Leviticus 26

Listen to Leviticus 26

Blessings for Obedience

1 "You shall not make 1idols for yourselves or erect an 2image or 3pillar, and you shall not set up a 4figured stone in your land to bow down to it, for I am the LORD your God.
2 5You shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD.
3 6"If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them,
4 then 7I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
5 8Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. And 9you shall eat your bread to the full and 10dwell in your land securely.
6 11I will give peace in the land, and 12you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And 13I will remove harmful beasts from the land, 14and the sword shall not go through your land.
7 You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.
8 15Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.
9 16I will turn to you and 17make you fruitful and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you.
10 You shall eat 18old store long kept, and you shall clear out the old to make way for the new.
11 19I will make my dwelling[a] among you, and my soul shall not abhor you.
12 20And I 21will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.
13 22I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves. 23And I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.

Punishment for Disobedience

14 24"But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments,
15 if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but 25break my covenant,
16 then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with 26wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And 27you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.
17 I will 28set my face against you, and 29you shall be struck down before your enemies. 30Those who hate you shall rule over you, and 31you shall flee when none pursues you.
18 And if in spite of this you will not listen to me, then I will discipline you again 32sevenfold for your sins,
19 and I will break 33the pride of your power, and I 34will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze.
20 And 35your strength shall be spent in vain, for 36your land shall not yield its increase, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.
21 37"Then if you walk contrary to me and will not listen to me, I will continue striking you, sevenfold for your sins.
22 And 38I will let loose the wild beasts against you, which shall bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock and make you few in number, so that 39your roads shall be deserted.
23 "And 40if by this discipline you are not turned to me 41but walk contrary to me,
24 42then I also will walk contrary to you, and I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins.
25 And 43I will bring a sword upon you, that shall execute vengeance for the covenant. And if you gather within your cities, 44I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
26 45When I break your supply[b] of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven and shall dole out your bread again by weight, and 46you shall eat and not be satisfied.
27 "But 47if in spite of this you will not listen to me, but walk contrary to me,
28 then I will walk contrary to you 48in fury, and I myself will discipline you 49sevenfold for your sins.
29 50You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters.
30 And 51I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars and 52cast your dead bodies upon the dead bodies of your idols, and my soul will abhor you.
31 And I will 53lay your cities waste and will 54make your sanctuaries desolate, and 55I will not smell your pleasing aromas.
32 And 56I myself will devastate the land, so that your enemies who settle in it shall be 57appalled at it.
33 And 58I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.
34 59"Then the land shall enjoy[c] its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, while you are in your enemies' land; then the land shall rest, and enjoy its Sabbaths.
35 As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, the rest that it did not have on your Sabbaths when you were dwelling in it.
36 And as for those of you who are left, 60I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The 61sound of a 62driven leaf shall put them to flight, and they shall flee as one flees from the sword, and they shall fall when none pursues.
37 They shall stumble over one another, as if to escape a sword, though none pursues. And 63you shall have no power to stand before your enemies.
38 And you shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.
39 And those of you who are left shall 64rot away in your enemies' lands because of their iniquity, and also because of the iniquities of their fathers they shall rot away like them.
40 "But if 65they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery that they 66committed against me, and also in walking contrary to me,
41 so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies--if then their 67uncircumcised heart is 68humbled and they make amends for their iniquity,
42 then I will 69remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will 70remember the land.
43 But 71the land shall be abandoned by them and enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them, and they shall make amends for their iniquity, because they spurned my rules and their soul abhorred my statutes.
44 Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, 72I will not spurn them, neither will I abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and 73break my covenant with them, for I am the LORD their God.
45 But I will for their sake remember the covenant with their forefathers, 74whom I brought out of the land of Egypt 75in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the LORD."
46 76These are the statutes and rules and laws that the LORD made between himself and the people of Israel through Moses 77on Mount Sinai.

Leviticus 26 Commentary

Chapter 26

Promises upon keeping the precepts. (1-13) Threatenings against disobedience. (14-39) God promises to remember those that repent. (40-46)

