Leviticus 19:34, commentary and pictures

The stranger living among God's people is to be regarded as a native-born member of the community and loved as oneself, with tenderness and sympathy rather than contempt or vexation for being an outsider. This care is grounded in Israel's own memory of being strangers in Egypt, and it stands as God's direct command for how people treat one another under His authority as the LORD. It reflects God's own love for the stranger, for Christ died to save the foreigner just as truly as He died to save Israel. Its standard is the same high law taught in the New Testament to love God with all the heart and the neighbor as self, given as the measure of love and sympathy for all generations. Keeping it means practical mercy without regard to nation or status — sharing food, clothing, harvest and feasts, dealing justly without oppression or usury, and welcoming strangers to learn God's law and glorify Him.

Loving the Stranger Equally

The stranger who dwells among the people is to be unto them as one born among them, as one of their own people and not as an outsider. He is to be loved as oneself, with tenderness and compassion and love and sympathy, and is not to be looked down upon for not being an Israelite nor vexed for being a stranger. The reason given for this equal care is that Israel themselves were strangers in the land of Egypt, so their own experience is made the ground of compassion toward the stranger.

The command is an explicit direction from God for how people are to treat one another, a practical principle given through Moses and grounded in His authority as the LORD your God. It reflects God's own love for the stranger, and the duty rests on the fact that Christ died to save the stranger just as truly as He died to save Israel. What it teaches expresses the same high standard as the New Testament, in perfect agreement with the command to love the Lord with all heart and soul and strength and mind and the neighbor as self, and it gives the standard of love and sympathy for future generations.

The provision is that heathen who renounce heathenism and join Israel share the blessings of the covenant as the stranger sojourning among them, enjoying equal favors and privileges with Israel with few exceptions. The Gibeonites could have been received on this footing with preservation of life and honor had they dealt honestly, but their deception forfeited it and brought disgrace and perpetual servitude as hewers of wood and drawers of water, testifying through all generations to God's hatred of falsehood.

Practicing Compassion Toward Strangers

Love for the stranger dwelling among God's people is practical mercy and help when he is in need. That help is owed regardless of nation or status, so that taking a sufferer for a possible foreigner or Samaritan is no reason to withhold it. Tenderness belongs to this duty, treating the stranger as one of one's own.

This care includes welcoming strangers at thanksgiving feasts and leaving part of the harvest for them and the poor. It gives the stranger food and raiment and relief so that he may live. In this way strangers share in both material provision and spiritual blessings.

Keeping this command requires fearing God and keeping His commandments and statutes. It requires executing judgment for the fatherless and widow. It requires taking no usury or increase of money or food, and not ruling over the poor brother, though he be a stranger or sojourner, with rigor. Business is to be done on principles of justice and equity without partiality.

Oppression of the poor and withholding money or hire due by fraud is robbery. God marks it, condemns it, and will in no case tolerate it.

Strangers who choose the company of those who know and acknowledge God are to be received. They are to be taught Jehovah's law. Through His people they can thus learn of Him and glorify Him by seeing His works for them.

The same direction about duty to strangers governs those entrusted with youth from foreign countries. A lad in a strange country, separated from mother and sisters, is to be treated as a child of their own, with a mother's heart and tender sympathy and personal interest to win his heart. His clothing is to be looked after to keep it mended and neat and tidy. Rather than expelling him and turning him loose in a foreign country to be forced toward ruin, those in charge are to write to his mother to state the facts clearly and notify her before sending him adrift. They are to labor to reform him and exert a transforming influence for his salvation.