2016

Introduction

v As we continue in our study of Leviticus in the section on personal holiness in chapters 17 and following, we pick up on the relationship of ethics to holiness. Chapter 19 frames personal holiness in terms of obeying the Ten Commandments. The first 8 verses, which I covered in my last sermon, spotlighted the 1^st, 2^nd, 4^th, and 5^th Commandments, but they also show that our personal holiness comes not from what we do (or don’t do) but from who God is, thus the more we set apart God as holy, the more holy we will be.

v Now I want to move on through the next several verses which highlight the 3^rd, 6^th, 8^th, and 9^th, Commandments (The 7^th & 10^th Commandments were already in ch. 18, so that makes all Ten). And just as the first 8 verses were related to the one greatest commandment to Love the Lord, so these next 10 verses are related to the second-greatest commandment to Love your neighbor.

v The words “neighbor,” “fellow-man,” “brother,” and “poor,” and “people” pervade this section because they are the object of this commandment. In the New Testament, when the Pharisees asked Jesus to define the word “neighbor,” He told them the Parable of the Good Samaritan, indicating that a “neighbor” didn’t have to live nearby or be of the same ethnicity or even of the same religion; it is just a synonym for “fellow-human-being.”

v As I survey these next seven verses, I have been challenged to apply four principles in particular to my relationships with other people:

1) Love your neighbor by creating margin (vs. 9-10)

v The first Hebrew noun in v.9: qetziyr, translated “harvest” or “reap” has to do primarily with cutting the grainstalks with a sickle in order to process the grain. The second Hebrew root word leqet has to do with picking up the harvested stuff that fell to the ground. A different Hebrew verb shows up in v.10 that has to do with going to the extreme of harvesting every last grape on the grapevine.

v The reason why landowners should not harvest out to the edges of their property was in order to leave some^{^[1]} grain or fruit growing that poor people could harvest for themselves, like Boaz did for Ruth and the other gleaners in his field at harvest-time.

Ø Cf. Lev. 23:22 'When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field when you reap, nor shall you gather any gleaning from your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger: I am the LORD your God.' "

Ø Cf. Deuteronomy 24:19-21 "When you reap your harvest in your field, and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over the boughs again; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it afterward; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow.” (NKJV)

v In other words, farmers – and, by extension, any businessmen – were to conduct their businesses in such a way that there was intentional margin for charity. And when the grain was tied into shocks and carried into the barn to be threshed, they were to leave the stray stalks of wheat that fell out of the bundles on the way to the threshing floor. When the vineyard was harvested and they dropped a grape here and there on the way to the winepress, they were to leave them on the ground. Why? To give poor people even more opportunity to pick up a little more food.

v No business was to streamline its production processes so tightly that all the product was used or sold. In our day and age, taxes, inflation, and the decreasing quality of our workforce (due to people’s departure from a Biblical worldview) make business owners more and more pinched to cut the fat from their production processes as it gets harder and harder to make a profit. But business owners and managers must not give in to the ungodly mindset that economy and productivity and income is all there is. There is a God watching us who cares about the poor and who commands you to build margin into your business so that poor people can be blessed by your charity. You don’t have to solve world hunger, but you do have to produce something that can be offered to the poor.

v Now, notice that this gives work for a poor man to do who doesn’t own land and who perhaps doesn’t even own a sickle. The poor were not to line up at the farmer’s kitchen to get free bread and cheese; they were to show up at harvest time in the farmer’s field and do the work themselves of trimming the edges and picking up the leftovers and threshing their gleanings and baking their own bread. In direct contradiction to humanism’s ideal of avoiding labor, God considers hard work honorable, something worth doing which He blesses.

v Also note that this charity was not enforced by the government. It was not a tax, and there were no civil penalties for not doing it. The gleaning system was privately administered. Boaz kept tabs on who was gleaning in his field and gave extra gleanings to Ruth because he wanted to be extra generous to her.

v Now the application to farmers is pretty obvious, but what about other businesses?

