Leviticus 26 commentary

LEVITICUS 26 COMMENTARYEDITED BY GLENN PEASE

Reward for Obedience1 “‘Do not make idols or set up an image or a sacred stone for yourselves, and do not place a carved stone in your land to bow down before it. I am the Lord your God.

BARNES, "Idols - literally, “things of nought.” Hebrew אלילים 'ĕlıylım. There appears to have been a play on the similarity in sound of this word to אלהים 'ĕlohıym(God). Compare 1Co_8:4.

Standing image - Either an upright statue, or a pillar, such as an obelisk or a Celtic menhir, set up for an idolatrous purpose (compare Exo_34:13 note). The public worship of Yahweh required, first, the exclusion of all visible symbols of deity as well as of all idolatrous objects, and next Lev_26:2, the keeping holy the times and the place appointed by the Law for His formal service. The word “sabbaths” must here include the whole of the set times. See Lev_23:3 note.

CLARKE, "Ye shall make you no idols - See note on Exo_20:4, and see the note on Gen_28:18-19 (note), concerning consecrated stones. Not only idolatry in general is forbidden here, but also the superstitious use of innocent and lawful things. Probably the stones or pillars which were first set up, and anointed by holy men in commemoration of signal interposition of God in their behalf, were afterward abused to idolatrous and superstitious purposes, and therefore prohibited. This we know was the case with the brazen serpent, 2Ki_18:4.

GILL, "Ye shall have no idols, or graven image,.... Some of the Jewish writers, as Jarchi and Aben Ezra, think this law against idolatry is mentioned on account of the Israelite sold to a stranger, spoken of in the latter part of the preceding chapter, lest he

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should be drawn into idolatry; See Gill on Lev_25:48; but this is rather mentioned as being a principal law, respecting the honour and glory of God, and the foundation of all religion and godliness, and the breach of it a capital crime, and which led on to other sins, and exposed to the displeasure and resentment of God, and brought on all the calamities after mentioned in this chapter. "Idols" here signify "things of nought", as an idol is nothing in the world, 1Co_8:4; and a "graven image", any likeness of man or beast cut out of wood, or stone; and may include any molten image of gold, silver, or brass, and then engraven with a tool, as the golden calf was, Exo_32:4, neither rear you up a standing image; or pillar (g); an heap of rude stones, set up pillar, not bearing the likeness of any creature; otherwise graven and molten images were standing ones, but these were statues without any figure; such as the Arabians used to worship; the god Mars, worshipped in Arabia Petraea, was no other than a black stone four square, unformed, four feet high, and two broad, and was placed on a basis of gold (h): neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto; any "figured stone", as the Targum and Aben Ezra interpret it, which had figures and representations of creatures cut in it, in order to bow down unto and worship: the word has the signification of covering, as they cover a floor with a pavement of stones: for I am the Lord your God; who is the alone object of religious worship and adoration.

HENRY 1-13, “Here is, I. The inculcating of those precepts of the law which were of the greatest consequence, and by which were of the greatest consequence, and by which especially their obedience would be tried, Lev_26:1, Lev_26:2. They are the abstract of the second and fourth commandments, which, as they are by much the largest in the decalogue, so they are most frequently insisted on in other parts of the law. As, when a master has given many things in charge to his servant, he concludes with the repetition of those things which were of the greatest importance, and which the servant was most in danger of neglecting, bidding him, whatever he did, be sure to remember those, so here God by Moses, after many precepts, closes all with a special charge to observe these two great commandments. 1. “Be sure you never worship images, nor ever make any sort of images or pictures for a religious use,” Lev_26:1. No sin was more provoking to God than this, and yet there was none that they were more addicted to, and which afterwards proved of more pernicious consequence to them. Next to God's being, unity, and universal influence, it is necessary that we know and believe that he is an infinite Spirit; and therefore to represent him by an image in the making of it, to confine him to an image in the consecrating of it, and to worship him by an image in bowing down to it, changes his truth into a lie and his glory into shame, as much as any thing. 2. “Be sure you keep up a great veneration for sabbaths and religious assemblies,” Lev_26:2. As nothing tends more to corrupt religion than the use of images in devotion, so nothing contributes more to the support of it than keeping the sabbaths and reverencing the sanctuary. These make up very much of the instrumental part of religion, by which the essentials of it are kept up. Therefore we find in the prophets that, next to the sin of idolatry, there is no sin for which the Jews are more frequently reproved and threatened than the profanation of the sabbath day.

II. Great encouragements given them to live in constant obedience to all God's 2

commandments, largely and strongly assuring them that if they did so they should be a happy people, and should be blessed with all the good things they could desire. Human governments enforce their laws with penalties to be inflicted for the breach of them; but God will be known as the rewarder of those that seek and serve him. Let us take a view of these great and precious promises, which, though they relate chiefly to the life which now is, and to the public national concerns of that people, were typical of the spiritual blessings entailed by the covenant of grace upon all believers through Christ. 1. Plenty and abundance of the fruits of the earth. They should have seasonable rain, neither too little nor too much, but what was requisite for their land, which was watered with the dew of heaven (Deu_11:10, Deu_11:11), that it might yield its increase, Lev_26:4. The dependence which the fruitfulness of the earth beneath has upon the influences of heaven above is a sensible intimation to us that every good and perfect gift must be expected from above, from the Father of lights. It is promised that the earth should produce its fruits in such great abundance that they would be kept in full employment, during both the harvest and the vintage, to gather it in, Lev_26:5. Before they had reaped their corn and threshed it, the vintage would be ready; and, before they had finished their vintage, it would be high time to begin their sowing. Long harvests are often with us the consequences of bad weather, but with them they should be the effects of a great increase. This signified the abundance of grace which should be poured out in gospel times, when the ploughman should overtake the reaper (Amo_9:13), and a great harvest of souls should be gathered in to Christ. The plenty should be so great that they should bring forth the old to be given away to the poor because of the new, to make room for it in their barns, which yet they would not pull down to build greater, as that rich fool (Luk_12:18), for God gave them this abundance to be laid out, not be hoarded up from one year to another. He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him, Pro_11:26. That promise (Mal_3:10), I will pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it, explains this, Lev_26:10. And that which crowns this blessing of plenty is (Lev_26:5), You shall eat your bread to the full, which intimates that they should have, not only abundance, but content and satisfaction in it. They should have enough, and should know when they had enough. Thus the meek shall eat and be satisfied, Psa_22:26. 2. Peace under the divine protection; “You shall dwell in your land safely (Lev_26:5); both really save, and safe in your own apprehensions; you shall lie down to rest in the power and promise of God, and not only none shall hurt you, but none shall so much as make you afraid,” Lev_26:6. See Psa_4:8. They should not be infested with wild beasts, these should be rid out of the land, or, as it is promised (Job_5:23), should be at peace with them. Nor should they be terrified with the alarms of war: Neither shall the sword go through your land. This holy security is promised to all the faithful, Psa_91:1, etc. Those must needs dwell in safety that dwell in God, Job_9:18, Job_9:19. 3. Victory and success in their wars abroad, while they had peace and tranquility at home, Lev_26:7, Lev_26:8. They are assured that the hand of God should so signally appear with them in their conquests that no disproportion of numbers should make against them: Five of you shall have courage to attack, and strength to chase and defeat, a hundred, as Jonathan did (1Sa_14:12), experiencing the truth of his own maxim (Lev_26:6), that it is all one with the Lord to save by many or by few. 4. The increase of their people: I will make you fruitful and multiply you, Lev_26:9. Thus the promise made to Abraham must be fulfilled, that his seed should be as the dust of the earth; and much more numerous they would have been if they had by their sin cut themselves short. It is promised to the gospel church that it shall be fruitful, Joh_15:16. 5. The favour of God, which is the fountain of all good: I will have respect unto you,3

Lev_26:9. If the eye of our faith be unto God, the eye of his favour will be unto us. More is implied than is expressed in that promise, My soul shall not abhor you (Lev_26:11), as there is in that threatening, My soul shall have no pleasure in him, Heb_10:38. Though there was that among them which might justly have alienated him from them, yet, if they would closely adhere to his institutions, he would not abhor them. 6. Tokens of his presence in and by his ordinances: I will set my tabernacle among you, Lev_26:11. It was their honour and advantage that God's tabernacle was lately erected among them; but here he lets them know that the continuance and establishment of it depended upon their good behaviour. The tabernacle that was now set should be settled if they would be obedient, else not. Note, The way to have God's ordinances fixed among us, as a nail in a sure place, is to cleave closely to the institution of them. It is added (Lev_26:12), “I will walk among you, with delight and satisfaction, as a man in his garden; I will keep up communion with you as a man walking with his friend.” This seems to be alluded to, Rev_2:1, where Christ is said to walk in the midst of the golden candlesticks. 7. The grace of the covenant, as the fountain and foundation, the sweetness and security, of all these blessings: I will establish my covenant with you, Lev_26:9. Let them perform their part of the covenant, and God would not fail to perform his. All covenant-blessings are summed up in the covenant-relation (Lev_26:12): I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and they are all grounded upon their redemption: I am your God, because I brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, Lev_26:13. Having purchased them, he would own them, and never cast them off till they cast him off. He broke their yoke, and made them go upright, that is, their deliverance out of Egypt put them in a state both of ease and honour, that, being delivered out of the hands of their enemies, they might serve God without fear, each walking in his uprightness. When Israel rejected Christ, and was therefore rejected by him, their back is said to be bowed down always under the burden of their guilt, which was heavier than that of their bondage in Egypt, Rom_11:10.

JAMISON, "Lev_26:1, Lev_26:2. Of idolatry.Ye shall make you no idols — Idolatry had been previously forbidden (Exo_20:4, Exo_20:5), but the law was repeated here with reference to some particular forms of it that were very prevalent among the neighboring nations.a standing image — that is, “upright pillar.”image of stone — that is, an obelisk, inscribed with hieroglyphical and superstitious characters; the former denoting the common and smaller pillars of the Syrians or Canaanites; the latter, pointing to the large and elaborate obelisks which the Egyptians worshipped as guardian divinities, or used as stones of adoration to stimulate religious worship. The Israelites were enjoined to beware of them.

K&D 1-2, “Lev_26:1 and Lev_26:2 form the introduction; and the essence of the whole law, the observance of which will bring a rich blessing, and the transgression of it severe judgments, is summed up in two leading commandments, and placed at the head of the blessing and curse which were to be proclaimed. Ye shall not make to you elilim, nugatory gods, and set up carved images and standing images for worship, but worship Jehovah your God with the observance of His Sabbaths, and fear before His sanctuary. The prohibition of elilim, according to Lev_19:4, calls to mind the fundamental law of

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the decalogue (Exo_20:3-4, cf. Lev_21:23; Exo_23:24-25). To pesel (cf. Exo_20:4) and mazzebah (cf. Exo_23:24), which were not to be set up, there is added the command not to put משכית -figure-stones,” in the land, to worship over (by) them. The “figure“ ,אבןstone” is a stone formed into a figure, and idol of stone, not merely a stone with an inscription or with hieroglyphical figures; it is synonymous with משכית in Num_33:52, and consequently we are to understand by pesel the wooden idol as in Isa_44:15, etc. The construction of השתחוה with על may be explained on the ground that the worshipper of a stone image placed upon the ground rises above it (for על in this sense, see Gen_18:2). - In Lev_26:3 the true way to serve God is urged upon the Israelites once more, in words copied verbally from Lev_19:30.

COFFMAN, “Verse 1PART FIVECONCLUDING EXHORTATIONS(Leviticus 26-27)"This chapter is indeed an inspired prophecy in the true sense of that word, an utterance of the Spirit of God regarding things then present and things yet future."[1] Here, in the amazing prophecies of this chapter is the final and irrevocable defeat of the modern nonsense that denies predictive prophecy as a major feature of the Holy Bible! These prophecies were written at a time before Israel ever entered Canaan, and not only do they predict the behavior of Israel and the consequences of it during their tenancy in Canaan, they also describe the history of Israel through the ages following their expulsion. To be sure, critics rely upon the old discredited device of late-dating the prophecies, but their cavil no longer interests very many people. Micklem observed that, "The attempt to (late-)date sections and verses of Leviticus is a fascinating literary exercise, but inevitably inconclusive."[2] Furthermore, even if the date of Leviticus could be moved out of its matrix in the law of Moses, the book remains a continuing prophecy, as up-to-date as this morning's newspaper."All of the miseries endured by Israel throughout this dispensation by their dispersion among the Gentiles are but a literal accomplishment of what is recorded here prophetically."[3] Even the arrangement of this chapter with its list of blessings and curses, being placed at the end of a long elaboration of laws and regulations, "was the way to close a major legal text"[4] in the times of Moses, a pattern that was followed in connection with other Biblical lists of blessings and curses, as in Deuteronomy 28; Exodus 23:25ff; and Joshua 24:20. Thus, the text itself bears witness that these chapters lie within the literary forms of the mid-second millennium B.C.

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The chapter is easily outlined. First, there is a short summary in the form of a brief catechism regarding major divisions of God's laws (Leviticus 26:1-2). Secondly, there is a list of blessings which God promised Israel upon condition of their obedience to the divine law (Leviticus 26:3-13). Thirdly, a list of curses and punishments is recorded, all of which will fall upon Israel in the event of their rebellion and disobedience. Fourthly, a promise of forgiveness and restoration (Leviticus 26:40-46) is included, contingent upon Israel's repentance."Ye shall make you no idols, neither shall ye rear you up a graven image, or a pillar, neither shall ye place any figured stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am Jehovah your God. Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am Jehovah.""Neither shall ye rear you up a graven image ..." "This means, you shall erect no carved image, obelisk, or stone with religious symbols on it."[5] Upon entering Canaan, Israel would also encounter other types of "pillars," such as the phallic symbols of the pagan cults. All such things were forbidden to Israel. "This expression to bow down unto (or toward) a pillar forbade, not only worshipping a pillar (or image), but also worshipping in the presence of it."[6]"Ye shall keep my sabbaths ..." The notion that this concerned merely the weekly sabbath is grossly incorrect. Jewish writers, especially, were aware of this. LeTorah has this: "Of all the laws of the Torah, what makes the law of the Sabbatical Year so important that its violation is named as the cause of Israel's exile? This is true because the Sabbatical Year was to teach that the whole world belongs to God ... If man defies God by not observing the Sabbatical Year, he thereby regards himself as the sole proprietor of the land (or whatever he owns)."[7]The importance of this is seen in the fact that a mere keeping of the weekly sabbath, as advocated by some, is by no stretch of the imagination any adequate keeping of God's ancient law of the sabbath."And reverence my sanctuary ..." A footnote in the Tyndale Bible has the following explanation: "To feare the fanctuarie, is dylygently to performe the true worfypping and feruyce of God, to leue (leave) of (off) nothynge, to obferue and kepe the purenes of both of bodye and mynde, verely and not ypocritelike, to beleue that he knoweth and beholdeth, doeth and ruleth all thynges: to bewarre of offendyng hym and with all feare and dylygence to walk in the pathes of his lawes."[8]These three commands (Leviticus 26:1-2) constitute a short summary of the first great table of the Decalogue setting forth man's duties toward God.

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COKE, “Verse 1Leviticus 26:1. Ye shall make you no idols, &c.— For the word rendered idols, see on ch. Leviticus 19:4. For the word rendered standing image, see Exodus 34:13. The words rendered, image of stone, are, in the Hebrew, משכית אבן eben mashkit, a stone of fixing; i.e. a stone fixed, or set up. Some suppose, with the margin of our English Bibles, that the words signify a pictured stone, like those in use among the Egyptians, which were full of hieroglyphics, expressing some perfections of their gods: but it is most probable the sacred writer means, by forbidding pillars, and fixed stones, to forbid the superstitious use of those obelisks and pillars, which, in the ruder times of idolatry, were erected to the honour of the sun, moon, and stars; and which were of different forms, sometimes pyramidical, sometimes plain square stones, well known among the Greeks by the name βεθυλια : and it is probable that this practice was derived from an imitation of the true worshippers; see Genesis 28:18. Jablonski has traced the origin of these pillars in the very curious and learned Prolegomena, cap. 2: sect. 33 prefixed to his Pantheon, to which we refer. We may just observe, that the sacred writer being about to give solemn promises and denunciations to his people, by way of enforcing all the foregoing precepts, prefaces them by a recapitulation of the two laws which peculiarly distinguished the Israelites: the abhorrence of idolatry, and the observation of the sabbath; each alike calculated to preserve and enforce the worship of the true God. ELLICOTT, “(1) Ye shall make you no idols.—The first two verses of this chapter are still a part of the previous section in the Hebrew original. By separating them from their proper position, and making them begin a new chapter, both the logical sequence and the import of these two verses are greatly obscured. As Lev legislated for cases where Israelites are driven by extreme poverty to sell themselves to a heathen, and when they may be compelled to continue in this service to the year of jubile, and thus be obliged to witness idolatrous practices, the Lawgiver solemnly repeats the two fundamental precepts of Judaism, which they might be in danger of neglecting, viz., to abstain from idol-worship and to keep the Sabbath, which are two essential commandments of the Decalogue. The same two commandments, but in reverse order, are also joined together in Leviticus 19:3-4.Idols.—For this expression see Leviticus 19:4.Nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image.—Better, nor shall ye rear you up a graven image or pillar. Graven image is not only a plastic image of a heathen deity, but a visible or sensuous representation of the God of Israel (Exodus 20:19-20; Deuteronomy 4:15-16).A standing image.—This expression, which only occurs once more in the text of the Authorised Version (Micah 5:13), and four times in the Margin (1 Kings 14:23; Jeremiah 43:13; Hosea 3:4; Hosea 10:1), is the rendering of a Hebrew word (matzebah), which is usually and more correctly translated “pillar” or “statue”

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(Genesis 28:18; Genesis 28:22; Genesis 31:13, &c.). This was a plain and rude stone without any image engraved on it, and was not unfrequently erected to God himself. but in after-time more especially as a memorial to false deities. (Genesis 28:18; Genesis 28:22; Genesis 31:13; Genesis 35:14, with Exodus 23:24; Exodus 34:13, &c.)Neither shall ye set up any image of stone.—The authorities during the second Temple interpreted the words here rendered “images of stone” to denote beholding, or worshipping stones—i.e., stones set in the ground in places of worship upon which the worshippers prostrated themselves to perform their devotions. The stone was therefore a kind of signal, calling the attention of the worshipper to itself, so that he may fall down upon it. With such stones, these authorities assure us, the Temple was paved, since they were perfectly lawful in the sanctuary, but must not be used in worship out of the Temple, or rather, out of the land, as these authorities understood the words “in your land” here to denote. Hence the Chaldee Version paraphrases it, “and a painted stone ye shall not place in your land to prostrate yourselves upon it, but a pavement adorned with figures and pictures ye may put in the floor of your sanctuary, but not to bow down upon it,” i.e., in an idolatrous manner. Hence, too, the ancient canon, “in your own land” (i.e., in all other lands) “ye must not prostrate yourselves upon stones, but ye may prostrate yourselves upon the stones in the sanctuary.”EBC, “THE PROMISES AND THREATS OF THE COVENANTLeviticus 26:1-46ONE would have expected that this chapter would have been the last in the book of Leviticus, for it forms a natural and fitting close to the whole law as hitherto recorded. But whatever may have been the reason of its present literary form, the fact remains that while this chapter is, in outward form, the conclusion of the Levitical law, another chapter follows it in the manner of an appendix.Chapter 26 opens with these words (Leviticus 26:1-2): "Ye shall make you no idols, neither shall ye rear you up a graven image, or a pillar, neither shall ye place any figured stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the Lord your God. Ye shall keep My sabbaths, and reverence My sanctuary: I am the Lord."These verses, as they stand in the English versions as a preface to this chapter, at first sight seem but distantly related to what follows; and the Chaldee paraphrast and others have therefore appended them to the preceding chapter. But with that they have even less evident connection. The thought of the editor of this part of the canon, however, seems to have been that the three commands which are here repeated might be regarded as presenting a compendious summary, in its fundamental principles, of the whole law, the promises and threatenings attached to which immediately follow. And the more we think upon these commands and what they involve, the more evident will appear the fitness of their selection from the whole law to introduce this chapter.

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The commands which are here repeated are three: namely,(1) a detailed prohibition of idolatry in the forms then chiefly prevalent;(2) an injunction to observe God’s sabbaths; and(3) to reverence His sanctuary.Inasmuch as the various forms of idol worship, which are here forbidden, all involved the recognition of gods other than Jehovah, it is plain that Leviticus 26:1 is in effect inclusive of the first and second commandments of the decalogue. The injunction to keep God’s sabbaths, although in principle including all the sabbatic times previously appointed, evidently refers especially to the weekly sabbath of the fourth commandment; while the command to reverence the sanctuary of Jehovah covers in principle the ground of the third. And thus, in fact, these three injunctions essentially include the four commands of the decalogue which have to do with man’s duty to God, and are thus fundamental to all other duties, both to God and man. Very appropriately, then, are these verses given here as a brief summary of the law to which the following promises and threatenings are annexed. And their suitableness to that which follows is the more clear when we remember that the weekly sabbath, in particular, is elsewhere {Exodus 31:12-17} declared to be a sign of God’s covenant with Israel, to which these promises and threats belong; and that the presence of Jehovah’s sanctuary also, which they are here charged to reverence, was a continual visible witness among them of the special presence of God in Israel in pursuance of that covenant.After this pertinent summation of the most fundamental commands of the law, the remainder of the chapter contains, first (Leviticus 26:3-13), promises of blessing from God, in case they shall obey this law; secondly (Leviticus 26:14-39), threats of chastising judgment, in case they disobey: and, thirdly (Leviticus 26:40-45), a prediction of their final repentance, and promise of their gracious restoration thereupon to the favour of God, and the everlasting endurance of God’s covenant to preserve them in existence as a nation. The chapter then closes (Leviticus 26:46) with the declaration: "These are the statutes and judgments and laws, which the Lord made between Him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses."WHEDON, “Leviticus 26:43 The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes.Ver. 43. They shall accept,] q.d., I will give them to do what I require of them. See Leviticus 26:41.

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PETT, “Verse 1-2Chapter 26 Final Recognition of His Authority, Blessings and Cursings.The Book now virtually closes with the recognition that Israel were bound to Him, and only Him, by the covenant. Yahweh reaffirms His authority over them and then confirms the blessings and cursings attaching to the whole. If they walk with Him faithfully, blessing, but if they turn away there can only be disaster.The Overlordship Of Yahweh To Be Honoured (Leviticus 26:1-2).Leviticus 26:1“You shall make you no idols, neither shall you rear you up a graven image, or a pillar, neither shall you place any figured stone in your land, to bow down to it: for I am Yahweh your God.Firstly they must recognise that Yahweh, the invisible One, the One Who is there with them, is their God. Thus in lieu of this they were to make no idols (elilim -‘nothings’ - compare Leviticus 19:4), nor were they to raise up a graven image (representations of deities as found in many sites in Canaan) or a pillar (pillars of stone indicated the presence of deities such as Baal and El) or any figure of stone (carved representations of a deity), for the purpose of bowing down to them. The whole paraphernalia of idolatrous worship was to be avoided. Compare Numbers 33:52.Leviticus 26:2“You shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am Yahweh.”Rather are they to keep His sabbaths and reverence His Sanctuary (compare Leviticus 19:3; Leviticus 19:30), thus indicating their submission to the signs of His overlordship and presence. What we believe is indicated by the preferences we choose, and this is especially true of worship. If our worship becomes debased, so also will our view of God. PULPIT, “Verses 1-46PART V. CONCLUDING EXHORTATION.EXPOSITIONTHE first two verses of this chapter contain a prohibition of idolatry, and a command to observe the sabbath and to reverence God's sanctuary; that is, they repeat in summary the substance of the Israelites, religious duty, negative and positive, as comprised in the first table of the Decalogue. They form, therefore, a

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prologue to the remainder of the chapter, which solemnly announces:1. The blessings. which should result from obedience (Leviticus 26:3-13).2. The curses which should follow disobedience (Leviticus 26:14-39).3. The gracious treatment which would ensue on repentance (Leviticus 26:40-45).Hitherto the Book of Leviticus has consisted of ceremonial and moral injunctions, with two historical passages interposed. In the present chapter it rises in its subject and its diction from legal precepts and a legal style to prediction and the style which became a prophet. We may trace in Joel (Joel 2:22-27) an intimate acquaintance on the part of the earliest prophet of Judah with this chapter. The first promise there, as here, is that of rain, and as here it is to be "in due season," so there it is "the former and the latter rain," that is, the regular autumn and spring rains. "The land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit," appears in the prophet as, "the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength." The following clause, "your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time," as," the floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil;" the next clause, "ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely," as, "I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith," and" ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied;" the clause, "I will give peace in the laud, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid," as "I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen," and" my people shall never be ashamed;" and the clause, "I will rid evil creatures [not beasts] out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land," as, "I will remove far off from you the northern," and "I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmer-worm, my great army which I sent among you."The blessings and the curses rise one above the other in regular gradation: on the one side, rain, abundance, peace, deliverance, victory, increase in numbers, communion with God; on the other side,Confession of sin, recognition of God's providence in all that had happened to them, humility, and acquiescence in their punishment, would restore them to their forfeited covenant relation (verses 40-45). Then God would "not abhor them to destroy them utterly," but would "remember the covenant of their fathers." Thus it was that God brought them back after the Babylonish Captivity; and thus it is that, upon their repentance, he replaces in a state of salvation Churches and individuals that have fallen away from him. In this way punishments become a blessing, and men are able to "accept of them," or rejoice in them, as the word might be rendered.Leviticus 26:1

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Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it. The word idols (elilim) means the "nothings" which the heathen substituted for the Lord God. The graven image (here meaning a carved wooden image), the standing image (meaning a sacred pillar), and the image of stone (that is, a sculptured stone idol), are the three forms of images under which adoration was paid, whether to the true God or to a false doily. The expression, to bow down unto (or towards) it, forbids worshipping before an image as well as worshipping an image.

2 “‘Observe my Sabbaths and have reverence for my sanctuary. I am the Lord.

GILL, "Ye shall keep my sabbaths,.... The seventh day sabbaths, and the seventh year sabbaths; especially the former are meant, in which religious worship was given to the one true and living God, and therefore the observance of them is strictly enjoined; and hence this law follows closely upon the former, though Aben Ezra restrains it to the sabbatical years, or seventh year sabbaths, as he applies the sanctuary in the following clause to the jubilee year, which is said to be holy, Lev_26:12; supposing that this refers unto and stands in strict connection with the laws of the preceding chapter, concerning the sabbatical, Lev_25:1, and jubilee years, Lev_25:8, and reverence my sanctuary; by attending in it, and on the worship in it, with reverence and godly fear, see Lev_19:30, I am the Lord; who had a right to such religious worship, and to command such things, in which he ought to be obeyed, his sabbaths kept, and sanctuary reverenced.

JAMISON, "Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary — Very frequently, in this Book of the Law, the Sabbath and the sanctuary are mentioned as antidotes to idolatry.ELLICOTT, “Verse 2(2) Ye shall keep my sabbaths . . . —This is exactly the same precept laid down in chap , and is here repeated because of the danger of desecrating the Sabbath to which the Israelite is exposed who sells himself to a heathen. The Israelite will effectually guard against idol-worship, by keeping the Sabbath holy, and reverencing God’s sanctuary.

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WHEDON, “2. Sabbaths… sanctuary — The intimate connexion between the sanctuary and the sabbath is here very beautifully expressed. It rebukes all indolent use of the sabbath at home, and the modern, fashionable, professed worship of God in roving the fields and forests, vainly attempting to look through nature up to nature’s God. The God which a sinful Jew imperatively needed was best worshipped through the bleeding bird, the bleeding beast, and sprinkling priest; and the God most needed by the sinning Gentile is seen in the Lamb of God, whose Gospel is preached in our modern sanctuaries on the Lord’s day. There is no sin, except idolatry, against which the Hebrews were so frequently and earnestly warned as against sabbath breaking. The sabbath was intended to be an ever-recurring symbol of the heavenly rest. To despise it is to contemn heaven itself.BI, “Ye shall keep My Sabbaths, and reverence My sanctuary.Of the stated times of God’s worship, particularly the Lord’s DayI. What were the reasons upon which God might be supposed, under the law, to have instituted more solemn and set times of worship.

1. As to the reasonableness of the institution in general, it was highly agreeable to the natural light of mankind upon these following accounts.(1) All external worship is designed to give us impressions of greater reverence for the Divine Majesty. Now, such is the temper of human nature, that men have much less regard for those things that are common than for those which have some peculiar mark of distinction set upon them.(2) It being one of the first principles of natural religion that God is to be publicly worshipped, order requires that there should be some determinate and public times set apart for His worship and piety, that such times should be vacations from the common affairs of human life.(3) It being a further end of religious worship to advance the spiritual life and bring us nearer unto God, it is not only agreeable to piety, but to all the maxims of religious prudence, that the times appropriated to the more solemn worship of God should be distinguished by a cessation from the common business of life, that by this means, our minds being wholly taken off from earthly things, they may be more open to the heavenly impressions of grace and truth.

2. These are some of the natural reasons upon which we may account for God’s commanding His people to keep His Sabbath, that is, all the stated and solemn times of His public worship; but what I have here principally an eye to is the institution of the Sabbath, which the Jews were so forcibly enjoined to keep holy in the Fourth Commandment. Now, the two principal reasons of this institution seem to have been—(1) That hereby they acknowledged God to be the Lord, the Creator and Governor of the world; and—(2) That they acknowledged Him to be in a more eminent and peculiar manner their God by delivering them out of the hand of Egypt.

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II. How far those reasons, in either respect, hold good under the Christian dispensation.1. The general reasons I laid down for setting apart some solemn time for the worship of God certainly extend to us Christians, and to all the nations under heaven, as well as to the Jews. Indeed, when we consider that to everything under the sun there is a time, and that the natural order of things requires there should be so, it seems highly reasonable that some stated seasons should be appropriated to His service, to whom we owe all the moments of our time and the capacity of all other enjoyments. Jesus Christ did not come to destroy any one duty arising from the law of nature or the common principles of natural religion, but to give all such duties their utmost force.2. The great difficulty to be considered is how far those reasons, upon which the Jewish Sabbath in particular was instituted, may be supposed to affect us Christians.

(1) It appears matter of moral obligation that there should be some day set apart more peculiarly devoted to the honour and worship of Almighty God.(2) It appears no less reasonable that the returns of such a day should be so frequent as to keep up a constant sense of religion, and their duty to God, in the minds of men, without interfering with the necessary affairs of human life.(3) It must be granted somewhat difficult to determine this matter exactly from any principle of natural reason, it not clearly discovering what proportion of our time we are to set apart for the more solemn worship of God, or why one day in seven, rather than six or eight, should be observed to this end.

III. How and in what manner the Lord’s day ought to be observed.1. We are to consider the Lord’s Day is a time set apart for the more public worship and service of God, wherein we are to do Him honour and praise Him according to His excellent greatness.2. We ought also on the Lord’s Day to employ ourselves constantly in the private exercises of religion.3. As the Lord’s Day is a day of thanksgiving for the public or private mercies we have received from God, it is a proper exercise of it to perform acts of mercy and charity to others, and both with respect to their souls and bodies.4. As the Lord’s Day is a day devoted to the service of God and religion, let us take care to sanctify it by religious conversation.5. That we may better attend these duties, we must not only intermit our ordinary labours and employments, but take off our thoughts, as much as possible, from the business of them. (R. Fiddes, D. D.)

Of the stated places of God’s-worship, and in what manner our reverence towards them ought to be expressedI. The reasons of appropriating places to the public worship of God are the same in general under the Christian as under the mosaic dispensation.

1. One end of God’s appointing the tabernacle, and afterwards the temple, was to possess the minds of the Jews with more devout affections in their religious 14

addresses to Him. The place we are in naturally puts us in mind of the proper business and design of it.2. It is a principle highly agreeable to the natural notions of mankind that God is in a special manner present in such places, not only as they are consecrated to Him, and He has thereby a special propriety in them, but also by reason of the united prayers which are therein put up to Him, and which are reasonably presumed to be of more efficacy than those of single persons to bring down the real and sensible effects of His presence with the blessings prayed for.3. The common notions we bare of order and decency require that the place designed for God’s more immediate service should be appropriated to Him, and to Him only. Of order, that men may know where to repair on all occasions to worship God; and of decency, because it is contrary to all the rules of it, and, indeed, to the ordinary acceptation of holiness throughout the Scriptures, that what is common or unclean should be promiscuously used with things set apart for holy and religious uses.

