Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS 06 Nov. 2016
v As we continue in our study of Leviticus in the section on personal holiness, let me start with a quote I ran across this week, “Holiness is the habit of being of one mind with God, according as we find His mind described in Scripture. It is the habit of agreeing with God’s judgment, hating what He hates, loving what He loves, and measuring everything in this world by the standard of His Word. He who most entirely agrees with God, he is the most holy man.” – J.C. Ryle, Holiness
v The first 8 verses of Leviticus 19 were related holiness to the one greatest commandment to “Love the Lord,” and the next 10 verses are related to the second-greatest commandment to “Love your neighbor.”
v In my last sermon, we looked at four principles related to loving our neighbor, namely:
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 with Fair judgment (v.15)
v Now in this sermon, I would like to highlight three more principles from verses 16-19:
5) Love your neighbor by Protecting his Life and Reputation (v.16)
6) Love your Neighbor by Keeping Your Heart Open To Him (vs. 17-18)
7) Love your neighbor by Maintaining Good Fences (v.19)
There are plenty more things after this in chapter 19, so we’ll just take them as they come.
v The Hebrew word translated “Slander/talebearer/rumormonger” shows up five other times in the Old Testament[1], each time associated with a parallel word:
1. In Proverbs 11:13, it is associated with being unfaithful/untrustworthy (“He who goes about as a talebearer reveals secrets, But he who is trustworthy conceals a matter.” ~NASB)
2. In Proverbs 20:19, the parallel phrase is literally “an open mouth” – always talking and gossiping. (“A gossip betrays a confidence; so avoid a man who talks too much.” ~NIV)
3. In Jeremiah 6:28 the words “rebellious” and “corrupt” are associated with being a slanderer. (“They are all stubborn rebels, walking as slanderers. They are bronze and iron, They are all corrupters” ~NKJV)
4.
In Jeremiah 9:4 the
parallel word is “supplant” or “cheat” ("Let everyone be on guard against
his neighbor, And do not trust any brother; Because every brother deals
craftily, And every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.” ~NASB)
You may not do these things. You must love
your neighbor by protect his or her reputation.
5. And in Ezekiel 22:9a, slander is associated with murder – bloodshed (“There are men in you who slander to shed blood” ~ESV) This seems closely related to the second half of Lev. 19:16,
v which literally says, “You may not stand against the blood of your neighbor; I am Yahweh.” This phrase occurs nowhere else in Scripture, so we are left with some range of interpretation:
1. It’s possible that this is just picturing one man standing over another man to murder him, like the Amelikite did to the mortally-wounded King Saul (2 Sam. 1:9 “He [King Saul] said to me again, 'Please stand over me and kill me, for anguish has come upon me, but my life still remains in me.'” ~NKJV) We’ve already considered in earlier verses how love does not exercise inordinate power over someone else.
2. Another possible interpretation, common in the O.T. Hebrew, would be to interpret “stand” in terms of “occupy ground,” (Ex. 8:22, Josh 18:5, Jer. 14:6, Ezekiel 11:23) in other words, you may not shed the blood of your neighbor in order to get his stuff, like Ahab and Jezebel did when they falsely accused Naboth of capital offenses in order to take over his vineyard.
3. Most likely to my mind, however, is that this is a technical use of the word describing the process of justice when an accuser would “stand” before a judge to accuse another person. All of the commentators I read who took a position on this agreed.
§ An example of this would be Zechariah 3:1 “Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him.” Cf. Ex. 18:13, 1 Chron. 21:1, 2 Chron 26:18, Ezra 10:15, Psalm 109:6).
§ Rushdoony: “An examination of the text makes clear that, while gossip is condemned, the courtroom is in view… There is an obvious parallelism drawn between slandering someone and standing against his blood. i.e. seeking his death. Slander is a form of murder: it seeks to destroy the reputation and the integrity of a man by insinuating falsehoods. The reason why the rabbis regarded it as worse than idolatry, incest, and murder was because its moral consequences are fully as deadly if not worse, and it is a crime easily committed and not to readily detected. Moreover, slander, because it passes from mouth to mouth quickly, involves far more people in a very short time… Because the Puritans took Biblical law seriously, they did punish the gossip by court action. Slander and libel today are matters of civil suit, not normally of criminal action, and the result is the widespread liberty for malicious gossip.”
v Now, if we comprehend the whole counsel of Scripture, we must recognize that there is a time and place for accusing and convicting actual criminals, so what this is warning against is an attitude of going for blood over petty offenses, or, to tie it with the first half of v. 16, spreading rumors that could put someone at risk of having to defend themselves in court against false accusations of crimes worthy of the death penalty.
