The document discusses the book of Leviticus and how it can be interpreted through its architectural structure and use of literary devices. It argues that Leviticus follows a pedimental composition centered around chapter 19. Chapter 19 forms the climax of the book, where God's justice is explained. The document uses this literary framework to reinterpret some of Leviticus' laws regarding cultic practices and sexuality within foreign religions rather than everyday life.
The document discusses the book of Leviticus and how it can be interpreted through its architectural structure and use of literary devices. It argues that Leviticus follows a pedimental composition centered around chapter 19. Chapter 19 forms the climax of the book, where God's justice is explained. The document uses this literary framework to reinterpret some of Leviticus' laws regarding cultic practices and sexuality within foreign religions rather than everyday life.
The document discusses the book of Leviticus and how it can be interpreted through its architectural structure and use of literary devices. It argues that Leviticus follows a pedimental composition centered around chapter 19. Chapter 19 forms the climax of the book, where God's justice is explained. The document uses this literary framework to reinterpret some of Leviticus' laws regarding cultic practices and sexuality within foreign religions rather than everyday life.
tabernacle, the book is much more than a stern recitation of the dangers of impurity. With chapter 19 as its apex, Leviticus is about justice and love in the community of faith. Indeed, its relevance in Jesus' ministry may surprise Christians. Justice as the Cornerstone An lnterpretation of Leviticus 18-20 1 Mary Douglas Professor of Social Anthropology University College London LEVITICUS IS OFl'EN READ SOCIOLOGICALLY as if the dangers of impurity were the main interest of its editors. When it is read, however, as a specimen of an ancient literaiy genre its focus shifts to the tabernacle and Gcid's justice expressed in the covenant. Read in this way, the book appears. to be much more in sympathy with the other books of the Pentateuch and with the Psalms. Such an interpretation requires some prefacing about literary styles and literary problems. Narrative unfolds in space. A clear spatial setting roots and relates the characters that inhabit it. It also affords scope for movement and time. A closed space gives closure to a story, within which there can be a beginning, a middle, and an antici- pated end. In this sense, the journey of the people oflsrael from the Red Sea to the Jordan holds together the diverse episodes recounted in the books of Moses. Well known in antiquity was the literary tradition of plotting a composition on a building, or parts of a building. The entrance and compartments evoke a s ~ s of journey: one enters and passes from room to room; the exit or closed walls prepare the ending. Similarly, the idea of an organism provided a favorite metaphorical framework for conveying a complex set of literary relations. The Song of Songs, for example, draws vivid parallels between geographical and anatomical features, 2 as poets have always clone between bodies and landscape. -------------------------- Interpretation 341 Pedimental composition Not necessarily a whole building, but certain architectural elements helped to provide the layout of an elegant literary structure.John L. Myres has identified such a literary form, which he calls a "pedimental composition," in the works of Homer, Hesiod, and Herodotus. A pediment in classical architecture is the triangular shaped portion of the wall above the comice, which formed the termination of the roof behind it. It corresponded to the gable in Gothie architecture, and in Roman architecture the pediment decorated the tops of doors or windows. "Pedimental composition" slopes up to .a high point, the climax, then slopes back clown again to the same level as the first. Myres wrote that, "whether in narrative or sculpture and painting, the climax is central and episodes are arranged on either hand-or in narrative, before and after-to prepare for it or to reveal its consequences. Th<e) pediments of the temple in Aegina, a war-memorial from the years after Salamis,- display the Greek victory by setting triumphant Athena in the midst of a convergent mele ofGreeks and Persians." 3 Pedimental composition shows up in heraldic grc;mpings on engraved seal- stones, on the "Lion Gate" relief at Mycenae, in early bronze reliefs c;ind vase- paintings, and in the description of the Shield of Achilles in Iliad xviil, and the Hesiodic "Shield of Heracles." Whereas the pedimental style puts the climax in the middle, the frieze-another style of composition-follows a linear layout with one episode after the next. Sometimes the frieze is combined with the pediment, resulting in a serial presentation of successive episodes climaxing in the central image and then repeated with variations in the other direction. My forthcoming study shows that the Book ofLeviticus displays important elements of pedimental composition, but also that the book as a whole has a more specific architectural framework. 