18 "'You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people; but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. What every man's mind ought to be towards his neighbor, could not be better expressed in many pages that in this one sentence. We are all of us not only inclined to love ourselves more than we should, but all our powers hurry us away in this direction; nay, philautia (self-love) blinds us so much as to be the parent of all iniquities. Since, therefore, whilst we are too much given to love ourselves, we forget and neglect our brethren, God could only bring us back to charity by plucking from our hearts that vicious passion which is born with us and dwells deeply in us; nor, again, could this be done except by transferring elsewhere the love which exists within us. On this point no less has the dishonesty betrayed itself than the ignorance and folly of those who would have the love of ourselves come first: "The rule (say they) is superior to the thing regulated by it; and according to God's commandment, the charity which we should exercise towards others is formed upon the love of ourselves as its rule." As if it were God's purpose to stir up the fire which already burns too fiercely. Naturally, as I have said, we are blinded by our immoderate self-love; and God, in order to turn us away from this, has substituted our neighbors, whom we are to love no less than ourselves; nor will any one ever perform what Paul teaches us to be a part of charity, viz., that she "seeketh not her own," (1-Corinthians 13:5,) until he shall have renounced himself. Not only those with whom we have some connection are called our neighbors, but all without exception; for the whole human race forms one body, of which all are members, and consequently should be bound together by mutual ties; for we must bear in mind that even those who are most alienated from us, should be cherished and aided even as our own flesh; since we have seen elsewhere that sojourners and strangers are placed in the same category (with our relations; ) and Christ sufficiently confirms this in the case of the Samaritan. (Luke 10:30.)
1 - Fr., "Les Theologiens de la Papaute." C. refers elsewhere to this scholastic maxim: "Nor is the argument worth a straw, That the thing regulated must always be inferior to the rule. The Lord did not make self-love the rule, as if love towards others was subordinate to it; but whereas, through natural pravity, the feeling of love usually rests on ourselves, He shows that it ought to diffuse itself in another direction -- that is, should be prepared to do good to our neighbor with no less alacrity, ardor, and solicitude, than to ourselves." -- Inst., book 2, 8, Section 54. "Again, when Moses commanded us to love our neighbors as ourselves, he did not intend to put the love of ourselves in the first place, so that a man may first love himself and then love his neighbors: as the sophists of the Sorbonne are wont to cavil, that the rule must always go before what it regulates." -- Harm. of the Evangelists, (C. Society's Trans.,) [2]vol. 3, p. 59.
Thou shalt not avenge,.... That is, not avenge ourselves on him that has done us an ill thing, but leave it to him to whom vengeance belongs, see Romans 12:19; which is done when a man does an ill thing for another, or denies to grant a favour which he has been denied by another; Jarchi thus illustrates it, one says to him (his neighbour) lend me thy sickle; he answers, no (I will not); on the morrow (the neighbour comes, who had refused, and) says to him, lend me thy hatchet; he replies, I will not lend thee, even as thou wouldest not lend me; this is vengeance: this was reckoned mean and little, a piece of weakness with the very Heathens (b):
nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people; those of the same place, city, or kingdom; or "not observe" (c) the injury done, take no notice of it, nor lay it up in the mind and memory, but forget it; or "not keep" (d) or retain enmity, as the Targum of Jonathan supplies it; and so do an ill turn, or refuse to do a good one; or if that is done, yet upbraids with the former unkindness; for upbraiding with unkindness shows that a grudge is retained, though the suit is not denied:
but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself; sincerely and heartily, as a man loves himself, doing all the good to him as a man does to himself, or would have done to himself, and hindering all the mischief done to him he would have himself preserved from: Jarchi observes, that it was a saying of R. Akiba, that this is"the great universal in the law,''and it does indeed comprehend the whole of the second table of the law, and is the summary of it, and is pretty much the same our Lord says of it, that it is the second and great commandment, and like unto the first, on which two all the law and the prophets hang, Matthew 22:37; and so the Apostle Paul makes all the laws of the second table to be comprehended in this, Romans 13:9,
I am the Lord; the Creator of all men, and who has commanded them to love one another, and to whom alone vengeance belongs, and who expects obedience to the above laws of his.
(b) -----quippe minuti, &c. Juvenal. Satyr. 13. (c) "et non observabis", Montanus. (d) "Non servabis", Pagninus, Drusius; "neque iram asservato"; Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself--The word "neighbour" is used as synonymous with "fellow creature." The Israelites in a later age restricted its meaning as applicable only to their own countrymen. This narrow interpretation was refuted by our Lord in a beautiful parable (Luke 10:30-37).
Lastly, they were not to avenge themselves, or bear malice against the sons of their nation (their countrymen), but to love their neighbour as themselves. נטר to watch for (Song 1:6; Song 8:11, Song 8:12), hence (= τηρεῖν) to cherish a design upon a person, or bear him malice (Psalm 103:9; Jeremiah 3:5, Jeremiah 3:12; Nahum 1:2).
Thy neighbour - Every man, as plainly appears, By comparing this place with Leviticus 19:34, where this law is applied to strangers. Because the word neighbour is explained by another man, Leviticus 20:10; Romans 13:8. As thyself - With the same sincerity, though not equality of affection.
*More commentary available at chapter level.