Leviticus 25:17

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

You shall not wrong one another; but you shall fear your God: for I am Yahweh your God.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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Word by word

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עֲמִית֔וֹ

ʻâmîyth

H5997

“neighbor · his”

Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Construct + Suffix, Personal, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular

Appears 12× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Leviticus 6:2

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from a primitive root meaning to associate

TWOT: 1638a

relation, neighbour, associate, fellow

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

11: words
10: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is עֲמִית֔וֹ neighbor H5997 — appearing just 12 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

עֲמִית֔וֹ neighbor H5997 occurs in 10 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
5 nouns
1 pronoun
1 conjunction
2 particles

Verb forms

תוֹנוּ֙ Hiphil · Imperfect
וְיָרֵ֖אתָ Qal · Sequential Perfect

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

מֵֽאֱלֹהֶ֑יךָ God H430 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 18 words from the Hebrew and 21 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 11 Hebrew tokens and 17 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Leviticus 25:17 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Leviticus 19:14 "'You shall not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind; but you shall fear your God. I am Yahweh.
Leviticus 19:32 You shall rise up before the gray head, and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God. I am Yahweh.
Exodus 20:20 Moses said to the people, "Don't be afraid, for God has come to test you, and that his fear may be before you, that you won't sin."
Leviticus 25:43 You shall not rule over him with harshness, but shall fear your God.
Genesis 42:18 Joseph said to them the third day, "Do this, and live, for I fear God.
Genesis 20:11 Abraham said, "Because I thought, 'Surely the fear of God is not in this place. They will kill me for my wife's sake.'
Genesis 22:12 He said, "Don't lay your hand on the boy, neither do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me."
Genesis 39:9 He isn't greater in this house than I, neither has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?"

Leviticus 25:14 "'If you sell anything to your neighbor, or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another.
Deuteronomy 25:18 how he met you by the way, and struck the hindmost of you, all who were feeble behind you, when you were faint and weary; and he didn't fear God.
1 Samuel 12:24 Only fear Yahweh, and serve him in truth with all your heart; for consider how great things he has done for you.
2 Chronicles 19:7 Now therefore let the fear of Yahweh be on you; take heed and do it: for there is no iniquity with Yahweh our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of bribes.
Nehemiah 5:9 Also I said, The thing that you do is not good: ought you not to walk in the fear of our God, because of the reproach of the nations our enemies?
Nehemiah 5:15 But the former governors who were before me were chargeable to the people, and took of them bread and wine, besides forty shekels of silver; yes, even their servants bore rule over the people: but I didn't do so, because of the fear of God.
Psalms 19:9 The fear of Yahweh is clean, enduring forever. Yahweh's ordinances are true, and righteous altogether.
Proverbs 1:7 The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge; But the foolish despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs 22:22 Don't exploit the poor, because he is poor; And don't crush the needy in court;
Jeremiah 7:5–6 For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor;
Jeremiah 22:16 He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Wasn't this to know me? says Yahweh.
Malachi 3:5 I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the perjurers, and against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and who deprive the foreigner of justice, and don't fear me," says Yahweh of Hosts.
Luke 12:5 But I will warn you whom you should fear. Fear him, who after he has killed, has power to cast into Gehenna. Yes, I tell you, fear him.
Acts 9:31 So the assemblies throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace, and were built up. They were multiplied, walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 10:2 a devout man, and one who feared God with all his house, who gave gifts for the needy generously to the people, and always prayed to God.
Acts 10:35 but in every nation he who fears him and works righteousness is acceptable to him.

Romans 3:18 "There is no fear of God before their eyes."
Romans 11:20 True; by their unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by your faith. Don't be conceited, but fear;
1 Thessalonians 4:6 that no one should take advantage of and wrong a brother or sister in this matter; because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as also we forewarned you and testified.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Leviticus 25:17 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְלֹ֤א תוֹנוּ֙ אִ֣ישׁ אֶת עֲמִית֔וֹ וְיָרֵ֖אתָ מֵֽאֱלֹהֶ֑יךָ כִּ֛י אֲנִ֥י יְהֹוָ֖ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶֽם

You shall not wrong one another; but you shall fear your God: for I am Yahweh your God.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Leviticus 25:17 Septuagint · lemma form

μή θλίβω ἄνθρωπος ὁ πλησίον καί φοβέω κύριος ὁ θεός σύ ἐγώ εἰμί κύριος ὁ θεός σύ

Let not a man oppress his neighbor, and you shall fear the Lord your God: I am the Lord your God.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וְלָא תוֹנוּן גְבַר יָת חַבְרֵהּ וְתִדְחַל מֵאֱלָהָךְ אֲרֵי אֲנָא יְיָ אֱלָהֲכוֹן

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וְלָא תוֹנוּן גְבַר יַת חַבְרֵיהּ בְּמִילִין קָשִׁין וְתִדְחַל מֵאֱלָהָךְ אֲנָא הוּא יְיָ אֱלָהָכוֹן

And you shall not overreach one man his neighbour by hard words, but fear your God: I am the Lord your God.

