Leviticus 26:16

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.

Leviticus 26:16 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 26:16

I also will do this unto you
Henceforward follow threatenings of dreadful evils to the transgressors and despisers of the commandments of God, which thus begin: I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning
ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart;
some, as Aben Ezra observes, take these to design what may affect the seed sown and the increase of it, such as blasting and mildew, because it follows: "ye shall sow in vain"; but no doubt diseases of the body are intended; for what we translate "terror" does not signify terror of mind, but some sudden, hasty, terrible distemper; perhaps the pestilence, as the Targum of Jonathan; some have thought of the falling sickness, as Bishop Patrick, because the word has the signification of haste and precipitance; and the second is a disease well known among us, and so called from its wasting and consuming nature; Jarchi interprets it of a disease which swells the flesh, either fills it with tumours and pustules, the Septuagint calls it the itch; or with wind or water, which has led some to think of the dropsy; and the last of them seems to be rightly rendered a burning ague or fever, though the Septuagint takes it for the jaundice, but that seems not to be so threatening, terrible, and dangerous, as what may be here supposed: now these diseases and all others are by the appointment of God, they come and go by his order, and while they continue have the power over persons, nor can they rid themselves of them at pleasure; and these have such an effect on persons seized by them, as to cause dimness of sight, a hollowness of their eyes, which sink into the head, as well as fill the heart with grief and sorrow; either through present pains and agonies, or in a view of future judgment and wrath to come: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it;
either eat it up for forage before it is ripe, or, if ripe and gathered in the barn, should come and besiege their cities and plunder their granaries.

Leviticus 26:16 In-Context

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.
Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.