Leviticus 26
26
The Reward of Obedience. 1#This chapter concludes the revelation of laws at Mount Sinai (cf. v. 46). Blessings and curses are also found at the end of Deuteronomy’s law collection (Dt 28). Similar lists of blessings and curses appear in the conclusions of ancient Near Eastern treaties. Do not make idols for yourselves. You shall not erect a carved image or a sacred stone for yourselves, nor shall you set up a carved stone for worship in your land;#Lv 19:4; Nm 33:52. for I, the Lord, am your God. 2Keep my sabbaths,#Lv 23:3. and reverence my sanctuary. I am the Lord.
3#The blessings are concerned with the well-being of the nation and its land and involve agricultural bounty, national security, military success and population growth. #Dt 28:1–69. If you live in accordance with my statutes and are careful to observe my commandments, 4I will give you your rains in due season, so that the land will yield its crops, and the trees their fruit;#Dt 11:14; Ps 85:13; Ez 34:26–27. 5your threshing will last till vintage time, and your vintage till the time for sowing, and you will eat your fill of food, and live securely in your land.#Lv 25:18–19; Dt 12:10. 6I will establish peace in the land, and you will lie down to rest with no one to cause you anxiety. I will rid the country of ravenous beasts, and no sword shall sweep across your land. 7You will rout your enemies, and they shall fall before your sword. 8Five of you will put a hundred of your foes to flight, and a hundred of you will put to flight ten thousand, till your enemies fall before your sword.#Dt 32:30; Jos 23:10. 9I will look with favor upon you, and make you fruitful and numerous,#Gn 1:28; Ex 1:7. as I carry out my covenant with you. 10You shall eat the oldest stored harvest, and have to discard it to make room for the new.#Lv 25:22. 11#Ex 29:45; Ez 37:26–28; 2 Cor 6:16. I will set my tabernacle in your midst, and will not loathe you. 12Ever present in your midst, I will be your God, and you will be my people; 13I, the Lord, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be their slaves no more, breaking the bars of your yoke and making you walk erect.#Ez 34:27; Na 1:13.
The Punishment of Disobedience.#To encourage obedience, the list of punishments is longer than the blessings (cf. a similar proportion in Dt 28). The punishments are presented in waves (vv. 14–17, 18–20, 21–22, 23–26, 27–39), one group following another if the people do not return to obedience. Punishments involve sickness, pestilence, agricultural failure and famine, attack of wild animals, death of the people’s children, destruction of illicit and even licit cults, military defeat, panic, and exile. 14#Dt 28:15–69. But if you do not heed me and do not keep all these commandments, 15if you reject my statutes and loathe my decrees, refusing to obey all my commandments and breaking my covenant, 16then I, in turn, will do this to you: I will bring terror upon you—with consumption and fever to dim the eyes and sap the life. You will sow your seed in vain, for your enemies will consume the crop. 17I will turn against you, and you will be beaten down before your enemies#1 Kgs 8:33–34. and your foes will lord it over you. You will flee though no one pursues you.
18If even after this you do not obey me, I will increase the chastisement for your sins sevenfold,#Ps 79:12; Prv 6:31. 19to break your proud strength. I will make the sky above you as hard as iron, and your soil as hard as bronze, 20so that your strength will be spent in vain; your land will bear no crops, and its trees no fruit.
21If then you continue hostile, unwilling to obey me, I will multiply my blows sevenfold, as your sins deserve. 22I will unleash wild beasts against you, to rob you of your children and wipe out your livestock, till your population dwindles away and your roads become deserted.
23If, with all this, you still do not accept my discipline and continue hostile to me, 24#Jer 2:30; Ez 5:17; 14:17. I, too, will continue to be hostile to you and I, for my part, will smite you for your sins sevenfold. 25I will bring against you the sword, the avenger of my covenant. Though you then huddle together in your cities, I will send pestilence among you, till you are delivered to the enemy. 26When I break your staff of bread, ten women will need but one oven for baking your bread, and they shall dole it out to you by weight;#Is 9:19; Ez 4:16; 5:16; 14:13; Mi 6:14. and though you eat, you shall not be satisfied.
27If, despite all this, you disobey and continue hostile to me, 28I will continue in my hostile rage toward you, and I myself will discipline you for your sins sevenfold, 29till you begin to eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters.#Lam 2:20. 30I will demolish your high places, overthrow your incense stands, and cast your corpses upon the corpses of your idols.#2 Chr 14:5; 34:3–4, 7; Ez 6:3–6. In my loathing of you, 31I will lay waste your cities and desolate your sanctuaries, refusing your sweet-smelling offerings. 32So devastated will I leave the land that your enemies who come to live there will stand aghast at the sight of it.#1 Kgs 9:8; Jer 9:11; 18:16; 19:8; 25:18. 33And you I will scatter among the nations#Ps 44:12; Jer 15:7; Ez 6:8. at the point of my drawn sword, leaving your countryside desolate and your cities deserted. 34Then shall the land, during the time it lies waste, make up its lost sabbaths, while you are in the land of your enemies; then shall the land have rest and make up for its sabbaths#Lv 25:2; 2 Chr 36:21. 35during all the time that it lies desolate, enjoying the rest that you would not let it have on your sabbaths when you lived there.