1. Gill: “either by bearing a false testimony, whereby his blood is in danger of being shed when innocent; or by being silent, and not hearing a testimony for him, whereby the shedding of his innocent blood might have been prevented.”
2. This very thing happened in the United States with Mary Sarrat, an innkeeper who was hanged for conspiring to assassinate Abraham Lincoln, because several people, in an attempt to shift blame off themselves, accused her, even though she actually knew nothing about the conspiracy, and some of the tenants in her inn who were involved in the assassination did not speak up to take suspicions off of her.
v Most of the time, of course, we are not in life-or-death situations like that where our words would literally kill someone else, but, as usual, God’s law applies in principle very broadly to anything we say that might bring any kind of harm to someone else unjustly.
1. For instance, say Mama or big sister has made some cookies intended for dessert – or for the church fellowship, and you snitched a couple when she wasn’t looking. Then she notices and says, “Who’s been eating my cookies? These are not for everybody to eat right now! So help me, if I find out who did this…” and you don’t exactly lie, but you don’t ‘fess up either. You say something like, “Well, I saw little brother in the kitchen by himself shortly after you pulled those cookies out of the oven,” which may be entirely true, but misleading. Now Mama is going to go after little brother instead of you and he’s going to get falsely accused.
v Loving your neighbor means thinking the best of them and refusing to cast suspicions on them.
v The first two examples in the Bible of “rebuking/reproving/making things right” (ֹיכח) are two incidents which occurred between Abraham and Abimelek, King of Gerar.
1. In Genesis 20, Abimelek had added Sarah to his harem, not realizing that she was married to Abraham. When he realized his mistake, Abimelek called up Abraham and Sarah, told them they shouldn’t have misled him, and then gave them a bunch of sheep and cows and servants, along with a thousand pieces of silver and an offer to live anywhere they wanted on his land. Now, if you were Abraham, would you have held any more grudges after that? No way! So Genesis 20:16 concludes, “Thus Sarah was made right.”[2]
2. The second incident occurred later in Genesis 21. Abraham and his servants had done the hard labor of digging a well deep enough to get water for all those sheep and cows, but Abemelek’s servants had run them off and claimed ownership over that well to water their own herds. So Abraham “reproves” Abimelek for stealing this resource from him, feeds Abimelek a big steak dinner, and gives him seven sheep. Boom, the relationship is healed: the well is perpetually recognized as Abraham’s, and Abraham pledges to be a loyal supporter of King Abimelek.
3. Would that we all were as prompt and straightforward and generous as Abraham & Abimelek when we face interpersonal conflict, to get rid of any reason to harbor hate in our hearts!
v Commentator John Gill wrote, “to let him alone, and go on in [his sin] without telling him of it, and reproving him for it, would be so far from acting the kind and friendly part, and showing him love and respect, that it would be an evidence of hating him... (1 Tim 5:20 ‘rebuke those who are sinning’)”
v “Keeping quiet may not be loving. It can be sinful. When we are silently hoping for bad things to happen to someone because of what they have done or what they are doing, we are hating them. We should speak to them to save them from harm.” ~Ray King, Samaritan Newsletter, Nov 2016
1. In Ezekiel 3:16-21, the Lord told the prophet that if he failed to deliver His warning to the people, the guilt for their disobedience would fall on him.
2. Hebrews 3:13 tells us to “exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”
3. James 5:19-20 encourages us, “if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.”
v Leviticus 19:17 implies that hatred leads to sin.
