Commentary - Leviticus 19:33-34

Bird's-eye view

In these two verses, nestled within the holiness code of Leviticus, God lays down a foundational principle for civic justice and personal piety that echoes throughout the rest of Scripture. This is not a minor point of etiquette but a central tenet of what it means to be God's covenant people. The command concerns the treatment of the foreigner, the immigrant, the sojourner who has come to live among the people of Israel. God demands that this vulnerable individual not be mistreated, but rather be treated with the full dignity and love afforded to a native-born Israelite. The basis for this command is not a modern sentiment of sentimental humanitarianism, but is rooted firmly in Israel's own redemptive history. They are to love the stranger because they themselves were strangers in Egypt, and God graciously delivered them. This law, therefore, is a direct application of the gospel. It is a call to reflect the grace they have received to others who are in a similarly vulnerable position. It establishes a standard of righteous hospitality that stands in stark contrast to the tribalistic paganism of the surrounding nations.

This is a command that requires a delicate balance. It is a command for love, justice, and inclusion within the covenant community, under the law of God. It is not a command to dissolve all borders or to pretend that there is no distinction between a citizen and a foreigner. Rather, it establishes the righteous standard by which a foreigner who comes to dwell within the land is to be treated. He is to be loved, which means he is to be brought under the same righteous standards of God's law as everyone else. The foundation is theological: "I am Yahweh your God." He is the one who defines justice, and He does so based on His own character and His own mighty acts of salvation.

Outline

Context In Leviticus

Leviticus 19 is a central chapter in the entire Pentateuch, often called the holiness code. It begins with the declaration, "You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy" (Lev. 19:2). What follows is a series of practical, everyday applications of what that holiness looks like. It is not an abstract, mystical state, but a tangible way of life that touches everything from agriculture and economics to judicial proceedings and personal relationships. Our passage about the sojourner comes immediately after laws demanding just weights and measures (Lev. 19:35-36, though the verse order differs in some translations) and is part of a larger section that includes the famous command, "you shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Lev. 19:18). By placing the law of the sojourner here, God is making it clear that the foreigner who lives among you qualifies as your "neighbor." Holiness is not just about how you treat your fellow Israelites; it is about reflecting the character of God to all who are within the bounds of the covenant community.

Key Issues

Gospel-Shaped Hospitality

It is impossible to understand this command apart from the gospel. The entire basis for the instruction is grace. "For you were sojourners in the land of Egypt." Why were they no longer sojourners? Because God heard their cry, remembered His covenant, and rescued them by His mighty hand. They did nothing to deserve this deliverance. It was a unilateral act of divine grace. Therefore, when God commands them to love the sojourner, He is telling them to reenact the grace they received. Their hospitality to the outsider is to be a living parable of God's hospitality to them.

This principle is magnified and fulfilled in the New Testament. We who are in Christ were all spiritual sojourners, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world (Eph. 2:12). But God, in His great mercy, brought us near by the blood of Christ. We are now fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. Every Christian, therefore, is an ex-sojourner. Our entire identity is rooted in the fact that we were outsiders whom God graciously brought in. How then can we turn around and mistreat the outsider? To do so is to suffer from a spiritual amnesia, to forget the Egypt from which we were saved. Our treatment of the foreigner is a litmus test of whether we have truly understood the grace of God in our own lives.

Verse by Verse Commentary

33 ‘And when a sojourner sojourns with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him.

The law begins with a negative prohibition, which is often the foundation of justice. The first duty is to do no harm. The word for sojourner here is ger, which refers to a resident alien, someone who has left his own people to live permanently among the Israelites. He is not a mere tourist or a passing traveler. He has cast his lot with Israel. This makes him vulnerable. He has no ancestral land, no clan to protect him, and little social standing. He is an easy target for exploitation, sharp business dealings, or simple contempt. God steps in and says, "You shall not mistreat him." The word for mistreat is a strong one; it means to oppress, vex, or wrong him. This is a baseline requirement for a holy nation. A society that preys on its most vulnerable members, whatever their origin, has forgotten the God of justice.