Verses 1-13 This chapter contains a general enforcement of all the laws given by Moses; by promises of reward in case of obedience, on the one hand; and threatenings of punishment for disobedience, on the other. While Israel maintained a national regard to God's worship, sabbaths, and sanctuary, and did not turn aside to idolatry, the Lord engaged to continue to them temporal mercies and religious advantages. These great and precious promises, though they relate chiefly to the life which now is, were typical of the spiritual blessings made sure by the covenant of grace to all believers, through Christ. 1. Plenty and abundance of the fruits of the earth. Every good and perfect gift must be expected from above, from the Father of lights. 2. Peace under the Divine protection. Those dwell in safety, that dwell in God. 3. Victory and success in their wars. It is all one with the Lord to save by many or by few. 4. The increase of their people. The gospel church shall be fruitful. 5. The favour of God, which is the fountain of all Good. 6. Tokens of his presence in and by his ordinances. The way to have God's ordinances fixed among us, is to cleave closely to them. 7. The grace of the covenant. All covenant blessings are summed up in the covenant relation, I will be your God, and ye shall be my people; and they are all grounded upon their redemption. Having purchased them, God would own them, and never cast them off till they cast him off.

Verses 14-39 After God has set the blessing before them which would make them a happy people if they would be obedient, he here sets the curse before them, the evils which would make them miserable, if they were disobedient. Two things would bring ruin. 1. A contempt of God's commandments. They that reject the precept, will come at last to renounce the covenant. 2. A contempt of his corrections. If they will not learn obedience by the things they suffer, God himself would be against them; and this is the root and cause of all their misery. And also, The whole creation would be at war with them. All God's sore judgments would be sent against them. The threatenings here are very particular, they were prophecies, and He that foresaw all their rebellions, knew they would prove so. TEMPORAL judgments are threatened. Those who will not be parted from their sins by the commands of God, shall be parted from them by judgments. Those wedded to their lusts, will have enough of them. SPIRITUAL judgments are threatened, which should seize the mind. They should find no acceptance with God. A guilty conscience would be their continual terror. It is righteous with God to leave those to despair of pardon, who presume to sin; and it is owing to free grace, if we are not left to pine away in the iniquity we were born in, and have lived in.

Verses 40-46 Among the Israelites, persons were not always prosperous or afflicted according to their obedience or disobedience. But national prosperity was the effect of national obedience, and national judgments were brought on by national wickedness. Israel was under a peculiar covenant. National wickedness will end in the ruin of any people, especially where the word of God and the light of the gospel are enjoyed. Sooner or later, sin will be the ruin, as well as the reproach, of every people. Oh that, being humbled for our sins, we might avert the rising storm before it bursts upon us! God grant that we may, in this our day, consider the things which belong to our eternal peace.