II. Places so appropriated have a relative holiness in them, and ought therefore to be reverenced. This is the notion of holiness with respect to things, and persons, and times, as well as places designed for the service of God, in the Old Testament, that they were separated from common uses to His own. And if for this very reason they were accounted sacred then, what imaginable pretence can there be that the same reason should not render them, and all of them, sacred now? If it be pretended that the temple was accounted holy by reason of the legal sacrifices which were offered to God in it, we ask why the Christian sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving in our churches should not be a sufficient ground for reputing them holy also? If it be said that there were sensible effects of God’s presence in the temple upon which it had a peculiar relation of holiness to Him, we answer that God, as to the spiritual and gracious effects of His presence, and wherein He manifests it in the most beneficial and excellent manner, is present in our Christian temples. If it be said, further, that the temple was built by the special command of God, and upon that account a certain holiness was ascribed to it, whereas we have no such command for building any places purely for God’s worship now, it is answered again that the design of David’s building a temple, and Solomon’s going on with it, do not appear to have proceeded from any positive and direct command of God. God, it is true, gave particular directions about building the temple, but it does not therefore follow that the design of building it was not antecedently laid by these princes upon natural motives of piety and religion, the same motives upon which the patriarchs erected sanctuaries or separate places of worship to God before any positive institution to this end. Shall I now show that our Christian churches, which I have proved to be sanctuaries in a proper sense, ought therefore to be reverenced? This is a consequence which flows so naturally, or rather, indeed, necessarily, from what has been said, that I need not say much to illustrate it. I shall only observe that we are agreed in other cases to set a value on things or persons, not in consideration of their absolute and real worth, but of their relative use or character. An insect is considered in itself as a living creature more valuable than the brightest or richest jewel in the world; but we should think him very weak who would for that reason prefer a butterfly to a diamond, which, by common consent, serves him to so many more useful ends. For the same reason, with respect to the different characters of men, or any special relation they bear to God, to the prince, or to ourselves, we give them different and suitable testimonies of our esteem. Nay, when we truly honour or love any person, we naturally express a value for everything that nearly belongs to him or wherein he has a particular interest. Certainly, then, nothing 15

can be more reasonable than that upon account of the special propriety God has in places set apart for His service, and for so many holy uses, we should express our reverence toward such places by all becoming testimonies of it.III. Even natural reason discovers further to us how and in what particulars our reverence towards such places ought to be expressed.

1. We are to reverence God’s sanctuary by constantly repairing to it on all proper occasions.2. We are to reverence God’s sanctuary by a serious, devout, and regular behaviour in it.

(1) By a serious and devout behaviour, I mean such decent postures of the body as most properly express the inward sentiments and attention of the mind.(2) By a regular behaviour in the worship of God, I understand a due conformity to the rules and order of the public service, and particularly that we should kneel or stand up at the usual offices.

3. If we reverence God’s sanctuary as we ought, we shall be willing to contribute what may be thought necessary towards the proper ornaments of it or the greater solemnity of the public worship in it.I shall now proceed to a conclusion, with a proper application or two from what has been said.

1. To those who offend against the first rule I laid down, concerning the reverence due to God’s sanctuary, by coming late to it, or perhaps after a considerable part of the service is performed. If you are conscious to yourselves of any such scandalous, especially if it have been a customary, irreverence, be careful not to give any further offence to God or man, for it is really so to both in the same kind—to God, because it is so insolent a method of presenting ourselves in His courts, in order to beg any blessing or the pardon of our sins before we have made a humble confession of them; to man, because the Church, which we are presumed by attending her service to be members of, has piously directed such a confession at the beginning of her service. Not to mention the other disorders occasioned by this irreverence, and how contrary it is to the rule prescribed us by holy David, of worshipping God in the beauty of holiness (Psa_29:2; Psa_96:9). And for the same reason—2. If your consciences reproach you with any former unbecoming or irregular behaviour in the sanctuary of God, resolve hereafter to correct so great an indecency, or rather, indeed, so flaming an impiety.3. What I shall say to those who have in any signal manner expressed their zeal for God’s house, by contributing to the beauty or solemnity of it, shall be by way of encouragement. And certainly men cannot propose to themselves to show their reverence for God by a more truly pious act—an act whereby they more immediately glorify Him, in letting their good works shine before men. This consideration cannot but, at the same time, fill the minds of those who are concerned in it with a sensible pleasure and satisfaction, and make their hearts even spring for joy. This was the effect which the preparations of David and the Israelites for building the temple had upon them (1Ch_29:8).4. What I would observe, in the last place, is that persons who are subservient in this

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respect towards promoting the honour of God may piously hope that He will by some wise methods pour down His special blessings upon them as He did upon Obed-Edom and his household, because of the ark of the covenant of God (2Sa_6:11). (R. Fiddes, D. D.)

3 “‘If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands,

BARNES, "As “the book of the covenant” Exo. 20:22–23:33 concludes with promises and warnings Exo_23:20-33, so does this collection of laws contained in the Book of Leviticus. But the former passage relates to the conquest of the land of promise, this one to the subsequent history of the nation. The longer similar passage in Deuteronomy Deut. 27–30 is marked by broader and deeper promises and denunciations having immediate reference not only to outward consequences, but to the spiritual death incurred by transgressing the divine will.

CLARKE, "If ye walk in my statutes - For the meaning of this and similar words used in the law, See the note on Lev_26:15.

GILL, "If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them. Both moral, ceremonial, and judicial, which had been delivered unto them, and now completely recorded in this and the preceding book; for what follow in the two next are chiefly repetitions of what are contained in these.

JAMISON, "Lev_26:3-13. A blessing to the obedient.If ye walk in my statutes — In that covenant into which God graciously entered with the people of Israel, He promised to bestow upon them a variety of blessings, so long as they continued obedient to Him as their Almighty Ruler; and in their subsequent history that people found every promise amply fulfilled, in the enjoyment of plenty, peace, a populous country, and victory over all enemies.

K&D 3-5, “The Blessing of Fidelity to the Law. - Lev_26:3-5. If the Israelites walked in the commandments of the Lord (for the expression see Lev_18:3.), the Lord would give fruitfulness to their land, that they should have bread to the full. “I will give you rain-showers in season.” The allusion here is to the showers which fall at the two rainy

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seasons, and upon which the fruitfulness of Palestine depends, viz., the early and latter rain (Deu_11:14). The former of these occurs after the autumnal equinox, at the time of the winter-sowing of wheat and barley, in the latter half of October or beginning of November. It generally falls in heavy showers in November and December, and then after that only at long intervals, and not so heavily. The latter, or so-called latter rain, fall sin March before the beginning of the harvest of the winter crops, at the time of sowing the summer seed, and lasts only a few days, in some years only a few hours (see Robinson, Pal. ii. pp. 97ff.). - On Lev_26:5, Lev_26:6, see Lev_25:18-19.

CALVIN, "ITS REPETITION3.If ye walk in my statutes. We have now to deal with two remarkable passages, in which he professedly treats of the rewards which the servants of God may expect, and of the punishments which await the transgressors. I have indeed already observed, that whatever God promises us on the condition of our walking in His commandments would be ineffectual if He should be extreme in examining our works. Hence it arises that we must renounce all the compacts of the Law, if we desire to obtain favor with God. But since, however defective the works of believers may be, they are nevertheless pleasing to God through the intervention of pardon, hence also the efficacy of the promises depends, viz., when the strict condition of the law is moderated. Whilst, therefore, they reach forward and strive, reward is given to their efforts although imperfect, exactly as if they had fully discharged their duty; for, since their deficiencies are put out of sight by faith, God honors with the title of reward what He gratuitously bestows upon them. Consequently, “to walk in the commandments of God,” is not precisely equivalent to performing whatever the Law demands; but in this expression is included the indulgence with which God regards His children and pardons their faults. The promise, therefore, is not without fruit as respects believers, whilst they endeavor to consecrate themselves to God, although they are still far from perfection; according to the teaching of the Prophet, “I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him,” (Malachi 3:17;) as much as to say, that their obedience would not be acceptable to Him because it was deserving, but because He visits it with His paternal favor. Whence it appears how foolish is the pride of those who imagine that they make God their debtor, as if according to His agreement.The restriction of the recompense, which is here mentioned, to this earthly and transitory life, is a part of the elementary instruction of the Law; for, just as the spiritual grace of God was represented to the ancient people by shadows and images, so also the same principle applied also both to rewards and punishments. Reconciliation with God was represented to them by the blood of cattle; there were various forms of expiation, but all outward and visible, because their substance had not yet appeared in Christ. For the same reason, therefore, because so clear and familiar an acquaintance with eternal life, and the final resurrection, had not yet been attained by the Fathers, as now shines forth in the Gospel, God for the most part shewed forth by external proofs that He was favorably disposed to His people

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or offended with them. Because now-a-days God does not openly take vengeance on sins as of old, fanatics infer that He has almost changed His nature; nay, on this pretense, the Manicheans (207) imagined that the God of Israel was different from ours. But this error springs from gross and disgraceful ignorance; for, by not distinguishing His different modes of dealing, they do not hesitate impiously to cut God Himself in two. The earth does not now cleave asunder to swallow up the rebellious: (208) God does not now thunder from heaven as against Sodom: He does not now send fire upon wicked cities as He did in the Israelitish camp: fiery serpents are not sent forth to inflict deadly bites: in a word, such manifest instances of punishment are not daily presented before our eyes to make God terrible to us; and for this reason, because the voice of the Gospel sounds much more clearly in our ears, like the sound of a trumpet, whereby we are summoned to the heavenly tribunal of Christ. Let us then learn to tremble at that sentence, which banishes all the wicked from the kingdom of God. So, on the other hand, God does not appear, as of old, as the rewarder of His people by earthly blessings; and this because we “are dead, and our life is hid with Christ in God;” because it becomes us to be conformed to our Head, and through many tribulations to enter the kingdom of heaven. Thus, the greater are the adversities that oppress us, the more cheerfully it behooves us to lift up our heads, until Christ shall gather us into the fellowship of His glory, and to pursue the course of our calling for the hope which is set before us in heaven; in a word,“denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Savior Jesus Christ.” (Titus 2:12, 13.)I admit, indeed, the truth of what Paul teaches, that “godliness” even now has “the promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to come,” (1 Timothy 4:8;) and assuredly believers already taste on earth of that blessedness which they shall hereafter enjoy in its fullness. God also inflicts His judgments on the ungodly in order to remind us of the last judgment; but still the distinction to which I have adverted is obvious, that since God has opened to us the heavenly life in the Gospel, He now calls us directly to it, whereas He led the Fathers to it as it were by steps. For this reason Paul elsewhere teaches, that believers are afflicted in this world as“a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that they may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which they also suffer, seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense,” etc. (2 Thessalonians 1:5.)In short, let us no more wonder that the Israelites were only attracted and alarmed by temporal rewards and punishments, than that the land of Canaan was to them a symbol of their eternal inheritance, in which, nevertheless, they confessed themselves strangers and pilgrims; from whence the Apostle correctly concludes, that they desired a better country. (Genesis 47:9; Psalms 39:12; Hebrews 11:16.) And thus the wild absurdity of those is refuted, who suppose that the Fathers were contented with perishable felicity, as if God merely gorged them in a tavern. (209)

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Still the distinction which I have noted remains, that God manifested Himself more fully as a Father and Judge by temporal blessings and punishments than since the promulgation of the Gospel. COFFMAN, “Verse 3BLESSINGS PROMISED IF ISRAEL OBEYS GOD"If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; then I will give your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time; and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will cause evil beasts to cease out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land. And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. And five 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. And I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and will establish my covenant with you. And ye shall eat old store long kept, and ye shall bring forth the old because of the new. And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people. I am Jehovah your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bars of your yoke, and made you go upright."The blessings listed here are those which would greatly bless and provide for any agricultural people. Unger classified them thus:(1) bountiful harvests,(2) peace and security,(3) fruitfulness and increase, and(4) the presence of the Lord among the people.[9]At the head of the list, however, (Leviticus 26:3) stood the great condition, IF. If Israel would obey; if Israel would really keep God's commandments and walk in his ways - then, only then, would God so richly bless them."Threshing shall reach unto the vintage ... etc." (Leviticus 26:5) "One season of fruitfulness shall run into the next; in Amos' celebrated words, `the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him that sows the seed.' (Amos 9:13)."[10]"I will cause evil beasts to cease out of the land ..." (Leviticus 26:6). According to

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Orlinsky, "vicious beasts" is more accurate than "evil beasts."[11]"Bring forth the old because of the new ..." (Leviticus 26:10). This means "bring forth the old to make room for the new."[12]"I will walk among you and be your God ..." These words were quoted by the apostle Paul (2 Corinthians 6:16) "as a ground of the holiness required of God's people."[13]"I have broken the bars of your yoke ..." (Leviticus 26:13). "This is a metaphorical expression denoting Israel's emancipation from Egyptian slavery.[14] The figure is taken from the construction of an ox-yoke. "The bars (bands in the KJV) of a yoke are the wooden pieces coming down from the yoke on each side of the animal's head and fastened with thongs."[15]ELLICOTT, “(3) If ye walk in my statutes.—We have already remarked that this verse begins the section in the Hebrew and ought to have begun the chapter in English. Having set forth the ceremonial and moral injunctions which are necessary for the development and maintenance of holiness and purity in the commonwealth, the legislator now concludes by showing the happiness which will accrue to the Israelites from a faithful observance of these laws, and the punishments which await them if they transgress these Divine ordinances.EBC, “THE PROMISES OF THE COVENANTLeviticus 26:3-13"If ye walk in My statutes, and keep My commandments, and do them; then I will give your rains in their season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will cause evil beasts to cease out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land. And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. And five 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. And I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you; and I will establish My covenant with you. And ye shall eat old store long kept, and ye shall bring forth the old because of the new. And 1 will set My tabernacle among you: and My soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be My people. I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen and I have broken the bars of your yoke, and made you go upright."The promises of the covenant are thus to the effect that if Israel shall keep the law, God will give them rain and fruitful seasons, harvests so abundant that the

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"threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time"; internal security; deliverance from the wild beasts, which are still such a scourge in many parts of the East; and such power and spirit, that no enemy shall be able to stand before them, but five of them shall chase a hundred, and a hundred chase ten thousand. Then (Leviticus 26:9) is renewed the promise, given long before to Abraham, of a great increase in their numbers; and thereupon, very naturally, is repeated the promise of abundant harvests, so that notwithstanding they shall be so multiplied, one year’s harvest should not be consumed before it would have to be removed from the granaries to make room for the new (Leviticus 26:10). And then this section ends with the assurance which secures all other blessings, temporal and spiritual, that God will abide among them in His tabernacle, and will be their God, and they shall be His people. And the fulfilment of all this is guaranteed by the person, the purpose, and the past dealing of the Promiser; Himself, Jehovah; His purpose, to deliver them from bondage; and His past mercy, in breaking the bands of their yoke.WHEDON, “ BLESSINGS PROMISED TO OBEDIENCE, Leviticus 26:3-13.3. Walk in my statutes — Mosaism was not mere ritualism, but a power which directed the conduct, shaped the character, and sanctified the heart. It aimed at inward as well as outward holiness. This is the end of all God’s statutes. The original statute signifies that which is absolutely fixed, a decree. Commandments signify acts definitely pointed out. The former is used to designate codes of law, the latter, specific precepts.PETT, “Verses 3-13The Blessings (Leviticus 26:3-13).Here follow all the blessings that would be theirs if only they would walk in His statutes and keep His commandments in their hearts and do them.Leviticus 26:3-5“If you walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them, then I will give your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. And your threshing shall reach to the vintage, and the vintage shall reach to the sowing time; and you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.”The first promise in response to their loving obedience is that He would send the rain at the right times, when they were due, and would make the land and the trees fruitful. Their agricultural way of life would prosper. They would be continually busy because they would have so much grain to thresh that by the time they had completed the task the vintage harvest would be ready. Then there would be so much vintage that by the time that they had gathered in the vintage it would be time

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for sowing. They would be full of all manner of food. And they would dwell securely. BI 3-13, “If ye walk in My statutes, and keep My commandments, and do them.The advantages of religion in a nation’s lifeI. Wherein a nation’s religious life consists. The recognised presence of God in the midst of the people (Lev_26:11-12) may be realised—

1. In sanctuaries consecrated to Divine worship throughout the land, and in assembled congregations gathering to adore Him (Lev_26:2).2. In sacred literature diffusing religious knowledge among the people.3. In benevolent and elevating institutions diffusing Christianity in its practical forms.4. In educational agencies for the training of children early in moral and religious truth.5. In homes and family life sweetened by the influence of piety.6. In a legislature ruled by the fear of God and observant of Scripture precepts.7. In wealth, gathered righteously, being expended for evangelical and Christian ends.8. In the happy relationship of all social classes, based upon goodwill and respect.9. In the stores of harvest and gains of commerce being acknowledged as God’s providential gifts and generous benefactions (Lev_26:4-5). All such public recognitions of the authority and the claims of religion, emphasise and declare that within this nation’s life God dwells—known, revered, and served.

II. Advantages which result to a nation from religion.1. Religion impels to industry, intelligence, self-respect, and social improvement; and these will affect every branch of labour and enterprise, resulting in material prosperity (Lev_26:4-5).2. Religion leads to avoidance of agitation and conflict, checks greed, ambition, and vainglory, and thus promotes a wise content among the people, and peaceful relationships with surrounding nations (Lev_26:6).3. Religion fosters sobriety, energy, and courage, and these qualities will assert themselves on the fields of war when sad occasion arises, and will ensure the overthrow of tyranny and the defeat of invasion (Lev_26:8).4. Religion nurtures the wise oversight of homes and families, the preservation of domestic purity, the development of healthful and intelligent children, and these will work out in a strong and increasing population (Lev_26:9).5. Religion corrects the intrigues of self-destructive commerce, and teaches honesty, forethought, and justice in business arrangements; thus checking waste, extravagance, and insolence, and these issue in the enjoyment of plenty (Lev_26:10).6. Religion enjoins Sabbath observance and sanctuary services (Lev_26:2) which nourish holiness in thought and life, sweeten character, purify the springs of action,

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incite to righteous and noble deeds, to social goodwill, to mutual regard, to sacred ministries, to reverence for Scripture, to recognition of the claims of the unseen world, and thus bring down upon all people the blessings of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Lev_26:11-12).III. Within a religious nation god pledges himself to dwell. And where He makes His tabernacle (Lev_26:11) there—

1. Happiness will be realised, the joy of the Lord will be known, “His lovingkindness, which is more than life,” will be enjoyed.2. Security will be assured. “None make you afraid” (Lev_26:6), for He will be as a “defence to His people.”3. Sanctity will flourish. Intercourse with God (Lev_26:12) will elevate, refine, and grace a people’s character and life. (W. H. Jellie.)

Temporal blessings connected with obedienceThese temporal blessings—peace’s victory over all their enemies, the fruitfulness of the land, the enjoyment of God’s tabernacle in the midst of it—all are promised to obedience. This is still true of nations. Nations that are highest in Christian character will always be highest in every other national blessing. Just cast your eyes over the map of Europe; and if you had a thermometer, and could gauge the amount of living Christianity in each nation, you will find that the nation in which Christianity is purest, rises highest, spreads the farthest, descends the deepest, is the very nation that is highest in all that dignifies, ennobles, and blesses a nation. And so, in our own native land, the victory of our armies in the righteous warfare to which it is committed, the maintenance of our land in peace and prosperity against all foe and all invasion, will rest, not only upon the banners of our brave troops, not only upon the gallantry of our heroic sailors, but far more upon the living religion that saturates the masses of our country. It is righteousness that exalteth a nation, and sin is the ruin of a nation. If you will read the history of nations, you will find this universally true; no nation ever falls before a foreign foe—it always commits suicide. Nations die suicides; they are self-slain. Rome fell only because of its inner corruption; the beautiful sisterhood of Greek states fell by their universal depravity; and our nation will never fall before a foreign foe as long as it is—what it is now in a greater degree than any other—a nation that fears God, and works righteousness, and counts the sunshine of His favour more precious than gold and silver, and whatsoever things may be weighed or bought. (J. Cumming, D. D.)

The advantages of faithfully serving GodA Fingo, traveling through Hankey, where the L.M.S. have a station, sat down to rest at the door of the place of worship; and looking round on the houses, behind which the gardens were concealed, asked one of the deacons how the people got food in such a place, for he had formerly known it as a desert. The deacon told him to look at him and see if he was not in health and well clothed. He then called a fine child, and told the man to look at it and see if it was not well fed. The deacon then told him if he would attend service the next day he would see that it was so with them all. The Fingo rose to depart, and lifting up his eyes and his right hand to heaven, exclaimed, “It is always so where

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that God is worshipped!” (Andrew Thomson, D. D.)

The unbroken continuity of God’s giftsThere is in Lev_26:10 a promise as to the fulness of the Divine gifts, which has a far wider reach and nobler application than to the harvests and granaries of old Palestine. We may take the words in that aspect, first, as containing God’s pledge that these outward gifts shall come in unbroken continuity. And have they not so come to us all, for all these long years? Has there ever been a gap left yawning? has there ever been a break in the chain of mercies and supplies? has it not rather been that “one post ran to meet another”? that before one of the messengers had unladed all his budget, another’s arrival has antiquated and put aside his store? “Things grown common lose their dear delight.” “If in His gifts and benefits He were more sparing and close-handed,” said Luther, “we should learn to be thankful.” But let us learn it by the continuity of our joys, that we may not need to be taught by their interruption; and let us still all tremulous anticipation of possible failure or certain loss by the happy confidence which we have a right to cherish, that His mercies will meet our needs, continuous as they are, and be threaded so close together on the poor thread of our lives that no gap will be discernible in the jewelled circle. May we not apply that same thought of the unbroken continuity of God’s gifts to the higher region of our spiritual experience? His supplies of wisdom, love, joy, peace, power to our souls, are always enough, and more than enough, for our wants. If ever men complain of languishing vitality in their religious emotions, or of a stinted supply of food for their truest self, it is their own fault, not His. He means that there should be no parentheses of famine in our Christian life. It is not His doing if times of torpor alternate with seasons of quick energy and joyful fulness of life. So far as He is concerned the fiery is uninterrupted, and if it come to us in jets and spurts like some intermittent well, it is because our own evil has put some obstacles to choke the channel and dam out His Spirit from our spirits. The source is full to overflowing, and there are no limits to the supply. The only limit is our capacity, which again is largely determined by our desire. So after all His gifts there is more yet unreceived to possess. After all His self-revelation there is more yet unspoken to declare. Great as is the goodness which He has wrought before the sons of men for them that trust in Him, there are far greater treasures of goodness laid up in the deep mines of God for them that fear Him. Bars of uncoined treasure and ingots of massy gold lie in His storehouses, to be put into circulation as soon as we need, and can use them. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Ye shall make you no idols.Idolatry interdictedI. What the proneness of human nature to idolatry suggests. It shows both the dignity and depravity of man; that—

1. He is endowed with religious instincts. Capable of worship, of exercising faith, hope, love, reverence, fear, &c.2. He is conscious of amenability to some supreme power. Seeks to propitiate, secure favour, and aid.3. He is apprehensive of a future state of existence. Ideas vague, indefinite, absurd,

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yet the outcome of inward presentiment, &c.4. He is unable by light of nature to discover God. His knowledge is so faded, light so dim. How low the soul must have fallen to substitute “nothings” for the Eternal One! Heathenism has never of itself emerged into the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, as seen in the voice that has spoken from heaven, and has been recorded by holy men moved by the Holy Ghost.

II. What indulgence in idolatry entails.1. Degradation. Worship of heathen deities demoralising. In their temples, at their services, the rites observed are grovelling, and, in some instances, demoniacal.2. Superstition. Devotees are duped by priests, enslaved by torturing ritualism, subject and victims of absurd delusions.3. Misery. Fear the ruling passion, not love. Nothing ennobling, inspiring, quickening, comforting. Idol worship mocks the longings of the human soul, cannot appease its hunger, satisfy its thirst.

III. How idolatry may be abolished. Darkness can only be dispersed by the letting in of light. The folly of idolatry must be shown, its helplessness, misery, sin by the spread of the written revelation of heaven, the preaching of the glorious gospel. (F. W. Brown.)

The common worship of the sanctuaryThere are many who make light of the common worship of the sanctuary, and who are in the habit of depreciating the interest and value of its influences. They tell us that Nature’s temple is far grander than any human shrine; that the voices of the birds are a sweeter minstrelsy than that of a mediocre choir; that they find “sermons in stones” whose eloquence is mightier and more penetrating than that of a poor preacher with his string of stale platitudes; and that, therefore, a pleasant country walk is more profitable and sanctifying than an hour spent in the stuffy atmosphere of church or chapel. Nay, even their own fireside has more powerful charms, for have they not Bibles at home, and cannot they read for themselves? and can they not obtain far better sermons for a few pence per volume than they are likely to hear? No doubt there is much truth in such reasoning, but it ignores the social needs of human nature. Man is a social being; social worship is therefore a necessity of his nature. And its necessity has been universally felt. “Groves, mountains, grottoes, caves, streams, valleys, plains, lakes, as well as altars and temples, have been consecrated as the abodes of gods.” Everywhere men have sought out some shrine at which to offer common and united worship. And in Christian ages the house of prayer has ever been held in honour, and its services regarded as hallowed privileges by the best and wisest men. They meet a deep-seated need of human hearts. As Dr. Geikie has said, “There is a breadth of human experience, and of understanding of Divine things to be obtained in the great congregation, in the common confessions, the common prayers, the common praises, the common exhortation of the sanctuary, which would be sought in vain in solitudes.” As long as human nature is unchanged, the place of public worship cannot be superseded. (Howard James.)

Commonness of the idolatrous spirit26

Yes, the orthodox Greek Churchman is grievously scandalised at the image-worship of the Romanist; it is flat idolatry, and he denounces it vehemently. But what are those pictures, many of them made to stand out with solid plates of gold and silver? Why, these are pictures of the Virgin or of her Son, as the case may be, and your anti-idolatrous Greek bows before these with voluntary humility. He hates image-worship, you see, but stands up for picture-worship. Behold how sinners disagree in name and unite in spirit! Put Greek and Roman in a sack together and let the greatest idolater out first: the wisest solution would be to keep them both in, for Solomon himself would be puzzled to decide between them. Are there no such inconsistencies among ourselves? Do we not condemn in one form what we allow in another? Do we not censure in our neighbours what we allow in ourselves? This query need not be answered in a hurry; the reply will be the more extensive for a little waiting. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Then I will give you rain.—The philosophy of rainTo understand the philosophy of this beautiful and often sublime phenomenon, so often witnessed since the creation of the world, and essential to the very existence of plants and animals, a few facts derived from observation and a long train of experiments must be remembered.

1. Were the atmosphere everywhere at all times at a uniform temperature, we should never have rain, or hail, or snow; the water absorbed by it in evaporation from the sea and the earth’s surface would descend in an imperceptible vapour, or cease to be absorbed by the air when it was once fully saturated.2. The absorbing power of the atmosphere, and consequently its capability to retain humidity, is proportionably greater in warm than in cold air.3. The air near the surface of the earth is warmer than it is in the region of the clouds. The higher we ascend from the earth the colder do we find the atmosphere. Hence the perpetual snow on very high mountains in the hottest climate. Now, when from continued evaporation the air is highly saturated with vapour, though, if it be invisible and the sky cloudless, if its temperature be suddenly reduced by cold currents descending from above, or rushing from a higher to a lower latitude, its capacity to retain moisture is diminished, clouds are formed, and the result is rain. Air condenses as it cools, and like a sponge filled with water and compressed, pours out the water which its diminished capacity cannot hold. How singular, yet how simple, the philosophy of rain! Who but Omniscience could have devised such an admirable arrangement for watering the earth? (Dr. Ure.)

Rain from GodSt. Ambrose, speaking of great drought in his time, when the people talked much of rain, he sometimes comforted himself with this hope, Neomenia dabit pluvias (“The new moon will bring us rain”); yet saith he, “Though all of us desired to see some showers, yet I wished such hopes might fail, and was glad that no rain fell, donec precibus ecclesia data esset, &c., until it came as a return upon the Church’s prayers, not upon the influence of the moon, but upon the provident mercy of the Creator.” Such was the

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religious care of that good saint then, and the like were to be wished for now, that men would be exhorted not to be so much taken as they are with the vanity of astrological predictions, to read the stars less and the Scriptures more, to eye God in His providence, not the moon so much in its influence, still looking up unto Him as the primus motor, and upon all other creatures whatsoever as subordinate. (J. Spencer.)

4 I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit.

BARNES, "Lev_26:4Rain in due season - The periodical rains, on which the fertility of the holy land so much depends, are here spoken of. There are two wet seasons, called in Scripture the former and the latter rain Deu_11:14; Jer_5:24; Joe_2:23; Hos_6:3; Jam_5:7. The former or Autumn rain falls in heavy showers in November and December. In March the latter or Spring rain comes on, which is precarious in quantity and duration, and rarely lasts more than two days.CLARKE, "Rain in due season - What in Scripture is called the early and the

latter rain. The first fell in Palestine at the commencement of spring, and the latter in autumn - Calmet.

GILL, "Then I will give you rain in due season,.... The former and latter rain, in the two seasons of the year in which rain usually fell, and the Scriptures frequently speak of; and when the land of Israel, which required rain, not being watered with a river, as Egypt, was blessed with it; the one was at the sowing of their seed, or a little after it, and the other a little before harvest; and when it was had in those times it was had in due season, and hence the word is in the plural number, "your rains" (i); unless showers of rain are meant: to encourage to keep the commands of God, promises of many outward good things are made; and this is the first, being a principal blessing, and which only God, and not all the vanities of the Gentiles, could give: and the land shall yield her increase; which is greatly owing to seasonable showers of rain, by which means the earth brings forth bread to the eater and seed to the sower, corn and grass for man and beast: and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit; vines, olives, pomegranates, figs, &c. are meant, with which the land of Israel abounded, Deu_8:8.

JAMISON, "I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her 28

increase — Rain seldom fell in Judea except at two seasons - the former rain at the end of autumn, the seedtime; and the latter rain in spring, before the beginning of harvest (Jer_5:24).

CALVIN, "4.Then I will give you rain in due season. He might in one word have promised great abundance of food, but, that His grace may be more illustrious, the instruments are mentioned which He employs for its supply. He might give us bread as He formerly rained down manna from heaven; but in order that the signs of His paternal solicitude may be constantly before us, after the seed is sown, the earth requires rain from heaven; and thus the order of the seasons is so regulated that every day may renew the memory of God’s bounty. For this reason rain is mentioned, and the increase of the fruits of the earth; and the continued succession of thrashing, the vintage, and sowing-time, indicates a very abundant supply of corn and wine. For, if the harvest be small, there will not be much work to occupy the husbandman; and, if the vintage be light, hence also will arise an unsatisfactory period of leisure. But when God declares that from harvest to sowing-time they shall have constant employment, He bids them expect a fruitful year, as immediately follows, “ye shall eat your bread to the full.” And since no prosperity can be gratifying without peace, He says that they shall be quiet and free from all disturbance. And this must be carefully observed that, so unpalatable are all God’s blessings without the seasoning of tranquillity, nothing is more wretched than inquietude. The sum is, that for the true servants of God not only is there food laid up with Him, but also its peaceful and pleasant enjoyment, since it is in His power and will to drive far from them all annoyances. Still these two things do not seem altogether consistent with each other, that there shall be none to make them afraid, and that they shall subdue their enemies, so that (210) ten shall suffice to chase a hundred; for of what use would their military strength be if there were no enemies to trouble them? But if we may take the latter sentence disjunctively, there will be no absurdity, viz., if it should happen that war be brought against them, they should fight successfully. Still the easiest solution of this difficulty is, that it soon afterwards was necessary for them to contend with a great multitude of enemies, in order to obtain possession of the land. We gather from the accommodation by the Prophets of this peculiar blessing of a secure and tranquil life to the kingdom of Christ, that the promises, which from the nature of the Law were of none effect, are still useful for believers; for, when God has reconciled them to Himself, He also liberally bestows upon them what they have not deserved; and yet their obedience, such as it is, is also rewarded. COKE, “Verse 4Leviticus 26:4. Then will I give you rain in due season— It is manifest to every reader that the blessings and curses denounced here, and in the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy, as sanctions of the law, are merely temporal, and refer entirely to the things of this world in their primary sense. As they are more fully expressed in the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy, we refer our readers to the commentary on that

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chapter.ELLICOTT, “Verse 4(4) Then I will give you rain in due season.—Better, then I will give you your rains in due season, that is, the former and latter rains (Deuteronomy 11:14). In Palestine the proper season for the early rain is from about the middle of October until December, thus preparing the ground for receiving the seed, whilst that of the latter or vernal rain is in the months of March and April, just before the harvest. Thus, also, in the covenant which God is to make with His people, a similar promise is made, “I will cause the showers to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing” (Ezekiel 34:26).PULPIT, “Leviticus 26:4-6These verses appear to have been in the mind, not of Joel only, as already pointed out, but of Ezekiel (Ezekiel 34:20-31). In Leviticus we find, Then I will give you rain in due season; in Ezekiel, "And I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing.'' In Leviticus, And the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit; in Ezekiel, "And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth her increase." In Leviticus, Ye shall dwell in your land safely; in Ezekiel, "They shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods." In Leviticus, And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land; in Ezekiel, "And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land … . And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beast of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid." The promise, Your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time, is similar to that in the prophet Amos, "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed" (Amos 9:13).

