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Mat_5:43. Τὸν πλησίον σου ] In Lev_19:18, øÅòÂêÈ denotes a member of the nation, whereby the proselyte also is included with others; hatred towards the heathen, however, is not conceived of by the legislator as an antithesis that follows of itself, and therefore we may all the less assume that Jesus Himself introduced into the law hatred of one’s enemies, as an abstraction from the national exclusiveness, in which the law keeps Judaism towards heathenism, as if it commanded this hatred (Weiss, Bleek). The casuistic tradition of the Pharisees, however, explained Lev_19:18, as the antithetical τ . ἐχθρόν ς . shows, of a friend, and deduced therefrom (perhaps with the addition of passages like Deu_25:17-19, comp. Mal_1:3) the antithesis (which confessedly was also a principle of the common Hellenism), see Stallbaum, ad Plat. Phil. 110, p. 154; Jacobs, ad Del. epigr. p; Matthew 144: καὶ μισήσεις τὸν ἐχθρόν σου , by which was meant not the national enemy (Keim), but the personal ( σου ) private enemy, in opposition to the law (Exo_23:4 f.; Lev_19:18) and to the pious spirit of the Old Covenant (Psa_7:5; Psa_35:13 f.; Job_31:29; Pro_24:17; Pro_24:29; Pro_25:21 f.; comp. Gen_45:1; 1Sa_24:7; 1Sa_18:5; 2Ki_6:22). Jesus Himself also may have understood the Pharisaic addition only to refer to private enemies, as is clear from His antithesis, Mat_5:44 ff.