34a The sojourner who sojourns with you shall be to you as the native among you,

From the negative prohibition, God moves to the positive command. It is not enough to simply refrain from abuse. The sojourner is to be treated "as the native among you." This is a radical statement of legal equality. The foreigner is to have the same standing before the law as a born Israelite. He is to have access to the same courts, be judged by the same standards, and enjoy the same protections. This is not a call for cultural assimilation in every respect, but it is a demand for full civic and judicial integration. There cannot be a two-tiered system of justice, one for the home-born and another for the immigrant. The scales of justice must be balanced, and that means they must be the same for everyone in the land. This principle strikes at the root of all racism and xenophobia, which always seeks to establish a different, lower standard for the outsider.

34b and you shall love him as yourself,

This is the pinnacle of the command. It moves beyond legal status to the disposition of the heart. This is the very same language used for one's Israelite neighbor in verse 18. The foreigner is not just a legal entity to be protected; he is a person to be loved. And the standard for this love is the highest possible: "as yourself." This means you are to be as concerned for his well-being, his prosperity, and his flourishing as you are for your own. When he is cheated, you are to feel the sting of that injustice as though it were your own. When he rejoices, you are to rejoice with him. This command makes it impossible to hold the foreigner at an emotional distance, to see him as an "other." He is your neighbor, and the law of God requires that you love him. This is the general equity of the law, a moral principle that is permanent because it is grounded in the character of God.

34c for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt;

Here is the reason, the motivation, the engine that drives the whole command. This is not an appeal to abstract human rights, but to concrete historical experience. "Remember Egypt." Remember what it was like to be the vulnerable ones. Remember the oppression, the bitter labor, the dehumanization. Remember being aliens in a foreign land, powerless and despised. That memory should cultivate empathy. But more than that, it should cultivate gratitude. You are not in Egypt anymore. Why? Because God rescued you. Your entire existence as a free people is a monument to God's grace to sojourners. Forgetting the plight of the sojourner in your midst is therefore a form of apostasy. It is to forget what God has done for you. The imperative to love the alien is grounded in the indicative of God's salvation.

34d I am Yahweh your God.

The command is sealed with the signature of the divine author. This is not a suggestion from a human philosopher; it is a law from the Creator of heaven and earth, the covenant Lord of Israel. "I am Yahweh." This is the God who brought them out of Egypt. This is the God who is holy, and who demands holiness from His people. His character is the ultimate foundation for this law. He is a God of justice and mercy, a defender of the fatherless, the widow, and the sojourner. To be His people means to reflect His character. To mistreat the sojourner is to misrepresent the God whose name you bear. This final clause turns a piece of civil legislation into an act of worship. How you treat the immigrant in your town is a direct reflection of what you believe about Yahweh, your God.

Application

Like all Old Testament case law, this passage must be applied with wisdom. It establishes a permanent moral principle, what our confessions call the general equity. That principle is that God's people are to love the foreigners who live among them, ensuring they are treated with justice and compassion. This is not a command for open borders, nor does it nullify the right of a nation to establish wise and orderly immigration laws. The "sojourner" here is one who is "with you in your land," implying a lawful presence. The magistrate has a God-given duty to maintain order, which includes maintaining the integrity of the nation's borders.

But for those foreigners who are lawfully in our midst, this command is directly applicable. It forbids every form of racism, exploitation, and nativistic contempt. It forbids creating a permanent underclass of workers who are denied legal protections. It demands that we see the immigrant not as an economic unit or a political problem, but as a neighbor, made in the image of God, whom we are commanded to love as ourselves. We are to be concerned for his spiritual well-being, which means sharing the gospel with him, and for his physical well-being, which means ensuring he is treated justly in our courts and in our marketplaces.

And for the Christian, the motivation is still the same. We were all aliens and strangers. We were in bondage to sin, a far worse Egypt. But the Lord Jesus Christ, through His death and resurrection, has brought us out of that bondage and made us citizens of a heavenly kingdom. Our hearts should therefore be tender toward those who are experiencing a small taste of the alienation from which we have been eternally delivered. Our hospitality, our love, and our demand for justice for the sojourner are all ways that we declare to a watching world that we serve a gracious and merciful God, who brought us out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.