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Leviticus 25:17 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Lev 25:17 Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I [am] the LORD your God.

Ver. 17. But thou shalt fear thy God.] And so depart from this evil also. {Gen 42:18} Joseph said to his brethren, who feared he would roll himself upon them, "This do and live, for I fear God," q.d., I dare do you no hurt, though ye be fallen into my danger. So his grandfather Isaac, seeing that he had done unwilling justice, durst not reverse the blessing, though he had some mind to it, for God had overawed him. {Gen 27:33} And "ought ye not to have walked in the fear of the Lord?" said good Nehemiah to those merciless griping usurers. {Neh 5:10}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

Ye shall not oppress one another, but thou shalt fear thy God--This, which is the same as Lev 25:14, related to the sale or purchase of possessions and the duty of paying an honest and equitable regard, on both sides, to the limited period during which the bargain could stand. The object of the legislator was, as far as possible, to maintain the original order of families, and an equality of condition among the people.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(17) Ye shall not therefore oppress one another.—Better, And ye shall not overreach any man his neighbour. (See Lev_25:14.)

But thou shalt fear thy God—who pleads the cause of the oppressed, and avenges every injustice. (See Lev_19:14.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

17. Summary, together with the guiding motive characteristic of H.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

Ye shall not therefore oppress one another,.... By over or underrating estates:

but thou shalt fear thy God; and the fear of God being before their eyes, and on their hearts, would preserve both buyer and seller from doing an ill thing, when it was in the power of either, through the necessity of the one, or the ignorance of the other, see Neh 5:15,

for I am the Lord your God; omniscient, and knows all that is done in the most private and artful manner; and omnipotent and able to punish both, which of them either should oppress or defraud, see Th1 4:6.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

17. Thou shalt fear thy God — The Hebrew religion was eminently ethical as well as devotional; it was designed for the market and the forum, to preside over trade and social intercourse, to restrain avarice and protect poverty. This element of Mosaism is incorporated by Jesus Christ into his Gospel in the golden rule.

For I am the Lord — This is the perpetual watchword of the old covenant, and the ground of its obligation.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Scofield Reference Notes

C. I. Scofield

fear

(See Scofield "Psa 19:9").

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

ולא תונו איש את עמיתו YE SHALL NOT THEREFORE BE EXTORTIONATE TO ONE ANOTHER — Here Scripture warns against vexing by words (wounding a person’s feelings) — that one should not annoy his fellow-man, nor give him an advice which is unfitted for him, but is in accordance with the plan and the advantage of the adviser. But lest you should say, “Who knows whether I had any intention to do him evil?” Scripture therefore states: “but thou shalt fear thy God”! — He Who knows men’s thoughts, He knows it! In all cases where it is a matter of conscience (more lit., a matter handed over to the heart), when no one knows the truth except the one who has the thought in his heart, Scripture always states: “but be afraid of thy God”! (Sifra, Behar, Chapter 4 1-2; Bava Metzia 58b; cf. also Rashi on Leviticus 19:14.)

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Sforno

Rabbi Ovadia Sforno

You shall not cheat. Even with words, deception, or bad advice, and even without any monetary loss.

For I am Adonoy, your God. The God of the buyer and of the seller, and I am exacting about either one of them cheating.

Sforno on the Tanakh — English translation: “Yalkut, Sifsei Chachomim Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Leviticus, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 11 words (10 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is ʻâmîyth (“neighbor”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word ʻâmîyth carries the sense “neighbor.” How does it shape the verse?
How does Leviticus 6:2, which shares the word «neighbor», read alongside this verse?
What does the repetition of “God” (2× in this one verse) do in this verse?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
«תוֹנוּ֙» is a Hiphil Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Jamieson, Fausset & Brown read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 11 Hebrew ↔ 17 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 12 words in this verse.
“God” occurs 2× in this single verse.
10 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 11 words in this verse.