5 Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land.

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CLARKE, "Your threshing shall reach unto the vintage - According to Pliny, Hist. Nat., l. xviii., c. 18, the Egyptians reaped their barley six months, and their oats seven months, after seed time; for they sowed all their grain about the end of summer, when the overflowings of the Nile had ceased. It was nearly the same in Judaea: they sowed their corn and barley towards the end of autumn, and about the month of October; and they began their barley-harvest after the passover, about the middle of March; and in one month or six weeks after, about pentecost, they began that of their wheat. After their wheat-harvest their vintage commenced. Moses here leads the Hebrews to hope, if they continued faithful to God, that between their harvest and vintage, and between their vintage and seed-time, there should be no interval, so great should the abundance be; and these promises would appear to them the more impressive, as they had just now come out of a country where the inhabitants were obliged to remain for nearly three months shut up within their cities, because the Nile had then inundated the whole country. See Calmet. “This is a nervous and beautiful promise of such entire plenty of corn and wine, that before they could have reaped and threshed out their corn the vintage should be ready, and before they could have pressed out their wine it would be time to sow again. The Prophet Amos, Amo_9:13 expresses the same blessing in the same manner: The ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who soweth seed.” - Dodd.

GILL, "And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time,.... Signifying that there should be such plentiful harvests of barley and wheat, the first of which began in March, as would employ them in threshing them out unto the time of vintage, which may be supposed to, be in the month of July; for on the twenty ninth of Sivan, which was about the middle of June, was the time of the first ripe grapes, as appears; see Gill on Num_13:20; and that they should have such quantities of grapes on their vines, as would employ them in gathering and pressing them until seedtime, which was usually in October, see Amo_9:13, and ye shall eat your bread to the full; which is put for all provisions; and the meaning is, they should have plenty of food, eat full meals, or however, what they ate, whether little or much, should be

JAMISON, "your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time, etc. — The barley harvest in Judea was about the middle of April; the wheat harvest about six weeks after, or in the beginning of June. After the harvest came the vintage, and fruit gathering towards the latter end of July. Moses led the Hebrews to believe that, provided they were faithful to God, there would be no idle time between the harvest and vintage, so great would be the increase. (See Amo_9:13). This promise would be very animating to a people who had come from a country where, for three months, they were pent up without being able to walk abroad because the fields were under water.COKE, “Leviticus 26:5. Your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, &c.— This is a nervous and beautiful promise of such entire plenty of corn and wine, that, before

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they could have reaped and threshed out their corn, the vintage should be ready; and before they could have pressed out their wine, it would be time to sow again. The prophet Amos, ch. Leviticus 9:13 expresses the same blessing in the same manner: The plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed. ELLICOTT, “ (5) And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage.—That is, the corn crop shall be so plentiful that those who shall be employed in threshing about the month of March will not complete it before the vintage, which was about the month of July.The vintage shall reach unto the sowing time.—The wine, again, is to be so abundant that those who shall be engaged in gathering and pressing the grapes will not be able to finish before the sowing time again arrives, which is about the month of October. A similar promise is made by Amos: “the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who sowed seed” (Amos 9:13).WHEDON, “ Verse 55. Threshing — The cereals of constant mention are wheat and barley, and more rarely rye and millet. Wheat was ripe at the pentecost, called also “the feast of harvest, the first fruits of thy labors.” The fifty days included the period of grain harvest, commencing with the offering of the first sheaf of the barley harvest in the passover, in April, and ending with that of the two first loaves made from the wheat harvest. So abundant would be the harvest that six months, from mid Nisan to mid Tisri, would be occupied in gathering the produce of the soil; first the harvesting and threshing of the grain and then the vintage, which would be prolonged till sowing time, about the autumnal equinox. See Amos 9:13, note. “The threshing comes between the reaping and the treading of grapes. Reaping is done in April, May, and June, and the vintage is in September and October. Hence the harvest, according to the promise, is to be so abundant that it will take several months to tread out the grain. And here, again, actual experience suggested the language of the prophecy. In very abundant seasons I have seen the threshing actually prolonged until October. Take the three promises together, and they spread over the entire year of the husbandman.” — Dr. W.M. Thomson.

6 “‘I will grant peace in the land, and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid. I will remove wild beasts from the land, and the sword will not pass through your country.32

GILL, "And I will give peace in the land,.... Among yourselves, as Aben Ezra; that as safety from enemies is promised before, here it is assured they should be free from insurrections and from riots, broils, contentions, and civil wars among themselves: and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid; that is, lie down upon their beds, and sleep quietly and comfortably, and not be in any fear of thieves and robbers breaking in upon them, Psa_3:5, and I will rid evil beasts out of the land: out of the land of Israel, as the Targum of Jonathan, not out of the world, such as lions, bears, wolves, &c. which were sometimes troublesome and mischievous in the land: neither shall the sword go through your land; either the sword of the enemy, which if it entered should not be suffered to proceed, much less to pervade the land and destroy the inhabitants of it: so the Targum of Jonathan,"they that draw the sword shall not pass through your land,''or the sword of the Lord, that is, the pestilence, 1Ch_21:12; as Ainsworth suggests; though the Jews (k) commonly understand it of the sword of peace, as they call it, though that is of one that is not an enemy, but passes through one country to destroy another; which yet is distressing to the country he passes through, as in the case of Pharaoh Necho, whom Josiah went out to meet, 2Ch_35:20; though, by what follows, it seems rather to be the first of these.

K&D 6-8, “The Lord would give peace in the land, and cause the beasts of prey which endanger life to vanish out of the land, and suffer no war to come over it, but would put to flight before the Israelites the enemies who attacked them, and cause them to fall into their sword. שכב, to lie without being frightened up by any one, is a figure used to denote the quiet and peaceable enjoyment of life, and taken from the resting of a flock in good pasture-ground (Isa_14:30) exposed to no attacks from either wild beasts or men. מחריד is generally applied to the frightening of men by a hostile attack (Mic_4:4; Jer_30:10; Eze_39:26; Job_11:19); but it is also applied to the frightening of flocks and animals (Isa_17:2; Deu_28:26; Jer_7:33, etc.). רעה an evil animal, for a beast of :חיהprey, as in Gen_37:20. “Sword,” as the principal weapon applied, is used for war. The pursuing of the enemy relates to neighbouring tribes, who would make war upon the Israelites. לחרב נפל does not mean to be felled by the sword (Knobel), but to fall into the sword. The words, “five of you shall put a hundred to flight, and a hundred ten thousand,” are a proverbial expression for the most victorious superiority of Israel over their enemies. It is repeated in the opposite sense and in an intensified form in Deu_32:30 and Isa_30:17.

ELLICOTT, “ (6) And I will give peace.—Not only are they to have rich harvests, but the Lord will grant them peace among themselves, so that they shall be able to retire at night without any anxiety, or fear of robbers (Psalms 3:5; Psalms 4:8).

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I will rid evil beasts out of the land.—The promise to destroy the beasts of prey, which endanger life, and which abounded in Palestine, is also to be found in Ezekiel, where exactly the same words are rendered in the Authorised Version, “And will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land” (Ezekiel 34:25). The two passages should be uniform in the translation.WHEDON, “ 6. I will give peace in the land — If obedient to Jehovah, the Hebrews were never to suffer the horrors of a hostile invasion or of a civil war. Exemption from the latter would be a natural consequence of submission to Jehovah, the theocratic head of Israel. By his overruling providence he would dispose all surrounding nations to maintain peaceful relations with his people. Indeed, their very unity would make them too formidable to be attacked. Only nations weakened by internal strifes invite invasion.Perpetual peace and security of life and property are inestimable blessings, which no tribe of men has yet enjoyed. Evil beasts were to be exterminated, not by miracle, but by the agency of the people, as the Canaanites were driven out “little by little” by God, lest the balance of natural forces should be disturbed. See Exodus xxiii, 30.PETT, “Leviticus 26:6“And I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will cause evil beasts to cease out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.”Furthermore the land would know peace. They would be able to rest content with a total sense of security. They would not be troubled either by plagues of evil beasts or by the swords of evil men. Yahweh would keep their land free of both.

7 You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you.

GILL, "And ye shall chase your enemies,.... Who being overcome in battle, and put to the flight, should be pursued: and they shall fall before you by the sword; not by the sword of one another, as

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the Midianites did, Jdg_7:21, so Jarchi; but rather by the sword of the Israelites, for oftentimes multitudes of the enemy are killed in a pursuit.ELLICOTT, “(7) And ye shall chase your enemies.—If, covetous of their prosperity, the enemies should dare to attack them, God will inspire His people with marvellous courage, so that they will not only pursue them, but put them to the sword.PETT, “Leviticus 26:7-8“And you shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword, and five 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.”Indeed when faced with an enemy they would always be victorious. When they chased them they would fall before them. To deal with a hundred (a larger unit) they would only require five men (their smallest fighting unit). And their own medium unit of ‘a hundred’ would be sufficient to deal with ten large units of ‘a thousand’ each (ten thousand). For their enemy would be unable to resist them.

8 Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you.

BARNES, "Lev_26:8Five of you shall chase - A proverbial mode of expression for superiority in warlike prowess Deu_32:30; Isa_30:17.

GILL, "And five of you shall chase an hundred,.... One man chase twenty: and an hundred of you put ten thousand to flight; which, had it been in proportion to the other number, should have been two thousand, as in Deu_32:30; where there is a proportion observed; and Abendana observes, there are some that give the sense of it thus, an hundred of you, an hundred times five, that is, five hundred, and so it comes up to a right computation; but here it seems to be a certain number for an uncertain, and only a proverbial expression, signifying that a very few, under the blessing of divine Providence, should get the advantage over a large number, and oblige them to retire, and pursue them closely: instances we have of large bodies of the enemy

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being defeated by a small number of Israelites, Jdg_7:21; and even many by a single person or two, 1Sa_14:13, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword; See Gill on Lev_26:7.ELLICOTT, “(8) And five of you shall chase an hundred.—This is a proverbial saying, corresponding to our phrase “A very small number, or a mere handful, shall be more than a match for a whole regiment.” The same phrase, with different proportions to the numbers, occurs in other parts of the Bible (Deuteronomy 32:30; Joshua 23:10; Isaiah 30:17).WHEDON, “ 8. Five… shall chase a hundred — So great would be the prestige of the Hebrew name that a panic would seize the myriads of their foes on the battle field when confronted by a household of Israelites. This was true of the Canaanites when the spies visited Jericho, (see Joshua 2:9-11, note,) and of the hosts of Midian who decamped in confusion before Gideon and his select band of three hundred men. See also 2 Samuel 23:8; 2 Samuel 23:18; 1 Chronicles 11:18. Many are the parallel instances in Christian history in which hosts of foes to Christ have been overcome by simple faith in him exercised by a few believers.A hundred… ten thousand — The ratio of efficiency increases with the number. Of five, each one routs twenty; of a hundred, each puts to flight a hundred. At this rate an aggressive Christianity would soon conquer the whole world.By the sword — They would not be delivered from foreign wars, but they would conquer the enemy in his own country, since the sword should not go through their land.

9 “‘I will look on you with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers, and I will keep my covenant with you.

BARNES, "Lev_26:9Establish my covenant - All material blessings were to be regarded in the light of seals of the “everlasting covenant.” Compare Gen_17:4-8; Neh_9:23.

GILL, "For I will have respect unto you,.... Look at them with delight and 36

pleasure, and with a careful eye on them, watch over them to do them good, and protect them from all evil; or turn himself to them from all others, having a particular regard for them and special care of them: and make you fruitful and multiply you; increase their number, as he did in Egypt, even amidst all their afflictions; and much more might they expect this blessing in the land of Canaan, when settled there, which is the original blessing of mankind, see Gen_1:28, and establish my covenant with you; not the new covenant spoken of in Jer_31:31; as Jarchi and other Jewish writers (l) suggest; for that was not to take place but in future time, under the Gospel dispensation; but rather the covenant made with them at Sinai, though perhaps it chiefly respects the covenant made with their ancestors concerning multiplication of their seed as the stars of heaven and the sand of the sea, Gen_15:5, since it follows upon the promise of an increase of them.

K&D, "Moreover the Lord would bestow His covenant blessing upon them without intermission. אל פנה signifies a sympathizing and gracious regard (Psa_25:16; Psa_69:17). The multiplication and fruitfulness of the nation were a constant fulfilment of the covenant promise (Gen_17:4-6) and an establishment of the covenant (Gen_17:7); not merely the preservation of it, but the continual realization of the covenant grace, by which the covenant itself was carried on further and further towards its completion. This was the real purpose of the blessing, to which all earthly good, as the pledge of the constant abode of God in the midst of His people, simply served as the foundation.

CALVIN, "9.For I will have respect unto you (211) God is said to “turn Himself” to the people, whom He undertakes to cherish and preserve; just as also when He forsakes those who have alienated themselves from Him, He is said to be turned away from them. Hence the common exhortation in the Prophets, “Be ye turned to me, and I will be turned to you;” whereby God reminds us that He has not promised in vain what we here read. Therefore the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, to confirm His covenant towards them by watching for their safety. Hence, too, we are also taught, that when we depart from God, His covenant is made void by our own fault; wherewith Jeremiah reproaches the Israelites. (Jeremiah 31:32.) In order, therefore, that God’s covenant should remain firm and effectual, it is not only necessary that the Law should be engraven on our hearts, but also that He should add another grace, and not remember our iniquities. When He says, “Ye shall eat old store,” He again magnifies their abundance; for, whereas scarcity compels us to make immediate use of the new fruits, so it is a great sign of abundance to bring forth old wheat from the granary, and old wine from the cellar. The continuance of His bounty is represented in the end of the verse, where He says that there shall be no place for the new fruits, unless they empty their store-houses; because (212) it might happen that, after a year of scarcity, all their storehouses should be empty, and there would be no new corn to succeed in place of the old.ELLICOTT, “ (9) For I will have respect unto you.—Better, And I will turn unto

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you, as it is rendered in the Authorised Version in Ezekiel 46:9, the only other passage where this phrase occurs; that is, be merciful to them and bless them. (Comp. 2 Kings 13:23; Psalms 25:16; Psalms 69:17, &c.)And multiply you, and establish my covenant with you.—That is, by multiplying them as the stars of heaven and the sand of the sea, God fulfil the covenant which He made with their fathers (Genesis 12:2; Genesis 13:16; Genesis 15:5; Genesis 22:17; Exodus 23:26).WHEDON, “ 9. I will have respect — I will favourably regard you.Multiply — Rapid increase in population, especially with Oriental nations, is a manifest proof of the divine favour. Virtue promotes health and wealth. These conduce to a multiplication of the people, so long as luxury and its attendant vices are avoided. It is a sign of national decay when marriages and births relatively diminish.Establish my covenant — Confirm the covenant already made with Abraham.PETT, “Leviticus 26:9“And I will have respect to you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and will establish my covenant with you.”And Yahweh would watch over them, and take notice of them and watch out for them, and cause their numbers to multiply. He would make His covenant with them firm and strong, fulfilling its potential.

10 You will still be eating last year’s harvest when you will have to move it out to make room for the new.

BARNES, "Lev_26:10Bring forth the old because of the new - Rather, clear away the old before the new; that is, in order to make room for the latter. Compare the margin reference.

GILL, "And ye shall eat old store,.... What is very old, corn of three years old, as 38

Jarchi and Kimchi (m) interpret it; such plenty should they have that it would be so long consuming: and bring forth the old because of the new; out of their barns and granaries, to make room for the new, which they should have great quantities of, and scarce know where to bestow them; and therefore should empty their treasures and garners of the old, and fill them with new; or they should bring them forth out of their barns into their houses, to make use of themselves, or into their markets to expose to sale, being under no temptation to withhold against a time of scarcity in order to make more of it, see Pro_11:26; now all these temporal blessings promised may be emblems of spiritual things, and might be so understood by such who were spiritually enlightened; as of the rain of divine grace, and the blessings of it, and of the doctrines of the Gospel, sometimes compared thereunto, Deu_32:2; and of great fruitfulness in grace and good works, and of internal peace in the minds of good men, and of their safety and security from spiritual enemies; of fulness of spiritual provisions, even of things new and old, and which are laid up for them, Son_7:13; thus promises of a spiritual nature more manifestly follow.

JAMISON, "ye shall eat old store — Their stock of old corn would be still unexhausted and large when the next harvest brought a new supply.

K&D, "Notwithstanding their numerous increase, they would suffer no want of food. “Ye shall eat that which has become old, and bring out old for new.” Multiplicabo vos et multiplicabo simul annonam vestram, adeo ut illam prae multitudine et copia absumere non possitis, sed illam diutissime servare adeoque abjicere cogamini, novarum frugum suavitate et copia superveniente (C. a Lap.). ציא ה vetustum triticum ex horreo et vinum ex cella promere (Calvin).ELLICOTT, “ (10) And ye shall eat old store.—Better, old store which hath become old. Though they will thus multiply, there shall be abundant stores for them, which become old because it will take them so long to consume them.And bring forth the old because of the new.—Better, and remove the old on account of the new, that is, they will always have such abundant harvests that they will be obliged to remove from the barns and garners the old stock of corn, in order to make room for the new.WHEDON, “10. Eat old store — Literally, the old grown old. Each crop shall be so abundant that it will last till the new is fully ripened; and so great will be the overplus in the garner that they should bring forth the old to make room for the new harvest. What a glowing picture of material prosperity is this! But still greater blessings of a spiritual nature are to follow.PETT, “Leviticus 26:10“And you shall eat old store long kept, and you shall bring forth the old because of the new.”

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Such would be their harvests that they would find that they always had good stocks of wheat and barley continually dating back a long time. They would never find themselves without. And because they would have such abundance they would have to bring the old out in order to make way for the new.

11 I will put my dwelling place[a] among you, and I will not abhor you.

CLARKE, "I will set my tabernacle among you - This and the following verse contain the grand promise of the Gospel dispensation, viz. the presence, manifestation, and indwelling of God in human nature, and his constant in dwelling in the souls of his followers. So Joh_1:14 the Word was made flesh, και εσκηνωσεν εν ἡμιν, and Made His Tabernacle among us. And to this promise of the law St. Paul evidently refers, 2Co_6:16-18 and 2Co_7:1

GILL, "And I will set my tabernacle amongst you,.... Which God had directed them to make, and they had made, and also erected; but here he promises to fix and establish it among them, that so it might continue as a place for the public worship of him, and where he would take up his residence, and grant them his presence; so the Targum of Jonathan,"I will put the Shechinah of my glory among you:" and my soul shall not abhor you; though in themselves, and because of their sins, loathsome and abominable; the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan are,"my Word shall not abhor you;''and the whole may have respect to Christ, the Word made flesh, and tabernacling among them; the tabernacle being a type and emblem of the human nature of Christ, in which the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily, and is the true tabernacle which God pitched and not man, Joh_1:14.

K&D, "“I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul will not despise you.” משכן, applied to the dwelling of God among His people in the sanctuary, involves the idea of satisfied repose.

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CALVIN, "11.And I will set my tabernacle among you. He alludes, indeed, to the visible sanctuary in which He was worshipped; still He would shew them that it should be effectually manifested, that He had not chosen His home amongst them in vain, inasmuch as He would exert His power by sure proofs to aid and preserve them. In a word, He signifies that the sanctuary would not be an empty sign of His presence, but that the reality should correspond with the sign; and this He further confirms in the next verse, where He says that He would “walk among” them. For as yet they had not arrived at their place of rest, and therefore had need of Him as their Leader, in order that their journey might be prosperous. Although He does not say in express terms that they should be spiritually blessed, still there is no doubt but that He lifts their thoughts above the world when He promises that He would be their God; for this expression, “I will be your God,” contains, as Christ interprets it, the hope of eternal immortality; because He is the fountain of life, and “not the God of the dead.” (Matthew 22:32.) The true and solid felicity, then, is now promised, which was typically represented. For this reason David, although he greatly magnifies the earthly blessings of God, yet, by the conclusion which he adds, demonstrates that he did not stop short with them;“God’s mercy (he says) shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord, to length of days.” (213) (Psalms 23:6.)And elsewhere, when he had said that they are happy, to whom God abundantly supplies all things (needful, (214)) presently adds, as if in explanation,“Happy is that people, whose God is the Lord.”(Psalms 144:15.)Finally, He recalls to their recollection that He had been their Deliverer, that they may assuredly gather from what was past, that the flow of His grace would be continuous, if only they themselves do run the course unto which He had called them. ELLICOTT, “ (11) And I will set my tabernacle among you.—Better, And I will set my dwelling-place among you. (See Leviticus 15:31.) Not only will God bless them with these material blessings, but will permanently abide with them in the sanctuary erected in their midst.My soul shall not abhor you.—That is, God has no aversion to them; does not regard it below His dignity to sojourn amongst them, and to show them His favour.WHEDON, “11. My tabernacle among you — The highest possible honour and the richest source of blessings are found in the manifested and abiding presence of the gracious Jehovah in the midst of Israel, guiding their journeyings, forgiving their sins, and shielding them from their enemies by his outflashing glory. Exodus 14:24. But still greater blessings are here prefigured for the obedient in these latter days which have seen God tabernacling in the humanity of Jesus Christ, (John 1:14,

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note,) “in whom,” says Paul, “ye also are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit.” Ephesians 2:22. Christian privilege in this life culminates in the fulfilment of this wonderful promise of Christ, “we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” John 14:23. Greater only in external manifestations of glory will be the bliss of the saints in the new Jerusalem, when a great voice from heaven will say, “Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them.”PETT, “Leviticus 26:11“And I will set my tabernacle among you, and I myself (my soul) shall not abhor you.”And His tabernacle would be set among them. He would be there with them. And there would be nothing about them that He could hate, because their hearts were truly set towards Him. They would be able to be confident that His love was set on them and that there was no barrier between Him and them. See Exodus 29:45. PULPIT, “And I will set my tabernacle among you. This was fulfilled, spiritually, as shown to St. John in his vision of the new Jerusalem: "I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God" (Revelation 21:3). And my soul shall not abhor you. The result of God's abhorrence being his rejection of those whom he abhors (see Le John 20:23).

12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.

GILL, "And I will walk among you,.... As they journeyed from place to place, he walked among them, in the tabernacle built for him, see 2Sa_7:6; it may be expressive of the familiarity and communion which the Lord grants to his people, in and through Christ: and will be your God; to provide for them, and supply them with all the blessings of his goodness, both in providence and grace; and to protect and defend them against all their enemies, temporal and spiritual: and ye shall be my people; appear to be a special and peculiar people of his, chosen,

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redeemed, and sanctified by him, and to whom he bore a special love, and took special care of; see 2Co_6:16; the Targum of Jonathan of the whole is,"I will make the glory of my Shechinah dwell among you, and my Word shall be unto you for God the Redeemer, and ye shall be to my name for a people of Holy Ones.''K&D, "God's walking in the midst of Israel does not refer to His accompanying and

leading the people on their journeyings, but denotes the walking of God in the midst of His people in Canaan itself, whereby He would continually manifest Himself to the nation as its God and make them a people of possession, bringing them into closer and closer fellowship with Himself, and giving them all the saving blessings of His covenant of grace.WHEDON, “ 12. I will walk among you — Here is implied the intimacy of delighted companionship, as Enoch walked with God. Thus Jehovah desired to walk with Israel, and thus he would have walked if the nation had cleaved unto the Lord. “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?”And be your God — Guidance, protection, sustenance, illumination, sanctification, present and eternal gladness and glory lie in these four short words.Ye shall be my people — Dignity, honour, sonship, and heirship are wrapped up in this promise. “All things are yours, and ye are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.”PETT, “Leviticus 26:12“And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people.”And He Himself would walk among them and be their God, and they would be His people (compare Deuteronomy 23:14). It would be like the Garden of Eden restored (compare Genesis 3:8).“And will be your God, and you shall be my people.” As promised in Exodus 6:7. This was a theme of Jeremiah. See Jeremiah 7:23; Jeremiah 11:4; Jeremiah 24:7; Jeremiah 30:22; Jeremiah 32:38. In His mercy He is ever ready to respond to His people. See also Ezekiel 11:20; Ezekiel 36:28; Ezekiel 37:23; Ezekiel 37:27; Zechariah 8:8. It was God's purpose that He might be their God, recognised, acknowledged, worshipped and obeyed. Then would they in turn be His people, watched over, protected, honoured, prosperous and secure.

13 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and 43

enabled you to walk with heads held high.

GILL, "I am the Lord your Lord, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt,.... Who, having done that, was able to fulfil the above promises; and which may be considered as an earnest and pledge of them, as well as be a motive to the Israelites, and an obligation upon them to obey the commandments of God, and walk in his statutes: that ye should not be their bondmen; this was the end of their being brought out of Egypt, that they might be no longer in a state of bondage to the Egyptians, nor to any other, but to serve the Lord their God, by whom they were delivered; as those who are redeemed by Christ from worse than Egyptian bondage, from sin, Satan, and the law, are redeemed, that they might not be the servants of any, but be a peculiar people, zealous of good works to serve the Lord Christ: and I have broken the bands of your yoke; which fastened it on their shoulders, that is, set them at full liberty, from the yoke of all their enemies, particularly the Egyptians, who made their lives bitter in hard bondage, making the yoke of it heavy upon them; as Christ has broken the yoke of spiritual enemies from off the shoulders and necks of his people, Isa_10:27, and made you go upright; who before stooped under the yoke, as well as were of dejected countenances, but now were made to walk in an erect stature, as the Targum of Jonathan, and so Jarchi and Aben Ezra, or in liberty, as Onkelos; see Gal_5:1; and with heads lift up and countenances cheerful.

JAMISON, "I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright — a metaphorical expression to denote their emancipation from Egyptian slavery.

K&D, "For He was their God, who had brought them out of the land of the Egyptians, that they might no longer be servants to them, and had broken the bands of their yokes and made them go upright. על lit., the poles of the yoke (cf. Eze_34:27), i.e., the ,מטתpoles which are laid upon the necks of beasts of burden (Jer_27:2) as a yoke, to bend their necks and harness them for work. It was with the burden of such a yoke that Egypt had pressed down the Israelites, so that they could no longer walk upright, till God by breaking the yoke helped them to walk upright again. As the yoke is a figurative description of severe oppression, so going upright is a figurative description of emancipation from bondage. ממיות lit., a substantive, an upright position; here it is ,קan adverb (cf. Ges. §100, 2).

COKE, “Leviticus 26:13. I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go 44

upright— Bondage is frequently compared in the Scriptures to the bearing a yoke, which, lying upon the neck, causes the bearer to stoop down, and hang the head; in which view, the allusion here is as plain as it is beautiful.REFLECTIONS.—God will not prove an unkind master to those who serve him: none follow him with fidelity whom he will not follow with blessings. We have,1. A solemn repetition of those commands, on the observance of which their happiness especially depended, viz. Abstaining from idolatry, and keeping holy God's sabbaths. Whilst they worshipped the true God, and in the ways of his own appointments, so long they would be a peculiar people to him.2. Rich promises to the obedient. Plenty shall crown the year, and peace be in their borders. Their enemies shall bow before them, and their people multiply exceedingly. God's favour shall he continually towards them, his presence in the midst of them, and his covenant perpetually established with them. They shall be his people, and he will be their God for ever. To the faithful Israel of God these promises are daily fulfilling: the rain of divine grace produces the abundance of spiritual gifts and holy dispositions; the peace of God shall keep their hearts and minds; their enemies, Satan, sin, and death, shall be vanquished; the in-dwelling presence of Jesus in their heart shall exceed the tabernacle-glory; and in death, and after death, he will be their God, and they shall be his people for ever and ever. Amen! Amen!ELLICOTT, “(13) I have broken the bands of your yoke.—The promises thus made to the Israelites of the extraordinary fertility of their land, of peace within and immunity from war without, and of the Divine presence constantly sojourning amongst them, if they will faithfully obey the commandments of the Lord, now conclude with the oft-repeated solemn appeal to the obligation they are under to the God who had so marvellously delivered them from cruel bondage and made them His servants. To remind them of the abject state from which they were rescued, the illustration is taken from the way in which oxen are still harnessed in the East. The bands or the rods are straight pieces of wood, which are inserted in the yoke, or laid across the necks of the animals, to fasten together their heads and keep them level with each other. These bands, which are then attached to the pole of the waggon, are not only oppressive, but exhibit the beasts as perfectly helpless to resist the cruel treatment of the driver. This phrase is often used to denote oppression and tyranny (Deuteronomy 28:48; Isaiah 9:3; Isaiah 10:27; Isaiah 14:25, &c.), but nowhere are the words as like those in the passage before us as in Ezekiel 34:27.WHEDON, “ 13. Made you go upright — The crushing yoke bowed the wearer to the earth, and assimilated him to the beast of burden often his yoke-fellow. Emancipation gave to him the erect form, and repeated the miracle of creation, “God will have no slavery of a social kind. He is against all bonds and restrictions that keep down the true aspirations of the human soul. God has always proceeded upon the principle of enlargement and the inheritance of liberty.” — Joseph Parker.

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Os homini sublime dedit, coelumque tueriJussit, et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus. — Ovid.To man he gave an upturned face,And bade him scan the heavenly space,And view, with countenance erect,The firmament with stars bedecked.

PETT, “Leviticus 26:13“I am Yahweh your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bars of your yoke, and made you go upright.”For it was for this that He in His mighty power and presence as Yahweh had brought them forth safely from the land of Egypt so that they would not be bondmen but free. That was why He had broken the bar of their yoke so that they could go upright. The bar of the yoke went across the neck of the beast of burden bowing them down with the yoke of what they bore. But it would not be so for His people. They would be able to stand upright with no yoke to bow them down.All this then would be so if only they were responsive and obedient to His will as revealed in His covenant.The same equally applies to Christians. If we would enjoy overflowing spiritual blessing it can only result from obedience. But without responsive obedience there will be no genuine blessing. It is those who hear the Master’s voice and walk in the Master’s way (John 10:27-28), and only they, who will enjoy the fullness of what He wants to give. Only fullness of obedience will bring fullness of blessing.Jesus constantly stressed that there were only two ways, one was the narrow way of obedience, the afflicted way, the hemmed in way, the way that leads to life, where men do not do their own will but His will. The other was the broad and easy road and it leads to destruction for all. There is no middle way (Matthew 7:13-14). The one way was to build on the solid foundation, the rock, of hearing His words and doing them, the other way was to build on sand, hearing His words but not doing them (Matthew 7:24-27). Note that both hear His words. It is the way that they then take that reveals them for what they are. Not everyone who says ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter under the Kingly Rule of Heaven, only those who do the will of His Father Who is in Heaven (Matthew 7:21). We dilute His words at our peril.

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PULPIT, “And I have broken the bands of your yoke. This expression, used also in the parallel passage of Ezekiel above referred to (Ezekiel 34:27), and Jeremiah 27:2 receives an illustration from the ancient method of harnessing oxen, still kept up in the East and South. The band means the straight piece of wood laid across the necks of the oxen, by which their heads are fastened together to keep them level with each other, and by which they are attached to the pole of the wagon. The single collars worn by horses in more northern countries have not the same oppressive effect.

