Leviticus 26

1 "'You are not to make yourselves any idols, erect a carved statue or a standing-stone, or place any carved stone anywhere in your land in order to bow down to it. I am ADONAI your God.

2 "'Keep my Shabbats, and revere my sanctuary; I am ADONAI.

3 "'If you live by my regulations, observe my mitzvot and obey them;

4 then I will provide the rain you need in its season, the land will yield its produce, and the trees in the field will yield their fruit.

5 Your threshing time will extend until the grape harvest, and your grape harvesting will extend until the time for sowing seed. You will eat as much food as you want and live securely in your land.

6 "'I will give shalom in the land -you will lie down to sleep unafraid of anyone. I will rid the land of wild animals. The sword will not go through your land.

7 You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall before your sword.

8 Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand -your enemies will fall before your sword.

9 "'I will turn toward you, make you productive, increase your numbers and uphold my covenant with you.

10 You will eat all you want from last year's harvest and throw out what remains of the old to make room for the new.

11 I will put my tabernacle among you, and I will not reject you,

12 but I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.

13 I am ADONAI your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, so that you would not be their slaves. I have broken the bars of your yoke, so that you can walk upright.

14 "'But if you will not listen to me and obey all these mitzvot,

15 if you loathe my regulations and reject my rulings, in order not to obey all my mitzvot but cancel my covenant;

16 then I, for my part, will do this to you: I will bring terror upon you -wasting disease and chronic fever to dim your sight and sap your strength. You will sow your seed for nothing, because your enemies will eat the crops.

17 I will set my face against you - your enemies will defeat you, those who hate you will hound you, and you will flee when no one is pursuing you.

18 If these things don't make you listen to me, then I will discipline you seven times over for your sins.

19 I will break the pride you have in your own power. I will make your sky like iron, your soil like bronze -

20 you will spend your strength in vain, because the land will not yield its produce or the trees in the field their fruit.

21 "'Yes, if you go against me and don't listen to me, I will increase your calamities sevenfold, according to your sins.

22 I will send wild animals among you; they will rob you of your children, destroy your livestock and reduce your numbers, until your roads are deserted.

23 "'If, in spite of all this, you refuse my correction and still go against me;

24 then I too will go against you; and I, yes I, will strike you seven times over for your sins.

25 I will bring a sword against you which will execute the vengeance of the covenant. You will be huddled inside your cities, I will send sickness among you, and you will be handed over to the power of the enemy.

26 I will cut off your supply of bread, so that ten women will bake your bread in one oven and dole out your bread by weight, and you will eat but not be satisfied.

27 "'And if, for all this, you still will not listen to me, but go against me;

28 then I will go against you furiously, and I also will chastise you yet seven times more for your sins.

29 You will eat the flesh of your own sons, you will eat the flesh of your own daughters.

30 I will destroy your high places, cut down your pillars for sun-worship, and throw your carcasses on the carcasses of your idols; and I will detest you.

31 I will lay waste to your cities and make your sanctuaries desolate, so as not to smell your fragrant aromas.

32 I will desolate the land, so that your enemies living in it will be astounded by it.

33 You I will disperse among the nations, and I will draw out the sword in pursuit after you; your land will be a desolation and your cities a wasteland.

34 Then, at last, the land will be paid its Shabbats. As long as it lies desolate and you are in the lands of your enemies, the land will rest and be repaid its Shabbats.

35 Yes, as long as it lies desolate it will have rest, the rest it did not have during your Shabbats, when you lived there.

36 As for those of you who are left, I will fill their hearts with anxiety in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a driven leaf will frighten them, so that they will flee as one flees from the sword and fall when no one is pursuing.

37 Yes, with no one pursuing they will stumble over each other as if fleeing the sword - you will have no power to stand before your enemies.

38 And among the nations you will perish; the land of your enemies will devour you.

39 Those of you who remain will pine away in the lands of your enemies from guilt over your misdeeds and those of your ancestors.

40 Then they will confess their misdeeds and those of their ancestors which they committed against me in their rebellion; they will admit that they went against me.

41 At that time I will be going against them, bringing them into the lands of their enemies. But if their uncircumcised hearts will grow humble, and they are paid the punishment for their misdeeds;

42 then I will remember my covenant with Ya'akov, also my covenant with Yitz'chak and my covenant with Avraham; and I will remember the land.