4 It is designed on the proportions of the desert tabernacle, which itself was made accofding to the instructions given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai: "According to all that 1 show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it" (Exod 25:9). Exodus 37 says exactly how the sanctuary is to be furnished, with the lampstand, the table for the showbread, and the incense altar, and even where each article of furniture has to be placed. In Exod 40:22-25, the positions are repeated as Moses does what he has been told to do. The positioning of the furnishings is evidently as important as the ground plan itself. As 1 read Leviticus, the book parallels the architecture of the desert tabernacle in its own literary design. The tabernacle is a structure of three compartments of unequal size, the first opening on the next, and the second opening on the third. Two screens separate them. Leviticus also has a clear three-part structure. Two narratives that separate one part from the next correspond to the two screens in the ground plan: Lev 8-10 (the death of the sons of Aaron) and 24: 10-23 (the death of the blasphemer). Grouped in each of the three parts, th laws that comprise Leviticus deal with the actions or 342 Justice as the. Cornerstone furnishings proper to the corresponding part of the tabernacle. The first compart- ment of the book (chaps. 1-7 and 11-17) deals with the sacrifices of atonement that take place in the court of sacrifice in the first part of the building. The second part, (18: 1-24:9), which deals with the conditions, rights, and duties of the priests, corresponds to the sanctuary to which only the priests have access. The third and smallest compartment-the holy of holies-which con tains the ark of the covenant, is matched in the book by three chapters strongly focused on the covenant, its mean- ing, and the consequences ofkeeping or breaking it (chaps. 25-27). 5 ln short, Leviticus is a book projected upon a building. Reading it in this way not only resolves many puzzles about the order in which the laws appear in the book, it also leads to a different interpretation of the laws. In this essay, 1 want to show how certain readings change when particular verses are seen as elements in a pedimental composition. This is not a new discovery. In biblical scholarship, the same form is frequently called chiastic and shown to be very common, ifnot ubiquitous. But to make use ofMyres's insight, one needs to focus particularly on the middle part and be fully prepared to look for the main message of Leviticus there, its climax. 1 propose that the trilogy of chapters 18, 19, and 20 reflects a pedimental structure in whih chapter 19 forms the apex-the climax-the place at which God'sjustice is explained. Cultic laws ' The trilogy of chapters 18, 19, 20 opens with a general injunction to the people of Israel not to follow the statutes of Canaan and Egypt: Say to the people of Israel, 1 am the Lord your God. You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt where you dwelt, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which 1 am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. You shall dq my ordinances and keep my statutes and walk in them. 1 am the Lord your. God. You shall therefore keep my ordinances, by doingwhich a man shall live: 1 am the Lord (18:3-5). The laws that follow are commonly taken to be Leviticus's teaching on marriage and sex. But 1 would argue that in this chapter the reference is not primarily to sexual behavior in the everyday life of the people of Israel, but to sexual irregularities as known in foreign cults. The opening verses mean literally what they say. The text does not refer to the immorality, sexual misdemeanors, or other bad behavior of the foreigners, but to the evil statutes of their gods, which are to be contrasted with the good statutes of the God of Israel. The Lord's ordinances are to be contrasted with those of the gods of Egypt and Canaan. Then after this preface, chapters 18 and 20 follow symmetrically, like two matching sets of prohibitions. There are slight variations in their sequencing but great overlap in content. When it cornes to the endings of each chapter, the same threat that the land may vomit them out is repeated. There could hardly be a stronger --------------------------- Intrpretation 343 framing of the central chapter at the apex of the pediment. We start by taking chapters 18 and 20 together because they echo each other in obvious ways. Between their paralleled repetitions lies chapter 19, which must be considered to be central and of prime importance if only because of the way it is framed by them. Chapters 18 and 20 are like a song chorus, chanting the same anathemas against the same evil things that are clone in the religions of Egypt and Canaan. It is worth pausing to notice how they recall the ceremony