36Those of you who survive in the lands of their enemies, I will make so fainthearted that the sound of a driven leaf will pursue them, and they shall run as if from the sword, and fall though no one pursues them; 37stumbling over one another as if to escape a sword, while no one is after them—so helpless will you be to take a stand against your foes! 38You shall perish among the nations, swallowed up in your enemies’ country. 39Those of you who survive will waste away in the lands of their enemies, for their own and their ancestors’ guilt.#Ez 4:17; 24:23; 33:10.
40#Even though the people may be severely punished, God will remember the covenant when the people repent. They will confess#Lv 16:21; Nm 5:7; Neh 1:6. their iniquity and the iniquity of their ancestors in their treachery against me and in their continued hostility toward me, 41so that I, too, had to be hostile to them and bring them into their enemies’ land. Then, when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, 42I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac; and also my covenant with Abraham I will remember.#Ex 6:5; 2 Kgs 13:23; Ps 106:45; Ez 16:60. The land, too, I will remember. 43The land will be forsaken by them, that in its desolation without them, it may make up its sabbaths, and that they, too, may make good the debt of their guilt for having spurned my decrees and loathed my statutes. 44Yet even so, even while they are in their enemies’ land, I will not reject or loathe them to the point of wiping them out, thus making void my covenant with them; for I, the Lord, am their God. 45I will remember for them the covenant I made with their forebears, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt before the eyes of the nations,#Ex 12:51. that I might be their God. I am the Lord.
46These are the statutes, decrees and laws which the Lord established between himself and the Israelites through Moses on Mount Sinai.#Lv 7:38; Nm 36:13.
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Leviticus 26: NABRE
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Leviticus 26
26
Exhortation to Obedience
1 “‘You must not make for yourselves idols,#sn For the literature regarding the difficult etymology and meaning of the term for “idols” (אֱלִילִם, ’elilim), see the literature cited in the note on Lev 19:4. It appears to be a diminutive play on words with אֵל (’el, “god, God”) and, perhaps at the same time, recalls a common Semitic word for “worthless, weak, powerless, nothingness.” Snaith suggests a rendering of “worthless godlings.” so you must not set up for yourselves a carved image or a pillar, and you must not place a sculpted stone in your land to bow down before#tn Heb “on.” The “sculpted stone” appears to be some sort of stone with images carved into (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 181, and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 449). it, for I am the Lord your God. 2 You must keep my Sabbaths and reverence#tn Heb “and my sanctuary you shall fear.” Cf. NCV “respect”; CEV “honor.” my sanctuary. I am the Lord.
The Benefits of Obedience
3 “‘If you walk in my statutes and are sure to obey my commandments,#tn Heb “and my commandments you shall keep and do them.” This appears to be a kind of verbal hendiadys, where the first verb is a modifier of the action of the second verb (see GKC 386 §120.d, although שָׁמַר [shamar, “to keep”] is not cited there; cf. Lev 20:8; 25:18, etc.). 4 I will give you your rains in their time so that#tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here. the land will give its yield and the trees of the field will produce their fruit.#tn Heb “the tree of the field will give its fruit.” As a collective singular this has been translated as plural. 5 Threshing season will extend for you until the season for harvesting grapes,#tn Heb “will reach for you the vintage season.” and the season for harvesting grapes will extend until sowing season, so#tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here. you will eat your bread until you are satisfied,#tn Heb “to satisfaction”; KJV, ASV, NASB “to the full.” and you will live securely in your land. 6 I will grant peace in the land so that#tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here. you will lie down to sleep without anyone terrifying you.#tn Heb “and there will be no one who terrifies.” The words “to sleep” have been supplied in the translation for clarity. I will remove harmful animals#tn Heb “harmful animal,” singular, but taken here as a collective plural (so almost all English versions). from the land, and no sword of war#tn Heb “no sword”; the words “of war” are supplied in the translation to indicate what the metaphor of the sword represents. will pass through your land. 7 You will pursue your enemies and they will fall before you by the sword.#tn Heb “to the sword.” 8 Five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword. 9 I will turn to you, make you fruitful, multiply you, and maintain#tn Heb “cause to arise,” but probably used here for the Lord’s intention of confirming or maintaining the covenant commitment made at Sinai. Cf. KJV “establish”; NASB “will confirm”; NAB “carry out”; NIV “will keep.” my covenant with you. 10 You will still be eating stored produce from the previous year#tn Heb “old [produce] growing old.” and will have to clean out what is stored from the previous year to make room for new.#tn Heb “and old from the presence of new you will bring out.”