Punishment for Disobedience14 “‘But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands,

GILL, "But if ye will not hearken unto me,.... To his commandments, as the rule of their duty, and to his promises, as an encouragement to it, or to his prophets and ministers, explaining and enforcing his law, and exhorting to a cheerful obedience to it; so the Targum of Jonathan,"if ye will not hearken to the doctrine of them that teach my laws;''which was the sin of the Jews in later times, for which captivity and other calamities befell them, Jer_7:25, and will not do all these commandments; which he had delivered to them by Moses, whether moral, ceremonial, or judicial, recorded in this book and in the preceding; even all of them were to be respected, attended to, and performed, for the law curses everyone that does not do all things it requires, Gal_3:10.

HENRY 14-39, “After God had set the blessing before them (the life and good which would make them a happy people if they would be obedient), he here sets the curse before them, the death and evil which would make them as miserable if they were disobedient. Let them not think themselves so deeply rooted as that God's power could not ruin them, nor so highly favoured as that his justice would not ruin them if they revolted from him and rebelled against him; no You only have I known, therefore I will punish you soonest and sorest. Amo_3:2. Observe,

I. How their sin is described, which would bring all this misery upon them. Not sins of ignorance and infirmity; God had provided sacrifices for those. Not the sins they repented of and forsook; but the sins that were presumptuously committed, and 47

obstinately persisted in. Two things would certainly bring this ruin upon them: -1. A contempt of God's commandments (Lev_26:14): “If you will not hearken to mespeaking to you by the law, nor do all these commandments, that is, desire and endeavour to do them, and, wherein you miss it, make use of the prescribed remedies.” Thus their sin is supposed to begin in mere carelessness, and neglect, and omission. These are bad enough, but they make way for worse; for the people are brought in (Lev_26:15) as, (1.) Despising God's statutes, both the duties enjoined and the authority enjoining them, thinking meanly of the law and the Law-maker. Note, Those are hastening apace to their own ruin who begin to think it below them to be religious. (2.) Abhorring his judgments, their very souls abhorring them. Note, Those that begin to despise religion will come by degrees to loathe it; and mean thoughts of it will ripen into ill thoughts of it; those that turn from it will turn against it, and their hearts will rise at it. (3.) Breaking his covenant. Though every breach of the commandment does not amount to a breach of the covenant (we were undone if it did), yet, when men have come to such a pitch of impiety as to despise and abhor the commandment, the next step will be to disown God, and all relation to him. Those that reject the precept will come at last to renounce the covenant. Observe, It is God's covenant which they break: he made it, but they break it. Note, If a covenant be made and kept between God and man, God must have all the honour; but, if ever it be broken, man must bear all the blame: on him shall this breach be.2. A contempt of his corrections. Even their disobedience would not have been their destruction if they had not been obstinate and impenitent in it, notwithstanding the methods God took to reclaim them. Their contempt of God's word would not have brought them to ruin, if they had not added to that a contempt of his rod, which should have brought them to repentance. Three ways this is expressed: - (1.) “If you will not for all this hearken to me, Lev_26:18, Lev_26:21, Lev_26:27. If you will not learn obedience by the things which you suffer, but be as deaf to the loud alarms of God's judgments as you have been to the close reasonings of his word and the secret whispers of your own consciences, you are obstinate indeed.” (2.) “If you walk contrary to me, Lev_26:21, Lev_26:23, Lev_26:27. All sinners walk contrary to God, to his truths, laws, and counsels; but those especially that are incorrigible under his judgments. The design of the rod is to humble them, and soften them, and bring them to repentance; but, instead of this, their hearts are more hardened and exasperated against God, and in their distress they trespass yet more against him, 2Ch_28:22. This is walking contrary to God. Some read it, “If you walk at all adventures with me, carelessly and presumptuously, as if you heeded not either what you do, whether it be right or wrong, or what God does with you, whether it be for you or against you, blundering on in wilful ignorance.” (3.) If you will not be reformed by these things. God's design in punishing is to reform, by giving men sensible convictions of the evil of sin, and obliging them to seek unto him for relief: this is the primary intention; but those that will not be reformed by the judgments of God must expect to be ruined by them. Those have a great deal to answer for that have been long and often under God's correcting hand, and yet go on frowardly in a sinful way; sick and in pain, and yet not reformed; crossed and impoverished, and yet not reformed; broken with breach upon breach, yet not returning to the Lord, Amo_4:6, etc.II. How the misery is described which their sin would bring upon them, under two heads: -1. God himself would be against them; and this is the root and cause of all their misery. (1.) I will set my face against you (Lev_26:17), that is, “I will set myself against

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you, set myself to ruin you.” These proud sinners God will resist, and face those down that confront his authority. Or the face is put for the anger: “I will show myself highly displeased at you.” (2.) I will walk contrary to you (Lev_26:24, Lev_26:28); with the forward he will wrestle, Psa_18:26 [margin]. When God in his providence thwarts the designs of a people, which they thought well laid, crosses their purposes, breaks their measures, blasts their endeavours, and disappoints their expectations, then he walks contrary to them. Note, There is nothing got by striving with God Almighty, for he will break either the heart or the neck of those that contend with him, will bring them either to repentance or ruin. “I will walk at all adventures with you,” so some read; “all covenant loving-kindness shall be forgotten, and I will leave you to common providence.” Note, Those that cast off God deserve that he should cast them off. (3.) As they continued obstinate, the judgments should increase yet more upon them. If the first sensible tokens of God's displeasures do not attain their end, to humble and reform them, then (Lev_26:18), I will punish you seven times more, and again (Lev_26:21), I will bring seven times more plagues, and (Lev_26:24), I will punish you yet seven times, and (Lev_26:28), I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. Note, If less judgments do not do their work, God will send greater; for, when he judges, he will overcome. If true repentance do not stay process, it will go on till execution be taken out. Those that are obstinate and incorrigible, when they have weathered one storm must expect another more violent; and, how severely soever they are punished, till they are in hell they must still say, “There is worse behind,” unless they repent. If the founder havehitherto melted in vain (Jer_6:29), the furnace will be heated seven times hotter (a proverbial expression, used Dan_3:19), and again and again seven times hotter; and who among us can dwell with such devouring fire? God does not begin with the sorest judgments, to show that he is patient, and delights not in the death of sinners; but, if they repent not, he will proceed to the sorest, to show that he is righteous, and that he will not be mocked or set at defiance. (4.) Their misery is completed in that threatening: My soul shall abhor you, Lev_26:30. That man is as miserable as he can be whom God abhors; for his resentments are just and effective. Thus if any man draw back, as these are supposed to do, God's soul shall have no pleasure in him (Heb_10:38), and he will spue them out of his mouth, Rev_3:16. It is spoken of as strange, and yet too true, Hath thy soul loathed Zion? Jer_14:19.2. The whole creation would be at war with them. All God's sore judgments would be sent against them; for he hath many arrows in his quiver. The threatenings here are very particular, because really they were prophecies, and he that foresaw all their rebellions knew they would prove so; see Deu_31:16, Deu_31:29. This long roll of threatening shows that evil pursues sinners. We have here,(1.) Temporal judgments threatened. [1.] Diseases of body, which should be epidemical: I will appoint over you, as task-masters, to rule you with rigour, terror, consumption, and the burning ague, Lev_26:16. What we translate terror, some think, signifies a particular disease, probably (says the learned bishop Patrick) the falling sickness, which is terror indeed: all chronical diseases are included in the consumption, and all acute diseases in the burning ague or fever. These consume the eyes, and cause sorrow both to those that are visited with them and to their friends and relations. Note, All diseases are God's servants; they do what he appoints them, and are often used as scourges wherewith he chastises a provoking people. The pestilence is threatened (Lev_26:25) to meet them, when they are gathered together in their cities for fear of the sword. The greater the concourse of people is, the greater desolation does the pestilence make; and, when it gets among the soldiers that should defend a place, it is of most fatal

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consequence. [2.] Famine and scarcity of bread, which should be brought upon them several ways; as, First, By plunder (Lev_26:16): Your enemies shall eat it up, and carry it off as the Midianites did, Jdg_6:5, Jdg_6:6. Secondly, By unseasonable weather, especially the want of rain (Lev_26:19): I will make your heaven as iron, letting fall no rain, but reflecting heat, and then the earth would of course be as dry and hard as brass,and their labour in ploughing and sowing would be in vain (Lev_26:20); for the increase of the earth depends upon God's good providence more than upon man's good husbandry. This should be the breaking of the staff of bread (Lev_26:26), which life leans upon, and is supported by, on which perhaps they had leaned more than upon God's blessing. There should be so great a dearth of corn that, whereas every family used to fill an oven of their own with household bread, now ten families should have to fill but one over, which would bring themselves and their children and servants to short allowance, so that they should eat and not be satisfied. The less they had the more craving should their appetites be. Thirdly, By the besieging of their cities, which would reduce them to such an extremity that they should eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, Lev_26:29. [3.] War, and the prevailing of their enemies over them: “You shall be slain before your enemies, Lev_26:17. Your choice men shall die in battle, and those that hate you shall reign over you, and justly, since you are not willing that the God that loved you should reign over you;” 2Ch_12:8. Miserable is that people whose enemies are their rulers and have got dominion over them, or whose rulers have become their enemies and under-hand seek the ruin of their interests. Thus God would break the pride of their power, Lev_26:19. God had given them power over the nations; but when they, instead of being thankful for that power, and improving it for the service of God's kingdom, grew proud of it, and perverted the intentions of it, it was just with God to break it. Thus God would bring a sword upon them to avenge the quarrel of his covenant, Lev_26:25. Note, God has a just quarrel with those that break covenant with him, for he will not be mocked by the treachery of perfidious men; and one way or other he will avenge this quarrel upon those that play at fast and loose with him. [4.] Wild beasts, lions, bears, and wolves, which should increase upon them, and tear in pieces all that come in their way (Lev_26:22), as we read of two bears that in an instant killed forty-two children, 2Ki_2:24. This is one of the four sore judgments threatened Eze_14:21, which plainly refers to this chapter. Man was made to have dominion over the creatures, and, though many of them are stronger than he, yet none of them could have hurt him, nay, all of them would have served him, if he had not first shaken off God's dominion, and so lost his own; and now the creatures are in rebellion against him that is in rebellion against his Maker, and, when the Lord of those hosts pleases, they are the executioners of his wrath and the ministers of his justice. [5.] Captivity, or dispersion: I will scatter you among the heathen (Lev_26:33), in your enemies' land, Lev_26:34. Never were any people so incorporated and united among themselves as they were; but for their sin God would scatter them, so that they should be lost among the heathen, from whom God had graciously distinguished them, but with whom they had wickedly mingled themselves. Yet, when they were scattered, divine justice had not done with them, but would draw out a sword after them, which would find them out, and follow them wherever they were. God's judgments, as they cannot be outfaced, so they cannot be outrun. [6.] The utter ruin and desolation of their land, which should be so remarkable that their very enemies themselves, who ha helped it forward, should in the review be astonished at it, Lev_26:32. First, Their cities should be waste, forsaken, uninhabited, and all the buildings destroyed; those that escaped the desolations of war should fall to decay of themselves. Secondly, Their sanctuaries should be a desolation, 50

that is, their synagogues where they met for religious worship every sabbath, as well as their tabernacle where they met thrice a year. Thirdly, The country itself should be desolate, not tilled or husbanded (Lev_26:34, Lev_26:35); then the land should enjoy its sabbaths, because they had not religiously observed the sabbatical years which God appointed them. They tilled their ground when God would have them let it rest; justly therefore were they driven out of it; and the expression intimates that the ground itself was pleased and easy when it was rid of the burden of such sinners, under which it had groaned, Rom_8:20, etc. The captivity in Babylon lasted seventy years, and so long the land enjoyed her sabbaths, as is said (2Ch_36:21) with reference to this. [7.] The destruction of their idols, though rather a mercy than a judgment, yet, being a necessary piece of justice, is here mentioned, to show what would be the sin that would bring all these miseries upon them: I will destroy your high places, Lev_26:30. Those that will not be parted from their sins by the commands of God shall be parted from them by his judgments; since they would not destroy their high places, God would. And, to upbraid them with the unreasonable fondness they had shown for their idols, it is foretold that their carcases should be cast upon the carcases of their idols. Those that are wedded to their lusts will sooner or later have enough of them. Their idols would not be able to help either themselves or their worshippers; but, those that made them being like them, they should both perish alike, and fall together as blind into the ditch.(2.) Spiritual judgments are here threatened. These should seize the mind; for he that made the mind can, when he pleases, make his sword approach to it. It is here threatened, [1.] That they should find no acceptance with God: I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours, Lev_26:31. Though the judgments of God upon them did not separate them and their sins, yet they extorted incense from them; but in vain - even their incense was an abomination, Isa_1:13. [2.] That they should have no courage in their wars, but should be quite dispirited and disheartened. They should not only fear and flee (Lev_26:17), but fear and fall, when none pursued, Lev_26:36. A guilty conscience would be their continual terror, so that not only the sound of a trumpet, but the very sound of a leaf, should chase them. Note, Those that cast off the fear of God expose themselves to the fear of every thing else, Pro_28:1. Their very fears should dash them one against another, Lev_26:37, Lev_26:38. And those that had increased one another's guilt would now increase one another's fears. [3.] That they should have no hope of the forgiveness of their sins (Lev_26:39): They shall pine away in their iniquity,and how should they then live? Eze_33:10. Note, It is a righteous thing with God to leave those to despair of pardon that have presumed to sin; and it is owing to free grace if we are not abandoned to pine away in the iniquity we were born in and have lived in.

JAMISON 14-15, “Lev_26:14-39. A curse to the disobedient.But if ye will not hearken unto me, etc. — In proportion to the great and manifold privileges bestowed upon the Israelites would be the extent of their national criminality and the severity of their national punishments if they disobeyed.

K&D 14-16, “The Curse for Contempt of the Law. - The following judgments are threatened, not for single breaches of the law, but for contempt of all the laws, amounting to inward contempt of the divine commandments and a breach of the covenant (Lev_26:14, Lev_26:15), - for presumptuous and obstinate rebellion, therefore,

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against God and His commandments. For this, severe judgments are announced, which were to be carried to their uttermost in a fourfold series, if the hardening were obstinately continued. If Israel acted in opposition to the Lord in the manner stated, He would act towards them as follows (Lev_26:16, Lev_26:17): He would appoint over them בחלה terror, - a general notion, which is afterwards particularized as consisting of diseases, sowing without enjoying the fruit, defeat in war, and flight before their enemies. Two kinds of disease are mentioned by which life is destroyed: consumption and burning, i.e., burning fever, πυρετός, febris, which cause the eyes (the light of this life) to disappear, and the soul (the life itself) to pine away; whereas in Exo_23:25; Exo_15:26, preservation from diseases is promised for obedience to the law. Of these diseases, consumption is at present very rare in Palestine and Syria, though it occurs in more elevated regions; but burning fever is one of the standing diseases. To these there would be added the invasion of the land by enemies, so that they would labour in vain and sow their seed to no purpose, for their enemies would consume the produce, as actually was the case (e.g., Jdg_6:3-4).

CALVIN, "14.But if ye will not hearken unto me. Thus far a kind invitation has been set before the people in the shape of promises, in order that the observance of the Law might be rendered pleasant and agreeable; since, as we have already seen, our obedience is then only approved by God when we obey willingly. But, inasmuch as the sluggishness of our flesh has need of spurring, threatenings are also added to inspire terror, and at any rate to extort what ought to have been spontaneously performed. It may seem indeed that it may thus be inferred that threats are absurdly misplaced when applied to produce obedience to the Law, which ought to be voluntary; for he who is compelled by fear will never love God; and this is the main point in the Law. But what I have already shewn, will in some measure avail to solve this difficulty, viz., that the Law is deadly to transgressors, because it holds them tight under that condemnation from which they would wish to be released by vain presumptions; whilst threats are also useful to the children of God for a different purpose, both that they may be prepared to fear God heartily before they are regenerate, and also that, after their regeneration, their corrupt affections may be daily subdued. For although they sincerely desire to devote themselves altogether to God, still they have to contend continually with the remainders of their flesh. Thus, then, although the direct object of threats is to alarm the reprobate, still they likewise apply to believers, for the purpose of stimulating their sluggishness, inasmuch as they are not yet thoroughly regenerate, but still burdened with the remainders of sin. COFFMAN, “Verse 14CURSES AND PUNISHMENTS IF ISRAEL DOES NOT OBEY"But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments; and if ye shall reject my statutes, and if your soul abhor mine ordinances, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant; I also will do this unto you: I

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will appoint terror over you, even consumption and fever, that shall consume the eyes, and make the soul to pine away; and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be smitten before your enemies: they that hate you shall rule over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you. And if ye will not yet for these things hearken unto me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins. And I will break the pride of your power: and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass; and your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield its increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruit."Inherent in this is the truth that rejection of God's commandments and a failure to do them is a "breaking of the covenant" (Leviticus 26:15). Therefore, Israel's receiving all of these penalties at the hands of God is eloquent testimony indeed that they did in fact break the covenant. Furthermore, right here is the kernel of those great messages which constituted the burden of what practically all of the prophets of God would afterward proclaim with reference to Israel. "Here is an epitome of all later prophecy regarding Israel."[16] Also, "Breach of the covenant was tantamount to open rebellion against God."[17]"Consumption ..." (Leviticus 26:16). "This is not the name of a disease, but a description of what follows many diseases."[18] The Septuagint (LXX) gives "jaundice" instead of "fever" in this verse, but as Jamieson said, "No certain explanation can be given."[19]"Seven times more ..." This term occurs in Leviticus 26:18,21,24 and Leviticus 26:28; and Allis preferred the rendering "sevenfold," rather than "seven times more," "Since it is apparently the intensity rather than the duration that is referred to."[20]In no sense do these threatened calamities which would befall Israel as a consequence of their disobedience refer to a failure of God to defend his people. Rather, "They were a judgment brought about by God, and this is precisely the interpretation of history which is basic to the great prophets of Israel."[21]ELLICOTT, “(14) But if ye will not hearken unto me.—The glowing promises of blessings for obedience are now followed by a catalogue of calamities of the most appalling nature, which will overtake the Israelites if they disobey the Divine commandments. The first degree of punishment with which this verse begins extends to Leviticus 26:17.EBC, “"THE VENGEANCE OF THE COVENANT"Leviticus 26:14-46"But if ye will not hearken unto Me, and will not do all these commandments; and if ye shall reject My statutes, and if your soul abhor My judgments, so that ye will not

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do all My commandments, but break My covenant; I also will do this unto you; I will appoint terror over you, even consumption and fever, that shall consume the eyes, and make the soul to pine away: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. And I will set My face against you, and ye shall be smitten before your enemies: they that hate you shall rule over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you. And if ye will not yet for these things hearken unto me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins. And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass: and your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruit. And if ye walk contrary unto Me, and will not hearken unto Me I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins. And I will send the beast of the field among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your ways shall become desolate. And if by these things ye will not be reformed unto Me, but will walk contrary unto Me; then will I also walk contrary unto you; and I will smite you, even I, seven times for your sins. And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall execute the vengeance of the covenant and ye shall be gathered together within your cities: and I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. 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 ye shall eat, and not be satisfied. And if ye will not for all this hearken unto Me; but walk contrary unto Me; then I will walk contrary unto you in fury; and I also will chastise you seven times for your sins. And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat. And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your sun images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols; and My soul shall abhor you. And I will make your cities a waste, and will bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours. And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. And you will I scatter among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you: and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste. Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths. As long as it lieth desolate it shall have rest; even the rest which it had not in your sabbaths when ye dwelt upon it. And as for them that are left of you I will send a faintness into their heart in the lands of their enemies: and the sound of a driven leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as one fleeth from the sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth. And they shall stumble one upon another, as it were before the sword, when none pursueth: and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies. And ye shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them. And they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass which they trespassed against Me, and also that because they have walked contrary unto Me, I also walked contrary unto them, and brought them into the land of their enemies: if then their uncircumcised heart be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity; then will I remember My covenant

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with Jacob; and also My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land. The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them; and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they rejected My judgments, and their soul abhorred My statutes. And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break My covenant with them: for I am the Lord their God: but I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the Lord. These are the statutes and judgments and laws, which the Lord made between Him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses."So, if Israel should not obey the commandments of the Lord, but break that covenant which they had made with Him, when they had said unto the Lord: {Exodus 24:7} "All that the Lord hath spoken will we do, and be obedient"; then they are threatened, first in a general way (Leviticus 26:14-17) with terrible judgments, which shall reverse, and more than reverse, all the blessings. God will appoint over them "terror"; disease shall ravage them, consumption and fever; their enemies shall lay waste the land, defeat them in battle, and rule over them; and instead of five of them chasing a hundred, they should flee when none was pursuing (Leviticus 26:17-18). Then follow four series of threats, each conditioned by the supposition that through what they should have already experienced of Jehovah’s judgment they should not repent; each also introduced by the formula, "I will chastise (or "smite") you seven times for your sins." In these four times repeated series of denunciations, thus introduced, we are not to insist that numerical precision was intended; neither can we, with some, give to the "seven times" a numerical or temporal reference. The thought which runs through all these denunciations, and determines the form which they take, is this: that the judgments threatened as to follow each new display of hardness and impenitence on the part of Israel shall be marked by continually increasing severity; and the phrase "seven times," by the reference to the sacred number "seven," intimates that the vengeance should be "the vengeance of the covenant" (Leviticus 26:25), and also the awful thoroughness and completeness with which the threatened judgments, in case of their continued obduracy, would be inflicted.This interpretation is sustained by the details of each section. The first series (Leviticus 26:18-20), in which the threatenings of Leviticus 26:14-17 are developed, adds to what had been previously threatened, the withholding of harvest for lack of rain. He who had promised to send the rains "in their season," if they were obedient, now declares that if they will not hearken unto Him for the other chastisements before denounced, He will "make their heaven as iron, and their earth as brass." The second series threatens in addition their devastation by wild beasts, which shall rob them of their children and their cattle; and also, in consequence of these great judgments, with a great diminution of their numbers. The third series (Leviticus 26:23-26) repeats under forms still more intense, the

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threats of sword, pestilence, and famine. The staff of bread shall be broken, and when, stricken with pestilence, they are gathered together in their cities, one oven shall suffice ten women for their baking, and bread shall be distributed by rations and in insufficient quantity (Leviticus 26:25-26).It is intimated that with these extraordinary judgments it shall become increasingly evident that it is Jehovah who is thus dealing with them for the breach of His covenant. This is suggested (Leviticus 26:24) by the emphatic use of the personal pronoun in the Hebrew, only to be rendered in English by a stress of voice; and by the declaration (Leviticus 26:25) that the sword which should be brought upon them should "execute the vengeance of the covenant."The same remark applies with still more emphasis to the next and last of these subsections (Leviticus 26:27-39), the terrific denunciations of which are introduced by these words, which almost seem to flash with the fire of God’s avenging wrath: "If ye will walk contrary unto Me; then I will walk contrary unto you in fury (lit., " I will walk with you in fury of opposition"); and I also will chastise you seven times for your sins." All that has been threatened before is here repeated with every circumstance which could add terror to the picture. Was famine threatened? it shall be so awful in its severity that they shall eat the flesh of their own sons and daughters. The high places which had been the scenes of their licentious worship should be destroyed, and the "sun images" which they had worshipped, going after Baal, should be cut down; and, in visible sign of the Divine wrath and of God’s holy contempt for the impotent idols for which they had forsaken the Lord, upon the fallen idols should lie the dead corpses of their worshippers. The sanctuaries (with special, -though, perhaps, not exclusive, -reference, as the following words show, to the holy places of Jehovah’s tabernacle or temple) should become a desolation; the sweet savour of their sacrifices should be rejected. The holy people should be scattered into other lands; the land should become so desolate that those of their enemies who should dwell in it should themselves be astonished at its transformation. And so. while they should be scattered in their enemies’ land, the land would "enjoy her sabbaths"; i.e., it should thus, untilled and desolate, enjoy the rest which Jehovah had commanded them to give the land each seventh year, which they had not observed. Meanwhile, the condition of the banished nation in the lands of their captivity should be most pitiful: minished in number, those that were left alive should pine away in their iniquities, and in the iniquity of their fathers; timid and broken spirited, they should flee before the sound of a broken leaf, and the land of their enemies should "eat them up."And herewith ends the second section of this remarkable prophecy. Promising Israel the highest prosperity in the land of Canaan, if they will keep the words of this covenant, it threatens them with successive judgments of sword, famine, and pestilence, of continually increasing severity, to culminate, if they yet persist in disobedience, in their expulsion from the land for a prolonged period; and predicts their continued existence, despite the most distressing conditions, in the lands of their enemies, while their own land meanwhile lies desolate and untilled without

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them.The fundamental importance and instructiveness of this prophecy is evident from the fact that all later predictions concerning the fortunes of Israel are but its more detailed exposition and application to successive historical conditions. Still more evident is its profound significance when we recall to mind the fact, disputed by none, that not only is it an epitome of all later prophecy of Holy Scripture concerning Israel, but, no less truly, an epitome of Israel’s history. So strictly true is this that we may accurately describe the history of that nation, from the days of Moses until now, as but the translation of this chapter from the language of prediction into that of history.The facts which illustrate this statement are so familiar that one scarcely needs to refer to them. The numerous visitations in the days of the Judges, when again and again the people were given into the hands of their enemies for their sins, and so often as then they repented, were again and again delivered; the heavier judgments of later days, first in the days of the earlier kings, and afterwards culminating in the captivity of the ten tribes, following the siege and capture of Samaria, 721 B.C., and, still later, the terrible siege and capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, 586 B.C., to the horrors of which the Lamentations of Jeremiah bear most sorrowful witness; -what were all these events, with others of lesser importance, but a historical unfolding of this twenty-sixth chapter of Leviticus?And how, since Old Testament days, this prophecy has been continually illustrated in Israel’s history, is, or should be, familiar to all. As apostasy has succeeded to apostasy, judgment has followed upon judgment. To a Nebuchadnezzar succeeded an Antiochus Epiphanes; and, after the Greco-Syrian judgment, then, following the supreme national crime of the rejection and crucifixion of their promised Messiah, came the Roman captivity, the most terrible of all; a judgment continued even until now in the eighteen hundred years of Israel’s exile from the land of the covenant, and their scattering among the nations, -eighteen hundred years of tragic suffering, such as no other nation has ever known, or, knowing, has yet survived; sufferings which are still exhibited before the eyes of all the world today in the bitter experiences of the four millions of Jews in the Empire of the Czar, and the persecutions of Anti-Shemitism in other lands.Existing, rather than living, under such conditions for centuries, as a natural result, the Jewish people became few in number, as here predicted; having been reduced from not less than seven or eight millions in the days of the kingdom, to a minimum, about two hundred years ago, of not more than three millions. And, strangest of all, throughout this time the once fertile land has lain desolate, for the Gentiles have never settled in it in any great number; and in place of a population of five hundred to the square mile in the days of Solomon, we find now only a few hundred thousand miserable people, and the most of the land, for lack of cultivation, in such a condition that nothing can easily exceed its desolation. And when we have said all this, and much more that might be said without exaggeration, we have but simply

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testified that Leviticus 26:31-34 of this chapter have in the fullest possible sense become historical fact. For it was written (Leviticus 26:32-34):"I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. And you will I scatter among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you: and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste. Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths."These facts make this chapter to he an apologetic of prime importance. It is this, because we have here evidence of foreknowledge, and therefore of the supernatural inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God in the prophecy here recorded. The facts cannot be adequately explained, either on the supposition of fortunate guessing or of accidental coincidence. It was not indeed impossible to forecast on natural grounds that Israel would become corrupt, or that, if so, they should experience disaster in consequence of their moral depravation. For God has not one law for Israel and another for other nations. Nor does the argument rest on the details of these threatened judgments, as consisting in the sword, famine, and pestilence; for other nations have experienced these calamities, though, indeed, few in equal measure with Israel; and of these one has a natural dependence on another.But setting aside these elements of the prophecy, as of less apologetic significance, two particulars yet remain in which this predicted experience has been unique, and antecedently to the event in so high degree improbable, that we can reasonably think here neither of shrewd human forecast nor of chance agreement of prediction and fulfilment. The one is the predicted survival of exiled Israel as a nation in the land of their enemies, their indestructibility throughout centuries of unequalled suffering; the other, the extraordinary fact that their land, so rich and fertile, which was at that time and for centuries afterwards one of the principal highways of the world’s commerce and travel, the coveted possession of many nations from a remote antiquity, should during the whole period of Israel’s banishment remain comparatively unoccupied and untilled.As regards the former particular, we may search history in vain for a similar phenomenon. Here is a people who, at their best, as compared with many other nations, such as the Egyptians, Babylonians, and Romans, were few in number and in material resources; who now have been scattered from their land for centuries, crushed and oppressed always, in a degree and for a length of time never experienced by any other people; yet never merging in the nations with whom they were mingled, or losing in the least their peculiar racial characteristics and distinct national identity. This, although now for a long time matter of history, was yet, a priori, so improbable that all history records no other instance of the kind; and yet all this had to be if those words of Leviticus 26:44 were to prove true: "When they be in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly." With abundant reason has Professor Christlieb referred to this fact as an unanswerable apologetic, thus:

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"We point to the people of Israel as a perennial historical miracle. The continued existence of this nation up to the present day, the preservation of its national peculiarities throughout thousands of years, in spite of all dispersion and oppression, remains so unparalleled a phenomenon, that without the special providential preparation of God, and His constant interference and protection, it would be impossible for us to explain it. For where else is there a people over which such judgments have passed, and yet not ended in destruction?"No less remarkable and significant is the long-continued depopulation of the land of Israel. For it was and is by nature a richly fertile land; and at the time of this prediction-whether it be assigned to an earlier or later period - it was upon one of the chief commercial and military routes of the world, and its possession has thus been an object of ambition to all the dominant nations of history. Surely, one would have expected that if Israel should be cast out of such a land, it would at once and always be occupied by others who should cultivate its proverbially productive soil. But it was not to be so, for it had been otherwise written. And yet it seems as if it had scarcely been possible that through all these later centuries of the history of Christendom, the land could have thus lain desolate, except for the so momentous discovery in 1497 of the Cape route to India, by which event - which no one could in so remote days have well anticipated-the tide of commerce with the East was turned away from Egypt, Syria, and Palestine. to the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans; so that the land of Israel was left, like a city made to stand solitary in a desert by the shifting of the channel of a river; and its predicted desolation thus went on to receive its most complete, consummate, and now long-realised fulfilment.So, then, stands the case. It is truly difficult to understand how one can fairly escape the inference from these facts, namely, that they imply in this chapter such a prescience of the future as is not possible to man, and therefore demonstrate that the Spirit of God must, in the deepest and truest sense, have been the author of these predictions of the future of the chosen people and their land.And it is of the very first importance, with reference to the controversies of our day regarding this question, that we note the fact that the argument is of such a nature that it is not in the least dependent upon the date that any may have assigned to the origin of this chapter. Even though we should, with Graf and Wellhausen, attribute its composition to exilian or postexilian times, it would still remain true that the chapter contained unmistakable predictions regarding the nation and the land; predictions which, if fulfilled, no doubt, in a degree, in the days of the Babylonian exile and the return, were yet to receive a fulfilment far more minute, exhaustive, and impressive, in centuries which then were still in a far distant future. But if this be granted, it is plain that these facts impose a limitation upon the conclusions of criticism. That only is true science which takes into view all the facts with respect to any phenomenon for which one seeks to account; and in this case the facts which are to be explained by any theory, are not merely peculiarities of style and vocabulary, etc., but also this phenomenon of a demonstrably predictive element in the chapter;

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a phenomenon which requires for its explanation the assumption of a supernatural inspiration as one of the factors in its authorship. But if this is so, how can we reconcile with such a Divine inspiration any theory which makes the last statement of the chapter, that "these are the statutes which the Lord made in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses," to be untrue, and the preceding "laws" to be thus, in plain language, a forgery of exilian or post-exilian times?WHEDON, “ THREATENINGS AGAINST DISOBEDIENCE, Leviticus 26:14-39.Law is necessary to government. But we can no more have law without penalty than we can have a coin without a reverse side. Accountability implies free agents, with intelligence sufficient to apprehend the consequences of actions in the form of rewards and punishments distinctly announced beforehand. The seasonableness and the clearness of this announcement enhance the guiltiness of transgression and intensify the punishment. This graphic portrayal of the issues of disobedience leaves rebellious Israel without excuse. “This graduated advance of the judgments of God is so depicted in the following passage that four times in succession new and multiplied punishments are announced: 1) Utter barrenness in their land, that is to say, one heavier punishment, Leviticus 26:18-20; Leviticus 2) the extermination of their cattle by beasts of prey, and childlessness — two punishments, Leviticus 26:21-22; Leviticus 3) war, plague, and famine — three punishments, Leviticus 26:23-26; Leviticus 4) the destruction of all idolatrous abominations, the overthrow of their towns and holy places, the devastation of the land, and the dispersion of the people among the heathen — four punishments — which would bring the Israelites to the verge of destruction, Leviticus 26:27-33. These divine threats embrace the whole of Israel’s future.” — Keil and Delitzsch.14. Not hearken… not do — A refusal to give undivided attention and earnest heed to the law of God by the proper use of our perceptive and reflective powers is as culpable as wilful disobedience, inasmuch as it implies a disregard of the divine authority. The most solemn and frequent injunction of Christ was this, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” It is worthy of remark that the process of apostasy begins with sins of omission, and in the next verse ends with sins of commission.PETT, “Verses 14-38The Cursings (Leviticus 26:14-38).In the ancient second millennium covenants the cursings were regularly more than the blessings, and so it is here. The devastating consequence of disobedience and unfaithfulness is now laid out in all its detail. We have here a foretaste of the history of Israel, for Moses was a prophet. But this was not just prophecy, they were the words of someone who was aware of the troubles and problems that could come on an unprotected nation, and who recognised what God could bring on them from the lessons of history. Moses was well aware of those. He would have both seen and heard about such things during his upbringing. It was enlightened awareness, not

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the trickery of an oracle which could claim to be right whatever happened.Leviticus 26:14-15“But if you will not hearken to me, and will not do all these commandments; and if you shall reject my statutes, and if your soul abhor my ordinances, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant;”Here is the picture of the one who will be cursed. He does not obey God. He does not love His word. It is not that he does not believe. Like the devils he believes and trembles. It is that he does not have responsive faith. He does not hear God’s voice and respond to it, he does not do what God requires in His commands. He chooses to reject God’s statutes and live his own life. He does not like what God demands, thus he turns from it and breaks the covenant. He does not live as God requires. PULPIT, “Leviticus 26:14-17Punishment in its first degree. Terror, consumption,—that is, wasting—and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart:—a proverbial expression for great distress (see 1 Samuel 2:33)—and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it (see Jeremiah 5:17, and Micah 6:15, "Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap; thou shalt tread the olives, but thou shalt not anoint thee with oil")… and ye shall be slain before your enemies (as took place often in their after history, see 2:14; 3:8; 4:2); they that hate you shall reign—that is, rule—over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you.