required in Deut 27: 11-14, in which the twelve tribes are to be divided into two groups. Six of them are instructed to stand upon Mount Gerizim (Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, !j and Benjamin) to bless the people, and the remaining six (Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and NapthaU) to stand on Mount Ebal for the curse. Traditional commentators have reconstructed the deuteronomic text and the scene in slightly varying ways. Following Tigay's construction, 6 the Levites first face Mount Gerizim to call out a specific blessing, to which all the assembled tribes answer, ' ~ e n . Then they turn around to face Mount Ebal to call out the curse, which is the converse o ~ the blessingjust given. The people again answer, "Amen," which is taken to constitute an oath not to commit the named offences. Deuteronomy 27 does not provide the text for the composite blessings and curses, but only gives twelve curses. Cursed is the one who makes a graven image, who dishonors his father or mother, who removes a neighbor's landmark, who misleads a blind man, who perverts justice, who lies with his father's wife, who lies with any kind ofbeast, who lies with his sister, who lies with his mother-in-law, who slays a neighbor in secret, who takes a bribe to slay an inno- cent person, andwho does not keep this law (vv. 15-26). Notice that Deuteronomy does not classify the transgressions it names: prescrip- tions against sexual sins are found among laws against taking bribes to pervert the course of justice, moving landmarks, and misleading a blind person. This ceremony is repeated in the next chapter of Deuteronomy, where six blessings give promises of fertility and prosperity if the people keep the commandments (28: 1-14). After the blessings follow the terrible curses that will fall upon them ifthey do not (vv. 15-68). It is important to know that the curses and blessings constitute the standard covenant formula for oaths concluding a treaty. Leviticus almost repeats the deuteronomic formula in chapters 18 and 20, but with two notable differences. For one, Deuteronomy draws the curses freely from the decalogue: prohibiting molten images is in the same list with dishonoring father or mother, incest, murder, bribery, and corruption. For its part, the Leviticus version picks out the sexual offences from the rest. The focus of the laws in the two framing chapters (18 and 20) is upon idolatry and sexual offences, as seen in the following table. Is it not curious that Leviticus has rearranged the prohibitions? Or, since we need not presume which came first, is it not remarkable that Leviticus has organized all the sexual offences under a cultic rubric? Idolatry and sex are collected into the two outer, corresponding chapters-the framing sections-sa as to separate and 344 Justice as the_ Cornerstone enclose the laws of chapter 19 about honest dealings and fairness. Justice is the corner or apex of the pediment, the conspicuous place ofhonor. Compared with the comparatively haphazard list of curses in Deuteronomy 27, it must be agreed that this is likely to be a very significant arrangement. CHAPTER 18 PROHIBITIONS CHAPTER 20 PROHIBITIONS vv. 6-18 lncest with near kin and v. 11 Incest with father's wife in-laws: father, mother, father's v. 12 Incest with daughter-in-law wife, sister, son's daughter, v. 14 Sexual relations with a daughter daughter's daughter, father's wife's and her mother ,daughter, father's sister, mother's v. 17 lncest with sister sister, father's brother's wife, son's v. 19 lncest with mother's or father's wife, brother's wife, a woman and sis ter her daughter, wife's sister. v. 20 lncest with uncle's wife v. 21 Incest with brother' s wife v. 19 Menstrual uncleanness v. 18 Menstrual uncleanness v. 20 Adultery with neighbor's wife v. 10 Adultery with neighbor's wife v. 21 Devoting children to Molech vv. 2-5 Devoting children to Molech v. 22 Male homosexual intercmi:t:se v. 13 Male homosexual intercourse v. 23 Bestiality vv. 15-16 Bestiality vv. 6-8 Mediums and wizards v. 9 Cursing father or mother vv. 24-30 "For all of these v. 22 "You shall therefore keep all my abominations the men of the land statutes and all my ordinances, and did, who were before you, so that do them, that the land where 1 am the land became defiled; lest the bringing you may not vomit you out. land vomit you out, when you You shall not walk in the customs of defile it, as it vomited out the the nation which 1 am casting out nation that was before you." before you." This impressive pair of chapters is like a great proscenium arch for a proces- sional rite, or more like two carved pillars on either sicle of a shrine. Leviticus deliberately puts the laws of honest dealings at the center and the sexual sins at the periphery. The laws on each sicle against incest, sodomy, and bestiality are backed by twice-repeated warnings that the land will vomit the people out if they follow these practices. Defilement is the common threat for them all; it results from cultic viola- tion, which n:iakes the context inescapably cultic. Let us confirm the argument by running quickly through the list. It was widely understood that Canaanite cults had male temple prostitutes (Deut 23: 17). 