11 “‘I will put my tabernacle#tn LXX codexes Vaticanus and Alexandrinus have “my covenant” rather than “my tabernacle.” Cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV “my dwelling.” in your midst and I will not abhor you.#tn Heb “and my soul [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh] will not abhor you.” 12 I will walk among you, and I will be your God and you will be my people. 13 I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from being their slaves,#tn Heb “from being to them slaves.” and I broke the bars of your yoke and caused you to walk upright.#tn In other words, to walk as free people and not as slaves. Cf. NIV “with (+ your CEV, NLT) heads held high”; NCV “proudly.”
The Consequences of Disobedience
14 “‘If, however,#tn Heb “And if.” you do not obey me and keep#tn Heb “and do not do.” all these commandments – 15 if you reject my statutes and abhor my regulations so that you do not keep#tn Heb “to not do.” all my commandments and you break my covenant – 16 I for my part#tn Or “I also” (see HALOT 76 s.v. אַף 6.b). will do this to you: I will inflict horror on you, consumption and fever, which diminish eyesight and drain away the vitality of life.#tn Heb “soul.” These expressions may refer either to the physical effects of consumption and fever as the rendering in the text suggests (e.g., J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 452, 454, “diminishing eyesight and loss of appetite”), or perhaps the more psychological effects, “which exhausts the eyes” because of anxious hope “and causes depression” (Heb “causes soul [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh] to pine away”), e.g., B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 185. You will sow your seed in vain because#tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have causal force here. your enemies will eat it.#tn That is, “your enemies will eat” the produce that grows from the sown seed. 17 I will set my face against you. You will be struck down before your enemies, those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when there is no one pursuing you.
18 “‘If, in spite of all these things,#tn Heb “And if until these.” you do not obey me, I will discipline you seven times more on account of your sins.#tn Heb “I will add to discipline you seven [times] on your sins.” 19 I will break your strong pride and make your sky like iron and your land like bronze. 20 Your strength will be used up in vain, your land will not give its yield, and the trees of the land#tn Heb “the tree of the land will not give its fruit.” The collective singular has been translated as a plural. Tg. Onq., some medieval Hebrew mss, Smr, LXX, and Tg. Ps.-J. have “the field” as in v. 4, rather than “the land.” will not produce their fruit.
21 “‘If you walk in hostility against me#tn Heb “hostile with me,” but see the added preposition בְּ (bet) on the phrase “in hostility” in v. 24 and 27. and are not willing to obey me, I will increase your affliction#tn Heb “your blow, stroke”; cf. TEV “punishment”; NLT “I will inflict you with seven more disasters.” seven times according to your sins. 22 I will send the wild animals#tn Heb “the animal of the field.” This collective singular has been translated as a plural. The expression “animal of the field” refers to a wild (i.e., nondomesticated) animal. against you and they will bereave you of your children,#tn The words “of your children” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied. annihilate your cattle, and diminish your population#tn Heb “and diminish you.” so that your roads will become deserted.
23 “‘If in spite of these things#tn Heb “And if in these.” you do not allow yourselves to be disciplined and you walk in hostility against me,#tn Heb “with me,” but see the added preposition בְּ (bet) on the phrase “in hostility” in vv. 24 and 27. 24 I myself will also walk in hostility against you and strike you#tn Heb “and I myself will also strike you.” seven times on account of your sins. 25 I will bring on you an avenging sword, a covenant vengeance.#tn Heb “vengeance of covenant”; cf. NAB “the avenger of my covenant.” Although#tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) has a concessive force in this context. you will gather together into your cities, I will send pestilence among you and you will be given into enemy hands.#tn Heb “in hand of enemy,” but Tg. Ps.-J. and Tg. Neof. have “in the hands of your enemies” (J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 454). 26 When I break off your supply of bread,#tn Heb “When I break to you staff of bread” (KJV, ASV, and NASB all similar). ten women will bake your bread in one oven; they will ration your bread by weight,#tn Heb “they will return your bread in weight.” and you will eat and not be satisfied.
