Charles Ellicott Commentary Leviticus 19:17

"Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart: thou shalt surely rebuke thy neighbor, and not bear sin because of him." — Leviticus 19:17 (ASV)

Shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart. —From the outward acts denounced in the preceding verse, the legislator now passes to inward feelings. Whatever wrong our neighbor has inflicted upon us, we are not to harbor hatred against him.

Thou shalt in any wise rebuke. —Better, you shall by all means, or you shall freely rebuke him. If he has done wrong he is to be reproved, and the wrong is to be brought home to him by expostulation. In illustration of this precept the Jewish canonists remark, “when any man sins against another he must not inwardly hate him and keep silence, as it is said of the wicked, ‘And Absalom spake unto his brother Amnon neither good nor bad, for Absalom hated Amnon’ (2 Samuel 13:22); but he is commanded to make it known to him, and to say, ‘Why have you done thus to me?’” Similar is the admonition of Christ, “If thy brother sin against thee rebuke him, and if he repent forgive him” (Luke 17:3).

And not suffer sin upon him. —Better, so that you do not bear sin on his account. That is, by not reproving him, but harboring inward hatred towards the offender, we not only become partakers of his offense, but incur the sin of bearing secret ill-will (Romans 1:32; Ephesians 4:26; 1 Timothy 5:20; 1 Timothy 5:22).

According to the spiritual authorities during the Second Temple, however, this clause denotes, “but thou shalt bear no sin by reason of it,” as the Authorized Version translates this phrase in Numbers 18:32. That is, “execute the duty of reproof in such a manner that you do not incur sin by it.”

They explain this in the following manner: “Even if the reproof is ineffectual the first time, it must be repeated over and over again, but the rebuker must desist as soon as he sees blushes on the offender’s face, for it shows that the reproofs have made an impression. Every step taken by the one who reproves, after the offender has thus indicated by his countenance that he realizes the offense, is an unnecessary humiliation, and hence brings sin upon him who rebukes by reason of it.”