7 Greek Zeus lusted for the boy Gannymede. These would be the references for Lev 18:22 and ---------------------------- Interpretation 345 20:13 against sodomy. Asto incest, it is readily and correctly associated with the religion of the Egyptian Pharaohs, so there is no difficulty in finding the reference for 18:6-18 and the corresponding verses on incest in chapter 20. Sexual congress with animais was practiced in foreign rites in the surrounding regions. Herodotus said, "The he-goat and Pan are both called Mendes in the Egyptian language. In this province, in my time, a monstrosity took place: a he-goat coupled with a woman, plain for all to see. This was clone in the nature of a public exhibition. " 8 Always reserved about religious matters, Herodotus does not mention that the monstrosity was a ritual in the cuit of Pan. Copulation with a stallion was part of a Vedic rite, also as a public exhibition. 9 These and similar stories would be the reference for 18:23 and 20: 15-6. Asto congress with a menstruating woman, forbidden in 18: 18 and 20: 19, use of menstrual blood was associated in Mesopotamia with pacts with demons. The formality of the context cannot be overlooked. The contrast with Deuteronomy 27 shows that the anathemas in Leviticus 18 and 20 are not laws about everyday affairs. They say nothing about marriage, inheritance, divorce, or choice of marriage partners. They are not concerned with wrong conduct in family life so much as with breach of covenant. These are laws about faithfully worshipping only the Lord God and about defilement by idolatry: The verses start with Egypt and Canaan, referring with,loathing to Egyptian and Canaanite cuits. Both supporting chapters mention Molech worship; the second one denounces mediums and seers. The effect of using these unedifying sexual deviations to build a frame around chapter 19 is to underscore the concepts of justice which are expounded in the middle. The pure and noble character of the Hebrew God is contrasted with the libidinous customs of the false gods. This does not mean that the sexual deviations are not counted as sinful, but it does imply that they are less significant than sins against justice, false oaths, stealing, cheating, and false witness. Condemnation of homosexuality Chapters 18 and 20 have regularly been cited to condemn homosexual inter- course. The argument about their meaning has gained new interest in recent years. "Homosexuality has emerged as a central issue in organized religion in America, and most religious bodies have needed to examine their position toward it-often heat- edly. Gay and lesbianJews have themselves entered this discourse." 10 Homosexual J ews, grieved to find themselves excluded from their religion, have not only found arguments to reconcile their apparently divergent practice, they have founded thriving gay communities, with gay synagogues and other gay religious institutions. Their communities are able to find common cause with the people of Israel wrong- fully oppressed. One of their arguments follows the lines of that presented above: the laws of Lev 18:22 and 20: 13 refer to temple prostitution. Following on this, the expression, "Thou shalt not lie with a man as one lies with a woman," parallels the prohibition against adultery with a neighbor's wife. Both are intended to protect the married state.11 Furthermore, the idea of homosexuality as a condition of a person 346 Justice as the Cornerstone was not envisaged: " ... what Leviticus forbids is not homosexuality as understood today (in other words, a permanent orientation), but homosexual acts performed by heterosexuals (for example, the molestation described in Genesis 19:4-5)." 12 But there is more to it than that. The analysis above provides two more reasons against citing Leviticus to justify throwing a homosexual out of the community. The first is the one given above, that particular sins are denounced in Leviticus 18 and 20 because they enter into the idolatrous cults of foreign nations. The second is that, in a secular context, sexual deviance is immoral but not more heinous than other sins. Another reason appears when we consider the punishments. Chapter 18 names the sins and chapter 20 names the penalties. Chapter 20 allows the sins to be grouped accordingly. Offering children to Molech is punished by stoning; wizards and magicians are eut off; five sins are punished by death: cursing father or mother, adultery, sex with father-in-law or daughter-in-law, homosexual acts, and bestiality. Sex with a daughter and her mother is punished by burning. 