Leviticus 26:27-45

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

28 then ¹I will act with wrathful hostility against you, and I, even I, will punish you seven times for your sins.

29 'Further, ²you will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters you will eat.

30 'I then ³will destroy your high places, and cut down your ⁴incense altars, and heap your remains on the remains of your idols, for My soul shall abhor you.

31 'I will lay ⁵waste your cities as well and will make your ⁶sanctuaries desolate, and I will not ⁷smell your soothing aromas.

32 'I will make ⁸the land desolate ⁹so that your enemies who settle in it will be appalled over it.

33 'You, however, I ¹⁰will scatter among the nations and will draw out a sword after you, as your land becomes desolate and your cities become waste.

34 '¹¹Then the land will enjoy its sabbaths all the days of the desolation, while you are in your enemies' land; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths.

35 'All the days of its desolation it will observe the rest which it did not observe on your sabbaths, while you were living on it.

36 'As for those of you who may be left, I will also bring ¹²weakness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. And the sound of a driven leaf will chase them, and even when no one is pursuing they will flee as though from the sword, and they will fall.

37 '¹³They will therefore stumble over each other as if running from the sword, although no one is pursuing; and you will have no strength to stand up before your enemies.

38 'But ¹⁴you will perish among the nations, and your enemies' land will consume you.

39 '¹⁵So those of you who may be left will rot away because of their iniquity in the lands of your enemies; and also because of the iniquities of their forefathers they will rot away with them.

40 '¹⁶If they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their forefathers, in their unfaithfulness which they committed against Me, and also in their acting with hostility against Me-

41 I also was acting with hostility against them, to bring them into the land of their enemies -¹⁷or if their uncircumcised heart becomes humbled so that ¹⁸they then make amends for their iniquity,

42 then I will remember ¹⁹My covenant with Jacob, and I will remember also ²⁰My covenant with Isaac, and ²¹My covenant with Abraham as well, and I will remember the land.

43 '²²For the land will be abandoned by them, and will make up for its sabbaths while it is made desolate without them. They, meanwhile, will be making amends for their iniquity, because they rejected My ordinances and their ²³soul abhorred My statutes.

44 'Yet in spite * of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so ²⁴abhor them as ²⁵to destroy them, ²⁶breaking My covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God.

45 'But I will remember for them the ²⁷covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that ²⁸I might be their God. I am the LORD.' "

Leviticus 26:27-45 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.

Cross References

• 1. Leviticus 26:24, 41; Isaiah 59:18
• 2. 2 Kings 6:29
• 3. 2 Kings 23:20; Ezekiel 6:3, 6; Amos 7:9
• 4. 2 Chronicles 34:4, 7; Isaiah 27:9
• 5. Nehemiah 2:3; Jer 44:2, 6, 22
• 6. Isaiah 63:18; Lamentations 2:7
• 7. Amos 5:21
• 8. Jeremiah 9:11; Jeremiah 12:11; Jeremiah 25:11; Jeremiah 33:10
• 9. Jeremiah 18:16; Jeremiah 19:8
• 10. Deuteronomy 4:27; Deuteronomy 28:64; Psalms 44:11; Psalms 106:27; Jeremiah 31:10; Ezekiel 12:15; Ezekiel 20:23; Zechariah 7:14
• 11. Leviticus 26:43; 2 Chronicles 36:21
• 12. Isaiah 30:17; Lamentations 1:3, 6; Lamentations 4:19; Ezekiel 21:7
• 13. Jeremiah 6:21; Nahum 3:3
• 14. Deuteronomy 4:26
• 15. Ezekiel 4:17; Ezekiel 33:10
• 16. Jeremiah 3:12-15; Jeremiah 14:20; Hosea 5:15
• 17. Jeremiah 4:4; Jeremiah 9:25, 26; Ezekiel 44:7, 9; Acts 7:51
• 18. Ezekiel 20:43
• 19. Genesis 28:13-15; Genesis 35:11, 12
• 20. Genesis 26:2-5
• 21. Genesis 22:15-18
• 22. Leviticus 26:34
• 23. Leviticus 26:11
• 24. Leviticus 26:11
• 25. Deuteronomy 4:31; Jeremiah 30:11
• 26. Jeremiah 33:20-26
• 27. Exodus 6:6-8
• 28. Genesis 17:7

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "corpses"
• [b]. Lit "corpses"
• [c]. Lit "give desolation to"
• [d]. Lit "satisfy"
• [e]. Lit "satisfy"
• [f]. Lit "the flight of the sword"
• [g]. Lit "you will stand"
• [h]. Lit "because and by the cause"