Verse:
Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy (sanctification / qadowsh ): for I the LORD your God [am] holy (sanctification / qadowsh ).
Commentary by Coffman
Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy; for I Jehovah your God am holy. Source
a. Be holy.
The great admonition here is "Ye shall be holy!" This is actually the key sentence of the whole chapter and embraces all of the subsequent injunctions. It is indeed appropriate that the first specific order regards the fear (meaning reverence here) of parents. The home is the basic unit of all civilized order. Sabbath-keeping was just as important, and although the sabbath is not a Christian duty, the Lord's Day worship is! And, in one sense, Christian worship serves the same function as the ancient sabbath. People who neglect public worship soon find that they have no religion whatever. Significantly, this short passage reflects both the fourth and the fifth commandments.
Commentary by Geneva Study Bible
Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be a holy: for I the LORD your God [am] holy. Source
(a) That is, void of all pollution, idolatry and superstition both of soul and body.
Commentary by David Guzik
A. Laws regarding matters already covered. Source
1. (1-2) The general call to holiness.
a. The idea behind holy is "separate"; it describes God's "apartness." God is different than man, and from all other beings in the greatness and majesty of His attributes. He has a righteousness unlike any other; a justice unlike any other; a purity unlike any other - and love, grace, and mercy unlike any other. b. God is separate from man and from all creation; but because humans are made in the image of God, they can follow in His steps: Be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.
i. Part of this idea is that God is not merely a "super-man"; His being and character are divine, not human.
i. Being holy means being like God; separating ourselves unto Him and His truth - and naturally, separating ourselves from those things that are not like Him and not according to His truth.
Commentary by Jamieson, Fausset, Brown
Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel Ye shall be holy: for I ... am holy
Many of the laws enumerated in this chapter had been previously announced. As they were, however, of a general application, not suited to particular classes, but to the nation at large, so Moses seems, according to divine instructions, to have rehearsed them, perhaps on different occasions and to successive divisions of the people, till "all the congregation of the children of Israel" were taught to know them. The will of God in the Old as well as the New Testament Church was not locked up in the repositories of an unknown tongue, but communicated plainly and openly to the people. Source
Separated from the world, the people of God were required to be holy, for His character, His laws, and service were holy. (See 1Pe 1:15).
1Pe 1:15
But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do;
Commentary by John Gill
Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel? Copyright Statement
They could not be all spoke to together, but tribe after tribe, or family after family; or rather the heads of the tribes, and at most the heads of families were convened, and the following instructions were given, to be communicated to their respective tribes and families. Jarchi says this section was spoken in the congregation, because the greater part of the body of the law, or the more substantial parts of it, depend upon it; and indeed all the ten commandments are included in it, with various other laws, both judicial and ceremonial. Aben Ezra remarks, that all the congregation are spoken to, to include the proselytes, because they had been warned of incests, as the Israelites, in the preceding chapter, (See Gill on 18:26); and say unto them, ye shall be holy:
a separate people from all others, abstaining from all the impurity and idolatry they are cautioned against in the foregoing chapter, and observing the holy precepts expressed in this: for I the Lord your God [am] holy;
in his nature, essence, originally, independently, immutably, and perfectly; and the more holy they were, the more like they would be to him; (See Gill on 11:44) and (See Gill on 11:45); where the same words are used, after the laws given about creatures clean and unclean to be eaten, as here, after those about impure copulations and incests.Source
The New John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible Modernised and adapted for the computer by Larry Pierce of Online Bible. All Rightes Reserved, Larry Pierce, Winterbourne, Ontario.
Commentary by John Wesley
Be ye holy I am holy
Separated from all the forementioned defilements, and entirely consecrated to God and obedient to all his laws. Source
Both in my essence, and in all my laws, which are holy and just and good.
Commentary by Matthew Henry
Moses is ordered to deliver the summary of the laws to all the congregation of the children of Israel (Leviticus 19:2); not to Aaron and his sons only, but to all the people, for they were all concerned to know their duty. Even in the darker ages of the law, that religion could not be of God which boasted of ignorance as its mother. Moses must make known God's statutes to all the congregation, and proclaim them through the camp. These laws, it is probable, he delivered himself to as many of the people as could be within hearing at once, and so by degrees at several times to them all. Many of the precepts here given they had received before, but it was requisite that they should be repeated, that they might be remembered. Precept must be upon precept, and line upon line, and all little enough. In these verses,
It is required that Israel be a holy people, because the God of Israel is a holy God, Leviticus 19:2. Their being distinguished from all other people by peculiar laws and customs was intended to teach them a real separation from the world and the flesh, and an entire devotedness to God. And this is now the law of Christ (the Lord bring every thought within us into obedience to it!) You shall be holy, for I am holy, 1 Peter 1:15,16. We are the followers of the holy Jesus, and therefore must be, according to our capacity, consecrated to God's honour, and conformed to his nature and will. Israel was sanctified by the types and shadows (Leviticus 20:8), but we are sanctified by the truth, or substance of all those shadows, John 17:17,Tit 2:14.Source
1 Peter 1:15,16 Leviticus 20:8
But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do;
for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."John 17:17
Keep my decrees and follow them. I am the LORD , who makes you holy. Tit 2:14
Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
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Prepared by William C. Barman for George Young Memorial United Methodist Church -- Palm Harbor, FL on 10/3/03; 5:30:02 PM