13 In this list, homo- sexual acts are set at the same level of gravity as adultery or incest, no more or less. The opprobrium of sexual deviance, which starts in the reference to foreign cults, no doubt includes the private behavior of members of the congregation. The effect goes both ways; the judgment against sodomy in secular contexts enhances the insult to the obscene foreign gods who include it in their rites. At the same time, it is salutary to remember that a community thatjustifies its persecution ofhomosexuals by reference to Leviticus can hardly tolerate an adulterer in its midst. The cornerstone Chapter 19 differs greatly. Both chapters 18 and 20 command the people to keep the Lord's statutes and ordinances (18:4, 5, 26; 20:7, 8, 22) and to be holy (20:7, 26), but only once do we find in these framing chapters anything about the context ofthese statutes and ordinances (the exception is the reference to unclean animals, 20:25). By contrast, chapter 19 shifts attention away from the cults of foreigners to the cult of Israel by specific commands. To be sure, the general prescrip- tions to be holy (19:2) and to keep the statutes and ordinances (19:19, 27) provide continuity, but a large number of detailed, positive rules can also be found: revere father and mother (v. 3); keep my sabbaths (v. 3); offer a sacrifice ofpeace so that it may be acceptable, eating it only on the first or second day (vv. 5-6); leave gleanings ofyour field and vineyard for the poor and sojourner (vv. 9-10); fear God (v. 11); judge in righteousness (v. 15); reason with your neighbor (v. 17); love your neighbor (v. 18); bring a guilt offering so that the priest shall make atonement (vv. 21-22); offer to Godin the fourth year and in the fifth year eat the fruit of the young trees (v. 25); reverence my sanctuary (v. 30); honor an old man and fear your God (v. 32); love the stranger as yourself (v. 34); and have just weights and measures (v. 36). This chapter says a lot about personal attitudes, loving, hating, respecting, fearing, and not bearing a grudge, which again indicates that, unlike the preceding and following chapters, it is directed to the individual worshipper. --------------------------- Interpretation 347 Another major difference between chapter 19 and any other chapter in Leviticus is the frequency of the refrain "I am the Lord," sometimes found alone and some- times with "your God" added. It appears five times in chapter 18 (vv. 4, 5, 6, 21, 30), and twice in chapter 20 (vv. 7, 8), but in chapter 19 it <livides the text fourteen times. 14 For Bible scholars interested in numerical indicators, 15 these two sets of seven may be the most important index of the centrality of chapter 19. If these words are used rhetorically as dividers of significant units, it is beyond my skill to work out their significance. I suggest that they are scattered rather freely throughout the text, as precious stones or ornaments might be scattered throughout the tabernacle to indicate the holiness of the place. It is commonly recognized that as one moves from the outer court to the sanctuary and from the sanctuary to the holy of holies the materials of the tabernacle become richer and rarer. Perhaps Leviticus 19 needs this extra decoration, since compared with the anathemas of chapters 18 and 20, it is bound to seem tame. The connection with holiness is made in the preamble to chapter 19, ("You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy," 19:2) and in the ending of chapter 20 ("You shall be holy tome, for I the Lord am holy," 20:26), thus forming an inclusio that encompasses' these two chapters. Thus, chapters 19 and 20 explain what holiness means. Chapter 19 surveys and enlarges upon most of the laws that Leviticus has already given. It starts off telling the people to honor their parents, keep the sabbaths, and not turn to idols (vv. 1-4). Then in vv. 5-8 divine justice is combined with mercy: the Lord's people are enjoined to be generous to each other as the Lord is to them. For example, we have already read the doctrine of sacred left-overs in 7: 16-18, but have received no explanation of what the law means. According to this teaching, the partakers of a sacrificial feast must not hoard the food so as to have something left to eat on the third day. Without 19:5--8, in which the law is reiterated, it would stand as a mysterious offense. But here it is paralleled by the following laws on gleaning, which require the farmer to provide deliberate left-overs ofhis harvest for the poor (19:9-10). In this way, we learn that medical materialism does not explain the rule; it has nothing to do with the way food goes bad in hot climates. What is sinful is essentially the hoarding: The rule enforces wider distribution of the feast. The lesson here is not that holiness is purely a matter of the cuit but that holiness requires in ritual contexts correspondence to what God's people must do for each other in secular contexts. The parallel between what people do for God and what people do for each other is theologically rich. The ritual laws, in short, are grounded in justice. Elsewhere, the judicial laws against stealing, lying, defrauding, and swearing falsely are given in Leviticus 5-6 in connection with sin offerings and guilt offerings. Where