Leviticus 26:14-33

Penalties of Disobedience

14 '¹But if you do not obey Me and do not carry out all these commandments,

15 if, instead, you ²reject My statutes, and if your soul abhors My ordinances so as not to carry out all My commandments, and so ³break My covenant,

16 I, in turn, will do this to you: I will appoint over you a ⁴sudden terror, consumption and fever that will waste away the eyes and cause the ⁵soul to pine away; also, ⁶you will sow your seed uselessly, for your enemies will eat it up.

17 'I will set My face against you so that you will be struck down before your enemies; and ⁷those who hate you will rule over you, and ⁸you will flee when no one is pursuing you.

18 'If also after these things you do not obey Me, then I will punish you ⁹seven times more for your sins.

19 'I will also ¹⁰break down your pride of power; I will also make your sky like iron and your earth like bronze.

20 '¹¹Your strength will be spent uselessly, for your land will not yield its produce and the trees of the land will not yield their fruit.

21 'If then, you ¹²act with hostility against Me and are unwilling * to obey Me, I will increase the plague on you ¹³seven times according to your sins.

22 '¹⁴I will let loose among you the beasts of the field, which will bereave you of your children and destroy your cattle and reduce your number so that ¹⁵your roads lie deserted.

23 '¹⁶And if by these things you are not turned to Me, but act with hostility against Me,

24 then I will ¹⁷act with hostility against you; and I, even I, will strike you ¹⁸seven times for your sins.

25 'I will also bring upon you a sword which will execute ¹⁹vengeance for the covenant; and when you gather together into your cities, I will send ²⁰pestilence among you, so that you shall be delivered into enemy hands.

26 '²¹When I break your staff of bread, ten women will bake your bread in one oven, and they will bring back your bread in rationed amounts, so that you will ²²eat and not be satisfied.

27 'Yet if in spite of this you do not obey Me, but act with hostility against Me,

28 then ²³I will act with wrathful hostility against you, and I, even I, will punish you seven times for your sins.

29 'Further, ²⁴you will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters you will eat.

30 'I then ²⁵will destroy your high places, and cut down your ²⁶incense altars, and heap your remains on the remains of your idols, for My soul shall abhor you.

31 'I will lay ²⁷waste your cities as well and will make your ²⁸sanctuaries desolate, and I will not ²⁹smell your soothing aromas.

32 'I will make ³⁰the land desolate ³¹so that your enemies who settle in it will be appalled over it.

33 'You, however, I ³²will scatter among the nations and will draw out a sword after you, as your land becomes desolate and your cities become waste.

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Leviticus 26:14-33 Meaning and Commentary

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.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 32

1. Deuteronomy 28:15-68; Joshua 23:15
2. Leviticus 26:11; 2 Kings 17:15
3. Leviticus 26:9
4. Deuteronomy 28:22; Psalms 78:33
5. 1 Samuel 2:33; Ezekiel 24:23; Ezekiel 33:10
6. Judges 6:3-6; Job 31:8
7. Psalms 106:41
8. Leviticus 26:36, 37; Psalms 53:5; Proverbs 28:1
9. Lev 26:21, 24, 28
10. Isaiah 28:1-3; Ezekiel 24:21
11. Psalms 127:1; Isaiah 17:10, 11; Isaiah 49:4; Jeremiah 12:13
12. Lev 26:23, 27, 40
13. Leviticus 26:18
14. 2 Kings 17:25
15. Judges 5:6
16. Leviticus 26:21; Jeremiah 5:3
17. Leviticus 26:28, 41
18. Leviticus 26:21
19. Jeremiah 50:28; Jeremiah 51:11
20. Numbers 14:12
21. Isaiah 3:1; Ezekiel 4:16, 17; Ezekiel 5:16
22. Micah 6:14
23. Leviticus 26:24, 41; Isaiah 59:18
24. 2 Kings 6:29
25. 2 Kings 23:20; Ezekiel 6:3, 6; Amos 7:9
26. 2 Chronicles 34:4, 7; Isaiah 27:9
27. Nehemiah 2:3; Jer 44:2, 6, 22
28. Isaiah 63:18; Lamentations 2:7
29. Amos 5:21
30. Jeremiah 9:11; Jeremiah 12:11; Jeremiah 25:11; Jeremiah 33:10
31. Jeremiah 18:16; Jeremiah 19:8
32. Deuteronomy 4:27; Deuteronomy 28:64; Psalms 44:11; Psalms 106:27; Jeremiah 31:10; Ezekiel 12:15; Ezekiel 20:23; Zechariah 7:14

Footnotes 5

[a]. Lit "walk," and so throughout the ch
[b]. Lit "by weight"
[c]. Lit "corpses"
[d]. Lit "corpses"
[e]. Lit "give desolation to"