Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Leviticus 19:18 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 18. 18Thou 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.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse forbids vengeance and grudges and commands love of the neighbor as oneself.
Read It With
- Leviticus 19:9-18
Use 19:9-18 as the reading frame for Leviticus 19:18. The verse forbids vengeance and grudges and commands love of the neighbor as oneself, while the complete unit shows that Gleanings remain for poor and resident outsider; theft, false oaths, wage withholding, disability exploitation, partial courts, slander, bystander harm, hatred, vengeance, and grudges culminate in love of neighbor.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Placed here, the verse forbids vengeance and grudges and commands love of the neighbor as oneself; Leviticus 19:9-18 supplies the actors, category, and outcome needed to interpret it.
Follow the Context
- The unit opens the particular procedure, case, scene, or instruction named “Harvest, wages, disability, courts, speech, rescue, and neighbor love belong together.”
- Gleanings remain for poor and resident outsider; theft, false oaths, wage withholding, disability exploitation, partial courts, slander, bystander harm, hatred, vengeance, and grudges culminate in love of neighbor.
- The unit closes with this interpretive boundary: The chapter explicitly protects blind and deaf people from exploitation; disability is not an object lesson or metaphor for sin.
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“love thy neighbour as thyself”
In plain language: Seek the neighbor's good while refusing vengeance and grudges.
The command concludes a sequence about hatred, rebuke, vengeance, and community relations.
Why it matters: Love is concrete and does not erase truth or safety.
How certain? very strongWhat This Verse Is Not Saying
Leviticus 19:18 does not turn its distinct contribution—forbids vengeance and grudges and commands love of the neighbor as oneself—into a free-standing rule; the chapter explicitly protects blind and deaf people from exploitation; disability is not an object lesson or metaphor for sin.
What Remains True
Love of neighbor concludes commands against hatred, vengeance, and grudges and therefore has concrete social and emotional boundaries.
How It Can Shape Life
- Seek a neighbor's good through truth and repair without demanding reconciliation that bypasses safety or accountability.
Teach It Back
Explain Leviticus 19:18's contribution to Leviticus 19:9-18. Name the category involved, what the surrounding verses add, any material uncertainty, and what the verse does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Leviticus 19:9-18 — Harvest, wages, disability, courts, speech, rescue, and neighbor love belong togetherSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: Leviticus 19:9-18, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Leviticus
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, ritual and legal vocabulary, names, clause relationships, KJV language controls, and translation limits.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Lev.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 19:9-18
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Leviticus with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
eBible.org distribution of the NET Bible, PDF generated 2025-12-31
Supports: Unit-bounded translator notes on Hebrew, syntax, ritual vocabulary, measures, textual questions, and older-English wording; silence is not treated as evidence.
Exact location: NET Bible Leviticus PDF, complete PDF pp. 1-99, translation and translator notes for 19:9-18
Open source ↗