27 “‘If in spite of this#tn Heb “And if in this.” you do not obey me but walk in hostility against me,#tn Heb “with me.” 28 I will walk in hostile rage against you#tn Heb “in rage of hostility with you”; NASB “with wrathful hostility”; NRSV “I will continue hostile to you in fury”; CEV “I’ll get really furious.” and I myself will also discipline you seven times on account of your sins. 29 You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters.#tn Heb “and the flesh of your daughters you will eat.” The phrase “you will eat” has not been repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons. 30 I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars,#sn Regarding these cultic installations, see the remarks in B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 188, and R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:903. The term rendered “incense altars” might better be rendered “sanctuaries [of foreign deities]” or “stelae.” and I will stack your dead bodies on top of the lifeless bodies of your idols.#tn The translation reflects the Hebrew wordplay “your corpses…the corpses of your idols.” Since idols, being lifeless, do not really have “corpses,” the translation uses “dead bodies” for people and “lifeless bodies” for the idols. I will abhor you.#tn Heb “and my soul will abhor you.” 31 I will lay your cities waste#tn Heb “And I will give your cities a waste”; NLT “make your cities desolate.” and make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will refuse to smell your soothing aromas. 32 I myself will make the land desolate and your enemies who live in it will be appalled. 33 I will scatter you among the nations and unsheathe the sword#tn Heb “and I will empty sword” (see HALOT 1228 s.v. ריק 3). after you, so your land will become desolate and your cities will become a waste.
34 “‘Then the land will make up for#tn There are two Hebrew roots רָצָה (ratsah), one meaning “to be pleased with; to take pleasure” (HALOT 1280-81 s.v. רצה; cf. “enjoy” in NASB, NIV, NRSV, and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 452), and the other meaning “to restore” (HALOT 1281-82 s.v. II רצה; cf. NAB “retrieve” and B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 189). its Sabbaths all the days it lies desolate while you are in the land of your enemies; then the land will rest and make up its Sabbaths. 35 All the days of the desolation it will have the rest it did not have#tn Heb “it shall rest which it did not rest.” on your Sabbaths when you lived on it.
36 “‘As for#tn Heb “And.” the ones who remain among you, I will bring despair into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a blowing leaf will pursue them, and they will flee as one who flees the sword and fall down even though there is no pursuer. 37 They will stumble over each other as those who flee before a sword, though#tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) is used in a concessive sense here. there is no pursuer, and there will be no one to take a stand#tn The term rendered “to stand up” is a noun, not an infinitive. It occurs only here and appears to designate someone who would take a powerful stand for them against their enemies. for you before your enemies. 38 You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will consume you.
Restoration through Confession and Repentance
39 “‘As for the ones who remain among you, they will rot away because of#tn Heb “in” (so KJV, ASV; also later in this verse). their iniquity in the lands of your enemies, and they will also rot away because of their ancestors’#tn Heb “fathers’” (also in the following verse). iniquities which are with them. 40 However, when#tn Heb “And.” Many English versions take this to be a conditional clause (“if…”) though there is no conditional particle (see, e.g., NASB, NIV, NRSV; but see the very different rendering in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 190). The temporal translation offered here (“when”) takes into account the particle אָז (’az, “then”), which occurs twice in v. 41. The obvious contextual contrast between vv. 39 and 40 is expressed by “however” in the translation. they confess their iniquity and their ancestors’ iniquity which they committed by trespassing against me,#tn Heb “in their trespassing which they trespassed in me.” See the note on Lev 5:15, although the term is used in a more technical sense there in relation to the “guilt offering.” by which they also walked#tn Heb “and also which they walked.” in hostility against me#tn Heb “with me.” 41 (and I myself will walk in hostility against them and bring them into the land of their enemies), and#tn Heb “or then,” although the LXX has “then” and the Syriac “and then.” then their uncircumcised hearts become humbled and they make up for#tn Heb “and then they make up for.” On the verb “make up for” see the note on v. 34 above. their iniquity, 42 I will remember my covenant with Jacob and also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham,#tn Heb “my covenant with Abraham I will remember.” The phrase “I will remember” has not been repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons. and I will remember the land. 43 The land will be abandoned by them#tn Heb “from them.” The preposition “from” refers here to the agent of the action (J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 455). in order that it may make up for#tn The jussive form of the verb with the simple vav (ו) here calls for a translation that expresses purpose. its Sabbaths while it is made desolate#tn The verb is the Hophal infinitive construct with the third feminine singular suffix (GKC 182 §67.y; cf. v. 34). without them,#tn Heb “from them.” and they will make up for their iniquity because#tn Heb “because and in because,” a double expression, which is used only here and in Ezek 13:10 (without the vav) for emphasis (GKC 492 §158.b). they have rejected my regulations and have abhorred#tn Heb “and their soul has abhorred.” my statutes. 44 In spite of this, however, when they are in the land of their enemies I will not reject them and abhor them to make a complete end of them, to break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God. 45 I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors#tn Heb “covenant of former ones.” sn For similar expressions referring back to the ancestors who refused to follow the stipulations of the Mosaic covenant see, for example, Deut 19:14, Jer 11:10, and Ps 79:8 (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 192, and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 471). whom I brought out from the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am the Lord.’”
Summary Colophon
46 These are the statutes, regulations, and instructions which the Lord established#tn Heb “gave” (so NLT); KJV, ASV, NCV “made.” between himself and the Israelites at Mount Sinai through#tn Heb “by the hand of” (so KJV). Moses.
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