43 For the land will lie abandoned without them, and it will be paid its Shabbats while it lies desolate without them; and they will be paid the punishment for their misdeeds, because they rejected my rulings and loathed my regulations.

44 Yet, in spite of all that, I will not reject them when they are in the lands of their enemies, nor will I loathe them to the point of utterly destroying them and thus break my covenant with them, because I am ADONAI their God.

45 Rather, for their sakes, I will remember the covenant of their ancestors whom I brought out of the land of Egypt -with the nations watching -so that I might be their God; I am ADONAI.'"

46 These are the laws, rulings and teachings that ADONAI himself gave to the people of Isra'el on Mount Sinai through Moshe.

Leviticus 26 Commentary

Chapter 26

Promises upon keeping the precepts. (1-13) Threatenings against disobedience. (14-39) God promises to remember those that repent. (40-46)

Verses 1-13 This chapter contains a general enforcement of all the laws given by Moses; by promises of reward in case of obedience, on the one hand; and threatenings of punishment for disobedience, on the other. While Israel maintained a national regard to God's worship, sabbaths, and sanctuary, and did not turn aside to idolatry, the Lord engaged to continue to them temporal mercies and religious advantages. These great and precious promises, though they relate chiefly to the life which now is, were typical of the spiritual blessings made sure by the covenant of grace to all believers, through Christ. 1. Plenty and abundance of the fruits of the earth. Every good and perfect gift must be expected from above, from the Father of lights. 2. Peace under the Divine protection. Those dwell in safety, that dwell in God. 3. Victory and success in their wars. It is all one with the Lord to save by many or by few. 4. The increase of their people. The gospel church shall be fruitful. 5. The favour of God, which is the fountain of all Good. 6. Tokens of his presence in and by his ordinances. The way to have God's ordinances fixed among us, is to cleave closely to them. 7. The grace of the covenant. All covenant blessings are summed up in the covenant relation, I will be your God, and ye shall be my people; and they are all grounded upon their redemption. Having purchased them, God would own them, and never cast them off till they cast him off.

Verses 14-39 After God has set the blessing before them which would make them a happy people if they would be obedient, he here sets the curse before them, the evils which would make them miserable, if they were disobedient. Two things would bring ruin. 1. A contempt of God's commandments. They that reject the precept, will come at last to renounce the covenant. 2. A contempt of his corrections. If they will not learn obedience by the things they suffer, God himself would be against them; and this is the root and cause of all their misery. And also, The whole creation would be at war with them. All God's sore judgments would be sent against them. The threatenings here are very particular, they were prophecies, and He that foresaw all their rebellions, knew they would prove so. TEMPORAL judgments are threatened. Those who will not be parted from their sins by the commands of God, shall be parted from them by judgments. Those wedded to their lusts, will have enough of them. SPIRITUAL judgments are threatened, which should seize the mind. They should find no acceptance with God. A guilty conscience would be their continual terror. It is righteous with God to leave those to despair of pardon, who presume to sin; and it is owing to free grace, if we are not left to pine away in the iniquity we were born in, and have lived in.

Verses 40-46 Among the Israelites, persons were not always prosperous or afflicted according to their obedience or disobedience. But national prosperity was the effect of national obedience, and national judgments were brought on by national wickedness. Israel was under a peculiar covenant. National wickedness will end in the ruin of any people, especially where the word of God and the light of the gospel are enjoyed. Sooner or later, sin will be the ruin, as well as the reproach, of every people. Oh that, being humbled for our sins, we might avert the rising storm before it bursts upon us! God grant that we may, in this our day, consider the things which belong to our eternal peace.

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO LEVITICUS 26

In this chapter, after a repetition of some laws against idolatry, and concerning keeping sabbaths, and reverencing the sanctuary of God, Le 26:1,2; in order to encourage the Israelites to keep the various statutes and commandments in this book, and in the preceding, many promises are made of plenty, and peace, and safety from enemies, and of the presence of God with them, Le 26:3-13; and on the contrary, to such as should despise and break his commandments, the most grievous things are threatened, as diseases of body, destruction by their enemies, barrenness and unfruitfulness of land, the sore judgments of wild beasts, famine, sword, and pestilence, Le 26:14-39; and yet after all, when they should confess their sins, and were humbled for them, the Lord promises to remember the covenant he made with their ancestors, and would deal kindly with them, and not cast them away, and utterly destroy them, Le 26:40-46.