1. That certainly was the case with Cain, who resented his brother Abel and literally killed him.
2. Jesus made the link explicit in His Sermon on the Mount: Matthew 5:21-25, “Y’all heard that it was declared to the men of old, ‘Do not murder,’ and ‘Whoever murders will be guilty in the judgment.’ And I myself am saying to you, every one who is enraged toward his brother will be guilty in the judgment, and whoever says to his brother, ‘Fool,’ will be guilty in the court, and whoever says, ‘Moron,’ will be guilty in the hell of fire. If therefore, you are lifting your gift upon the altar, and there you happen to remember that your brother has something against you, let go of your gift right there in front of the altar and start climbing down; first be reconciled to your brother, and then, when you come [back], start offering your gift. Get to be on good terms with your plaintiff quickly…” (NAW)
3. On this basis, the Apostle John wrote: “We know that we have moved out of death into the life because we are loving the brothers. The one who doesn't love [his brother] stays in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a manslayer, and you know that every manslayer does not have eternal life abiding in him.” (1 John 3:14-15, NAW)
4. Ephesians 4:25-27 seems to be another exposition on Leviticus 19:17: “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.” (ESV)
v “Taking revenge” implies killing the person you hate,
1. for instance Acts 7:24 calls Moses’ killing of the Egyptian guard an act of “vengeance,”
2. and Romans 12:19 says that “vengeance belongs to the Lord,” which stands to reason, because God, the creator of life, is the only one with the legitimate authority to take life,
3. and the only human that the Bible says may take vengeance is a civil magistrate acting as a “minister of God… against one who practices evil” (Romans 13:4b).
4. Don’t allow a vengeful attitude to fester in your heart, and don’t hold a grudge.
5. Nahum 1:2-3 uses both of these words from Leviticus 19:18: “…Yahweh will take revenge on His adversaries, And He will begrudge His enemies. Yahweh is longsuffering and great in power, and Yahweh will by no means clear the guilty.” (NAW) Let God take care of justice; He can do that just fine without your help!
v Often the O.T. defines words by contrasting them with their opposites, and this happens in three other places with the word for “grudge.” What’s the opposite of holding a grudge?
1. Being merciful (Jer. 3:12)
2. Being a friend (Jer. 3:4-5)
3. Being gracious (Psalm 103:8-9)
4. And in Leviticus 19:18, the word “love” is placed as the opposite.
v There is a story told by an old rabbi named Jarchi to illustrate a grudging attitude: “One says to his neighbour, ‘Can I borrow your knife?” And the neighbor answers, ‘No, you may not.’ Then the next day the neighbour discovers that he needs to borrow an ax, so he goes to the first guy and says to him, ‘Can I borrow your ax?’ And the first guy says, ‘I’m not going to lend to you because you would not lend to me!’” Jarchi comments, “This is vengeance and is reckoned mean and little, a piece of weakness with the very Heathens” (Gill)
v Did someone do something to you that they never apologized for and it just keeps bothering you? Talk to them today about it. Maybe bring a gift to sweeten the deal like Abraham and Abimelek did. Don’t let that bitterness eat at you. Win your brother (or sister) rather than letting the Devil win. This is part of loving your neighbor – addressing the heart issues of the relationship and changing bitterness to fondness.
v The Hebrew words having to do with mixtures only appear in this verse and in Deut. 22:9-11, so without a lot of context it is hard to nail down what all is meant by them, so we mostly go on translation tradition.
Ø The root of the first noun has to do with “restraint,” “imprisonment,” or “withholding.” It is hard for me to see how the meaning of mixing two kinds comes from that root, but it is key to the interpretation of the whole verse. This word (kilaeyim) occurs three times in v. 19, and it gets a wide range of English translations from “diverse/mingled/two kinds of/hybrid.” The ancient Septuagint Greek translation is ἑτεροζύγῳ - “different kind.”
Ø The second Hebrew word is only used to refer to the clothing. It is translated “woven/mixed/ blended” and appears to be a word borrowed from the Egyptian language meaning “false weave” (BDB). Deut. 22:11 defines the blend as that of “wool and linen,” which is why the KJV adds those words.
v Deuteronomy 22:9-11 says, "You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, or all the produce of the seed which you have sown and the increase of the vineyard will become defiled. You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together. You shall not wear a material mixed of wool and linen together.” (NASB)
v We naturally ask the question “Why?” when we come to this verse. Why is a command not to wear blended fabrics placed inbetween loving your neighbor and not committing adultery. How on earth could cross-breeding be a moral requirement?
v Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase, “Good fences make good neighbors”? I seem to recall that as being from a Robert Frost poem. This verse is about keeping yourself from crossing boundaries.
v And we can expect to find both literal and figurative applications for this, because, just as God made our bodies to be a synthesis of physical and spiritual being, so His word is also a synthesis of practical and symbolic.