Ø The Goodwill Industries and other recycling agencies have something that could be considered an urban counterpart to the agricultural gleanings, allowing those without means to work on discarded items and turn them into marketable commodities. (Rushdoony)

Ø Other businesses can also hire people who are too handicapped to be a substantial help to the business, but, in return for an honest day’s work, they can provide a living wage to that person anyway. I think that’s a good application of this principle of maintaining margin in a business that can be used to help the weak.

Ø Another possibility might be sales. If needy people wouldn’t be able to do much with your raw materials, maybe they could be given work to do with your finished product – keep a few cases back that some enterprising salesman who couldn’t afford to buy a case could figure out how to sell for his own profit.

v I think this could even be extended beyond business to all areas of life. Doesn’t it bless other people when you have a little margin?

Ø For instance, if your day is not too full of appointments, you have time to spare when a friend has a need.

Ø Every move my family has made has reminded me of that.

§ A couple of times, friends gave us half of their garage for us to store our stuff in. Thank God they had the margin in their garages to do that.

§ Other friends took a day off work and helped us pack the moving vans. Thank God they had the margin in their time to do that.

§ When I moved here, Dan Swihart showed up at my house every night for about a week and helped me rip out the filthy old carpet and replace it with new flooring. I remember asking him how he had the time to do that, and he said that he tries to keep himself available. That is a good discipline – one I need to grow in.

Ø Even when you’re driving your car, if you press your margins close, you could end up causing someone with poorer reflexes than you to get hurt in a wreck.

v If the Christian virtue of individual charity had been vigorously practiced during the 19^th Century when God was so richly blessing our nation’s free economy, there would have been no need for the federal government to step in and force wage-earners to contribute to the poor in the 20^th Century like it did. It was the creeping selfishness of faithless Humanism that resulted in the government welfare mess we have today in our country. The only way to roll it back is going to be through faithful discipleship and sacrificial giving, or, in the words of Jesus, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart… and love your neighbor as yourself.”

2) Love your neighbor by protecting property (vs. 11-12)

v Verse 11 opens with the wording of the 8^th commandment from Exodus 20 and Deut 5.

Ø The root (gnb) implies that some deception is going on to conceal the fact that you are stealing from the owner.

v The last phrase of v.11 uses the wording of the 9^th Commandment from Ex. 20^{^[2]} not to bear “false” witness – lying to cover up the fact that you stole.

Ø This type of sin was introduced at the beginning of Leviticus 6 as reason for making restitution and a guilt offering to God.

Ø The commandment “Thou Shalt Not Steal” means that God believes in protecting private property. The things that He has given you and that you worked for to earn are not the property of the community but are truly yours to do with as you see fit under God’s accountability. No one else is free to use it because it’s not theirs. God gave it to you, not them.

Ø (Incidentally, that shows the relationship with the 10^th Commandment against coveting or lusting. To wish you had something God has not given to you is the first step towards stealing and it is, by very nature, an offense against the providence of God.)

Ø Leviticus 6 told us that if you have stolen something, you should restore the value plus 20% of its value to the rightful owner. In addition, you must recognize that your theft or lying is also an offense against God and ask His forgiveness. Before Jesus offered Himself as a sacrifice for our sins on the cross, the Old Testament believers had to sacrifice an animal and ask God to forgive them, now, after Christ’s atonement, we can simply ask God to forgive us on the basis of Jesus’ death for us, and He will forgive our sins (1 John 1:9).

v Verse 12 references the 3^rd Commandment from the first table of the law of offenses against God. What is it doing here in Leviticus 19 in a list of sins that affect your fellow man? Is it actually related to stealing?

Ø I suggest that it is. Remember, Moses did not separate his text into verses; somebody else did that thousands of years later. There is a reason he put verse 12 after verse 11.

Ø Using the name of God to swear that something is true when it is actually false not only defrauds the holy name of God, it also defrauds your neighbor by making him less likely to suspect you of lying.

Ø By the time it gets to the point of a formal oath, you’re probably in court, and the lie has been going on a long time and a lot of people have heard that lie and you have a lot invested in preventing the truth from being known, but the bigger it gets, the greater God’s judgment against you. Better to refuse to use God’s name or refuse to lay your hand on the Bible to establish a lie in court than to keep hiding the truth and escalate to the next level of God’s judgment.

v The “you” at the end of v.12 is very personal when it comes to the offense of blasphemy against God. It starts with the second person plural (“Y’all may not swear falsely”), but when it comes to the result of blasphemy, it is a personal offense against God, and the “you” changes to singular, “You yourself blaspheme your own God, the one and only true God named Yahweh.” Do you not tremble to think of the magnitude of such an offense?

v Love maintains margins to help the needy and love protects their property rather than defrauding.

