Leviticus 26:26

26 When I break your staff of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver your bread again by weight: and you shall eat, and not be satisfied.

Leviticus 26:26 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 26:26

[And] when I have broken the staff of your bread
Brought a famine, at least a scarcity of provisions upon them, deprived them of bread, the staff of life, by which it is supported; or however made it very scarce among them, so that they had hardly a sufficiency to sustain nature, and perhaps the blessing of nourishment withheld from that; see ( Isaiah 3:1 ) ; ten women shall bake your bread in one oven;
for want of wood, according to Jarchi; or rather through scarcity of bread corn, they should have so little to bake every week, that one oven would be sufficient for ten families, which in a time of plenty each made use of one for themselves; and so Aben Ezra says, it was a custom in Israel for every family to bake in an oven by themselves, which they ate the whole week. Ten is a certain number for an uncertain, and denotes many, as in ( Zechariah 8:23 ) . Making and baking bread was the work of women in the eastern countries, as we find it was particularly among the Persians {n}, and continues to this day among the Moors and Arabs ^F15: and they shall deliver [you] your bread again by weight;
there being not enough for everyone to eat what they pleased, but were obliged to a rationed allowance, therefore everyone in the family should have their share delivered to him by weight; see ( Ezekiel 4:16 Ezekiel 4:17 ) ; and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied;
not having enough to eat to satisfaction; or what they did eat, God would withhold a blessing from it for their nourishment, the reverse of ( Leviticus 26:5 Leviticus 26:10 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F14 Herodot. Polymnia, sive. l. 4. c. 187.
F15 Shaw's Travels, p. 241. Ed. 2.

Leviticus 26:26 In-Context

24 then will I also walk contrary to you; and I will strike you, even I, seven times for your sins.

25 I will bring a sword on you, that shall execute the vengeance of the covenant; and you shall be gathered together within your cities: and I will send the pestilence among you; and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.

26 When I break your staff of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver your bread again by weight: and you shall eat, and not be satisfied.

27 If you won't for all this listen to me, but walk contrary to me;

28 then I will walk contrary to you in wrath; and I also will chastise you seven times for your sins.