Love the Stranger as Yourself: Thoughts on Leviticus 19:34

“The stranger residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were strangers in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” - Lev. 19:34

In Leviticus 19, the “stranger” is a vulnerable person who lives and works within a clan grouping that is not their own, a person akin to a refugee today. Leviticus 19 connects love for the stranger with love of neighbour: “love your neighbour as yourself” (Lev 19:17), “love the stranger as yourself” (Lev 19:34). A “neighbour” is a clansperson, one’s kinsfolk. Yet the stranger has no kinsfolk. With no one to defend their interests, the stranger is particularly vulnerable to oppression and even to enslavement.

The word “love” here is a kinship term, expressing familial bonds of solidarity, commitment, and affection. It may seem surprising that God commands Israel to love their neighbour—isn’t loving one’s extended family a given?—and yet ancient people didn’t always fulfill their obligations to care for extended family in their distress (Num 27, 36; Deut 1:16-17; Ruth 4:5-6).

Yet according to Leviticus, familial kindness wasn’t to stop with the neighbour, it must also extend to outsiders who are in need. God’s people are to treat the stranger as family, offering kindness, protection, and belonging. At its most basic level, loving the stranger excludes treating the stranger poorly, which is a common enough occurrence today, as well as in the ancient world (Lev 19:33). And loving the stranger may include acts of kindness such as leaving behind the residue of the harvest (Lev 19:10; 23:22). The word “love” calls for creative, familial acts of enfolding, such as the stranger’s participating in household feasts (Deut 16:9–25). The motivation for enfolding the stranger is found in Israel’s own story: Israel, too, was a stranger in Egypt (Lev 19:34).