Episode 51: A few good rules - and some strange ones

(Leviticus 19)

Some good rules

19 ⁹ When your harvest your crops, leave some unharvested in the corners of your field.

¹⁰ Don't gather every grape from your vineyard. Leave some for the poor and for strangers.

¹¹ Don't steal or lie.

¹³ Pay a fair wage to your employees.

¹⁴ Be kind to the deaf and blind.

¹⁵ Judge others fairly, without favoring the poor or the mighty.

¹⁶ Don't gossip.

¹⁷ Don't hate your brother.

¹⁸ Love your neighbor as yourself.

Some strange rules

¹⁹ Don't let cows interbreed, don't sow with mixed seeds, and don't mix linen and wool in the same garment.

²⁰ If a man has sex with an engaged slave woman, scourge the woman, but don't punish the man.

²³ Consider all fruit from fruit trees less than three years old to be uncircumcised. Don't eat them.

²⁴ Fourth year fruit is holy. Praise me with it.

²⁵ You can eat fruit from five-year-old trees.

²⁶ Don't eat anything with blood, or use magic, or astrology.

²⁷ Don’t round the corners of your heads or mar the corners of your beards.

²⁸ Don't cut your flesh for dead people or get any tattoos.

²⁹ Don't force your daughter to become a prostitute.

³¹ Stay away from wizards and familiar spirits.

A few more good rules

³² Stand in the presence of old people.

Honor the face of an old man.

³⁴ Don't mistreat strangers. Treat them as fellow citizens. And love them as you love yourself.

³⁶ Treat others fairly; don't cheat.