Leviticus 19:9-18 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

Humanity and Uprightness. Gleaning is to be encouraged, both in field and vineyard. It may well be that the corners of the field were originally left so as to avoid driving out the vegetation spirit. [See article Corners by Barton in ERE, and Frazer, Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, i. 234f. Frazer suggests that the original intention may have been to leave some of the corn for the nourishment of the corn spirits on whom the coming of next year's harvest depended, who might starve and die if the field was completely stripped. Similarly with the regulation of Deuteronomy 24:21. A. S. P.]. That motive is now forgotten; the practice remains, and a new motive, characteristic of the codifier and the period, is found. Honesty in word and deed is to be maintained, and swearing falsely is prohibited; it is noteworthy that here, though not in the Decalogue, this prohibition is joined to that against stealing and lying. The hired man is to be paid at the end of each day (cf. Deuteronomy 24:14 f., Jeremiah 22:13; Matthew 20:2 ff., James 5:4). The lot of the hired servant was often worse than that of the slave (cf. the famous words in Homer, Od. xv. 640). The deaf man is not to be cursed, because he could not hear the curse and defend himself; and the inabilities of deaf and blind put them under the special protection of Yahweh. There is to be no partiality; to respect the person is literally to lift up the face of the suppliant bowing before you. This might perhaps be done, in the case of the poor, out of spite or fear of a powerful adversary; but there is no instance in the OT of what must have been in any case a rare temptation. Gossip, even, is forbidden (cf. Exodus 20:16), and standing against the blood of a neighbour, i.e. endangering his life by slanderous accusation. Instead of leaving him to his own sin or its punishment, you must warn him, so as not to incur the guilt of sin on his account. But there must be no ill-will to him; his interests must be to you as your own. This command shows how far the conception of holiness could transcend the purely ritual. The nearest parallel is Romans 12:1 ff., where service (a ritual word) is expounded in a series of precepts which hardly surpass this ritual of true neighbourliness. The neighbour, however, is only a kinsman or fellow-countryman. Contrast Luke 10:29, but cf. Leviticus 19:33 f. and Exodus 22:21.