You shall not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.
All Commentaries on Leviticus 19:18 Go To Leviticus 19
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Revenge, by private authority, or out of passion, which the pagans themselves acknowledged was more becoming a brute than a man, feræ est. (Musonias, Sen. de ira ii. 32.)
Citizens. Hebrew, "observe or lie not in wait. "Septuagint, "act not with fury against the son of thy people. "(Calmet)
Hebrew notor, means to upbraid when doing a kindness.
Thy friend. Hebrew rehaka, may denote thy neighbour, or any one with whom we have any thing to do. Thus God orders us to love strangers as ourselves, (ver. 34,) and to help our enemy, Exodus xxiii. 4. The false insinuations of the Jews are fully exploded by Jesus Christ, Matthew xxii. 39. We must love the offender, but detest the offence. (St. Augustine, contra Faust. xix. 24.) If God required his people to exterminate the Chanaanites, he did not authorized them to entertain any personal animosity against their persons, but they were to act as ministers of his justice. "O Lord, (said Philo very justly) we do not rejoice at the misfortune of our enemy, (Flaccus) having learnt from thy holy laws to compassionate the distress of others. But we thank thee for. Delivering us from our afflictions. "(Calmet)