they are repeated in 19:11, the command not to steal, deal falsely, or lie to one another is paralleled in the same verse with the command not to swear falsely by God's name. The juxtaposition of truth to God and truth to others is not incidental. In effect, the chapter makes the distinction between secular and ritual irrelevant: everything that the people do, from day to day and sabbath to sabbath, 348 n 1 1 t f ! Justice as the Cornerstone involves being obedient to the command to be holy. Holiness involves making their lives a transparent enactment of God's law. Chapter 19 refers frequently to God's ordinances but not to the abstract noun for justice. N evertheless, we can sum it up as a chapter about justice because the English abstract noun connotes the very behavior that is exemplified. The idea of justice in this chapter rests on the concept of fairness. A few chapters later, we read the law of talion, "an eye for an eye," in a ruthless sense of tit-for-tat (24: 17-22). However, before reaching that point, chapter 19 has already warned the reader that fairness always needs to be taken into account. It is not fair to treat a blind man as if he could see, an old man as if he were young, a lame man as if he could run, and so on. 1 am tempted to include in this interpretation the much discussed laws against interbreed- ing, sowingwith two kinds ofseed, wearing garments oftwo kinds offabric (19:19), and sex between a free man and the slave woman (19:20-22). The peroration of the chapter repeats the teaching about fairness: "You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measures of length or weight or quantity. You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin" (19:35-36). This chimes with Deuteronomy, "You shall not have in your bag different weights, a large and a small. You shall not have in your bag different measures, a large and a small. But you shall have a perfect andjustweight; a andjust measure you shall have" (25:13-16). So also in Prov 11: 1 we find "A false is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight" (see also Prov 16:11; 20:10, 23). Leviticus explains what it is to use a just weight. Insofar as Leviticus is a literary model of the proportions of the tabernacle, chapters 18-20 correspond to the first step past the dividing screen and the first view of the sanctuary, the middle compartment of the tabernacle. On the principle of pedimental composition, we should look for the maning of Leviticus in its middle part, chapter 19. 16 And in the middle of chapter 19, we read: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (v. 18). The rule that astonishes Christians who did not remember that it came from the Old Testament is revealed as the cornerstone of holiness teaching. NOTES 1. This article is based on my forthcoming book, Leviticus as Literature, Oxford University Press, to whom thanks are due for permission. 2. R. L. Cohn, The Shape of Sacred Space: Four Biblical Studies, AAR 23 (Chico, Cal.: Scholars Press, 1981). 3. J. L. Myres, Herodotus, Father of History (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953) 62-64. 1 acknowledge the help of Simon Hornblower for the discussion of pedimental composition. 4. M. Douglas, Leviticus as Literature. Again, 1 thank the Oxford University Press for permission to publsh parts of chapter 11 in advance of publication. 5. The word for covenant is referred to eight times in chapter 26 (vv. 9, 15, 25, 42 [three times], 44, 45). , --------------------------- Interpretation 349 il 'i 6. J. H. Tigay, Deuteronomy (Philadelphia: J ewish Publication Society, 1996) 252. 7. See also 1 Kgs 14:24,10, 22; 2 Chron 20:35, 37. 8. Herodotus, The History, 2.46. 9. W. Doniger, "The Tail of the Indo-European Horse Sacrifices," Incognita 1(1990)18- 37. . 1 O. M. Shokeid, A Gay Synagog;ue in New York (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995) 17. 11. Ibid., 132. 12. H. Maccoby, "Leviticus and abomination," Times Literary Supplement (11 September 1998) 17. 13. According to a profound analysis of ancient ideas about incest by the French anthro- pologist F. Heritier, for the same man to have sex with two women related in the first degree (i.e., with a woman and her daughter or with two sisters) was generally considered the most heinous form of incest. See Heritier, Les Deux Soeurs et leur Mre (Paris: Odile] acob, 1997). 14. "I am the Lord your God" appears in this chapter seven times (vv. 3, 4, 10, 25, 31, 34, 36). "I am the Lord" also appears seven times after sets of specific laws (vv. 12, 14, 16, 18, 28, 30, 32). Finally, at the end of the chapter, it appears again in the general peroration in v. 37, "And you shall observe all my statutes and all my ordinances, and do them, 1 am the Lord." 15. W. Warning, Literary Artistry in Leviticus, Biblical Interpretation Series 35 (Leiden: Brill, 1999). 16. Chapter 19 fulfills another structural function, that is, to balance and support chapter 26. Between these chapters the principle of God's covenant with the people is enunciated. 350