Ø Practically, there are reasons why a literal mixing of animals, seeds, and even clothing fibers would be problematic.
§ Friday night, God gave me an opportunity to ask an expert in the field of agriculture about this Bible verse. I had a guy over to my house who is a seed supplier for many of the farmers around the Manhattan area. So I asked him if there were any reasons why hybridization or mixing of seeds would be a problem, and he said, “Yes.” He said that if you have two types of crop growing in the same field, then one might not ripen at the same time as the other and while you’re waiting for the other the ripen the first could rot, then how are you going to separate the two kinds of grain if they are mingled together in the harvester? One might be rotten, or even if they were both ripe, one might be heavier or require different processing from the other. It would be impractical to sow mixed seeds.
§ It also would be impractical to sow hybrid seeds because, he said, most hybrid seeds are sterile. You can’t save some of the crop back and plant it for next year’s seed because it won’t grow into plants[3].
§ The same goes for animals: if you cross-breed cattle that are too different from each other, they either won’t be able to breed, or, if they are able to produce offspring, the hybrid offspring will not be able to produce offspring themselves, so your cattle herd dies out.
§ Clothing fibers are a little different, but chemical reactions can take place between different kinds of fibers – particularly between wool and linen – that makes the mixed-fiber cloth uncomfortable to wear, and it deteriorates more quickly[4]. Personally I find pure cotton more comfortable than cotton-polyester blend material.
§ All this is to say that there could be very practical reasons why God would warn His people against hybridizing and blending things. Straightforward simplicity can generally be less wasteful[5] than sensational complexity. But to stop at the physical application would be a mistake.
Ø Figuratively and spiritually, there is an application which was to be pictured in the practice of efficient, simple, unadulterated ways of agriculture, and that is that we are to be single-minded rather than doubleminded in our devotion to God, not practicing spiritual adultery by trying to serve two masters, hellions on Monday and saints on Sunday, or keeping secret idolatries that sap our spiritual and physical vitality and keep us from loving God with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength.
§ Being separate is, after all, what holiness is all about. To blur distinctions is to fight against holiness. (Wenham) On the contrary, it is the nature of man in rebellion against God to distort the order that God created.
§ Matthew Henry, in his commentary on this verse wrote, “God in the beginning made the cattle after their kind (Gen. 1:25), and we must acquiesce in the order of nature God hath established, believing that is best and sufficient, and not covet monsters. Add thou not unto his works, lest he reprove thee; for it is the excellency of the work of God that nothing can, without making it worse, be either put to it or taken from it.” (That’s a quote from Eccl. 3:14.)
§ Matthew Henry’s quote about “not covet[ing] monsters” sounds strange at first, until you think of the amount of monsters found in Greek mythology, the monsters perpetuated in European fairy tales, and now the monsters projected into modern comics. When you reject God you become interested in monsters.
§ When you reject God you will disagree with His assessment at creation that what He created was “good,” you will say it’s not good and will want to tamper with it.
§ When you reject God, you reject boundaries too. What, for instance, is to keep a doctor from combining human embryos with other animals? Without a God who made boundary lines in genetics there is no moral constraint against chimeras.
§ On the May 18, 2016 radio broadcast, of NPR’s “All Things Considered” Rob Stein reported: “A handful of scientists around the United States are trying to do something that some people find disturbing: make embryos that are part human, part animal…” He was apparently complaining that the National Institutes of Health [NIH] had imposed a moratorium on funding this kind of research last fall, but by this summer the NIH announced its support for using tax money for experiments in which human genetic material is combined with animals. Kathy Ostrowsky of Kansans for Life explains, “For decades, researchers have engaged in ethically-noncontroversial mixing of human and animal cells such as growing human cancer tumors in mice to study disease processes and evaluate treatment strategies. [That’s something Matt Basel who preached here a few weeks ago has been involved in.] Also ethically-noncontroversial are therapies that utilize animal tissue, for example, using a pig’s heart valve for human heart repair, or other use of mammalian tissue in humans. Stem cell research, however, is fundamentally different. ‘Pluripotent’ stem cells can turn into any cell in the body, and when injected into animal embryos (as the new NIH proposals would allow) scientists don’t know what kind of new species will result… UC-Davis stem cell researcher Paul Knoepfler, told the New York Times, ‘we lack an understanding of at what point humanization of an animal brain could lead to more humanlike thought or consciousness.’”
