Leviticus 26:37

37 tripping and falling over one another in total confusion. You won't stand a chance against an enemy.

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 All the time it's left there empty, the land will get rest, the Sabbaths it never got when you lived there.
36 "As for those among you still alive, I'll give them over to fearful timidity - even the rustle of a leaf will throw them into a panic. They'll run here and there, back and forth, as if running for their lives even though no one is after them,
37 tripping and falling over one another in total confusion. You won't stand a chance against an enemy.
38 You'll perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will eat you up.
39 Any who are left will slowly rot away in the enemy lands. Rot. And all because of their sins, their sins compounded by their ancestors' sins. "On the Other Hand, If They Confess . . . "
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.