3) Love your neighbor by Resisting the urge to exploit weakness (vs.13-14)

v v.13 really flows from the topic of vs. 11-12 with two more synonyms for stealing that are condemned by the 8^th Commandment, so my next point may be drawing a somewhat artificial distinction, but the scenarios in v.13 and 14 are scenarios where you are in a position of power and the other person is in a position of weakness that you might have the power to exploit. This addresses violations of the 8^th Commandment which go beyond mere deception into the use of force to “rob” or “extort” your “fellow-man.”

v Consider the scenario of the hired man or employee. That means you are the boss with the power in the relationship. In good faith the employee does some kind of work all day for you, putting themselves in your power. Now it’s the end of the day, and the earnings of that employee are now technically theirs. If you don’t pay them until the next day, it is a form of stealing, because you are holding onto what rightfully belongs to them.

Ø Deuteronomy 24:14-15 "You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether one of your brethren or one of the aliens who is in your land within your gates. Each day you shall give him his wages, and not let the sun go down on it, for he is poor and has set his heart on it; lest he cry out against you to the LORD, and it be sin to you.” (NKJV)

Ø And there are many other verses which say the same kind of thing in both the Old and New Testaments: Jer. 22:13, Mal. 3:5, Rom. 4:4, 1 Cor. 3:8, and James 5:4

v Now, there is a certain amount of efficiency and convenience that can be had if paychecks are weekly or monthly, and this does not necessarily forbid making an arrangement like that,

Ø but even so, an employer might consider paying interest on those wages because the money isn’t technically his anymore.

Ø And if the employee is living hand-to-mouth, they might need to be paid on the day of their labor.

v The point is that loving your neighbor means being considerate of their weaknesses and being careful not to take any advantage of them when they are dependent on you.

v This principle is applied further in v.14 to the physically handicapped:

Ø A “deaf” or “blind” person is at a disadvantage because he or she can’t hear what you’re saying or see what you’re doing. It would be easy to make a fool of them.

Ø The Hebrew word, which most English translations render as “curse,” literally means to “make light of,” and so it could include anything one might do that doesn’t take them seriously in the context of their weakness.

Ø How tempting it is, when talking to an elderly person who is hard of hearing, to give up on communicating the whole truth to them (because it’s inconvenient) and to make fun of their misunderstandings with other people. Loving your neighbor means not indulging in a laugh at the expense of their weakness.

Ø At the other end of the age spectrum is the weakness of little children. I remember scheming with my brother to scare the wits out of our little sister, who was 7 years younger than me (still is!). We placed a toy that she wanted in the middle of the floor of our bedroom, and then, as soon as she stepped in to get it, we turned on scary music, turned off the lights, and left the room, holding the door shut so she couldn’t get out. As our poor little sister wailed in terror in the darkness on the other side of the door we big brothers were just laughing.

Ø We humans are prone to getting a perverse kind of pleasure out of situations where we have much more status or skill or resources than someone else, but God says, “NO, you can’t indulge in that.”

v Why? The reason at the end of v.14 might not be what you’d expect: Why? “Because I am the one true God, and you should have respect for me instead.”

Ø When you are enjoying a disproportionate measure of resources over someone else, it is, in a way, trying to make yourself like God in relation to them. Taking the blind and deaf and others with weaknesses seriously is a way of denying godlike status for yourself and fearing God instead.

Ø How is that fearing God? In Exodus 4:11 God said, "Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the LORD?” (NKJV) To despise or make fun of or exploit someone whom God made is to despise God Himself, not to fear God.

Ø The first table of the law cannot be separated from the second table of the law; Loving your neighbor and fearing God necessarily go together. You can’t have one consistently without the other. If you love God, you will love those who are made in the image of God whom God loves.

v Then, when you have superior power and abilities and resources you can help and bless your neighbor instead of exploit them. Commentator John Gill wrote, “in this negative is implied, that a man should be serviceable and helpful to the blind as much as may be.”

