““ ‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.”
Leviticus 19:18
Bible commentator Gordon J. Wenham points out how easy it may be for modern readers to miss the connection between verses 15 and 16 of Leviticus 19. A key concept here is neighbor.
In the community life of Israel, legal proceedings didn’t take place at distant seats of judgment; they occurred within the community, often in the same neighborhood. Hence, gossip, slander, or jumping to conclusions about a person you knew well and who faced legal proceedings could be a very real temptation.
This naturally leads in to verse 17, in which the people are exhorted not to harbor grudges against a “fellow Israelite” but rather to take disputes to them openly, even before such a conflict requires legal intervention. And this, in turn, leads to the well-known command to “love your neighbor as yourself” (v. 18).
Note: excerpt from ODB
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