Leviticus 26:37

37 And brother shall disregard brother as in war, when none pursues; and ye shall not be able to withstand your enemies.

Leviticus 26:37 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 26:37

And they shall fall one upon another
In their hurry and confusion, everyone making all the haste he can to escape the imaginary danger; or "a man upon his brother" F26; his friend, as Aben Ezra interprets it, having no regard to relation and friendship, every one endeavouring to save himself. There is another sense which some Jewish writers F1 give of this phrase, and is observed by Jarchi, which is, that everyone shall fall for the iniquities of his brother; for all the Israelites say, they are sureties for one another; but the former sense is best: as it were before a sword, when none pursueth:
as if a sword was drawn and brandished at them, just ready to be thrust in them, filling them with the utmost dread and terror, and yet at the same time none in pursuit of them: and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies;
no heart to resist them, no strength nor spirit to oppose them, and defend themselves but be obliged to surrender their cities, themselves, their families and goods, into the hand of the enemy.


FOOTNOTES:

F26 (wyxab vya) "vir in fratrem suum", Vatablus, Drusius, Piscator.
F1 Torat Cohanim apud Yalkut, par. 1. fol. 197. 2.

Leviticus 26:37 In-Context

35 And ye shall be in the land of your enemies; then the land shall keep its sabbaths, and the land shall enjoy its sabbaths all the days of its desolation: it shall keep sabbaths which it kept not among your sabbaths, when ye dwelt in it.
36 And to those who are left of you I will bring bondage into their heart in the land of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them, and they shall flee as fleeing from war, and shall fall when none pursues them.
37 And brother shall disregard brother as in war, when none pursues; and ye shall not be able to withstand your enemies.
38 And ye shall perish among the Gentiles, and the land of your enemies shall devour you.
39 And those who are left of you shall perish, because of their sins, and because of the sins of their fathers: in the land of their enemies shall they consume away.

The Brenton translation of the Septuagint is in the public domain.