15 and if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws and fail to carry out all my commands and so violate my covenant,

CLARKE, "If ye shall despise my statutes - abhor my judgments - As these words, and others of a similar import, which point out different properties of the revelation of God, are frequently occurring, I Judge it best to take a general view of them, once for all, in this place, and show how they differ among themselves, and what property of the Divine law each points out.

1. Statutes. חקת chukkoth, from חק chak, to mark out, define, etc. This term seems to signify the things which God has defined, marked, and traced out, that men might

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have a perfect copy of pure conduct always before their eyes, to teach them how they might walk so as to please him in all things, which they could not do without such instruction as God gives in his word, and the help which he affords by his Spirit.2. Judgments. שפטים shephatim, from שפט shaphat, to distinguish, regulate, and

determine; meaning those things which God has determined that men shall pursue, by which their whole conduct shall be regulated, making the proper distinction between virtue and vice, good and evil, right and wrong, justice and injustice; in a word, between what is proper to be done, and what is proper to be left undone.3. Commandments. מצות mitsvoth, from צוה tsavah, to command, ordain, and

appoint, as a legislator. This term is properly applied to those parts of the law which contain the obligation the people are under to act according to the statutes, judgments, etc., already established, and which prohibit them by penal sanctions from acting contrary to the laws.4. Covenant. ברית berith, from בר bar, to clear, cleanse, or purify; because the

covenant, the whole system of revelation given to the Jews, was intended to separate them from all the people of the earth, and to make them holy. Berith also signifies the covenant-sacrifice, which prefigured the atonement made by Christ for the sin of the world, by which he purifies believers unto himself, and makes them a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Besides those four, we may add the following, from other places of Scripture.

5. Testimonies. עדות edoth, from עד ad, beyond, farther, besides; because the whole ritual law referred to something farther on or beyond the Jewish dispensation, even to that sacrifice which in the fullness of time was to be offered for the sins of men. Thus all the sacrifices, etc., of the Mosaic law referred to Christ, and bore testimony to him who was to come.

6. Ordinances. משמרות mishmaroth, from שמר shamar, to guard, keep safe, watch over; those parts of Divine revelation which exhorted men to watch their ways, keep their hearts, and promised them, in consequence, the continual protection and blessing of God their Maker.

7. Precepts. פקודים pikkudim, from פקד pakad, to overlook, take care or notice of, to visit; a very expressive character of the Divine testimonies, the overseers of a man’s conduct, those who stand by and look on to see whether he acts according to the commands of his Master; also the visitors, because God’s precepts are suited to all the circumstances of human life; some are applicable in adversity, others in prosperity; some in times of temptation and sadness, others in seasons of spiritual joy and exultation, etc., etc. Thus they may be said to overlook and visit man in all times, places, and circumstances.

8. Truth. אמת emeth, from אם am, to support, sustain, confirm; because God is immutable who has promised, threatened, commanded, and therefore all his promises, threatenings, commandments, etc., are unalterable and eternal. Error and falsity promise to direct and sustain, but they fail. God’s word is supported by his own faithfulness, and it supports and confirms them who conscientiously believe it.

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9. Righteousness. צדקה tsedakah, from צדק which, though not used as a verb in the Hebrew Bible, seems to convey, from its use as a noun, the idea of giving just weight or good measure, see Lev_19:36. This is one of the characters which is attributed to the revelation God makes of himself; (see Psa_119:137-144); and by this the impartiality of the Divine testimonies is pointed out. God gives to all their due, and his word distributes to every man according to his state, circumstances, talents, graces, etc.; to none too much, to none too little, to all enough.

10. Word Of Jehovah. דבר יהוה debar Yehovah, from דבר, dabar, to drive, lead, bring forward, hence to bring forward, or utter one’s sentiments; so the word of God is what God has brought forth to man from his own mind and counsel; it is a perfect similitude of his own righteousness, holiness, goodness, and truth. This Divine law is sometimes expressed by: -

11. ,amar, to branch out אמר imrah, speech or word, variously modified from אמרהbecause of the interesting details into which the word of God enters in order to instruct man and make him wise unto salvation, or, as the apostle expresses it, “God, who at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake unto the fathers by the prophets,” πολυμερως και πολυτροπως, in many distinct parcels, and by various tropes or figures; a curious and elegant description of Divine revelation; Heb_1:1.

12. All these collectively are termed the Law תורה torah, or תורת יהוה torath Yehovah, the law of the Lord, from ירה yarah, to direct, set straight and true, as stones in a building, to teach and instruct, because this whole system of Divine revelation is calculated to direct men to the attainment of present and eternal felicity, to set them right in their notions concerning the supreme God, to order and adjust them in the several departments of civil and religious society, and thus to teach and instruct them in the knowledge of themselves, and in the true knowledge of God. Thus those who receive the truth become the city of the living God - the temple of the Most High, built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit. To complete this description of the word law, See the note on Exo_12:49, where other properties of the law of God are specified.

GILL, "And if ye shall despise my statutes,.... Which is an aggravated sin; to be negligent hearers of the commands of God is bad, not to be doers of them worse, but to treat them with contempt is worse still: or if your soul abhor my judgments: which is worst of all, to despise them as if not wisely or righteously made is a dreadful reflection upon the Maker of them; but to abhor them as bad things, not fit to be regarded, but to be had in the utmost detestation, is shocking impiety: so that ye will not do all my commandments; nor any of them, but are set against them, and determined and resolved on the contrary: but that ye break my covenant; the covenant made with them at Sinai, when they promised, on their part, that they would hearken and be obedient, Exo_24:7.

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CALVIN, "15.And if ye shall despise my statutes. This seems only to apply to ungodly and depraved apostates, who deliberately revolt from the service and worship of God: for if a person falls through infirmity, and offends from levity and inconsideration, he will not be said to have despised God’s Law, or to have made void His covenant. And certainly it is probable that God designedly spoke of gross rebellion, which could not be extenuated under the pretense of error. Still it must be borne in mind that all transgressors, whether they have violated the Law in whole or in part, are brought under the curse. But God would remind His people betimes to what lengths those at last proceed who assume the liberty of sinning; and also from what source all transgressions arise. For, although every one who turns out of the right path into sin does not altogether repudiate or abominate the Law, yet all sins betray contempt of the Law, and tend to break the covenant of God. He justly, therefore, denounces them as covenant-breakers, and proud despisers, unless they obey His commandments: and, first, He threatens that He will destroy them with “terror, consumption,” and other diseases; and then adds external calamities, such as scarcity of corn, violent invasions of enemies, and the plunder of their goods; of which it will be more convenient to speak more fully in expounding the passage in Deuteronomy.ELLICOTT, “ (15) And if ye shall despise my statutes.—From passive indifference to the Divine statutes mentioned in the preceding verse, their falling away is sure to follow. Hence what was at first mere listlessness now develops itself into a contemptuous education of God’s ordinances.Or if your soul abhor my judgments.—Better, and if your soul, &c, as the picture of their Apostasy goes on developing itself.But that ye break my covenant.—Better, that ye break, &c, without the “but,” which is not in the original, and obscures the sense of the passage, since it is the fact of their abhorrence of God’s law which breaks the Divine covenant with them. (See Genesis 17:14.) The sense is more correctly given by rendering this clause “Thus breaking my covenant,” or “Thereby breaking my covenant.”WHEDON, “Verse 1515. Despise my statutes — In all deliberate rejection of God’s law, there is the offensive element of pride lifting itself above the divine wisdom and majesty. All wilful sin contemns Jehovah. Herein is the very essence of its turpitude. The following judgments are not for single transgressions, but for an inward contempt of all the divine commandments, breaking out in presumptuous and incorrigible rebellion against Jehovah, who had openly set his name in Israel.Break my covenant — The successive clauses of this verse are in the form of a climax, rising step by step till the culminating sin is reached — a violation of that solemn compact whose seal was upon the person of every male, and which was pregnant with blessings, to the seed of Abraham. This would be national suicide. “O

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Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself.”

16 then I will do this to you: I will bring on you sudden terror, wasting diseases and fever that will destroy your sight and sap your strength. You will plant seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it.

BARNES, "Lev_26:16The first warning for disobedience is disease. “Terror” (literally trembling) is rendered trouble in Psa_78:33; Isa_65:23. It seems here to denote that terrible affliction, an anxious temperament, the mental state ever at war with Faith and Hope. This might well be placed at the head of the visitations on a backslider who had broken the covenant with his God. Compare Deu_32:25; Jer_15:8; Pro_28:1; Job_24:17; Psa_23:4.Consumption, and the burning ague - Compare the margin reference. The first of the words in the original comes from a root signifying to waste away; the latter (better, fever), from one signifying to kindle a fire. Consumption is common in Egypt and some parts of Asia Minor, but it is more rare in Syria. Fevers of different kinds are the commonest of all diseases in Syria and all the neighboring countries. The opposite promise to the threat is given in Exo_15:26; Exo_23:25.CLARKE, "I will even appoint over you terror, etc. - How dreadful is this

curse! A whole train of evils are here personified and appointed to be the governors of a disobedient people. Terror is to be one of their keepers. How awful a state! to be continually under the influence of dismay, feeling indescribable evils, and fearing worse! Consumption, שחפת shachepheth, generally allowed to be some kind of atrophy or marasmus, by which the flesh was consumed, and the whole body dried up by raging fever through lack of sustenance. See the note on Lev_11:16. How circumstantially were all these threatenings fulfilled in this disobedient and rebellious people! Let a deist read over this chapter and compare it with the state of the Jews since the days of Vespasian, and then let him doubt the authenticity of this word if he can.

GILL, "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:

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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.

JAMISON, "I will even appoint over you terror — the falling sickness [Patrick].consumption, and the burning ague — Some consider these as symptoms of the same disease - consumption followed by the shivering, burning, and sweating fits that are the usual concomitants of that malady. According to the Septuagint, “ague” is “the jaundice,” which disorders the eyes and produces great depression of spirits. Others, however, consider the word as referring to a scorching wind; no certain explanation can be given.

COKE, “Leviticus 26:16. Appoint over you terror— See Deuteronomy 28:28. Psalms 78:33 compared with the 36th verse of this chapter, which fully explains the meaning of the word. Houbigant reads, בחלה bechle, here, after the Samaritans which he renders diseases. One cannot read these blessings and denunciations upon the Jews without an awful admiration of that providence, which, in future times, so amply and fearfully fulfilled both the one and the other. Remarkable are the words of Josephus: "In proportion to their neglect of the law, easy things became unsurmountable; and all their undertakings, how just soever, ended in incurable calamities." Antiq. lib. 5: cap. 1. See the Divine Legat. Book 5: sect. 2: p. 68. ELLICOTT, “ (16) I also will do this unto you.—That is, He will do the same unto them; He will requite them in the same way, and abhor them.I will even appoint over you terror.—Better, and I will appoint, &c, that is, God will visit them with terrible things, consisting of consumption and burning ague. These

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two diseases also occur together in Deuteronomy 28:22, the only passage in the Bible where they occur again. The second of the two, however, which is here translated “burning ague” in the Authorised Version, is, in the Deuteronomy passage, rendered simply by “fever.” The two passages ought to be uniformly rendered.That shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart.—Better, that shall extinguish the eyes, and cause life to waste away. The rendering of the Authorised Version, “consume the eyes,” though giving the sense, is misleading, inasmuch as it suggests that the verb “consume” is the same as the disease, “consumption” mentioned in the preceding clause. For the phrase “extinguish the eye”—the eye failing—see Job 11:20; Job 17:5; Job 31:16, &c, and for the whole phrase, comp. Deuteronomy 28:65; 1 Samuel 2:23.And ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.—Besides these terrible diseases, the production of the soil, which is necessary for the sustenance of life, and which is to be so abundant and secure against enemies when the Israelites obey the Divine commandments (see Leviticus 26:4-6), will be carried off by strangers. Similar threatenings in case of disobedience are to be found both in the Pentateuch (Deut. xxviii, 33, 51) and in the prophets (Jeremiah 5:17). The most striking parallel is the one in Micah, “Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap; thou shalt tread the olives, but thou shalt not anoint thee with oil” (Micah 6:15). For the reverse state of things, see Isaiah 62:8; Isaiah 65:22-23.TRAPP, “Leviticus 26:16 I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.Ver. 16. I will even appoint.] Put them in commission; send them with such authority as shall be irresistible.Terror, consumption, and the burning ague,] i.e., Terrible sicknesses of all sorts, such as was the sweating sickness, called Sudor Anglicus, quia Anglis perpetuum malum. (a) It reigned (b) here some forty years together, and slew so many, that strangers wondered how this island could be so populous to bear and bury such incredible multitudes. No stranger in England was touched with this disease, and yet the English were chased therewith, not only in England, but in other countries abroad: which made them like tyrants, both feared and avoided, wherever they came. (c) WHEDON, “ 16. Appoint over you — This is the very verb used to indicate that Potiphar made Joseph overseer in his house. Genesis 39:5. They who throw off allegiance to Jehovah will fall under the dominion of the ministers of his vengeance who, as the satraps of the rejected king, shall rule these rebels with the utmost rigour till they sue for pardon and peace.Terror — Appalling fear, ever present by day and by night — a state of the utmost

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insecurity and alarm, of which the subjects of a stable and strong government in time of peace have no conception.Consumption — Emaciation naturally results from terror. Many a culprit, carrying a guilty secret in his bosom, has been wasted to a skeleton.The burning ague — Rather, the burning of fever. See R.V. When a tide of fire courses through the veins, the helpless victim realizes that he is under the rod of Omnipotence.Consume the eyes — The eye is the organ of grief. When sunken, it indicates extreme and long-continued suffering.Sorrow of heart — Causing the soul to grieve. The entire being, soul and body, shall be the vehicle of anguish.Ye shall sow… in vain — The insecurity of the people in some portions of the Holy Land, especially east of the Jordan, even now destroys the motive to activity in agriculture and turns the fertile plains into a desert.PETT, “Leviticus 26:16“I also will do this to you: I will appoint terror over you, even consumption and fever, that shall consume the eyes, and make the soul to pine away; and you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.”To such a person God will react with the very opposite of His blessings. Note that God says that He will be directly active in it. It may not seem like that, but that will be how it will be. He will be against them. He will put them through hard and difficult times, He will make them afraid with wasting disease and fever, their eyes will suffer, their inner hearts will be full of grief. When they sow their seed it will be in vain. It is the enemy who will eat of it. In every way times will be hard.Sometimes such things happen to us as a test, to see whether we will be faithful or not, and to chasten us and purify us so that our love and response to Him becomes stronger (Hebrews 12:5-11). But we need to be aware that if we claim to be His people, then disobedience to his will can result in what goes beyond chastening to a harshness of judgment that will bring us to deep repentance. As we discover at the end of the chapter this would be His purpose for Israel. But the way would first be very hard.

17 I will set my face against you so that you will be 68

defeated by your enemies; those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee even when no one is pursuing you.

GILL, "And I will set my face against you,.... Exert his power, and stir up his wrath and indignation against them, as enemies of his, to cut them off; see Psa_34:16; which is the reverse of having respect to them, Lev_26:9, and ye shall be slain before your enemies; as they were sometimes by the Philistines and others: and they that hate you shall reign over you; as did the Chaldeans and Babylonians; see Psa_106:41, and ye shall flee when none pursueth you; of such pusillanimous spirits should they be, and filled with such dread and terror of their enemies, so contrary from what is promised them on their obedience, Lev_26:8.

K&D, "Yea, the Lord would turn His face against them, so that they would be beaten by their enemies, and be so thoroughly humbled in consequence, that they would flee when no man pursued (cf. Lev_26:36).

But if these punishments did not answer their purpose, and bring Israel back to fidelity to its God, the Lord would punish the disobedient nation still more severely, and chasten the rebellious for their sin, not simply only, but sevenfold. This He would do, so long as Israel persevered in obstinate resistance, and to this end He would multiply His judgments by degrees. This graduated advance of the judgments of God is so depicted in the following passage, that four times in succession new and multiplied punishments are announced: (1) utter barrenness in their land, - that is to say, one heavier punishment (Lev_26:18-20); (2) the extermination of their cattle by beasts of prey, and childlessness, - two punishments (Lev_26:21, Lev_26:22); (3) war, plague, and famine, -three punishments (Lev_26:23-26); (4) the destruction of all idolatrous abominations, the overthrow of their towns and holy places, the devastation of the land, and the dispersion of the people among the heathen-four punishments which would bring the Israelites to the verge of destruction (Lev_26:27-33). In this way would the Lord punish the stiffneckedness of His people. - These divine threats embrace the whole of Israel's future. But the series of judgments mentioned is not to be understood historically, as a prediction of the temporal succession of the different punishments, but as an ideal account of the judgments of God, unfolding themselves with inward necessity in a manner answering to the progressive development of the sin. As the nation would not resist the Lord continually, but times of disobedience and apostasy would alternate with times of obedience and faithfulness, so the judgments of God would alternate with His blessings; and as the opposition would not increase in uniform progress, sometimes 69

becoming weaker and then at other times gaining greater force again, so the punishments would not multiply continuously, but correspond in every case to the amount of the sin, and only burst in upon the incorrigible race in all the intensity foretold, when ungodliness gained the upper hand.

ELLICOTT, “ (17) And I will set my face against you.—That is, make them feel his anger. (See Note on Leviticus 17:10.)Be slain before your enemies.—Better, be smitten before your enemies, as this phrase is rendered in the Authorised Version (Numbers 14:42; Deuteronomy 1:42; Deuteronomy 28:25).Shall reign over you.—Better, shall rule over you, as the Authorised Version renders it in Isaiah 14:2; Ezekiel 29:15; Ezekiel 34:4, &c.WHEDON, “ 17. I will set my face — By direct interposition, in addition to those ministers of his wrath, will Jehovah vindicate his broken covenant and punish his refractory people.Ye shall flee — So great is the contrast in war between those obedient to God and the disobedient, that instead of one chasing a thousand, a thousand godless Hebrews shall flee when not even one enemy pursues.PETT, “Leviticus 26:17“And I will set my face against you, and you shall be smitten before your enemies: they that hate you shall rule over you; and you shall flee when no one pursues you.”For He will set His face against them, and when their enemies come they will be unable to combat them. They will be smitten before them. They will come under the rulership of tyrants who do not seek their good. And things will be so bad that they will even run away when there is nothing really to be afraid of. Their nerve will have gone. They will be without faith.This picture is not of the outside world but of the supposed people of God. We need to be afraid when we do not look to God in obedience, for then we face a long track downwards. God is not mocked. The lampstand can be taken out of its place. Many of the lands which first flourished under the Gospel are now trodden down under Islam. They did not believe it could happen, but it did, for they had lost their true faith.

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18 “‘If after all this you will not listen to me, I will punish you for your sins seven times over.

BARNES, "Lev_26:18For all this - i. e. for all the afflictions in Lev_26:16-17.Seven times - The sabbatical number is here proverbially used to remind the people of the covenant. Compare Gen_4:15, Gen_4:24; Psa_119:164; Pro_24:16; Luk_17:4.

GILL, "And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me,.... If such corrections by diseases of body, and by giving them up into the hands of their enemies, should be ineffectual to reform them, and bring them to obedience to the statutes and commandments of God, but should continue in their disobedience to him, and rebellion against him: then I will punish you seven times more for your sins; that is, abundantly more, with sorer punishments, and these more frequently repeated.

JAMISON, "if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more — that is, with far more severe and protracted calamities.

K&D 18-2O“First stage of the aggravated judgments. - If they did not hearken אלה up to these” (the punishments named in Lev_26:16, Lev_26:17), that is to say, if“ ,עדthey persisted in their disobedience even when the judgments reached to this height, God would add a sevenfold chastisement on account of their sins, would punish them seven times more severely, and break down their strong pride by fearful drought. Seven, as the number of perfection in the works of God, denotes the strengthening of the chastisement, even to the height of its full measure (cf. Pro_24:16). עז ן lit., the ,גאeminence or pride of strength, includes everything upon which a nation rests its might; then the pride and haughtiness which rely upon earthly might and its auxiliaries (Eze_30:6, Eze_30:18; Eze_33:28); here it signifies the pride of a nation, puffed up by the fruitfulness and rich produce of its land. God would make their heaven (the sky of their land) like iron and their earth like brass, i.e., as hard and dry as metal, so that not a drop of rain and dew would fall from heaven to moisten the earth, and not a plant could grow out of the earth (cf. Deu_28:23); and when the land was cultivated, the people would exhaust their strength for nought. תמם, consumi.

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CALVIN, "18.And if ye will not yet for all this hearken. The gradation of punishments, which is here mentioned, shews that they are so tempered by God’s kindness, that He only lightly chastises those whose stupidity or hardness of heart he has not yet proved; but when obstinacy in sin is superadded, the severity of the punishments is likewise increased; and justly so, because those who, being admonished, care not to repent, wage open war with God. Hence the more moderately He deals with us, the more attentive we ought to be to His corrections, in order that even the gentle strokes, which He in His kindness softens and tempers, may be enough. Paul says that hypocrites heap up to themselves a treasure of greater vengeance, if they take occasion from His forbearance to continue unmoved, ( Romans 2:4;) for those who do not repent, when admonished by light chastisements, are the less excusable. Wherefore let us give heed to that exhortation of David, that we “be not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding, whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle;” because “many sorrows shall be to the wicked.” ( Psalms 32:9.) In sum, as soon as God has begun to put forth His hand to smite us, there is one remedy whereby He may be appeased, i e. , teachableness. It would be more prudent of us to anticipate Him, and to return to Him of our own accord, though He should withhold punishment; but when we are smitten without profit, it is a sin of obstinate wickedness. He threatens, therefore, that unless they repent when smitten with the ferule, He will use the rod to correct them. When He says, “I will punish you seven times more,” He does not mean to define the number, but, according to the common phrase of Scripture, uses the number seven, by way of amplification. In the next verse He shews that there is a just cause for His becoming more severe, because they cannot be subdued except by violent means; for although the word (225) ,גאון geon, is not always used in a bad sense, still, in this passage, it signifies that they are disobedient, being puffed up to be proud by their power; for, as Moses says elsewhere, Israel “waxed fat, and kicked” against God, just as horses grow restive by being overfed. He therefore calls their obstinacy, wherein they became more hardened, although God spared them, “the pride of their power;” for prosperity begets security, in which stubborn men try their strength against the scourges of God. ELLICOTT, “ (18) And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me.—Better, and if up to these ye will not hearken unto me, that is, if they should persist in their disobedience to the very end of those punishments mentioned in Leviticus 26:16-17. This verse, therefore, introduces the second degree of punishments, which ends with Leviticus 26:20.I will punish you seven times more.—That is, indefinitely or unceasingly; many more times. Seven being a complete number is often used to denote thoroughness (see Note on Leviticus 4:6), a large or indefinite number. Hence the declaration “He shall deliver thee in six troubles; yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee” (Job 5:19), and “if he trespass against thee seven times in a day” (Luke 17:4), that is, an indefinite number of times. (Comp. also Psalms 119:164; Proverbs 24:16, &c.)TRAPP, “Leviticus 26:18 And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I

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will punish you seven times more for your sins.Ver. 18. Seven times more.] God will have the better of us, and good reason: for is it fit that he should cast down the bucklers first? Illud quidem sic habeto, said the orator, (a) nisi sanatus animus sit, quod sine philosophia fieri non potest, finem miseriarum nullum fore, Be sure of this; if thy mind mend not, there will be no end of thy misery. WHEDON, “ 18. Seven times more — Seven typifies perfection. The chastisement will be complete. The resources of Jehovah are infinite, and he has the cycles of eternity for their development.For your sins — National sins are punished in this world, because nations do not exist after death. Individual sinners are reserved unto the day of judgment to be punished.PETT, “Leviticus 26:18“And if you will not yet for these things hearken to me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins.”And if they still do not listen to Him then their chastisement will increase sevenfold. Instead of sevenfold divine blessing there will be sevenfold divine chastisement. PULPIT, “Leviticus 26:18-20Punishment in its second degree. I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass; the result of no rain in a land scorched by the fiery Eastern sun. Your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the tress of the land yield their fruits. Cf. 1 Kings 8:35; Haggai 1:10, Haggai 1:11.

19 I will break down your stubborn pride and make the sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze.

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BARNES, "Lev_26:19, Lev_26:20The second warning is utter sterility of the soil. Compare Deu_11:17; Deu_28:18; Eze_33:28; Eze_36:34-35.

GILL, “And I will break the pride of your power,.... Which the Targum of Jonathan and Jarchi interpret of the sanctuary, which they were proud of, trusted in, and boasted of; but was broke or destroyed, first by Nebuchadnezzar, then by the Romans: but it may rather signify their country, the glory of all lands for its fruitfulness, which for their sins should become barren, as follows; or the multitude of their forces, and the strength of their mighty men of war, in which they put their confidence; it may take in everything, civil and ecclesiastical, they prided themselves with, and had their dependence on, thinking themselves safe on account of them, but should be broken to shivers, and be of no service to them: and I will make your heaven as iron; so that neither dew nor rain shall descend from thence to make the earth fruitful; but, on the contrary, an heat should be reflected, which would parch it, and make it barren: and your earth as brass; that the seed could not be cast into it, nor anything spring out of it, for the service of man and beast, so that a famine must unavoidably follow.

JAMISON, "I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass — No figures could have been employed to convey a better idea of severe and long-continued famine.ELLICOTT, “ (19) And I will break the pride of your power.—That is, the strength which is the cause of your pride, the wealth which they derive from the abundant harvests mentioned in Leviticus 26:4-5, as is evident from what follows immediately, where the punishment is threatened against the resources of this power or wealth. Comp. Ezekiel 30:6; Ezekiel 33:28.) The authorities during the second Temple, however, took the phrase “the pride of your power” to denote the sanctuary, which is called “the pride of your power” in Ezekiel 24:21. the expression used here, but the identity of which is obliterated in the Authorised Version by rendering the phrase “the excellency of your strength.” Hence the Chaldee Versions paraphrase it, “And I will break down the glory of the strength of your sanctuary.”I will make your heaven as iron.—That is, the heaven which is over them shall yield no more rain than if it were of metal. In Deuteronomy 28:23, where the same punishment is threatened, and the same figure is used, the metals are reversed, the heaven is brass, and the earth iron.TRAPP, “Leviticus 26:19 And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass:Ver. 19. Your heaven as iron.] Hard hearts make hard times.

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“ En quia iam nobis sint ferrea pectora, redditCoelum etiam nobis durius aere Deus.Et quia iam nummos gignant pro faenore nummi:Ante ferax tellus desinit esse ferax. ”{a}WHEDON, “Verse 19-2019, 20. Pride of… power — The conceit of national puissance, which is so unlike the spirit of dependence and humility, must be eradicated by painful methods.Heaven as iron — The rain promised to the obedient shall be withheld from the disobedient. See Leviticus 26:4, note.Earth as brass — Through lack of water the fields will be as void of herbage as if metallic.They shall yield no increase under the divine curse, in amazing contrast to the plethoric garners promised in Leviticus 26:4-5. In respect to spiritual good, the same contrast exists now between those who distrust and those who fully believe the promise of the Father respecting the gift of the Holy Ghost.

20 Your strength will be spent in vain, because your soil will not yield its crops, nor will the trees of your land yield their fruit.

GILL, "And your strength shall be spent in vain,.... In endeavouring to till the ground, to plough, or sow, or to dig about the vines or olives, and prune them: for your land shall not yield its increase; produce corn, and bring forth grass, the one for the use of men, the other for the use of the cattle, and therefore both must starve: neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits; such as vines, olives, figs,

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pomegranates, &c. which were very plentiful in the land of Judea, and on which they much lived, and on which their more comfortable subsistence at least depended, see Hab_3:17; all this is the reverse of Lev_26:4.ELLICOTT, “ (20) And your strength shall be spent in vain.—That is, with the heaven over them as metal, their labour expended in ploughing, digging, and sowing will be perfectly useless.Your land shall not yield her increase, as no amount of human labour will make up for the want of rain. In Deuteronomy 11:17, where the same punishment is threatened, and the same phrase is used, the Authorised Version unnecessarily obliterates the identity of the words in the original by rendering them “the land yield not her fruit.”TRAPP, “Leviticus 26:20 And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits.Ver. 20. Your land shall not yield.] See this fulfilled. [Jeremiah 14:1-2, &c., and Joel 1:12 Jeremiah 8:13] And yet their country was called Sumen totius orbis. Cornelius Tacitus yields it to be a fruitful country. So did Rabshakeh long before. [2 Kings 18:32]

PETT, “Leviticus 26:19-20“And I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as bronze, and your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield its increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruit.”He will break the pride of their power. They would be so sure of their power and ability to withstand. They would be so sure of their leaders, so confident in themselves. But God will break that in which they trust, that of which they are so proud (compare Isaiah 22:8-12).And the heavens would be like iron. There would be no rain from them, no response. And the earth would be like bronze, hard and unyielding. All their efforts to produce grain and fruit would be in vain. The land would not yield its increase. The trees would not yield their fruit.As the history tells us this would take a long time. But it would happen again and again over hundreds of years until every particle was fulfilled. The mills of God may only grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small. And the sad thing was that they did not always realise that it had happened or would happen until it was too late. They thought that things would be fine.There is no man or blessed nation which is not vulnerable to God’s judgment in the

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light of continual disobedience and apathy.

21 “‘If you remain hostile toward me and refuse to listen to me, I will multiply your afflictions seven times over, as your sins deserve.

BARNES, "Lev_26:21, Lev_26:22The third warning is the multiplication of destructive animals, etc. Compare Deu_32:24; Eze_5:17; Eze_14:15; Jdg_5:6-7; Isa_33:8.

