(26) And ye shall be holy unto me.--Rather, And ye shall be my holy ones, in harmony with the remark in the last clause of this verse, where God says that He had separated them for the purpose that "ye should be mine" The phrase only occurs here, and is different from the one which has been used in Leviticus 11:44-45; Leviticus 20:17.

And have severed you from other people.--Better, and have separated you from other people, as the Authorised Version renders this phrase in Leviticus 20:24. That is, God has separated them from the rest of the nations to be His holy people, and to be an example to them. The spiritual guides during the second Temple have explained this separation of Israel as not implying the rejection of the other nations, but simply as the first installment. They maintained that it implies that all other nations are gradually to follow, and that the Divine choice is to go on from people to people, till "many nations shall be joined to the Lord . . . and shall be my people" (Zechariah 2:11), where the same phrase, "shall be mine," is used as in the passage before us. The Divine plan of the redemption of mankind they set forth in the text before us as follows :--"If the Scripture had said, I have separated all the nations from you, there would be no future for the Gentiles; but since it is said, I have separated you from the nations, it is as one who first of all separates the best from the less good, and then goes on continually to separate the better ones. But he who separates the bad from the good, by this very process rejects the bad, and does not return to them." The Mosaic doctrine of the separation of Israel, therefore, so far from tending to produce and harbour in the Jews contracted views of God's mercy, and a contempt for all other nations, has taught them to look upon themselves as simply having gone first to the mountain of the Lord, and that all other nations are to follow, and to become with them children of God.

20:10-27 These verses repeat what had been said before, but it was needful there should be line upon line. What praises we owe to God that he has taught the evil of sin, and the sure way of deliverance from it! May we have grace to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things; may we have no fellowship with unfruitful works of darkness, but reprove them.And ye shall be holy unto me,.... Separated from all unclean persons and things, and devoted to his service, and obedient to all his commands, and so live holy lives and conversations, according to his will, and to his honour and glory:

for I the Lord am holy; and therefore they, his people, should be like him, and imitate him, and observe those things which are agreeable to his holy nature and will, and yield a cheerful obedience to his holy precepts:

and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine; which is a very forcible argument, a strong motive, and which laid them under great obligation to obedience and holiness.