Leviticus 19:33 Commentary - Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

(33) And if a stranger sojourn with thee.—The stranger, for whose benefit the legislators enacted so many humane and benign laws, and with regard to whom the book of Leviticus has laid down so many precepts, is one of non-Jewish origin, but who had joined the Jewish faith. He had, therefore, to undergo the rite of circumcision; he had to fast on the great Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:29); he had to submit to the regulations about sacrifices (Lev. 17:8-9; Lev. 22:18); he had to abstain from eating blood and the flesh of animals torn by wild beasts (Lev. 22:10; Lev. 22:15); he had to practise the laws of chastity (Lev. 18:26); like the Israelite by birth, he had to refrain from blasphemy, and obey the moral precepts (Lev. 24:16-22). These were some of the conditions of his sojourning in the land.

Ye shall not vex him.—Having once been admitted into the community, the Israelites were forbidden to upbraid him with his nationality or throw at him the fact that he was originally an idolater. They are thus prohibited calling him foreigner or neophyte, a practice which every civilised nation and religious community are prone more or less to indulge in to this day, with regard to aliens and those who have embraced their faith.