Ø Here’s an example I may have shared before, but it is a memorable experience to me. Over a decade ago, I was on a mission trip to Uganda, surveying small, startup businesses of church members there. One day I was touring a market with Wyatt George and an African pastor, noting how the vendors were barely able to eke out a profit after paying the high entrance fee to enter the market as a vendor. After a little while some security guards apprehended us and escorted us into the office of the owner of the market. Inside the office, it dawned on Wyatt and me that the owner was very worried about the poor impression the market was making on us. The owner perceived us as rich, powerful Americans, and wanted to avoid any possibility of us being displeased. My first temptation was to play this up to my advantage. When was the last time I was ever perceived as a rich and powerful person? I could probably ask for anything I wanted to eat or drink, and the owner would have hurried to give it to me. (Of course that would have hurt the poor vendors in the market for me to mooch off of their hard-earned entrance fee money.) The African pastor with us, however, saw a golden opportunity to use our social prestige as Americans to help the poor vendors in the market, so he said, “These two white men that I am escorting are very important persons from America. They have noted how expensive your entrance fees are, and they are wondering what you do with all that money. You should invest that money in advertising so that more people will come to your market and the vendors can make more money. And you should also hire some people to pick up the trash in the market so that it is more attractive and more people will enjoy shopping there!” As Wyatt and I caught on to what the African pastor was doing, we played along, nodding gravely to show that this indeed would please such distinguished personages as ourselves. The market owner was a bit awed by this and began giving orders right away to the security guards to clean up trash and make signs for the market. It was fun to use my social capital to create a win-win situation: the Americans were pleased, the owner became more respectable, and the vendors hopefully made more income.

Ø So, what ways can you can use the resources God has given you to help rather than oppress the weak? Whatever their weakness, whether they are blind or deaf or elderly or infants or otherwise handicapped, how can you take them seriously as fellow-humans made in the image of God to whom you will show honor because you honor God?

Ø Romans 15:1 “We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves.” (ESV)

4) Love your neighbor by providing a Fair Trial (v.15)

v In one respect, it is good to give an unequal share of help to those who are weaker because they need it, but in another respect, those who are weaker should be treated exactly the same as anyone else, and that is in the courtroom. When it comes to evaluating whether someone has violated God’s standards of right and wrong or broken the law, no one should get special treatment.

v If this principle were put into practice in our justice system, there would be no need for discrimination ordinances or civil rights legislation.

Ø Whether your skin is dark or pale it should make no difference in the application of justice.

Ø It shouldn’t matter whether you are a religious minority or not, or what gender or orientation you are, everyone should be treated exactly the same according to the law.

Ø It shouldn’t matter whether you are Hillary Clinton or Joe the Plumber; the same standards of justice should be applied to everyone.

Ø God says in Ex. 23:3, “You shall not show partiality to a poor man in his dispute.” (NKJV)

Ø If two or more witnesses bear testimony of lawbreaking that is convincing to the court, the accused should be punished, no matter who he or she is. But if all you have is an anonymous phone tip (and I would even extend that so far as to say that if the only witness was a single patrol officer), then it doesn’t matter whether the accused is a professional-looking person or a very suspicious-looking character, the case should be thrown out of court because there weren’t at least two witnesses. This is Biblical justice.

v This is loving your neighbor, because otherwise, in a system where different people can get different treatment in court depending on how rich or poor they are, the resulting corruption creates a situation where nobody is secure and everyone has to live in fear of being taken advantage of.

v Like the previous case, this command also switches from 2^nd person plural to singular. This is because juries were part of the judicial system of Israel. Since our American justice system was based – not upon the Greek justice system, as many of us were erroneously taught, but rather – upon the Old Testament judicial system, juries are an important part of our judicial process, and you could be called upon at any time to serve on a jury. This is an opportunity for you to put Leviticus 19:15 into practice yourself – Don’t let yourself show partiality to either the needy due to their need or to a celebrity due to their fame, but rather judge your fellow-human being according to God’s righteousness and fairness.

v This, of course, applies beyond the formal justice system to everyday life, in the disputes we might face between unequal parties like

Ø Between our best friend and someone we don’t know so well,

Ø or between our favorite child and our black-sheep child

Ø or between your favorite sister and the sister you’re mad at, and so on.

