What Does Leviticus 19:34 Mean?
But the sojourner who sojourns with you shall be to you as one who springs up among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.THE KEY
The stranger is treated as kin before proving sameness, because remembered estrangement makes their vulnerability recognizable.
THE MEANING
The stranger living among you stands as one of your own, and love takes your own self as its measure. The verse keeps the people’s remembered sojourning in Mitzrayim, the constricting place, alive as a present reason to recognize the outsider’s vulnerability. Belonging is given before sameness is proven.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that love is owed only to those born inside your circle dissolves here: the stranger receives the standing of one born among you.
THE ROOT
גֵּר
ger
GROWS FROM
גור
To sojourn or reside as an outsider.
“sojourner” in this verse is ger. This word carries the resident outsider: someone who has made a life among you, not merely a passing visitor. The verse joins that status to love and remembered sojourning, turning strangerhood into a kinship you can recognize.
ALSO GROWS
gur: To sojourn or live as a foreigner.
גּוּר
The stranger’s status carries the sense of living among others, making the command about a real neighbor rather than an abstraction.
magor: Sojourning or residence.
מָגוֹר
This branch holds strangerhood together with dwelling: the outsider is already living within the community.
אַהֲבָה
ahavah
GROWS FROM
אהב
To love or cherish.
Here love takes the self as its measure and reaches the person who remains socially other. The verse gives the stranger the standing of one born among you, carrying love across the boundary of birth.
ALSO GROWS
ahavah: Love.
אַהֲבָה
This noun names the love the verse directs toward the stranger.
ahuv: Beloved.
אָהוּב
The related form makes visible the place the stranger is given: one who can be held as beloved, not merely tolerated.
מִצְרַיִם
Mitzrayim
GROWS FROM
צרר
To press, bind, or constrict; Mitzrayim carries an echo of the narrow place.
Mitzrayim carries the “narrow place” echo of מֵצַר (meitzar), linking the remembered sojourn in Egypt with constriction. That deepens the verse’s reason: the stranger’s vulnerability is recognizable through a story of life under narrowing.
ALSO GROWS
tsar: Narrow, tight, or constricted.
צַר
This word gives the verse’s remembered Egypt the sense of constriction behind its appeal to recognize the stranger.
meitzar: A narrow place or strait.
מֵצַר
The image of a narrow place gives shape to strangerhood as a life with limited room and security.
THE PATTERN
Remembered estrangement turns the outsider into a neighbor whose welcome is measured by your own life.
You shall not press down on the sojourner, nor squeeze him; for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.So love the sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.For I hungered, and you gave me food; I thirsted, and you gave me drink; I was a stranger, and you gathered me in.THE THREAD
Do not press a sojourner, for you know his living soul, since you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.Both verses use גֵּר (ger), “stranger,” from גור (gur), “to sojourn.” Exodus 23:9 makes the link explicit: remembered strangerhood lets you know the stranger’s heart.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us