§ This is just one illustration of the religious and moral implications of the principle of restraint in cross-breeding which God gives us in Leviticus 19:19.
§ Mixed-seed fields, such as these that God prohibited of the Jews were practiced as part of pagan religion by Zabians (JFB) – remember it was the “enemy” – the “devil” – who sowed tares among the wheat in Jesus’ parable in Matthew 13. And the wearing of lindsey-woolsey appears to have been an Egyptian custom, and is cited by Maimonedes as a practice of pagan priests. By refusing to follow such practices, God’s people were purposefully breaking identity with Egyptian and Canaanite and Satanic culture and identifying as God’s people instead.
§ The practices of pagans in suburban America may have nothing to do with seeds and cattle, but there will be distinctive cultural traits which clearly trace to non-Christian ideology. One example that comes to mind is the background music played over the loudspeaker system at many retail stores and restaurants. Every song they play promotes a certain worldview, and the music a store plays will be consistent with the worldview of the owner. That’s why if you walk into a Chick Fil-A restaurant you will hear something radically different from any other fast food chain. Mr. Cathy chose to make a break with modern pagan music and create a whole new genre of contemporary christian instrumental music to play in his stores. What other ways might you show identity with God rather than with secular culture around you?
§ This also points to our salvation. John Gill articulated what many Bible commentators have stated that, “Christ's righteousness is often compared to a garment, and sometimes to ‘fine linen, clean and white’ (Rev. 19:8); and men's righteousness to ‘filthy rags;’ which are by no means to be put together… [S]uch who believe in Christ are justified by the obedience of one and not of more (Rom. 5:19), and by faith in that obedience and righteousness, without the works of the law (Rom. 3:28); to join them together is needless, disagreeable, and dangerous.” (Gal. 2:16ff)
v Does this mean you can’t wear blended t-shirts or breed mules?
Ø No. Godly people like David and Solomon used mules in the Bible.
Ø I think John Calvin was thinking in the right direction in his commentary when he said that this law was to keep God’s people “cultivating natural and simple habits” and that this “discipline” would curb them from “sinking by degrees to the practice and customs of the heathen.” It’s not that planting different seeds is the end of the world; rather, this law teaches us to move away in our heart-attitude from the sins of despising God’s handiwork and focusing upon human innovation as the solution to this world’s problems. It’s like a guard rail that keeps people from driving off a cliff. A guard rail is a boundary of sorts, a fence. And good fences make good neighbors. Once again we see that loving God and loving our neighbor go hand-in-glove.
5) Love God and Love your neighbor by Protecting your neighbor’s Life and Reputation (v.16)
6) Love God and your Neighbor by Keeping Your Heart Open, bearing Love rather than Grudges (vs. 17-18)
7) and Love God and Love your neighbor by Maintaining Good Fences – valuing the boundaries God created both in practical, everyday life, as well as spiritually (v.19)
When a translation adds words not in the Hebrew text, but does not
indicate it has done so by the use of italics (or greyed-out text), I put the
added words in [square brackets]. When one version chooses a wording which is
different from all the other translations, I underline it. When a
version chooses a translation which, in my opinion, either departs too far from
the root meaning of the Hebrew word or departs too far from the grammar form of
the original Hebrew, I use strikeout. And when a version omits a word
which is in the Hebrew text, I insert an X. (Sometimes I will place the X at
the end of a word if the original word is plural but the English translation is
singular.) I occasionally use colors to help the reader see correlations
between the various editions and versions when there are more than two different
translations of a given word. Hebrew text that is colored purple matches the
Dead Sea Scrolls, and variants between the DSS and the MT are noted in endnotes
with the following exceptions: When a holem
or qibbutz pointing in the MT is
represented in the DSS by a vav
or a hireq pointing in the MT is
represented in the DSS by a yod
(the corresponding consonantal representation of the same vowel) or when the
tetragrammaton is spelled with paleo-Hebrew letters, I did not record it a
variant. In Chapter 19, 11Q1 paleoLeviticusa contains
verses 1-4, 1Q3 PaleoLev-Num contains verses 30-34, 4Q26a Leviticuse contains verses
34-37, and 4Q23 Leviticus-Numbersa contains
verses 3-8.