Cross References 77

  • 1. See Leviticus 19:4
  • 2. See Exodus 20:4, 5
  • 3. Exodus 23:24
  • 4. Numbers 33:52; [Ezekiel 8:10]
  • 5. Leviticus 19:30; See Exodus 20:8
  • 6. Deuteronomy 11:13-15; Deuteronomy 28:1-14; See Leviticus 18:4
  • 7. Psalms 67:6; Psalms 85:12; Ezekiel 34:26, 27; Ezekiel 36:30; Joel 2:23, 24; Zechariah 8:12; [ver. 20; Deuteronomy 11:17]
  • 8. [Amos 9:13]
  • 9. See Leviticus 25:19
  • 10. See Leviticus 25:18
  • 11. [1 Kings 4:25; 1 Chronicles 22:9]
  • 12. Job 11:19; Jeremiah 30:10; Zephaniah 3:13
  • 13. Ezekiel 34:25; [2 Kings 17:25; Isaiah 35:9; Ezekiel 5:17; Ezekiel 14:15]
  • 14. [Ezekiel 14:17]
  • 15. [Deuteronomy 32:30; Joshua 23:10; Isaiah 30:17]
  • 16. 2 Kings 13:23
  • 17. Nehemiah 9:23
  • 18. Leviticus 25:22
  • 19. Ezekiel 37:26-28; [Revelation 21:3]
  • 20. Exodus 29:45; Cited 2 Corinthians 6:16
  • 21. Jeremiah 7:23; Jeremiah 11:4; Jeremiah 24:7; Jeremiah 30:22; Ezekiel 11:20; Ezekiel 14:11; Ezekiel 36:28; Ezekiel 37:27; See Exodus 6:7
  • 22. See Leviticus 25:38
  • 23. Ezekiel 34:27; [Jeremiah 27:2; Jeremiah 28:10, 13]
  • 24. [Lamentations 2:17; Malachi 2:2]; See Deuteronomy 28:15-68
  • 25. ver. 44; Deuteronomy 31:20
  • 26. Deuteronomy 28:21
  • 27. Deuteronomy 28:33, 51; Job 31:8; Jeremiah 5:17; Micah 6:15
  • 28. See Leviticus 17:10
  • 29. Deuteronomy 28:25; Judges 2:14; Jeremiah 19:7
  • 30. Psalms 106:41
  • 31. Proverbs 28:1; [ver. 36; Psalms 53:5]
  • 32. ver. 21, 24, 28; 1 Samuel 2:5; Psalms 119:164; Proverbs 24:16
  • 33. Ezekiel 30:6; [Jeremiah 13:9]
  • 34. Deuteronomy 28:23
  • 35. [Psalms 127:1; Isaiah 49:4]
  • 36. [Haggai 1:10]; See ver. 4
  • 37. ver. 27
  • 38. Deuteronomy 32:24; See ver. 6
  • 39. Judges 5:6; Isaiah 33:8; Lamentations 1:4; Zechariah 7:14
  • 40. Jeremiah 2:30; Jeremiah 5:3; See Amos 4:6-12
  • 41. [See ver. 21 above]
  • 42. 2 Samuel 22:27; Psalms 18:26
  • 43. Deuteronomy 32:25; Jeremiah 14:12; Jeremiah 24:10; Jeremiah 29:17, 18; Ezekiel 5:17; Ezekiel 6:3; Ezekiel 14:17; Ezekiel 29:8; Ezekiel 33:2
  • 44. Numbers 14:12; Deuteronomy 28:21
  • 45. Ezekiel 5:16">Ps. 10Ezekiel 5:16; Isaiah 3:1; Ezekiel 4:16; Ezekiel 5:16; Ezekiel 14:13
  • 46. Isaiah 9:20; Micah 6:14; Haggai 1:6
  • 47. ver. 21, 24
  • 48. Isaiah 59:18; Isaiah 63:3; Isaiah 66:15; Jeremiah 21:5; Ezekiel 5:13, 15; Ezekiel 8:18
  • 49. [See ver. 18 above]
  • 50. Deuteronomy 28:53; Ezekiel 5:10; [2 Kings 6:29; Lamentations 4:10]
  • 51. 2 Chronicles 14:5; 2 Chronicles 34:3, 4, 7; See Ezekiel 6:3-6
  • 52. [2 Kings 23:20; 2 Chronicles 34:5; Ezekiel 6:5]
  • 53. Nehemiah 2:3; Jeremiah 4:7; See 2 Kings 25:4-10
  • 54. Psalms 74:7; Lamentations 1:10; Ezekiel 9:6; Ezekiel 21:2
  • 55. Jeremiah 6:20; See Isaiah 1:11-15; Amos 5:21-23
  • 56. Jeremiah 9:11; Jeremiah 25:11, 18
  • 57. Deuteronomy 28:37; 1 Kings 9:8; Jeremiah 18:16; Jeremiah 19:8; Ezekiel 5:15
  • 58. Deuteronomy 4:27; Deuteronomy 28:64; Nehemiah 1:8; Psalms 44:11; Jeremiah 9:16; Ezekiel 12:15; Ezekiel 20:23; Ezekiel 22:15; Zechariah 7:14; [Luke 21:24]
  • 59. 2 Chronicles 36:21; See Leviticus 25:2
  • 60. Ezekiel 21:7
  • 61. ver. 17
  • 62. Job 13:25
  • 63. Joshua 7:12, 13; Judges 2:14
  • 64. Deuteronomy 28:65; Ezekiel 4:17; Ezekiel 24:23; Ezekiel 33:10; [Ezekiel 6:9]
  • 65. [Nehemiah 9:2; Proverbs 28:13; 1 John 1:9]; See 1 Kings 8:33-36; Daniel 9:4-19
  • 66. Leviticus 6:2; Numbers 5:6
  • 67. See Exodus 6:12
  • 68. [1 Kings 21:29; 2 Chronicles 12:6, 7; 2 Chronicles 32:26; 2 Chronicles 33:12, 13]
  • 69. Exodus 2:24; Exodus 6:5; Psalms 106:45; Ezekiel 16:60
  • 70. [Psalms 85:1]
  • 71. [See ver. 34 above]
  • 72. [Deuteronomy 4:31; 2 Kings 13:23; Nehemiah 9:31; Romans 11:2]
  • 73. ver. 15
  • 74. Leviticus 22:33
  • 75. Psalms 98:2; Ezekiel 20:9, 22
  • 76. Leviticus 27:34; Deuteronomy 6:1; Deuteronomy 12:1
  • 77. Leviticus 25:1

Footnotes 3

  • [a]. Hebrew tabernacle
  • [b]. Hebrew staff
  • [c]. Or pay for; twice in this verse; also verse 43

Chapter Summary

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.

Leviticus 26 Commentaries

The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.