GILL, "And if ye walk contrary unto me,.... To his mind and will, to his laws, commands, and ordinances, showing no regard unto them by a walk and conversation agreeably to them, but neglecting and breaking them continually; or by chance, as the Targum of Jonathan, not with any intention and design to obey the Lord, and to honour and glorify him, but in a careless and indifferent manner, having no regard to the law of God, only now and then, as it happens, act according to it, but having no concern for the honour and glory of God: and will not hearken unto me; to his voice in his laws and his precepts, or by his prophets, exhorting them to obedience to them: I will bring seven times more plagues upon you, according to your sins; greater and sorer punishments still, and these more frequently repeated, and in proportion to their transgressions of his righteous laws.

K&D, "The second stage. - But if the people's resistance amounted to a hostile rebellion against God, He would smite them sevenfold for their sin by sending beasts of prey and childlessness. By beasts of prey He would destroy their cattle, and by barrenness He would make the nation so small that the ways would be deserted, that high roads would cease because there would be no traveller upon them on account of the depopulation of the land (Isa_33:8; Zep_3:6), and the few inhabitants who still remained would be afraid to venture because of the wild beasts (Eze_14:15). עם קרי הל(“to go a meeting with a person,” i.e., to meet a person in a hostile manner, to fight against him) only occurs here in Lev_26:21 and Lev_26:23, and is strengthened in Lev_26:24, Lev_26:27, Lev_26:28, Lev_26:40, Lev_26:41 into עם בקרי to engage in a ,הלhostile encounter with a person. שבע ”,a sevenfold blow. “According to your sins ,מכהi.e., answering to them sevenfold. In Lev_26:22 the first clause corresponds to the third, and the second to the fourth, so that Nos. 3 and 4 contain the effects of Nos. 1 and 2.

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CALVIN, "21.And if ye walk. Translators give various renderings of the word קרי, (226) keri. The Chaldee takes it to mean with hardness, as if it were their purpose to contend against God. Jerome renders it ex adverso mihi, (in opposition to me;) but, since the word signifies an accidental occurrence, or contingency, this sense has seemed to me much the most appropriate. To “walk at adventures” ( fortuito) with God, therefore, is equivalent to passing by His judgments with their eyes shut; and even so to stupify themselves as to ascribe their adversities to fortune, and thus not to be humbled beneath His mighty hand; for hence arises unconquerable obstinacy, when the sinner imagines that whatever he suffers happens by chance. Therefore Jeremiah inveighs against the Jews in a severe reproof, because they supposed that evil and good did not proceed from the ordinance and decree of God, ( Lamentations 3:38;) for hence is engendered brutal madness, so that wretched men rush with all their might to their own destruction. It will accord very well, then, that if men do not take heed to God’s judgments, but rush onwards like furious beasts, His meeting with them will be, as it were, fortuitous, when He shall smite them indiscriminately, from right to left, high and low, as we say in French aller a tors et travers. This, therefore, the sinner at length obtains by his stupid obstinacy, that, overwhelmed by his manifold punishments, he sees no end to his troubles. Meanwhile there is no doubt but that Moses rebukes the iron obstinacy of the people, as David declares, that with the gentle God will be gentle, but that He will be stubborn, as it were, with the perverse. ( Psalms 18:25.) He finally points out the source of obstinacy, when the sinner is intoxicated by his stupidity into contempt for God, whilst he turns away from himself, as much as possible, the sense of His wrath. Let us learn, then, to withdraw our thoughts from vague speculations to the consideration of God’s hand in all the punishments which He inflicts; because hence will arise acknowledgment of our guilt, which may lead to repentance. Else that will occur which Isaiah seems to have taken from this passage, that God’s anger will never be turned away; but that, when we think that we are acquitted, His hand will be stretched out still. ( Isaiah 9:12.)COFFMAN, “Verse 21"And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me, I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins. And I will send the beast of the field among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your ways shall become desolate."Meyrick and others have noticed that there are five degrees of increasingly severe punishments to be inflicted upon rebellious violators of the covenant: one (Leviticus 26:14-17), two (Leviticus 26:18-20), three (Leviticus 26:21-22), four (Leviticus 26:23-26), and five (Leviticus 26:27-33).[22] These two verses are the third degree, speaking of ravages by wild beasts. "Settlers in Samaria in the 8th century B.C. had to face this problem" (2 Kings 17:25).[23]

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COKE, “Verse 21Leviticus 26:21. If ye walk contrary unto me— In the 23rd and 24th verses, &c. this same phrase is used. The Hebrew is, literally, in opposition to me; [ בקרי bekeri,] and, consequently, the remarks which some have formed upon the marginal translation of our English Bibles are of no weight.ELLICOTT, “ (21) And if ye walk contrary unto me.—That is, continue the defiance of the Divine law, and rebel against God’s authority. The third warning, contained in Leviticus 26:21-22, threatens them with destruction by wild beasts.Seven times more plagues.—That is, a still greater number. (See Leviticus 26:18.)According to your sins.—This increased number of scourges will be in proportion to their sins, since their defiance, in spite of the two preceding classes of punishments, aggravates and enhances their guilt.TRAPP, “Leviticus 26:21 And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins.Ver. 21. Contrary unto me.] Or, Carelessly before me; as our ungirt Christians, profligate professors do.Seven times more Plagues.] God cannot be exhausted, neither need we fear, as he did of his Jupiter.“ Si quoties peccent homines, sua fulmina mittatIupiter, exiguo tempore inermis erit. ”WHEDON, “Verse 2121. Walk contrary unto me — Literally, go into encounter with me. Sin against the divine law is collision with the divine Person. Hence pantheism, in teaching the impersonality of God, destroys the sense of the guilt of sin.Plagues — Smitings. Not merely natural consequences of disobedience, but positive inflictions. The more aggravated the sin, the more severe the chastisement, though even then not equal to the demerit of their transgression.According to your sins — All this is spoken of temporal inflictions, else the nation had perished. See Psalms 130:3.PETT, “Leviticus 26:21-22

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“And if you walk contrary to me, and will not hearken to me, I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins, and I will send the beast of the field among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your ways shall become desolate.”And if they still disobeyed Him and would not listen, the plagues and troubles that came on them would increase seven times because their sins had increased seven times. And he would send among them lions, and leopards, and bears who would seize their children, destroy their cattle, and even attack them so that their numbers decreased (compare 2 Kings 17:25-26). Their ways would be desolate. PULPIT, “Leviticus 26:21, Leviticus 26:22Punishment in its third degree. I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number. So in the case of the Assyrians transported to Palestine, "At the beginning of their dwelling there, they feared not the Lord: therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which slew some of them" (2 Kings 17:25)—and your high ways shall be desolate. Cf. 5:6, "In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, and the travelers walked through byways."

22 I will send wild animals against you, and they will rob you of your children, destroy your cattle and make you so few in number that your roads will be deserted.

CLARKE, "I will also send wild beasts among you - God fulfilled these threatenings at different times. He sent fiery Serpents among them, Num_21:6; Lions, 2Ki_17:25; Bears, 2Ki_2:24, and threatened them with total desolation, so that their land should be overrun with wild beasts, etc., see Eze_5:17. “Spiritually,” says Mr. Ainsworth, “these are wicked rulers and tyrants that kill and spoil, Pro_28:15; Dan_7:3-6; Psa_80:13; and false prophets that devour souls, Mat_7:15; Rev_13:1, etc. So the prophet, speaking of their punishment by tyrants, says: A Lion out of the forest shall slay them; a Wolf of the evening shall spoil them; a Leopard shall watch over their cities; every one that goeth out thence shall be torn to pieces, because their transgressions be many. And of their prophets it is said: O Israel, thy prophets are like Foxes in the

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deserts, Eze_13:4; Jer_8:17; Jer_15:3.”

GILL, "I will also send wild beasts among you,.... Either in a literal sense, as lions, bears, wolves, &c. and so is the reverse of what is promised to them on their doing well, Lev_26:6; or figuratively, mighty monarchs and cruel oppressors, such as were the kings of Assyria and Babylon, Jer_50:17, which shall rob you of your children; as the bears, in a literal sense, destroyed the children of them in the times of Elisha, 2Ki_2:24, and destroy your cattle; the tame beasts, who often become a prey to the wild ones, as both those of the flock, and of the herd, sheep and oxen, do to lions, wolves, &c. and make you few in number; or diminish them, their number, by bereaving them of their children, and their wealth and substance, by destroying their cattle: and your high ways shall be desolate; or ways, the word high not being in the text, and may signify both their public and private ones, which would be all forsaken, none caring to venture to walk in them for fear of beasts of prey.

JAMISON, "I will also send wild beasts among you — This was one of the four judgments threatened (Eze_14:21; see also 2Ki_2:4).

your highways shall be desolate — Trade and commerce will be destroyed -freedom and safety will be gone - neither stranger nor native will be found on the roads (Isa_33:8). This is an exact picture of the present state of the Holy Land, which has long lain in a state of desolation, brought on by the sins of the ancient Jews.ELLICOTT, “(22) I will also send wild beasts.—Better, and I will send wild beasts. Wild beasts, which abounded in Palestine (Exodus 23:29), are used as a punishment for sin (Deuteronomy 32:24; 2 Kings 17:25; Isaiah 13:21-22; Ezekiel 14:15, &c.).WHEDON, “Verse 2222. Wild beasts — As the promise includes the extinction of destructive beasts out of the land, so the threatening includes their multiplication and their importation from surrounding countries, as the following words imply.I will send — Before the invention of fire arms wild beasts frequently became a great scourge by their enormous increase.Rob you of your children — So frequently are children destroyed by wild beasts in India that the English government in their mortality reports in the census tables have a column for the enumeration of the “wolf-eaten” children. A disturbance of “the balance of the power,” by a diminution of men and an increase of wolves, would become a calamity of gigantic dimensions.

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Your highways shall be desolate — There can be no more impressive description of national decay than the disuse and desolation of the thoroughfares through which commerce and social intercourse have ceased to move their busy feet, by reason of the decrease of population, the decline of business, the perils of travel, (see Judges 5:6, note,) and the absence of worshippers going up to the place of worship. Lamentations 1:4.

23 “‘If in spite of these things you do not accept my correction but continue to be hostile toward me,

BARNES, "Lev_26:23-26The fourth warning. Yahweh now places Himself as it were in a hostile position toward His people who “will not be reformed” (rather, brought unto God: Jer_2:30). He will avenge the outraged cause of His covenant, by the sword, pestilence, famine, and captivity.

GILL, "And if ye will not be reformed by these things,.... Corrected and amended by these punishments, be prevailed upon to return from their evil ways to the Lord, and walk in his commandments, and keep his judgments, and do them: but will walk contrary unto me; See Gill on Lev_26:21.

K&D, "The third stage. - But if they would not be chastened by these punishments, and still rose up in hostility to the Lord, He would also engage in a hostile encounter with them, and punish them sevenfold with war, plague, and hunger.

COFFMAN, “Verse 23"And if by these things ye will not be reformed unto me, but will walk contrary unto me; then will I also walk contrary to you; and I will smite you, even I, seven times for your sins. And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall execute the vengeance of the covenant; and ye shall be gathered together within your cities: and I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the land of the enemy. When I break your staff of

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bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied.""And if by these things ye will not be reformed unto me ..." The significance of this is that all of the terrible judgments here mentioned as being sent upon his rebellious children were benign in their purpose. They were intended to discipline and rebuke the people and bring them back to God. Can it not be any less true today that great disasters that fall upon people are for the purpose of returning them to God whom they have forsaken? This same benign purpose is visible in all of the judgments upon mankind typified in Revelation under the symbols of the seals, the trumpets, and the vials of the wrath of God (Revelation 6-16). Also implicit here is that fact that God monitors and disciplines the conduct of Adam's rebellious race. A similar thing is also visible in Ezekiel 5:12.These verses speak of punishment in the fourth degree, and famine and starvation are features of it."When I break your staff of bread ..." Comment in the footnote on this in the Tyndale Bible states, "This means `to break the strength thereof, and to diminish it, so they should not have enough to live by'."[24]"Ten women shall bake bread in one oven ..." Micklem thought this indicated the "breakup of family life,"[25] but we believe it is more accurately understood as an indication that food would be so scarce that the rations for ten families could be prepared in a single oven. The mention of their bread being given to them "by weight" makes this almost certain. It will be remembered that the black horse of famine in the Apocalypse through the apostle John, carried a balance in his hand, and a voice was heard saying, "A measure of wheat for a shilling, and three measures of barley for a shilling." (Revelation 6:6).ELLICOTT, “(23) And if ye will not be reformed.—The fourth warning (Leviticus 26:23-26) threatens the rebellious Israelites with a more intensified form of the punishment partially mentioned in the first warning. (See Leviticus 26:17.)WHEDON, “23. If ye will not be reformed — The natural evil, or suffering, entailed in this world by moral evil, or sin, is corrective and not strictly penal. In this life it is of the nature of a purgative in its design; in the life to come it is a punishment, not for the amendment of the convict but for the conservation of the moral order of the universe, and hence a blessing when thus broadly viewed.PETT, “Leviticus 26:23-24“And if by these things you will not be reformed to me, but will walk contrary unto me; then will I also walk contrary unto you; and I will smite you, even I, seven times for your sins.”And if they still would not listen and be reformed, but continued to walk in the opposite

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direction to His will, then He would walk in the opposition to them and smite them another seven times for their sins. With the previous warning this made seven times seven. The number seven of blessing was being turned against them and becoming the number seven of doom. PULPIT, “Leviticus 26:23-26Punishment in its fourth degree. I will bring a sword upon yon, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant:… I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy—that is, ye shall go into captivity … and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied. Cf. Ezekiel 5:12, "A third part of thee shall die with pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee: and a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee; and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them." The famine that is to come upon them is described as making ten women bake bread in one oven,—whereas in ordinary times one oven was only sufficient for one woman's baking—and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight; that is, the quantity baked will have to be weighed out in rations, before any one is allowed to take it. See 2 Kings 6:25; Isaiah 3:1; Jeremiah 14:18; and as illustrative of the last point, Ezekiel 4:16, "Behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care; and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment."

24 I myself will be hostile toward you and will afflict you for your sins seven times over.

GILL, "Then I will also walk contrary unto you,.... Opposing himself unto them as their enemy, fighting against them in his providence, whetting his sword, bending his bow, and causing the arrows of his wrath and vengeance to fall upon them; or behaving towards them in a careless and indifferent manner, not regarding what befell them, showing no peculiar concern for them, or as exercising any particular providence over them; but as if everything came by chance to them, which was the language of their actions, if not of their lips: and will punish you yet seven times for your sins; add fresh corrections, and these greater than before, and more numerous in proportion to their aggravated transgressions.ELLICOTT, “ (24) Then will I also walk contrary unto you.—By their increased

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hostility to God, they simply increase their calamities, since He whom they are defying now also assumes a hostile attitude towards those who are defiant.And will punish you yet.—Better, and I also will smite you. (See Leviticus 26:28.)

25 And I will bring the sword on you to avenge the breaking of the covenant. When you withdraw into your cities, I will send a plague among you, and you will be given into enemy hands.

GILL, "And I will bring a sword upon you,.... War upon them by the sword of their enemies; they that use and kill with the sword, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan; their neighbours that delighted in war, and bore an implacable, hatred unto them, and gladly embraced every opportunity of shedding their blood, and ravaging their country: that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant; the covenant made with them at Sinai, which they transgressed, and for which vengeance would be taken on them in this way, God so ordering it in his providence, though the enemy meant it not, Isa_10:5, and when ye are gathered together within your cities; from the fields and villages, fleeing from the enemy invading and destroying, to their fortified towns and cities for safety: I will send the pestilence among you; which shall destroy those that escaped the sword, and thought themselves safe in a strong city, and even the very soldiers in the garrisons, who were set for the defence of the city: and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy; so many being taken off by the pestilence, there would not be a sufficient number to defend the place, and therefore obliged to give it up, by which means those that escaped the pestilence would fall into the hands of the enemy.

K&D 25-26, “ld bring over them “the sword avenging (i.e., executing) the covenant vengeance.” The “covenant vengeance” was punishment inflicted for a breach of the covenant, the severity of which corresponded to the greatness of the covenant blessings forfeited by a faithless apostasy. If they retreated to their towns (fortified places) from the sword of the enemy, the Lord would send a plague over them there, and give those who were spared by the plague into the power of the foe. He would also “break in pieces

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the staff of bread,” and compel them by the force of famine to submit to the foe. The means of sustenance should become so scarce, that ten women could bake their bread in a single oven, whereas in ordinary times every woman would require an oven for herself; and they would have to eat the bread which they brought home by weight, i.e., not as much as every one pleased, but in rations weighed out so scantily, that those who ate would not be satisfied, and would only be able to sustain their life in the most miserable way. Calamities such as these burst upon Israel and Judah more than once when their fortified towns were besieged, particularly in the later times of the kings, e.g., upon Samaria in the reign of Joram (2Ki_6:25.), and upon Jerusalem through the invasions of the Chaldeans (cf. Isa_3:1; Jer_14:18; Eze_4:16; Eze_5:12).

CALVIN, "25.And I will bring a sword upon you. There is no doubt but that He means the hostile swords of all the nations, whereby the Israelites were sorely afflicted; and teaches that whosoever should bring trouble and perplexity upon them were the just executioners of His vengeance; just as He constantly declares by the prophets that He was the Leader of the people’s enemies, and that the Assyrians and Chaldeans both fought under Him. He calls the Assyrian His axe, and the rod of His anger which He wields in His hand, (Isaiah 10:15, and 5;) and Nebuchadnezzar His hired soldier. He says that He will call the Egyptians with a hiss, and will arouse the Chaldeans by the sound of his trumpet. (Isaiah 7:20, and elsewhere.) But since this point is sufficiently well known, there will be no occasion of further proofs. The sum is, that all wars are stirred by His command, and that the soldiers are armed at His will, and are strong in His strength. Hence it follows that He has innumerable forces by whose hand He may execute His vengeance whensoever He pleases. Afterwards, therefore, when the Israelites were harassed, and even cruelly oppressed by their enemies, God’s truth was manifested in all those continual defeats; whilst, from His great severity, we may gather how gross was the perversity of their conduct. ELLICOTT, “ (25) That shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant.—Better, that shall avenge my covenant, that is, the sword, which shall avenge the breach of the Divine covenant; a war, which will devastate them because of their rebellion against the covenant God. Hence the Chaldee Versions render it, “that shall avenge on you the vengeance for that ye have transgressed against the words of the law.”And when ye are gathered together within your cities.—When, completely defeated in the battlefield, the Israelites escape from the avenging sword into their fortified cities, they will then become a prey to pestilence, so that the surviving remnant will prefer to deliver themselves over into the hands of the relentless enemy. (Comp. Jeremiah 21:6-9; Ezekiel 5:12; Ezekiel 7:15.)TRAPP, “Leviticus 26:25 And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of [my] covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.

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Ver. 25. I will bring a sword.] God "makes peace and creates evil," i.e., war. called evil per antonomasiam. Whencesoever the sword comes, it is "bathed in heaven." [Isaiah 34:5]The quarrel of my covenant.] For breach whereof Jerusalem is long since laid waste, those seven golden candlesticks are broken in pieces. Bohemia lies still a bleeding, which was the seat of the first open and authorised Reformation. And what may we think will become of us all, who, "like men have transgressed the covenant," [Hosea 6:7] or as Junius reads it, not tanquam homines, but tanquam hominis, &c. We have made no more of breaking covenant, than if therein we had had to do with dust and ashes like ourselves, and not with the great God; who is therefore whetting his sword, and furbishing it for slaughter. Quod Deus avertat!WHEDON, “25. Avenge the quarrel of my covenant — Literally, avenging the covenant of vengeance. The R.V., “Execute the vengeance of the covenant.” This was a punishment inflicted for breaking the covenant, and it was graduated, in severity, to the richness of covenant blessings forfeited by apostasy. “It may be reverently said that God does not deal carelessly with his own covenants. He does not throw them away, and take no further heed of their operation. In the sense of looking after his word and observing its issues he may be described in Old Testament language as a ‘jealous God.’” — Joseph Parker. The Abrahamic covenant is here personified as a friend of God claiming vindication against the neglect and abuse of godless men. Sin changes the covenant of grace into the covenant of vengeance, and the love of the Saviour into “the wrath of the Lamb.” Revelation 6:16.PETT, “Leviticus 26:25“And I will bring a sword on you, which will 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.”And if they still would not listen a powerful enemy would come against them, one who would smite with the sword and execute against them the vengeance of the covenant. Note the phrase ‘vengeance of the covenant’. This covenant which was intended to be such a blessing to them would become the instrument of their judgment. God’s goodness spurned becomes a terrible weapon against men.

26 When I cut off your supply of bread, ten 87

women will be able to bake your bread in one oven, and they will dole out the bread by weight. You will eat, but you will not be satisfied.

BARNES, "Lev_26:26Omit “and.” “To break the staff of bread,” was a proverbial expression for cutting off the supply of bread, the staff of life (Psa_105:16; Eze_4:16; Eze_5:16; Eze_14:13; compare Isa_3:1). The supply was to be so reduced that one oven would suffice for baking the bread maple by ten women for ten families, and when made it was to be dealt out in sparing rations by weight. See 2Ki_6:25; Jer_14:18; Lam_4:9; Eze_5:12; Hos_4:10; Mic_6:14; Hag_1:6.CLARKE, "Ten women shall bake your bread in one oven - Though in general

every family in the East bakes its own bread, yet there are some public bakehouses where the bread of several families is baked at a certain price. Moses here foretells that the desolation should be so great and the want so pressing that there should be many idle hands to be employed, many mouths to be fed, and very little for each: Ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, etc.

GILL, "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 Isa_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 Zec_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 (o): 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 Eze_4:16, and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied; not having enough to eat to satisfaction; or

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what they did eat, God would withhold a blessing from it for their nourishment, the reverse of Lev_26:5.

JAMISON, "ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, etc. — The bread used in families is usually baked by women, and at home. But sometimes also, in times of scarcity, it is baked in public ovens for want of fuel; and the scarcity predicted here would be so great, that one oven would be sufficient to bake as much as ten women used in ordinary occasions to provide for family use; and even this scanty portion of bread would be distributed by weight (Eze_4:16).CALVIN, "26.And when I have broken the staff of your bread. By these words God implies, that although He should not punish them by the sterility of the land, still He was prepared with other means for destroying them by famine. We shall indeed see hereafter that, when God was wroth, the earth in a manner shut up her bowels so as to produce no food; and that the heaven also grew hard so as not to fertilize it with dew or rain. In a word, all unseasonableness of weather and infertility of soil is a sign of the curse of God; but now He goes further, viz., that although there should be no scarcity of food, still they should suffer from hunger, when He had taken away its nourishing qualities from their bread. This curse confirms the instruction which we have seen elsewhere, that man does not live by bread, but by (227) the command of God, just as if the efficacy contained in the bread proceeded out of His mouth. (Deuteronomy 8:3.) And assuredly an inanimate thing could not give rigor to our senses except by the secret ordinance of God. He employs a very appropriate comparison, calling the support of bread, whereby man’s strength is refreshed, “the staff;” as we see the old and weak leaning on their sticks as they walk, when otherwise they would totter and fall. God says, then, that it is in His power to break this staff, so that their bread should only fill their stomachs without refreshing their strength. Ezekiel has borrowed from Moses this figure, which he makes use of in several places, (Ezekiel 4:16,) although he there adverts to two sorts of punishment, like another Prophet, when He says, “Ye have sown much and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that; earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes;” and again,“Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it;” (Haggai 1:6;)for he points out scarcity of food as one of God’s scourges, and the inability to profit by their abundance, as another; and with this Micah also accords, for after he has said, “Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied,” he adds,“Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap; thou shalt tread the olives, but thou shalt not anoint thee with oil; and sweet wine, but shalt not drink wine.” (Micah 6:14.)But Moses, in order that the curse may be more apparent, says that there shall be

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abundance of bread; and also that there shall be no deception practiced in kneading and baking it; for that two (228) women shall come to one oven together, who may mutually observe whether weight is duly given. He implies, therefore, that there shall be abundance in their hands, and yet, when they are filled, they shall not be satisfied. ELLICOTT, “ (26)And when I have broken the staff of your bread.—Better, when I break you the staff of bread, that is, when God cuts off their supply of bread, which is the staff of life. “To break the staff of bread” denotes to take away or to destroy the staff or the support which bread is to man. This metaphor also occurs in other parts of Scripture (Isaiah 3:1; Ezekiel 4:16; Ezekiel 5:16; Ezekiel 14:13; Psalms 105:16). This, in addition to the pestilence in the cities, which will drive them to deliver themselves up to the enemy, or rather the cause of this pestilence will be the famine which will rage in the town whither they fled for protection.Ten women shall bake your bread in one oven.—Better, then ten women, &c., that is, so great will be the famine when God cuts off the supply, that one ordinary oven will suffice to bake the bread of ten families, who are represented by their ten women, whilst in ordinary times one oven was only sufficient for one family.And they shall deliver you your bread again by weight.—When it is brought from the bake-house each one will not be allowed to eat as much as he requires, but will have his stinted allowance most carefully served out to him by weight. Parallel to this picture of misery is the appalling scene described by Ezekiel, “I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care, and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment; that they may want bread and water, and be astonished one with another, and consume away for their iniquity” (Ezekiel 4:16-17).WHEDON, “ 26. The staff of bread — Bread is called “the staff of life,” because it is man’s chief sustenance. By famine this staff is broken.Ten women… one oven — The oven which commonly was sufficient for the use of one woman will hold the diminutive loaves of ten.By weight — So severe shall be the famine that wretchedly small rations shall be weighed out by the ounce. Hunger shall be aggravated and shall not be satisfied. In the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans many of the rich sold all they had for one measure of wheat, and the poor gave all their possessions for a measure of barley. Then shutting themselves up in the inmost rooms of their house they ate it, some without grinding, others made bread, and snatched it out of the fire half-baked, in their haste to banish the gnawings of hunger. Children pulled the morsels that their fathers were eating out of their very mouths, and so did the mothers to their infants.PETT, “Leviticus 26:26

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“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.”Not only would the sword slay, but also famine. Their staff of bread, that food that they relied on and leaned on, would be broken. There would be so little that one small oven would be sufficient for ten women to bake in. Indeed the food would be rationed and handed out by weighing it, as in a siege, and there would never be enough. They would eat and not be satisfied.

27 “‘If in spite of this you still do not listen to me but continue to be hostile toward me,

BARNES, "Lev_26:27-33The fifth warning. For Lev_26:29 see 2Ki_6:28-29; Jer_19:8-9; Lam_2:20; Lam_4:10; Eze_5:10, for Lev_26:30 see 2Ch_34:3; Eze_6:4; Jer_14:19, for Lev_26:31 see 2Ki_25:9; Psa_74:6-7 : for Lev_26:32-33 see Deu_28:37; Psa_44:11; Jer_9:16; Jer_18:16; Ezek. 5:1-17; Jer_4:7; Eze_9:6; Eze_12:15; Zec_7:14.

GILL, "And if ye for all this will not hearken unto me,.... To his commands, and to his prophets sent unto them time after time, and all his corrections and chastisements being ineffectual to reform them, and make them obedient to him: but walk contrary unto me; See Gill on Lev_26:21.

K&D 27-30, “Fourth and severest stage. - If they should still persist in their opposition, God would chastise them with wrathful meeting, yea, punish them so severely in His wrath, that they would be compelled to eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, i.e., to slay their own children and eat them in the extremity of their hunger, -a fact which literally occurred in Samaria in the period of the Syrians (2Ki_6:28-29), and in Jerusalem in that of the Chaldeans (Lam_2:20; Lam_4:10), and in the Roman war of extermination under Titus (Josephus bell. jud. v. 10, 3) in the most appalling manner. Eating the flesh of their own children is mentioned first, as indicating the extremity of the misery and wretchedness in which the people would perish; and after this, the judgment, by which the nation would be brought to this extremity, is more minutely described in its four principal features: viz., (1) the destruction of all idolatrous abominations (Lev_26:30); (2) the overthrow of the towns and sanctuaries (Lev_26:31); (3) the devastation of the land, to the amazement of the enemies who dwelt therein (Lev_26:32); and (4) the dispersion of the people among the heathen (Lev_26:33). The

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“high places” are altars erected upon heights and mountains in the land, upon which sacrifices were offered both to Jehovah in an unlawful way and also to heathen deities. חמנים, sun-pillars, are idols of the Canaanitish nature-worship, either simple pillars dedicated to Baal, or idolatrous statues of the sun-god (cf. Movers Phönizier i. pp. 343ff.). “And I give your carcases upon the carcases of your idols.” גללים, lit., clods, from גלל to roll, a contemptuous expression for idols. With the idols the idolaters also were to perish, and defile with their corpses the images, which had also become corpses as it were, through their overthrow and destruction. For the further execution of this threat, see Eze_6:4. This will be your lot, for “My soul rejects you.” By virtue of the inward character of His holy nature, Jehovah must abhor and reject the sinner.

COFFMAN, “Verse 27"And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me; then I will walk contrary unto you in wrath; and I also will chastise you seven times for your sins. And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat. And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your sun-images, and cast your dead bodies upon the bodies of your idols; and my soul shall abhor you. And I will make your cities a waste, and will bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savor of your sweet odors. And I will bring the land into desolation; and your enemies that dwell therein shall be astonished at it. And you will I scatter among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you: and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste."This is the fifth degree of intensity of the judgments promised for persistent rebellion and disobedience, and in it were included the ultimates of:(1) military defeat,(2) cannibalism,(3) loss of their land,(4) their scattering among the nations,(5) the killing of many,(6) the desolation of their cities,(7) the utter abhorrence of God Himself, and(8) even the destruction of their sanctuaries (the temple being destroyed twice)."I will destroy your high places ..." These were the cultic shrines, relics of the

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worship of Baal, which Israel attempted to synthesize with the worship of Jehovah. Not only were these to be destroyed, but even the holy shrines such as the tabernacle and the temples that succeeded them were also proscribed in these judgments. Did such judgments actually come upon Israel? Indeed, they did!These verses are an accurate prophetic portrayal of the Jew since the day of the Babylonian captivity, as he has been scattered among the nations. Wave after wave of anti-Semitism has descended upon him to destroy him. Here is even a striking picture of the Nazi anti-Semitic movement. You can see that this Book of Leviticus is up-to-date.[26]The cannibalism of Leviticus 26:29 was experienced in Israel no less than three times:(1) in the siege of Samaria (2 Kings 6:29; Lamentations 4:10),(2) in the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, and,(3) in the siege of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.[27]ELLICOTT, “(27) And if he will not for all this hearken unto me.—Better, And if, notwithstanding these, ye will not hearken unto me, that is, if in spite of these awful punishments they persist in rebellion against God. With this reiterated formula the fifth warning is introduced (Leviticus 26:27-33), which threatens the total destruction of the land and the people in the midst of the most appalling horrors.PETT, “Leviticus 26:27-28“ And if you will not for all this hearken to me, but walk contrary to me; then I will walk contrary to you in wrath; and I also will chastise you seven times for your sins.”And if they still would not listen but continued to walk contrary to Him, His anger would be roused and He would walk even more contrary to them. They would be chastised seven times for their sins. Divine retribution would come on them. PULPIT, “Leviticus 26:27-33Punishment in the fifth degree. Ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat. We find that this threat was fulfilled in Samaria (2 Kings 6:28), and in Jerusalem at the time both of the earlier siege by the Chaldaeans, and of the later siege by the Romans. And I will destroy your high places. By high places is meant the tops of hills or eminences chosen for worship, whether of Jehovah (see 6:26; 1 Kings 3:2; 2 Kings 12:3; 1 Chronicles 21:26), or of false gods. The high places intended hero are the spots where the "sun-images" were erected (see 2 Chronicles 14:5; Isaiah 17:8; Ezekiel 6:4)—and cut down your

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images, and cast your carcasses upon the carcasses of your idols—that is, they should roll in the dust together. And I will make your cities waste—as Samaria and Jerusalem—and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation,—by the sanctuaries, which are to be desolated, is meant all the consecrated things: the holy of holies, the holy place, the court, the ark, the altar of incense, the altar of burnt sacrifice—and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours—so in Jeremiah 6:20, "To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet" (cf. Isaiah 1:11-15). And I will bring the land into desolation (cf. Jeremiah 9:11): and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it (cf. Ezekiel 5:15). And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you. See Jeremiah 9:16, "I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them."BI 27-39, “Then I will walk contrary unto you.God’s determination to punish sinnersI. As affecting supposition stated. “If ye will not,” &c. The Lord here supposes that His people may commit three grievous sins:

1. The sin of disobedience. “If ye will not hearken unto Me.” Hence observe—(1) That the Lord in His Word speaks to us (Heb_8:12).(2) That whatever the Lord says in His Word it is our bounden duty to hear (Heb_3:7; 1Th_5:20; Jas_1:19).(3) That we are too apt to turn a deaf ear to Him (Exo_5:2; Psa_12:4).