|
LXX |
Brenton |
KJV |
NAW |
MT |
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16 οὐ πορεύσῃ δόλῳ ἐν τῷ ἔθνει σου, οὐκ ἐπισυστήσῃ ἐφ᾿ αἷμα τοῦ πλησίον σου· ἐγώ εἰμι κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὑμῶν. |
16 Thou shalt not walk deceitfully among thy people; thou shalt not rise up against the blood of thy neighbour: I am the Lord your God. |
16 Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people: neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbour: I am the LORD. |
16 You may not advance a rumor among your people. You may not stand against the blood of your neighbor; I am Yahweh. |
16 לֹא-תֵלֵךְ רָכִיל בְּעַמֶּיךָ לֹא תַעֲמֹד עַל-דַּם רֵעֶךָ אֲנִי יְהוָה: |
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17 οὐ μισήσεις τὸν ἀδελφόν σου τῇ διανοίᾳ σου, ἐλεγμῷ ἐλέγξεις τὸν πλησίον σου καὶ οὐ λήμψῃ δι᾿ αὐτὸν ἁμαρτίαν. |
17 Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, so thou shalt not bear sin on his account. |
17 Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him. |
17 ‘You may not hate your brother in your heart; you must earnestly make [things] right with your fellow-man and not raise up sin on account of him. |
17 לֹא-תִשְׂנָא אֶת-אָחִיךָ בִּלְבָבֶךָ הוֹכֵחַ תּוֹכִיחַ אֶת-עֲמִיתֶךָ וְלֹא-תִשָּׂא עָלָיו חֵטְא: |
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18 καὶ οὐκ ἐκδικᾶταί [σου ἡ χείρ], καὶ οὐ μηνιεῖς τοῖς υἱοῖς τοῦ λαοῦ σου καὶ ἀγαπήσεις τὸν πλησίον σου ὡς σεαυτόν· ἐγώ εἰμι κύριος. |
18 And thy hand shall not avenge thee; and thou shalt not be angry with the children of thy people; and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself; I am the Lord. |
18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD. |
18 You may not be vengeful and you may not begrudge the children of your people, rather you must bear love toward your neighbor as to yourself. I am Yahweh. |
18 לֹא-תִקֹּם וְלֹא-תִטֹּר אֶת-בְּנֵי עַמֶּךָ וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ כָּמוֹךָ אֲנִי יְהוָה: |
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19
Τὸ |
19 Ye shall observe my lawX: thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with one of a different kind, [and] thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with diverse seed; and thou shalt not put upon thyself a mingled garment woven of two materials. |
19 Ye shall
keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with |
19 My statutes are [what] y’all must keep: Do not mate your cattle with hybrids. Do not sow your field with hybrids, and hybrid blended clothing shall not be upon you. |
19 אֶת-חֻקֹּתַי תִּשְׁמֹרוּ בְּהֶמְתְּךָ לֹא-תַרְבִּיעַ כִּלְאַיִם שָׂדְךָ לֹא-תִזְרַע כִּלְאָיִם וּבֶגֶד כִּלְאַיִם שַׁעַטְנֵז לֹא יַעֲלֶה עָלֶיךָ: |
[1] Cf. 1Tim. 5:13, which also discourages such rumor-mongering.
[2] Genesis 20:16 ESV To Sarah he said, "Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. It is a sign of your innocence in the eyes of all who are with you, and before everyone you are vindicated."
[3] “If the various genera of the natural order Gramineae, which includes the grains and the grasses, should be sown in the same field, and flower at the same time, so that the pollen of the two flowers mix, a spurious seed will be the consequence, called by the farmers chess. It is always inferior and unlike either of the two grains that produced it, in size, flavor, and nutritious principles. Independently of contributing to disease the soil, they never fail to produce the same in animals and men that feed on them” [Whitlaw, quoted by JFB].
[4] “wool, when combined with linen, increases its power of passing off the electricity from the body. In hot climates, it brings on malignant fevers and exhausts the strength; and when passing off from the body, it meets with the heated air, inflames and excoriates like a blister” [Whitlaw, quoted by JFB commentary on this verse]
[5] Cf. Jamieson, Fawcett, and Brown’s commentary on this verse: “This prohibition was probably intended to discourage a practice which seemed to infringe upon the economy which God has established in the animal kingdom.”