Ø Loving your neighbor means treating both parties like fellow human beings under God’s accountability.

CONCLUSION: Get your love from the right source

v Well, I am reaching the limits of my time for this morning, so I will pause at this point and plan to resume next Sunday with further principles from Leviticus 19 on loving your neighbor. For now, let’s review the first four principles:

1) Love your neighbor by creating margin (vs. 9-10)

2) Love your neighbor by protecting property (vs. 11-12)

3) Love your neighbor by resisting the urge to exploit weakness (vs.13-14)

4) Love your neighbor by providing a fair trial (v.15)

v As we approach this command to love our neighbor (and its many applications in principle) let us remember that this is not a command merely to muster up more love from within ourselves for other people. Just as we grow in holiness through relating to God as holy, so too we grow in love by growing close to God and being fueled first by His love.

Ø 1 John 4:7-19 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another… 16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world... We love, because He first loved us.” (NASB)

v May you come to know the love of God for you more and more so that you can, in turn, love your neighbor more and more.

Comparative translations of Leviticus 19:9-15

LXX	Brenton	KJV	NAW	MT
9 Καὶ ἐκθεριζόντων ὑμῶν τὸν θερισμὸν τῆς γῆς ὑμῶν οὐ συντελέσετε τὸν θερισμὸν ὑμῶν τοῦ ἀγροῦ ἐκθερίσαι καὶ τὰ ἀποπίπτοντα τοῦ θερισμοῦ σου οὐ συλλέξεις	9 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, ye shall not complete the reaping of your field with exactness, and thou shalt not gather that which falls from thy reaping.	9 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest.	9 ‘Also, during y’all’s harvesting of the harvest of your land, don’t finish out by harvesting to the edge of your field. Don’t pick up leftovers from the leftovers of your harvest that could be picked up either.	9 וּבְקֻצְרְכֶם אֶת-קְצִיר אַרְצְכֶם לֹא תְכַלֶּה פְּאַת שָׂדְךָ לִקְצֹר וְלֶקֶט קְצִירְךָ לֹא תְלַקֵּט:
10 καὶ τὸν ἀμπελῶνά σου οὐκ ἐπανατρυγήσεις οὐδὲ τοὺς ῥῶγας τοῦ ἀμπελῶνός σου συλλέξεις· τῷ πτωχῷ καὶ τῷ προσηλύτῳ καταλείψεις αὐτά· ἐγώ εἰμι κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὑμῶν.	10 And thou shalt not go over the gathering of thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather the remaining grapes of thy vineyard: thou shalt leave them for the poor and the stranger: I am the Lord your God.	10 And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the LORD your God.	10 The same with your vineyard, don’t go to extremes; don’t even pick up a dropped grape from your vineyard. Leave them for the poor and the sojourner. I am Yahweh your God.	10 וְכַרְמְךָ לֹא תְעוֹלֵל וּפֶרֶט כַּרְמְךָ לֹא תְלַקֵּט לֶעָנִי וְלַגֵּר תַּעֲזֹב אֹתָם אֲנִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם:
11 Οὐ κλέψετε. οὐ ψεύσεσθε. οὐ συκοφαντήσει ἕκαστος τὸν πλησίον.	11 Ye shall not steal, ye shall not lie, neither shall one bear false witness as an informer against his neighbour.	11 Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another.	11 ‘Y’all may not steal, and y’all may not be untrue – and y’all may not speak falsehood – anyone with his fellow-man,	11 לֹא תִּגְנֹבוּ וְלֹא-תְכַחֲשׁוּ וְלֹא-תְשַׁקְּרוּ אִישׁ בַּעֲמִיתוֹ^{^[A]}:
12 καὶ οὐκ ὀμεῖσθε τῷ ὀνόματί μου ἐπ᾿ ἀδίκῳ καὶ οὐ βεβηλώσ~~ετε~~ τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ θεοῦ ~~ὑμῶν~~· ἐγώ εἰμι κύριος [ὁ θεὸς ὑμῶν].	12 And ye shall not swear unjustly by my name, and ye shall not profane the holy name of your God: I am the Lord your God.	12 And ye shall not swear by my name falsely, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.	12 and y’all may not swear using my name to [establish] the falsehood and thus yourself blaspheme the name of your God. I am Yahweh.	12 וְלֹא-תִשָּׁבְעוּ בִשְׁמִי לַשָּׁקֶר וְחִלַּלְתָּ אֶת-שֵׁם אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֲנִי יְהוָה:
13 οὐκ ἀδικήσεις τὸν πλησίον καὶ οὐχ ἁρπάσεις, καὶ οὐ μὴ κοιμηθήσεται ὁ μισθὸς τοῦ μισθωτοῦ παρὰ σοὶ ἕως πρωί.	13 Thou shalt not injure thy neighbour, neither do thou rob him, neither shall the wages of thy hireling remain with thee until the morning.	13 Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob him: the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning.	13 ‘You may not extort your neighbor, and you may not be a robber; the earnings of an employee may not even stay overnight with you until morning.	13 לֹא-תַעֲשֹׁק אֶת-רֵעֲךָ וְלֹא תִגְזֹל לֹא^{^[B]}-תָלִין פְּעֻלַּת שָׂכִיר אִתְּךָ עַד-בֹּקֶר:
14 οὐ κακῶς ἐρεῖς κωφὸν καὶ ἀπέναντι τυφλοῦ οὐ προσθήσεις σκάνδαλον καὶ φοβηθήσῃ ~~κύριον~~ τὸν θεόν σου· ἐγώ εἰμι κύριος [ὁ θεὸς ὑμῶν].	14 Thou shalt not revile the deaf, neither shalt thou put a stumbling-block in the way of the blind; and thou shalt fear X [the Lord] thy God: I am the Lord [your God].	14 Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumblingblock before the blind, but shalt fear thy God: I am the LORD.	14 You may not make light of a deaf [person] and you may not put an obstruction in front of a blind [person]. Rather you should have respect for your God; I am Yahweh.	14 לֹא-תְקַלֵּל חֵרֵשׁ וְלִפְנֵי עִוֵּר לֹא תִתֵּן מִכְשֹׁל וְיָרֵאתָ מֵּאֱלֹהֶיךָ אֲנִי יְהוָה:
15 Οὐ ποιήσετε ἄδικον ἐν κρίσει· οὐ λήμψῃ πρόσωπον πτωχοῦ οὐδὲ θαυμάσεις πρόσωπον δυνάστου, ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ κρινεῖς τὸν πλησίον σου.	15 Thou shalt not act unjustly in judgment: thou shalt not accept the person of the poor, nor admire the person of the mighty; with justice shalt thou judge thy neighbour.	15 Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour.	15 ‘Y’all may not do what is unfair in the justice-system. You may not tilt the cases of the needy, and you may not inflate the cases of the great; it is with righteousness that you must judge your fellow-man.	15 לֹא-תַעֲשׂוּ עָוֶל בַּמִּשְׁפָּט לֹא-תִשָּׂא פְנֵי-דָל וְלֹא תֶהְדַּר פְּנֵי גָדוֹל בְּצֶדֶק תִּשְׁפֹּט עֲמִיתֶךָ:

^{^[1]} How much? God leaves that up to us. The Mishna Peah, c. 1. sect. 2 indicates not to leave less than a sixtieth part and that the “corner,” could be larger or smaller depending on the size of your field, the number of poor people that season, or the amount of profit you anticipate. So many more standards have been generated by Jewish rabbis concerning gleaning that it is truly ridiculous, regulating things such as where on the hand or the scythe the stalk was touching before it fell, what time of day gleaners can and cannot reap, and a great debate on what the minimum number of grapes of stalks dropped has to be before it is left.

^{^[2]} cf. the synonym used instead in Deut 5 (שׁוא). Rushdoony’s Institutes point out that the N.T. also affirms this commandment in Matt. 19:18, Mark 10:19, Luke 18:20, Romans 13:9.