Leviticus 26:44

44 But even then, when they are still in the land of their enemies, I will not completely abandon them or destroy them. That would put an end to my covenant with them, and I am the Lord their God.

Leviticus 26:44 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 26:44

And yet for all that
I will have on them, in or through my Word, as the Targum of Jonathan; notwithstanding their many and great sins and transgressions, and the sad and miserable condition they were brought into by them, the Lord would have mercy on them and be gracious to them, through Christ and for his sake, and convert and save them, see ( Romans 11:26 Romans 11:27 ) ; the Jews, as Fagius tells us, wonderfully delight themselves with this passage, and read it with the greatest joy and pleasure, and with an elevated voice; concluding from hence that they shall certainly return to their own land; and because the first word in this verse is in sound the same as the Germans use for an "ape", they call this paragraph "the golden ape", and say, when this shall be fulfilled the golden age will take place with them: a very learned man F6 has wrote a dissertation upon it: when

they shall be in the land of their enemies;
of the Romans and other nations, among whom they have been disposed ever since the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus:

I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them
utterly;
for though they have been cast away by the Lord out of their land, and from being his people, and enjoying either the civil or religious privileges they formerly did; and though they have been cast off with abhorrence, and had in great detestation by him, for their sin of rejecting the Messiah, as appears by the punishment inflicted on them; yet not so as to make an utter end of them as a body of people, for, notwithstanding their dispersion everywhere, and their long captivity, they remain a distinct people from all others, which seems to forebode something favourable to them:

and to break my covenant with them;
which he will not do, even his promise of the future call and conversion of them, and of their return to their own land:

for I [am] the Lord their God;
their covenant God, and a covenant keeping God, ( Romans 11:27 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

F6 Carpzovius de aurea Judaeorum Simia, in Thesaur. Theolog. Philolog. vol. 1. p. 344. vid. Pfeiffer. dubia vexata cent. 2. loc. 17. p. 145.

Leviticus 26:44 In-Context

42 I will remember my covenant with Jacob and with Isaac and with Abraham, and I will renew my promise to give my people the land.
43 First, however, the land must be rid of its people, so that it can enjoy its complete rest, and they must pay the full penalty for having rejected my laws and my commands.
44 But even then, when they are still in the land of their enemies, I will not completely abandon them or destroy them. That would put an end to my covenant with them, and I am the Lord their God.
45 I will renew the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I showed all the nations my power by bringing my people out of Egypt, in order that I, the Lord, might be their God."
46 All these are the laws and commands that the Lord gave to Moses on Mount Sinai for the people of Israel.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.