2. The sin of incorrigibleness. “If for all this ye will not hearken.” Note here—(1) That afflictions sometimes have the nature of punishments (Jer_13:21).(2) That punishment is the natural and necessary consequence of transgression.(3) That in the punishment which God inflicts He seeks our reformation (2Ch_18:22).(4) That our depravity in too many cases frustrates His designs (Zep_3:2).

3. The sin of perverseness. “If ye walk contrary to Me.” Observe again—(1) That the Lord’s pleasure is, we should walk with Him (Mic_6:8).(2) That we walk with the Lord when we walk in His way (2Ki_20:3; Ecc_12:13).(3) That walking otherwise than He has commanded is to show a perverse and untoward heart.

II. An awful consequence declared. “I will walk contrary also to you in fury.” Thus we see that—1. Conformable to our character will be our end. If God should deal thus with us

(1) We shall lose the blessing which He imparts to His obedient followers (Lev_26:4-12).94

(2) Our expectations will issue in disappointment and vexation (Hos_8:7); and(3) Like chaff before the wind we shall speedily be carried to destruction (Psa_1:4-5).

2. Enforcement of these considerations: we see—(1) That a religion consisting of mere notions will never saw a man.(2) That men are not at liberty, as some suppose, to live as they please.(3) That God takes notice of the ways of all.(4) That if He displays His anger we should be anxious to find out the cause; and(5) That if any one perish he will have no one to blame for it but himself (Isa_3:11). (Wm. Sleigh.)

Desolation threatened to IsraelI. How horrifying the miseries which may befall a privileged people. The miseries of penury and siege (Lev_26:29); of captivity and slaughter (Lev_26:33); of anguish and derision (Lev_26:36); of pitiless misery and disaster (Lev_26:39).

1. None are so secure in grace and privilege that they can disregard the possibility of a fall.2. None are so rich in sacred favours as to be beyond danger of their total loss.3. None are so honoured by God’s selecting and distinguishing grace but they may lapse into alienation and desolation.

II. How amazing the disasters which may devastate a beautiful country. Canaan was a wealthy land, a scene of loveliness, abundance, and delight. Yet on it came the disasters of depopulation (Lev_26:31), sterility (Lev_26:32), desertion (Lev_26:35)—even enemies abandoning it.1. National plenty and prosperity are conditional upon national righteousness and piety.2. National greatness and glory have been withered by the anger of an insulted God.3. National strength and safety are only guaranteed as religion is fostered by the laws of a country, and in the habits and lives of its people.

III. How piteous the profanation which may despoil a nation’s sanctities! Canaan was the scene of Jehovah’s sanctuary: the Temple rose on Zion; and the land sent up her tribes to the celebration of sacred feasts and to the holy worship of God. Yet all her “sanctuaries” were brought “unto desolation” (Lev_26:31), all the fragrance of her sacrifices became loathsome to Jehovah (Lev_26:31), and her desecrated Sabbaths were avenged in the bleak silence and loneliness which fell on hallowed scenes (Lev_26:34).1. Religious favours, if abused, may be utterly withdrawn from us.2. God loathes the offerings once delightful to Him, when the offerer’s love is estranged.3. Holy scenes and holy days become a barren mockery if a trifling spirit alienate the

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sacred Presence: “Ichabod!” (W. H. Jellie.)

Verse 40-45. If they shall confess their iniquity.God’s promises to penitentsI. What is that repentance which God requires?

1. That we acknowledge our guilt. Our fathers’ sins as well as our own are first grounds of national humiliation. Our own sins are the chief burden of personal contrition. But sin should be viewed in its true light, as “walking contrary to God” (Psa_51:4).2. That we justify God in His judgments. If we have dared to walk contrary to Him, is not He justified in “walking contrary to us”? Whatever inflictions He imposes we have reason to own it as less than our deserts (Ezr_9:13), and that His judgments are just (Rev_16:7).3. That we be thankful for His dealings by which He has “humbled our uncircumcised hearts.” Only real contrition can produce this. It realises mercy in judgment, and love in affliction.

II. The connection between our repentance and God’s mercy. Repentance is void of merit. Even obedience is destitute of merit; “when we have done all we could we are unprofitable servants.” The acknowledgment of a debt is a very different thing from a discharge of that debt. A condemned criminal may be sorry for his offences, but that sorrow does not obliterate his crime, still less entitle him to rewards. Yet there is connection between repentance and pardon, and meekness in the exercise of mercy towards the penitent—1. On God’s part. For repentance glorifies God (Jos_7:19).2. On the part of the penitents. It incites to loathing of the sin, and to adoration of Divine grace. So God insists on the condition, “If they be humbled, then will I pardon.” For then God can do it consistently with His honour, and they will make a suitable improvement of the mercy vouchsafed them.

III. The ground and measure of that mercy which penitents may expect. God’s covenant with their ancestors was the basis and warrant of His mercy to Israel (Lev_26:42; Lev_26:44-45). His covenant with us in Christ is our hope and guarantee.1. Be thankful that you are yet within reach of mercy.2. Have especial respect unto the covenant of grace. It is to that God looks, and to that should we look also. It is the only basis on which mercy and redemption are possible. (C. Simeon, M. A.)

The bow in the cloudI. That the way was left open for the rebellious to return.

1. It was the way of reflection.

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2. It was the way of confession.3. It was the way of humiliation.

They were not to return proudly, feeling they had not been rewarded according to their iniquities. The way is still open for the vilest to return; for, the New Testament teaches that these are the steps in the ladder of life, out of sin to holiness, from earth to heaven, from self to God, viz.: Repentance, conversion, consecration.II. That if the rebellious returned to the lord in his own appointed way he would graciously receive them.

1. He would do so for the sake of their fathers. He would remember His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.2. He would do so for the sake of His name. “For I am the Lord.” He had purposed, as well as promised, to deal mercifully with them.3. He would do so for the sake of the land. He had selected Canaan as the arena where He would specially display His glory to men, and He would not allow it to lie waste for ever.4. He would do it for the sake of His covenant. “I will remember My covenant.” The Lord does not make a covenant and then tear it rashly to pieces; if broken by man He will speedily renew, nor allow the irregularities and irreligion of men to thwart His beneficent arrangements. Here, indeed, was a resplendent bow of many colours, beaming with the beautiful light of the mild and merciful countenance of the Most High. What encouragement for sinful men to return to the Lord, “for He will have mercy upon them, and abundantly pardon.” The Levitical law closes with offers of mercy, the last words of the law are words of entreaty and promise. (W. H. Jellie.)

Gains of a good ancestry“I will for their sake remember the covenant of their ancestors.”I. The vows and prayers of a goodly parentage exercise influence upon the divine plans. That “covenant “is thrice referred to as determining God’s arrangements (Lev_26:42; Lev_26:44-45). Note Job’s prayers for his children (Job_1:5; cf. with verse 10), “Made a hedge about Job and about his house.”II. Over long intervals the influence of parental covenants extend. This “covenant” with Abraham was made 1900 years B.C. (Gen_15:13-14). It is now 1900 years A.D., yet the word stands, “They are beloved for the fathers sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance (Rom_11:28-29). God is at work, though He seems to wait. “In due season ye shall reap if ye faint not.” Praying soul, anxious heart, clinging to the promises—“Hope, and be undismayed; God hears thy cries, and counts thy tears, God shall lift up thy head.”III. How grand the link between a parent’s piety and the children’s destiny!

1. Live and pray for your descendants.2. Value the sacred benefits even though as yet unrealised, of a godly ancestry.3. Rest in the unfailing pledge of God to reward piety and prayer. (W. H. Jellie.)

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The advantage of submissionIt is recorded of Edward I., that, being angry with a servant of his in the sport of hawking, he threatened him sharply. The gentleman answered, It was well there was a river between them. Hereat the king, more incensed, spurred his horse into the depth of the river, not without extreme danger of his life, the water being deep and the banks too steep and high for his ascending, Yet, at last recovering land, with his sword drawn, he pursued the servant, who rode as fast from him. But finding himself too ill-horsed to outride the angry king, he reined, lighted, and, on his knees, exposed his neck to the blow of the king’s sword. The king no sooner saw this but he put up his sword and would not touch him. A dangerous water could not withhold him from violence; yet his servant’s submission did soon pacify him. While man flies stubbornly from God, He that rides upon the wings of the wind posts after him with sword of vengeance drawn. But when in dust and ashes he humbles himself, and stands to His mercy, the wrath of God is soon appeased..

28 then in my anger I will be hostile toward you, and I myself will punish you for your sins seven times over.

GILL, "Then I will walk contrary to you also in fury,.... As in Lev_26:24; with this addition, in fury; being greatly provoked, and highly incensed, that no regard was had to him, neither to his commands, nor to his corrections; and therefore would be determined to stir up his wrath, and pour out the fury of his indignation on them, which must be terrible: and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins; add new and many more chastisements, and that in hot displeasure, for their sins; and the repetition or doubling of the phrase, "I, even I, will do it", denotes the certainty of it, and that he will do it himself, and his hand should be visible in it; and they should feel the weight of it, and be obliged to own that these were punishments inflicted by him for their sins.ELLICOTT, “ (28) Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury.—Whilst in Leviticus 26:24 the persistent rebellion is responded to on the part of the defied God in the simple words, “then will I also work contrary unto you,” we have here the

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addition “in fury” as the provocation is more intense.And I, even I, will chastise you.—Better, And I also will chastise you. The verb here is different from the one in Leviticus 26:24.TRAPP, “Leviticus 26:28 Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.

WHEDON, “ 28. In fury — Hebrews, in the heat of encountering. Fury, as implying a perturbed and excited malevolence, is not predicable of Jehovah. Yet as a species of anthropomorphism, to convey in a vivid manner the intense activity of the divine justice against impenitent and defiant Israel, it is admissible.Even I — This seems to imply the direct interposition of the divine hand without the employment of secondary causes. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

29 You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters.

CLARKE, "Ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, etc. - This was literally fulfilled at the siege of Jerusalem. Josephus, Wars of the Jews, book vii., chap. ii., gives us a particular instance in dreadful detail of a woman named Mary, who, in the extremity of the famine during the siege, killed her sucking child, roasted, and had eaten part of it when discovered by the soldiers! See this threatened, Jer_19:9 (note).

GILL, "And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons,.... Which was fulfilled at the siege of Samaria, in the times of Joram, 2Ki_6:29; and at the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, Lam_4:10; and though there is no instance of it at that time in the sacred records, the Jews (p) tells us of one Doeg ben Joseph, who died and left a little one with his mother, who was very fond of him; but at this siege slew him with her own hands, and ate him, with respect to which they suppose Jeremiah makes the lamentation, Lam_2:2; and of this also there was an instance at the last siege of Jerusalem, by Titus, when a woman, named Mary, of a considerable family, boiled her son, and ate part of him, and the rest was found in her house when the seditious party

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broke in upon her, as Josephus (q) relates: and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat; of which, though no instances are given, it is as reasonable to suppose it was done as the former. Some of the Jewish writers (r) think, that in this prediction is included, that children should eat their parents, as well as parents their children, as in Eze_5:10.

JAMISON, "ye shall eat the flesh of your sons — The revolting picture was actually exhibited at the siege of Samaria, at the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar (Lam_4:10), and at the destruction of that city by the Romans. (See on Deu_28:53).

CALVIN, "29.And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons. This scourge is still more severe and terrible (than the others;) (229) yet we know that the Israelites were smitten with it more than once. This savage act would be incredible; but we gather from it how terrible it is to fall into the hands of God, when men, by adding crime to crime, cease not to provoke His wrath. Jeremiah (230) mentions this monstrous case among others: “The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children,” and prepared them for food, (Lamentations 4:10;) and hence, not without cause, he mourns that this had not been done elsewhere, that women should devour the offspring which they themselves had brought up. (Lamentations 2:20.) And (231) the last siege of Jerusalem, which in the fullness of their crimes was, as it were, the final act of God’s vengeance, reduced the wretched people who were then alive to such straits, that they commonly partook of this unholy food.When He again declares that He “will cast their carcases upon those of their idols,” He shews by the very nature of the punishment that their impiety would be manifest; for apostates take marvelous delight in their superstitions, until God openly appears as the avenger of His service. But that their idols should be cast into a common heap with the bones of the dead, was as if the finger of God pointed out His abomination of their false worship. And then, because their last resource was in sacrifices, He declares that they should be of no avail for atonement; for, in the expression, “savour of peace,” (232) He embraces all the expiatory rites, by their confidence in which they were the more obstinate. Afterwards He threatens banishment as well as the desolation of the land; by which punishment He made it apparent that they were utterly renounced, as we shall again see a little further on. ELLICOTT, “(29) And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons.—The harrowing scene here described is also depicted in Deuteronomy 28:53-57. This prediction actually came to pass at the siege of Samaria by the Syrians (2 Kings 6:28-29), and at the siege of Jerusalem by the Chaldæans, which Jeremiah thus bewails, “the hands of pitiful women have sodden their own children, they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people” (Lamentations 4:10; comp. also Jeremiah 19:9; Ezekiel 5:10; Zechariah 11:9, &c.). This also happened at the siege of Jerusalem by Titus. A woman named Mary killed her infant child and boiled it during the height of the famine, and after she had eaten part of it, the soldiers found

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the rest in her house.TRAPP, “Leviticus 26:29 And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.Ver. 29. And ye shall eat.] As they did. [2 Kings 6:29 Lamentations 4:19] Pone pretium humanae corni, was once heard openly proclaimed at Rome in the reign of Honorius the Emperor. A hard case indeed. Here in England, in Edward II’s time, anno 1316, there was so terrible a famine, that horses, dogs, yea, men and children, were stolen for food, and the thieves newly brought into the jail were torn in pieces, and eaten presently half alive, by such as had been longer there. (a) HEDON, “29. Ye shall eat the flesh of your sons — This awful prediction was literally fulfilled in the siege of Jerusalem by Titus and the Roman army. Mary of Perea, a woman of high birth and great wealth, was so maddened by hunger that she killed, roasted, and ate one half of her sucking child. See Josephus, book vi, chap. Leviticus 3:4.PETT, “Leviticus 26:29“And you shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall you eat.”For they would come to such a state that they would eat their own children because their hunger had become so desperate. This may refer to the final stages of a long siege when men are desperate enough even for cannibalism (compare Jeremiah 19:9), or it may be referring to their offering their children in sacrifice to Molech. For to ‘eat flesh’ regularly means to kill someone (Psalms 27:2; Micah 3:3; compare (Psalms 14:4; Psalms 53:4). This latter would tie in with the next verse.

30 I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars and pile your dead bodies[b] on the lifeless forms of your idols, and I will abhor you.

BARNES, "Lev_26:30High places - There is no doubt that the word here denotes elevated spots dedicated to false worship (see Deu_12:2), and especially, it would seem, to that of Baal Num_22:41; Jos_13:17. Such spots were, however, employed and approved for the worship of Yahweh, not only before the building of the temple, but afterward (Jdg_6:25-26; Jdg_13:16-23; 1Sa_7:10; 1Sa_16:5; 1Ki_3:2; 1Ki_18:30; 2Ki_12:3; 1Ch_21:26, etc.). The three

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altars built by Abraham at Shechem, between Bethel and Ai, and at Mamre, appear to have been on heights, and so was the temple.The high places in the holy land may thus have been divided into those dedicated to the worship of Yahweh, and those which had been dedicated to idols. And it would seem as if there was a constant struggle going on. The high places polluted by idol worship were of course to be wholly condemned. They were probably resorted to only to gratify a degraded superstition. See Lev_19:31; Lev_20:2-5. The others might have been innocently used for prayer and religious teaching. But the temptation appears to have been too great for the temper of the people. They offered sacrifice and burnt incense on them; and hence, thorough reformers of the national religion, such as Hezekiah and Josiah, removed the high places altogether 2Ki_18:4; 2Ki_23:5.Your images - The original word is rendered in the margin of our Bible sun images (2Ch_14:5; Isa_17:8; Eze_6:4, etc.). Phoenician inscriptions prove that the word was commonly applied to images of Baal and Astarte, the god of the sun and the goddess of the moon. This exactly explains 2Ch_34:4 following.Idols - The Hebrew word here literally means things which could be rolled about, such as a block of wood or a lump of dirt. It was no doubt a name given in derision. Compare Isa_40:20; Isa_44:19; 2Ki_1:2.

GILL, "And I will destroy your high places,.... Which Jarchi interprets of towers and palaces; but Aben Ezra of the place of sacrifices; for on high places, hills and mountains, they used to build altars, and there offer sacrifices, in imitation of the Heathens; See Gill on Eze_6:13, and cut down your images; called Chammanim, either from Ham, the son of Noah, the first introducer of idolatrous worship after the flood, as some have thought; or from Jupiter Ammon, worshipped in Egypt, from whence the Jews might have these images; or rather from Chammah, the sun, so called from its heat; so Jarchi says, there were a sort of idols placed on the roofs of houses, and because they were set in the sun, they were called by this name; and Kimchi (s) observes they were made of wood, and made by the worshippers of the sun, see 2Ki_23:11; but Aben Ezra is of opinion that these were temples built for the worship of the sun, which is the most early sort of idolatry that appeared in the world, to which Job may be thought to refer, Job_31:26. Some take these to be the πυραιθεια, or "fire hearths", which Strabo (t) described as large enclosures, in the midst of which was an altar, where the (Persian) Magi kept their fire that never went out, which was an emblem of the sun they worshipped; and these, he says, were in the temples of Anaitis and Omanus, and where the statue of the latter was in great pomp; which idol seems to have its name from the word in the text; and these are fitly added to the high places, because on such, as Herodotus (u) says, the Persians used to worship: and cast your carcasses upon the carcasses of your idols; or "dunghill gods" (w); such as the beetle, the Egyptians worshipped, signifying that they and their idols should be destroyed together: and my soul shall abhor you; the reverse of Lev_26:6; and by comparing it with that, this may signify the removal of the divine Presence from them, as a token of his abhorrence of them; and so Jarchi and Aben Ezra interpret it.

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JAMISON, "I will destroy your high places — Consecrated enclosures on the tops of mountains, or on little hillocks, raised for practicing the rites of idolatry.

cut down your images — According to some, those images were made in the form of chariots (2Ki_23:11); according to others, they were of a conical form, like small pyramids. Reared in honor of the sun, they were usually placed on a very high situation, to enable the worshippers to have a better view of the rising sun. They were forbidden to the Israelites, and when set up, ordered to be destroyed.cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, etc. — Like the statues of idols, which, when broken, lie neglected and contemned, the Jews during the sieges and subsequent captivity often wanted the rites of sepulture.

COKE, “Leviticus 26:30. I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images— Or, I will destroy your pillars, (altars,) and cut down your solar statues. Some have translated the word images, by temples dedicated to the fire; which, say they, was a symbol of the sun. The carcases of the idols, in all probability, mean the broken bodies of the images, which are called in contempt the carcases. The word is well rendered truncos by Houbigant; the trunks of your idols. Ezekiel 6:4; Ezekiel 5:13 and Jeremiah 8:1-2 will fully explain this passage. Your sanctuaries, in the next verse, either mean their idol temples, or the one true temple of their God; which, consisting of various parts, is spoken of in the plural. See ch. Leviticus 21:23. The Samaritan, which Houbigant approves and follows, reads the word in the singular, your sanctuary: and Houbigant understands the passage as a prediction of the destruction of the temple at the Babylonish captivity. ELLICOTT, “ (30) And I will destroy your high places.—Though these eminences were also used for the worship of Jehovah (Judges 6:25-26; Judges 13:16-23; 1 Samuel 7:10; 1 Kings 3:2; 2 Kings 12:3; 1 Chronicles 21:26, &c.), the context shows that the high places here are such as were dedicated to idolatrous worship (Numbers 22:41; Numbers 33:52; Deuteronomy 12:2; Joshua 13:17, &c.). By the destruction of these places of idolatrous worship, the Israelites would see how utterly worthless those deities were whom they preferred to the God who had wrought such signal redemption for them.And cut down your images.—Better, and cut down your sun-images, or solar-statues, that is, idolatrous pillars of the sun-god (Isaiah 17:8; 2 Chronicles 14:5; 2 Chronicles 34:7).And cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols.—Nothing could show a greater contempt both for the idol-worshippers and the idols than the picture here given. When the apostate Israelites have succumbed to the sword, famine, and pestilence, they will not even have a seemly burial, but their carcases will be mixed up with the shattered remains of their gods, and thus form one dunghill. Similar is the picture given by Ezekiel, “Your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken, and I will cast down your slain men before your idols, and I will lay the

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dead carcases of the children of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones round about your altars” (Ezekiel 6:4-5).EBC, “THE LAW OF THE TITHELeviticus 26:30-33"And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s: it is holy unto the Lord. And if a man will redeem aught of his tithe, he shall add unto it the fifth part thereof. And all the tithe of the herd or the flock, whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the Lord. He shall not search whether it be good or bad, neither shall he change it: and if he change it at all, then both it and that for which it is changed shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed."Last of all these exclusions from the vow is mentioned the tithe. "Whether of the seed of the land, or of the herd, or of the flock," it is declared to be "holy unto the Lord; it is the Lord’s." That because of this it cannot be given to the Lord by a special vow, although not formally stated, is self-evident. No man can give away what belongs to another, or give God what He has already. In Numbers 18:21 it is said that this tenth should be given "unto the children of Levi for the service of the tent of meeting."Most extraordinary is the contention of Wellhausen and others, that since in Deuteronomy no tithe is mentioned other than of the product of the land, therefore, because of the mention here also of a tithe of the herd and the flock, we must infer that we have here a late interpolation into the "priest code," marking a time when now the exactions of the priestly caste had been extended to the utmost limit. This is not the place to go into the question of the relation of the law of Deuteronomy to that which we have here; but we should rather, with Dillmann, from the same premisses argue the exact opposite, namely, that we have here the very earliest form of the tithe law. For that an ordinance so extending the rights of the priestly class should have been "smuggled" into the Sinaitic laws after the days of Nehemiah, as Wellhausen, Reuss, and Kuenen suppose, is simply "unthinkable"; while, on the other hand, when we find already in Genesis 28:22 Jacob promising unto the Lord the tenth of all that He should give him, at a time when he was living the life of a nomad herdsman, it is inconceivable that he should have meant "all, excepting the increase of the flocks and herds," which were his chief possession.The truth is that the dedication of a tithe, in various forms, as an acknowledgment of dependence upon and reverence to God, is one of the most widely-spread and best-attested practices of the most remote antiquity. We read of it among the Romans, the Greeks, the ancient Pelasgians, the Carthaginians, and the Phoenicians; and in the Pentateuch, in full accord with all this, we find not only

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Jacob, as in the passage cited, but, at a yet earlier time, Abraham, more than four hundred years before Moses, giving tithes to Melchizedek. The law, in the exact form in which we have it here, is therefore in perfect harmony with all that we know of the customs both of the Hebrews and surrounding peoples, from a time even much earlier than that of the Exodus.Very naturally the reference to the tithe, as thus from of old belonging to the Lord, and therefore incapable of being vowed, gives occasion to other regulations respecting it. Like unclean animals, houses, and lands which had been vowed, so also the tithe, or any part of it, might be redeemed by the individual for his own use, upon payment of the usual mulct of one-fifth additional to its assessed value. So also it is further ordered, with special regard to the tithe of the herd and the flock, "that whatsoever passeth under the rod," i.e., whatever is counted, as the manner was, by being made to pass into or out of the fold under the herdsman’s staff, "the tenth" -that is, every tenth animal as in its turn it comes-"shall be holy to the Lord." The owner was not to search whether the animal thus selected was good or bad, nor change it, so as to give the Lord a poorer animal, and keep a better one for himself; and if he broke this law, then, as in the case of the unclean beast vowed, as the penalty he was to forfeit to the sanctuary both the original and its attempted substitute, and also lose the right of redemption.A very practical question emerges just here, as to the continued obligation of this law of the tithe. Although we hear nothing of the tithe in the first Christian centuries, it began to be advocated in the fourth century by Jerome, Augustine, and others, and, as is well known, the system of ecclesiastical tithing soon became established as the law of the Church. Although the system by no means disappeared with the Reformation, but passed from the Roman into the Reformed Churches, yet the modern spirit has become more and more adverse to the mediaeval system, till, with the progressive hostility in society to all connection of the Church and the State, and in the Church the development of a sometimes exaggerated voluntaryism, tithing as a system seems likely to disappear altogether, as it has already from the most of Christendom.But in consequence of this, and the total severance of the Church from the State, in the United States and the Dominion of Canada, the necessity of securing adequate provision for the maintenance and extension of the Church, is more and more directing the attention of those concerned in the practical economics of the Church, to this venerable institution of the tithe as the solution of many difficulties. Among such there are many who, while quite opposed to any enforcement of a law of tithing for the benefit of the Church by the civil power, nevertheless earnestly maintain that the law of the tithe, as we have it here, is of permanent obligation and binding on the conscience of every Christian. What is the truth in the matter? in particular, what is the teaching of the New Testament?In attempting to settle for ourselves this question, it is to be observed, in order to clear thinking on this subject, that in the law of the tithe as here declared there are

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two elements-the one moral, the other legal, -which should be carefully distinguished. First and fundamental is the principle that it is our duty to set apart to God a certain fixed proportion of our income. The other and-technically speaking-positive element in the law is that which declares that the proportion to be given to the Lord is precisely one tenth. Now, of these two, the first principle is distinctly recognised and reaffirmed in the New Testament as of continued validity in this dispensation; while, on the other hand, as to the precise proportion of our income to be thus set apart for the Lord, the New Testament writers are everywhere silent.As regards the first principle, the Apostle Paul, writing to the Corinthians, orders that "on the first day of the week"-the day of the primitive Christian worship-"everyone shall lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him." He adds that he had given the same command also to the Churches of Galatia. {1 Corinthians 16:1-2} This most clearly gives apostolic sanction to the fundamental principle of the tithe, namely, that a definite portion of our income should be set apart for God. While, on the other hand, neither in this connection, where a mention of the law of the tithe might naturally have been expected, if it had been still binding as to the letter, nor in any other place does either the Apostle Paul or any other New Testament writer intimate that the Levitical law, requiring the precise proportion of a tenth, was still in force; -a fact which is the more noteworthy that so much is said of the duty of Christian benevolence.To this general statement with regard to the testimony of the New Testament on this subject, the words of our Lord to the Pharisees, {Matthew 23:23} regarding their tithing of "mint and anise and cummin"-"these ye ought to have done"-cannot be taken as an exception, or as proving that the law is binding for this dispensation; for the simple reason that the present dispensation had not at that time yet begun, and those to whom He spoke were still under the Levitical law, the authority of which He there reaffirms. From these facts we conclude that the law of these verses, in so far as it requires the setting apart to God of a certain definite proportion of our income, is doubtless of continued and lasting obligation; but that, in so far as it requires from all alike the exact proportion of one tenth, it is binding on the conscience no longer.Nor is it difficult to see why the New Testament should not lay down this or any other precise proportion of giving to income, as a universal law. It is only according to the characteristic usage of the New Testament law to leave to the individual conscience very much regarding the details of worship and conduct, which under the Levitical law was regulated by specific rules; which the Apostle Paul explains {Galatians 4:1-5} by reference to the fact that the earlier method was intended for and adapted to a lower and more immature stage of religious development; even as a child, during his minority, is kept under guardians and stewards, from whose authority, when he comes of age, he is free.But, still further, it seems to be often forgotten by those who argue for the present

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and permanent obligation of this law, that it was here for the first time formally appointed by God as a binding law, in connection with a certain divinely instituted system of theocratic government, which, if carried out, would, as we have seen, effectively prevent excessive accumulations of wealth in the hands of individuals, and thus secure for the Israelites, in a degree the world has never seen, an equal distribution of property. In such a system it is evident that it would be possible to exact a certain fixed and definite proportion of income for sacred purposes, with the certainty that the requirement would work with perfect justice and fairness to all. But with us, social and economic conditions are so very different, wealth is so very unequally distributed, that no such law as that of the tithe could be made to work otherwise than unequally and unfairly. To the very poor it must often be a heavy burden; to the very rich, a proportion so small as to be a practical exemption. While, for the former, the law, if insisted on, would sometimes require a poor man to take bread out of the mouth of wife and children, it would still leave the millionaire with thousands to spend on needless luxuries. The latter might often more easily give nine tenths of his income than the former could give one twentieth.It is thus no surprising thing that the inspired men who laid the foundations of the New Testament Church did not reaffirm the law of the tithe as to the letter. And yet, on the other hand, let us not forget that the law of the tithe, as regards the moral element of the law, is still in force. It forbids the Christian to leave, as so often, the amount he will give for the Lord’s work, to impulse and caprice. Statedly and conscientiously he is to "lay by him in store as the Lord hath prospered him." If any ask how much should the proportion be, one might say that by fair inference the tenth might safely be taken as an average minimum of giving, counting rich and poor together. But the New Testament {2 Corinthians 8:7; 2 Corinthians 8:9} answers after a different and most characteristic manner: "See that ye abound in this grace For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might become rich." Let there be but regular and systematic giving to the Lord’s work, under the law of a fixed proportion of gifts to income, and under the holy inspiration of this sacred remembrance of the grace of our Lord, and then the Lord’s treasury will never be empty, nor the Lord be robbed of His tithe.And so hereupon the book of Leviticus closes with the formal declaration- referring, no doubt, strictly speaking, to the regulations of this last chapter-that "these are the commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses for the children of Israel in mount Sinai." The words as explicitly assert Mosaic origin and authority for these last laws of the book, as the opening words asserted the same for the law of the offerings with which it begins. The significance of these repeated declarations respecting the origin and authority of the laws contained in this book has been repeatedly pointed out, and nothing further need be added here.To sum up all:-what the Lord, in this book of Leviticus, has said, was not for Israel alone. The supreme lesson of this law is for men now, for the Church of the New Testament as well. For the individual and for the nation, HOLINESS, consisting in

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full consecration of body and soul to the Lord, and separation from all that defileth, is the Divine ideal, to the attainment of which Jew and Gentile alike are called. And the only way of its attainment is through the atoning Sacrifice, and the mediation of the High Priest appointed of God; and the only evidence of its attainment is a joyful obedience, hearty and unreserved, to all the commandments of God. For us all it stands written: "YE SHALL BE HOLY FOR I, JEHOVAH, YOUR GOD, AM HOLY."TRAPP, “Leviticus 26:30 And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you.Ver. 30. Upon the carcasses.] Or, Stumps and shivers of your idols overturned. [Jeremiah 16:18 Ezekiel 4:3-7] Thus in Ket’s conspiracy, those rebels of Norfolk, that brought with them into the field the pyx under his canopy in a cart, not without masses, crosses, banners, candlesticks, &c., all which trumpery, together with their breaden god, was tumbled in the dirt, amidst the carcasses of their late idolatrous worshippers. (a) WHEDON, “ 30. I will destroy your high places — These were probably artificial eminences on which idol worshippers set up the statues of their gods.Images — These were sun-pillars or sun-statues, standing on the altars of Baal. Your carcasses shall be denied decent sepulture, and shall share the shame of your dethroned idols.PETT, “Leviticus 26:30“And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your sun-images, and cast your dead bodies on the bodies of your idols; and my soul shall abhor you.”We see here examples of their disobedience. They would be offering incense at high places where altars had been built, and worshipping before sun-images. So God would destroy their high places and would cut down their sun-images and then toss their own bodies on to the bodies of their idols. And because of their idolatry God would have an aversion against them. Compare Ezekiel 6:6-7. As a priest Ezekiel would know Leviticus by heart.

31 I will turn your cities into ruins and lay waste your sanctuaries, and I will take no delight in the 108

pleasing aroma of your offerings.

BARNES, "Lev_26:31Sanctuaries - The holy places in the tabernacle and the temple (Psa_68:35. Compare Psa_74:7).I will not smell the savor ... - See Lev_1:9.

