Verse of the Day — Tuesday, October 27, 2026

Leviticus 19:15 sits in a stretch of laws sometimes called the Holiness Code, where God repeatedly tells Israel to "be holy, for I am holy." The same chapter contains the command to love your neighbor as yourself. Among these practical instructions for a just society comes this rule for anyone who judges a dispute: do no injustice in court.

What surprises modern readers is the balance it strikes. In the ancient world, courts were routinely bent by the powerful and their bribes, so a warning against favoring the great makes sense. But the verse also forbids favoring the poor. Sympathy for the underdog, however good elsewhere, cannot decide a verdict. A judgment is supposed to follow the facts, not tilt toward either side because of who is standing there.

The Hebrew makes the point with a vivid image. Both halves use the word for "face": do not "lift up the face" of the poor, do not "honor the face" of the great. To judge by the face is to let a person's status, wealth, or appearance sway the ruling. The same instinct runs across the Scriptures in the claim that God himself "shows no partiality." Justice, in this vision, looks at the case and refuses to look at the face.