GILL, "I will make your cities waste,.... By suffering the enemy to besiege them, enter into them, and plunder them, and destroy the houses in them, and reduce them to the most desolate condition, as Jerusalem, their metropolis, was more than once: and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation; the temple, so called from the several apartments in it, the court, the holy place, and the most holy; or rather both sanctuaries or temples are intended, the first built by Solomon, and destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar; the second rebuilt by Zerubbabel, and adorned by Herod, and reduced to ashes by Titus Vespasian: the Jews understand this of their synagogues, which were many both in Jerusalem, and in other parts of their country, but cannot be intended, since it follows: and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours: of their incense offered on the altar of incense; or the savour of their offerings, as the Targum of Jonathan, of their burnt offerings, and the fat of their other offerings burnt on the altar of burnt offering; signifying, that these would not be acceptable to him, or he smell a savour of rest in them; see Gen_8:21; now these were only offered in the temple, not in synagogues.

JAMISON, "I will make your cities waste — This destruction of its numerous and flourishing cities, which was brought upon Judea through the sins of Israel, took place by the forced removal of the people during, and long after, the captivity. But it is realized to a far greater extent now.

bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours — the tabernacle and temple, as is evident from the tenor of the subsequent clause, in which God announces that He will not accept or regard their sacrifices.

K&D, "Their towns and their sanctuaries He would destroy, because He took no pleasure in their sacrificial worship. מקדשים are the holy things of the worship of Jehovah, the tabernacle and temple, with their altars and the rest of their holy furniture, as in Ps. 68:36; Psa_74:7. ניחח ריח (Lev_1:9) is the odour of the sacrifice; and ריח, to smell, an anthropomorphic designation of divine satisfaction (cf. Amo_5:21; Isa_11:3).

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ELLICOTT, “ (31) I will make your cities waste.—Not only will the elevated spots outside the cities with their idols be destroyed, and the carcases of the deluded worshippers be scattered among their remains, but the cities themselves will be converted into ruins and desolations (Jeremiah 4:7; Jeremiah 9:11; Ezekiel 6:6; Ezekiel 12:20; Nehemiah 2:17, &c.).And bring your sanctuaries unto desolation.—Even the sanctuary with all its holy places (Jeremiah 51:51; Ezekiel 21:7; Amos 7:9; Pss. 68:36, Psalms 74:7. &c.), sacred edifices, synagogues, &c. (Leviticus 21:23), will not be spared, God thus reversing the promise which He made to the Israelites, that He will set up His dwelling place in the midst of them (see Leviticus 26:11) if they will walk according to His commandments.I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours.—When this awful destruction of the sanctuary is to take place God will not regard the fact that the odour of sweet sacrifices is there being offered up. (See Leviticus 1:9.) The service which may then be performed to Him will not hinder Him from executing this judgment.WHEDON, “Verse 3131. I will make your cities waste — Palestine is filled with ruined cities. Says Porter, in his Giant Cities of Bashan: “Every opening to the right and left revealed ruins; now a tomb in a quiet nook; now a temple in a lonely forest glade; now a shapeless and nameless heap of stones and fallen columns; and now, through a long green vista, the shattered walls and towers of an ancient city. The country is filled with ruins. In every direction to which the eye turns, in every spot on which it rests, ruins are visible — so truly, so wonderfully, have the prophecies been fulfilled. Every view we got in Bashan was an ocular demonstration of the literal fulfilment of the curse pronounced on the land by Moses more than three thousand years ago. One day I climbed a peak which commands the sea of Galilee and the Jordan valley up to the waters of Merom. I was able to distinguish, by the aid of a glass, in a region thirty miles long by ten wide, every spot celebrated in sacred history. My eye swept the sea from north to south, from east to west; not a single sail, not a solitary boat, was there. My eye swept the great Jordan valley, the little plains, the glens, the mountain sides from base to summit — not a city, not a village, not a house, not a sign of settled habitation was there, except a few huts at Magdala and the shattered houses of Tiberias. Desolation keeps unbroken sabbath in Galilee now. Nature has lavished on the country some of her choicest gifts — a rich soil, a genial climate — but the curse of Heaven has come upon it because of the sin of man.” Keith, after enumerating a large number of celebrated cities in the Holy Land lying in utter desolation, exclaims: “How marvellously are the predictions of their desolation verified, when, in general, nothing but ruined ruins form the most distinguished remnants of the cities of Israel; and when the multitude of its towns are almost all left, with many a vestige to testify of their number, but without a mark to tell their name.”

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Your sanctuaries — By the use of the plural number there may be an implied reference to idolatrous temples, but it is more probable that the future sanctuary cities, Bethel, Shiloh, and Jerusalem, are proleptically referred to, including the numerous synagogues scattered over the land.I will not smell the savour — In other words, “I will not smell with pleasure, 1 will not enjoy, the savour of your sweet odours.” Only the penitent, obedient, and devout heart can please God or appropriate spiritual good. The mere mechanical performance of sacrifice and burning of incense, dissevered from the appropriate state of the moral and religious sensibilities, is a solemn mockery and abomination. See Introductory notes 7 and 8. Isaiah 1:11-15.PETT, “Leviticus 26:31-32“And I will make your cities a waste, and will bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours. And I will bring the land into desolation; and your enemies who dwell in it shall be astonished at it.”The land would be invaded, their cities laid waste, their holy place become a desolation, and God would not regard their offerings. The land will be so desolated that even their enemies will be astonished at it.

32 I myself will lay waste the land, so that your enemies who live there will be appalled.

GILL, "And I will bring the land into desolation,.... The whole country of Judea, cities, towns, villages, fields, vineyards, &c. through the ravage and plunder of the enemy; and they being driven out of it, and carried captive from it, and so the land left untilled, and become barren and unfruitful: and your enemies which dwell therein; having destroyed them, or cast them out, and sent them into other countries, and took possession of theirs in their room: shall be astonished at it; at the desolation of the land, that such a fruitful country, a land flowing with milk and honey, should be turned into barrenness, for the wickedness of its inhabitants, and shall be amazed at the judgments of God upon them and that.

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K&D 32-33, “The land was to become a wilderness, so that even the enemies who dwelt therein would be terrified in consequence (cf. Jer_18:16; Jer_19:8); and the Israelites would be scattered among the heathen, because Jehovah would draw out His sword behind them, i.e., drive them away with a drawn sword, and scatter them to all the winds of heaven (cf. Eze_5:2, Eze_5:12; Eze_12:14).ELLICOTT, “(32) And I will bring the land into desolation. Better, And I myself will bring, &c. From the ruin of the cities and the sanctuaries the desolation extends to the whole country. Whilst the devastations hitherto were the result of God permitting hostile invasions and conquests, the desolation of the whole country and the dispersion of the Israelites described in the following verses are to be the work of God Himself. He who has promised to bless the land in so marvellous a manner (Leviticus 26:4-10) as a reward for their obedience, will Himself reduce it to the most astounding desolation as a punishment for their disobedience, so much so, that their very enemies will be amazed at it (Jeremiah 9:11 : Ezekiel 5:15; Ezekiel 33:28-29; Ezekiel 35:10; Ezekiel 36:5).WHEDON, “ 32. Desolation — “When Elisha came up the defile from Jericho to Bethel, forests clothed the surrounding heights, (2 Kings 2:24;) now there is not a tree. Vineyards then covered the terraced sides of glen and hill, from base to summit. They have all disappeared. Cities and fortresses, in the days of Israel’s power, crowned every peak and studded every ridge; shapeless mounds now mark their desolated sites.” — Porter. A fact still more remarkable is, the discovery of cities in Bashan with houses as perfect as if finished only yesterday, and yet without an inhabitant. Porter, from the battlements of the castle of Scalah, “counted thirty towns and villages, many of them almost as perfect as when they were built, and yet for more than five centuries there has not been a single inhabitant in one of them.”Your enemies… shall be astonished — Not only are the Bedouins, who occasionally encamp in these cities of eastern Palestine, astonished at their utter solitude, but “the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall (do) say when they see the plagues of that land… even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath. the Lord done thus unto this land? What meaneth the heat of this great anger?” Deuteronomy 29:22-24.

33 I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins.

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GILL, "And I will scatter you among the Heathen,.... As with a fan, Jer_15:7; so they were at the time of the Assyrian and Babylonish captivities, some were carried to one place, and some to another, some fled to one place, and some to another, and they are at this day scattered among the several nations of the world: and will draw out a sword after you; draw it out of its scabbard, and with it pursue after them, when fleeing or going whither they should not; as the remainder of the Jews in Judea sought to go to Egypt, contrary to the will of God, Jer_42:16; see Lev_26:25, and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste; for want of men to till the one, and inhabit the other.

JAMISON, "I will scatter you among the heathen, etc. — as was done when the elite of the nation were removed into Assyria and placed in various parts of the kingdom.ELLICOTT, “ (33) And I will scatter you among the heathen.—They will not even be permitted to tarry among the ruins of their favoured places, but God Himself, who brings about the desolation, will disperse the surviving inhabitants far and wide.And will draw out a sword after you.—To show how complete this dispersion is to be, God is represented with a drawn sword in His hand pursuing them and scattering them, so that both their land and every city in it should be denuded of them, and that there should be no possibility of any of them turning back. Thus the sword which God promised should not go through their land (see Leviticus 26:6) if they walk according to the Divine commandments, will now be wielded by Himself to bring about their utter dispersion from the land. A similar appalling scene is described by Jeremiah: “I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers hare known: and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them” (Jeremiah 9:16, with Jeremiah 42:16-18; Ezekiel 12:14).TRAPP, “Leviticus 26:33 And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.Ver. 33. And I will scatter you.] As chaff. Compare Psalms 44:11, Zechariah 7:14. Therefore "fan you, fan you, O nation, not to be desired before the day pass as the chaff," &c. [Zephaniah 2:1-2] {See Trapp on "Zephaniah 2:1"} {See Trapp on "Zephaniah 2:2"}WHEDON, “33. I will scatter you — This admonitory prophecy looks beyond the captivity of Israel in Babylon, its first fulfilment, to that world-wide dispersion which began at the destruction of Jerusalem and continues to this day, a miracle of national life perpetuated in spite of all opposing forces and destructive agencies, a people “scattered and peeled,” dwelling in every nation, yet resisting absorption and assimilation. “THE DISPERSION” was the general title applied to those Jews who remained in foreign countries after the return from Babylon, during the period of

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the second temple. Most of them were in bondage, and shut out from the full privileges of the chosen race. John 7:35; James 1:1, notes. There are legends pointing to settlements of Jews in Arabia, Ethiopia and Abyssinia. At the beginning of the Christian era the “dispersion” was divided into three great sections — the Babylonian, the Syrian, and the Egyptian. For the breadth of the dispersion, see Acts 2:9-11, note. Its influence on the rapid promulgation of Christianity can scarcely be overrated. The course of apostolic preaching follows, in a regular progress, the line of Jewish settlements. Thus the wickedness of Israel was overruled for the furtherance of the Gospel.PETT, “Leviticus 26:33“And you will I scatter among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.”Just as Israel were to scatter the Canaanites among the nations, so would be done to Israel. They in their turn would be scattered among the nations, and their land would be desolated, and their cities laid waste. Compare Deuteronomy 4:27; Deuteronomy 28:64.

34 Then the land will enjoy its sabbath years all the time that it lies desolate and you are in the country of your enemies; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths.

CLARKE, "Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths - This Houbigant observes to be a historical truth - “From Saul to the Babylonish captivity are numbered about four hundred and ninety years, during which period there were seventy Sabbaths of years; for 7, multiplied by 70, make 490. Now the Babylonish captivity lasted seventy years, and during that time the land of Israel rested. Therefore the land rested just as many years in the Babylonish captivity, as it should have rested Sabbaths if the Jews had observed the laws relative to the Sabbaths of the land.” This is a most remarkable fact, and deserves to be particularly noticed, as a most literal fulfillment of the prophetic declaration in this verse: Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies’ land. May it not be argued from this that the law concerning the

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Sabbatical year was observed till Saul’s time, as it is only after this period the land enjoyed its rest in the seventy years’ captivity? And if that breach of the law was thus punished, may it not be presumed it had been fulfilled till then, or else the captivity would have lasted longer, i. e., till the land had enjoyed all its rests, of which it had ever been thus deprived?

GILL, "Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths,.... The sabbatical years, or seventh year sabbaths, when, according to the law in the preceding chapter, it was to rest from tillage, Lev_25:2, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies' land; so long it should lie uncultivated, at least in part, there not being a sufficient number left to till it in general, or as it should be; this was the case during the seventy years' captivity in Babylon: even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths; or complete them, as Aben Ezra, which is a bitter sarcasm upon them for their neglect of observance of the law concerning the sabbatical years; but now the land should have its sabbaths of rest whether they would or not; and it seems as if it was on account of this sin, as well as others, that they were carried captive; and it is remarkable, if what Maimonides (x) says is right, that it was at the going out or end of a sabbatical year, that the first temple was destroyed, and the Jews carried captive, and endured a seventy years' captivity; which some say was because they had neglected seventy sabbatical years; see 2Ch_36:21.

JAMISON, "Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, etc. — A long arrear of sabbatic years had accumulated through the avarice and apostasy of the Israelites, who had deprived their land of its appointed season of rest. The number of those sabbatic years seems to have been seventy, as determined by the duration of the captivity. This early prediction is very remarkable, considering that the usual policy of the Assyrian conquerors was to send colonies to cultivate and inhabit their newly acquired provinces.

K&D 34-35, “Object of the Divine Judgments in Relation to the Land and Nation of Israel. - Lev_26:34 and Lev_26:35. The land would then enjoy and keep its Sabbaths, so long as it was desolate, and Israel was in the land of its foes. השמה ימי during the ,כלwhole period of its devastation. השמה inf. Hophal with the suffix, in which the mappik is wanting, as in Exo_2:3 (cf. Ewald, §131e). רצה to have satisfaction: with ב and an accusative it signifies to take delight, take pleasure, in anything, e.g., in rest after the day's work is done (Job_14:6); here also to enjoy rest (not “to pay its debt:” Ges., Kn.). The keeping of the Sabbath was not a performance binding upon the land, nor had the land been in fault because the Sabbath was not kept. As the earth groans under the pressure of the sin of men, so does it rejoice in deliverance from this pressure, and participation in the blessed rest of the whole creation. וגו אשר את the land “will :תשבתrest (keep) what it has not rested on your Sabbaths and whilst you dwelt in it;” i.e., it will make up the rest which you did not give it on your Sabbaths (daily and yearly). It is evident from this, that the keeping of the Sabbaths and sabbatical years was suspended

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when the apostasy of the nation increased, - a result which could be clearly foreseen in consequence of the inward dislike of a sinner to the commandments of the holy God, and which is described in 2Ch_26:21 as having actually occurred.

CALVIN, "34.Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths. In order that the observance of the Sabbath should be the more honored, God in a manner associated the land in it together with man; for whereas the land had rest every seventh year from sowing, and harvest, and all cultivation, He thus desired to stir up men more effectually to a greater reverence for the Sabbath. God now bitterly reproves the Israelites because they not only profane the Sabbath themselves, but do not even allow the land to enjoy its prescribed rest; for this repose of the seventh year did not hinder the land from continually groaning under a heavy burden as long as it nourished such ungodly inhabitants. He says, therefore, that the land was disturbed by ceaseless inquietude, and thus was deprived of its lawful Sabbaths, since it bore on its shoulders, as it were, and not without great distress, such impious despisers of God. Moreover, because the whole worship of God is sometimes included by synecdoche in the word Sabbath, (Jeremiah 17:21; Ezekiel 20:12,) He indirectly administers a sharp reproof to His people, because not only is He defrauded of His right by their impiety, but He cannot be duly honored in the Holy Land unless He expels them all from hence; as if He had said, that this was the only means that remained for the assertion of the honor due to His name, viz., that the land should be cleared of its inhabitants, and reduced to desolation; inasmuch as this extorted rest should be substituted in the room of the voluntary Sabbath. COFFMAN, “Then shall the land enjoy its sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye are in your enemies' land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy its sabbaths. As long as it lieth desolate it shall have rest, even the rest which it had not in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it. And as for them that are left of you, I will send a faintness into their heart in the lands of their enemies: and the sound of a driven leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as one fleeth from the sword; and they shall fail when none pursueth. And they shall stumble one upon another, as it were before the sword, when none pursueth: and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies. And ye shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them."Certainly, there was never anything like this written of any other nation in the history of the world, the astounding fact being that God Himself is the Author of these terrible sentences of judgment. Any person with the slightest knowledge of Jewish history is aware of just how exactly and circumstantially all of these terrible things befell Israel REPEATEDLY throughout their long history, right down to and including the present times! It brings mist to the eyes and a catch in the throat even to consider the terrible consequences of rebellion against God as enacted in the

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history of Israel.From the time of the entry of Israel into Canaan unto the Babylonian captivity was a period of 863 years, during which time 123Sabbatical Years should have been observed.[28] The fact that God sent Israel into captivity for only seventy years (instead of 123 years) is supposed by some to indicate that Israel had indeed observed the Sabbatical Years some fifty-three times, but this can hardly be accurate. Rather it would seem that the round number of years (ten times seven) was considered as the fullness of judgment. Also, perhaps the mercy of God reduced the penalty to spare Israel a period of captivity that might well have destroyed the whole nation forever."They shall flee ... when none pursueth ..." (Leviticus 26:36-37). These verses are a powerful description of the way it always is in those who suffer "the inherent weakness of wrongdoing, and the cowardice which is the result of an evil conscience."[29]"If ye will not hearken ..." (Leviticus 26:14,18,21,27). Despite the fact of this word in English having the meaning of "hear," or "listen," the meaning of it in these passages is "Obey,"[30] a truth which this whole chapter makes it impossible to miss. All the greater reproach, therefore, belongs to the translators of our version (ASV) who perverted the meaning of Romans 10:16 by rendering it, "They did not all hearken to the glad tidings," which most certainly should have been left to read (as in the KJV), "They have not all OBEYED THE GOSPEL!" Only theological reasons could lie behind such a mistranslation. If one wishes to know what "hearken" in the Biblical sense actually means, let him read this chapter."The land of your enemies shall eat you up ..." (Leviticus 26:38). This is not a reference to cannibalism, but to the fact that the Jews scattered among many nations would tend to be amalgamated with the native populations and lose their identity. An example of this was cited by Jamieson: "On the removal of the ten tribes into captivity, they never returned; and all traces of them were lost."[31] This, in a general sense, is true, although there were examples of individuals from the "lost tribes" finding their way back to the homeland. Anna (Luke 2:36) was a descendant of Asher, one of the "lost tribes."ELLICOTT, “(34) Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths.—The land, which participates both in the happiness and misery of the Israelites (see Leviticus 18:25), and which through their disobedience of the Divine laws would be deprived of her sabbatical rests as long as the rebellious people occupy it, would now at last be able to enjoy its prescribed legal rest, when it is ridden of these defiant transgressors, and as long as they remain in exile.TRAPP, “Leviticus 26:34 Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye [be] in your enemies’ land; [even] then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths.

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Ver. 34. Then shall the land rest, and enjoy her Sabbaths.] Rest from your disquietments, whilst ye sinned upon it; and gat out the heart of it to spend it on your lusts. Compare 2 Chronicles 36:21. Where there is not a resting from sin, the Sabbaths are not truly kept.WHEDON, “34. Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths — The sabbatical years are here referred to. Probably from the death of Joshua to the time of the Babylonish captivity, seventy of the years of rest had been neglected. During the seventy years in Babylon the land of Canaan had a period of rest equivalent to the number of which it had been defrauded by the disobedience of the Hebrews.PETT, “Leviticus 26:34“Then shall the land enjoy its sabbaths, as long as it lies desolate, and you are in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy its sabbaths.”For one way or another God would ensure that His land enjoyed its sabbaths, and if Israel would not ensure it voluntarily, then He would bring it about compulsorily. If Israel failed to observe God’s sabbatical years, then God Himself would require them of them. For every year in which they had failed to give the land its rest, and more, God would give the land its rest. It would be deserted, and what would grow would grow of itself. There would be no sowing, no reaping, only continual desolation. (Compare 2 Chronicles 36:21). Later Jeremiah would declare that the time would be ‘seventy years’ (Jeremiah 25:11-12; Jeremiah 29:10). Not the recurrence of seven intensified. Daniel would speak of seventy sevens (Daniel 9). PULPIT, “Leviticus 26:34, Leviticus 26:35The land had not participated in the sins of its inhabitants. The latter had thought that, by the neglect of the sabbatical years, they had enriched themselves by the fruits of those years which would otherwise have been wasted. The result was that they lost the land altogether for a period equal to that during which it ought to have kept sabbath, and the land "as long as she lay desolate kept sabbath, to fulfill threescore and ten years" (2 Chronicles 36:21). From the entrance into the holy land until the Babylonish Captivity there elapsed eight hundred and sixty-three years, in which time there ought to have been kept one hundred and twenty-three sabbatical years. As only seventy are made up by the duration of the Captivity, it may be concluded that fifty-three sabbatical years were observed by the Israelites; but this conclusion is very doubtful. It is more likely that seventy, being a multiple of the sacred number seven, was regarded as sufficient to purge all previous neglects, whatever they might have been.

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35 All the time that it lies desolate, the land will have the rest it did not have during the sabbaths you lived in it.

BARNES, "Lev_26:35More literally: All the days of its desolation shall it rest that time which it rested not in your Sabbaths while ye dwelt upon it. That is, the periods of rest of which the land had been deprived would be made up to it. Compare 2Ch_36:20-21.

GILL, "As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest,.... From tillage, neither man nor beast working upon it; for which reason such a space of time was called a sabbath: because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when you dwelt upon it; they manured and tilled it on the seventh years, as on others, neglecting the command which God had given them; and this they did not once or twice, but many times, while they were dwellers in the land; which seems to confirm pretty much the notion of their having omitted so many years, though that cannot be affirmed with certainty; see Jarchi on the place.COKE, “Leviticus 26:35. As long as it lieth desolate, it shall rest— "This," says Houbigant, "is literally and historically true. From Saul to the Babylonish captivity, 490 years are commonly numbered; in which period of time were 70 sabbaths of years; for 7 multiplied by 70 makes 490: but the Babylonish captivity continued 70 years, during which the land of Israel rested: therefore the land rested in that captivity so many years as it ought to have rested sabbaths, if the Jews had observed the law respecting the rest of the land." ELLICOTT, “(35) As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest . . . —Better, All the days of its desolation shall it keep that rest which it did not rest, &c, that is, the land during its desolation will not be cultivated but will lie fallow, and thus be enabled to make up by its long rest for the many sabbaths and sabbatical years of which it had been deprived by the lawless Israelites during their sojourn in it. (Comp. Jeremiah 34:17; 2 Chronicles 36:21.)WHEDON, “35. Because it did not rest — The divine government has its compensations. What it does not receive as a willing offering it extorts in the form of penalty. The riches gained by unlawfully tilling the soil during these sabbatic years were wasted in the captivity, and the despised law received its due in one payment.

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PETT, “Leviticus 26:35“As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, even the rest which it had not in your sabbaths, when you dwelt on it.”What they sowed in sin, they would reap in judgment. The desolated land would have the rest that they had failed to give it. If they refused to obey God he would bring His purpose about in His own way. Man’s disobedience cannot thwart God, it can only bring problems on himself.

36 “‘As for those of you who are left, I will make their hearts so fearful in the lands of their enemies that the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight. They will run as though fleeing from the sword, and they will fall, even though no one is pursuing them.

GILL, "And upon them that are left alive of you,.... In the land of Judea, or rather scattered about among the nations, suggesting that these would be comparatively few: I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; or "a softness" (y); so that they should be effeminate, pusillanimous, and cowardly, have nothing of a manly spirit and courage in them; but be mean spirited and faint hearted, as the Jews are noted to be at this day, as Bishop Patrick observes; who also adds,"it being scarce ever heard, that a Jew listed himself for a soldier, or engaged in the defence of his country where he lives:" and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; either the sound of a leaf that falls from the tree, as the Targum of Jonathan, or which the wind beats one against another, as Jarchi, which makes some little noise; even this should terrify them, taking it to be the noise of some enemy near at hand, just ready to fall on them; such poor faint hearted creatures should they be:

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and they shall flee as fleeing from the sword; as if there were an army of soldiers with their swords drawn pursuing them: and they shall fall when none pursueth; fall upon the ground, and into a fit, and drop down as if dead, as if they had been really wounded with a sword and slain, see Pro_28:1.

K&D 36-38, “So far as the nation was concerned, those who were left when the kingdom was overthrown would find no rest in the land of their enemies, but would perish among the heathen for their own and their fathers' iniquities, till they confessed their sins and bent their uncircumcised hearts under the righteousness of the divine punishments. בכם הנשארים (nominative abs.): “as for those who are left in (as in Lev_5:9), i.e., of, you,” who have not perished in the destruction of the kingdom and dispersion of the people, God will bring despair into their heart in the lands of your enemies, that the sound (“voice”) of a moving leaf will hunt them to flee as before the sword, so that they will fall in their anxious flight, and stumble one over another, though no one is pursuing. The ἁπ. λεγ. מר from מר, related to מרח and מרק to rub, rub to pieces, signifies that inward anguish, fear, and despair, which rend the heart and destroy the life, δειλία, pavor (lxx, Vulg.), what is described in Deu_28:65 in even stronger terms as “a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind.” There should not be to them תקומה, standi et resistendi facultas (Rosenmüller), standing before the enemy; but they should perish among the nations. “The land of their enemies will eat them up,” sc., by their falling under the pressure of the circumstances in which they were placed (cf. Num_13:32; Eze_36:13).

ELLICOTT, “Verse 36-37(36, 37) And upon them that are left alive of you.—Better, And as to those that remain of you, as the Authorised Version generally renders this expression. This obviates the insertion of the expression “alive,” which is not in the original, and is not put in the Authorised Version in Leviticus 26:39, where the same phrase occurs. Where these will remain is explained in the next clause.I will send a faintness into their hearts.—That is, He will implant in them such timidity and cowardice that they will be frightened at the faintest sound. He will make life a misery to them. (Comp. Deuteronomy 28:65-67.)TRAPP, “Leviticus 26:36 And upon them that are left [alive] of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth.Ver. 36. I will send a faintness.] See this explained in Job 15:21-22.

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WHEDON, “Verse 3636. The sound of a shaken leaf — The Hebrew is more poetical, the voice of a driven leaf. “So wrong doing is never blessed. Even when men appear to succeed and to save themselves alive, their success is partial, and may only create an opportunity for further divine judgment. Do not suppose that men are successful simply because they are living. A man may have escaped the sea only to die a more terrible death on land. Marvellous are the judicial resources of God. We have an indication here of a law to whose subtle force many men can testify. Fear takes away all power, and turns the most dauntless soldier into a coward.” — Joseph Parker. No expression could more vividly portray the perpetual terror, the distressing alarm, of the poor captives.In the lands of their enemies — In the Orient, outside of the Hebrew theocracy, slaves had no civil rights. Even under Roman law the master with impunity could chop up his slaves into mince meat for his fish ponds if he should choose. After the return from Babylon four different dynasties obtained the supremacy of the land of Canaan. The dominion of Persia was from 536 to 333 B.C.; of Greece, from 333 to 167 B.C.; of the Asmoneans, from 167 to 63 B.C.; of the Herods under Rome, from 40 B.C., to 70 A.D.PETT, “Leviticus 26:36-37“And as for those who are left of you, I will send a faintness into their heart in the lands of their enemies: and the sound of a driven leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as one flees from the sword; and they shall fall when none pursues. And they shall stumble one on another, as it were before the sword, when none pursues: and you shall have no power to stand before your enemies.”And the judgment will still continue to follow the remnant who survive. They will be faint in heart. Even the sound of a leaf driven by the wind will alarm them. Their state will be such that they will imagine fears even when there are none. They will run even when there is no enemy, pursued by their own fears. They will fall over one another in their desperation to escape from their illusions. They will be without the strength to stand up to their enemies. They will be possessed with imaginary terrors. PULPIT, “Leviticus 26:36-39The final punishment.Upon them that are left, that is, the surviving captives and exiles, I will send a faintness into their hearts,—so Ezekiel 21:7, "And every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water"—… and the sound of a shaken (or driven) leaf shall chase them;… and they shall fall,… and ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies

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shall eat you up. And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands. This is the concluding threat. It is conditional in its nature, and the condition having been fulfilled, we may say with reverence that it has been accomplished. Those of the ten tribes who did not find their way to Babylon, and so became absorbed in the body which returned to Jerusalem, have been eaten up by the land of their enemies, and have pined away in their enemies' lands. Neither they nor their descendants are to be found in any part of the globe, however much investigation may employ itself in searching for them. They have been absorbed by the populations among which they were scattered.

37 They will stumble over one another as though fleeing from the sword, even though no one is pursuing them. So you will not be able to stand before your enemies.

GILL, "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" (z); 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 (a) 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.

38 You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will devour you. 123

BARNES, "Lev_26:38The land of your enemies shall eat you up - Compare Num_13:32; Eze_36:13.CLARKE, "The land of your enemies shall eat you up - Does this refer to the

total loss of the ten tribes? These are so completely swallowed up in some enemies’ land, that nothing concerning their existence or place of residence remains but mere conjecture.

GILL, "And ye shall perish among the Heathen,.... Not utterly, but great numbers of them, through change of air, and different diet, as Aben Ezra, and through the cruel usage of their enemies; for there is a body of them which continues unto this day; unless this is to be understood of the ten tribes, as R. Akiba (b) interprets it, who are supposed to be entirely lost and swallowed up among the nations where they were carried captive: and the land of your enemies shall eat you up; they should die in it through one disease or another; by the pestilence, as the Targum of Jonathan, and so be buried in it; in which sense it may be said to eat them up, or consume them, for the grave swallows up and consumes all that are put into it; Jarchi says, this is to be understood of those that die in captivity. JAMISON, "

the land of your enemies shall eat you up, etc. — On the removal of the ten tribes into captivity, they never returned, and all traces of them were lost.COKE, “Verse 38Leviticus 26:38. The land of your enemies shall eat you up— This was literally fulfilled in the captivity of the ten tribes, as well as in the sufferings and oppressions, which the rest of the family of Israel have undergone for their own and the iniquities of their fathers; Leviticus 26:39.REFLECTIONS.—As God encouraged to obedience by rewards, he threatened the disobedient with the most awful judgments. If mercy will not draw them, at least let terror drive them.1. The sins that God threatens are, wilful disobedience persisted in, with impenitence under their chastisements. This is supposed to begin in carelessness and disregard of God's commandments, the consequence of which would soon be to despise them. Sin is a down-hill road; the transition from evil to worse is most natural. When they began to slight religion, destruction would hasten apace; they

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would then loath it, and breaking off every restraint, give scope to the insatiable lusts of their corrupted hearts. Such is the usual process of evil. God will visit for these things; and if his rod of correction is despised, his sword of judgment shall be unsheathed. Before he strikes, he warns: if they will hearken to the calls of his word, and the pleadings of their conscience; if they turn from the evil of their way, and reform their course of evil, there will be hope: but when his calls are rejected with obstinacy, and his judgments exasperate and harden instead of humbling them, then woe unto them. Note; They who resist the calls of God, and the convictions of conscience, and, under the corrections of sickness and affliction, continue unhumbled, impatient, murmuring, and unreformed, have nothing to hope for, but wrath to the uttermost.2. The punishments to be inflicted on the rebellious. The first and sorest judgment, and the cause of all the rest, is God's face being set against them. They who contend with their Maker will find the struggle most unequal. He threatens to cross their designs, and disappoint their hopes; evil and misfortune shall attend them as their shadows. Diseases, like a flight of locusts, shall seize upon their bodies; unfruitful seasons shall make their lands barren, and the sword of their enemies shall be drenched in their blood. If these judgments have no effect, greater shall follow: God will not stay his arm from punishment, whilst we refuse to bow our hearts in penitence. The beasts of the earth shall devour their children, and, as executioners of God's wrath, make their habitations desolate. If they remain yet incorrigible, heavier and thicker strokes descend. Whilst the sinner is out of hell, there is hope; but every rejected call hardens him thither. Famine shall stalk through their barren land, and pestilence devour and depopulate their cities. God thus arms all creation against his enemies, and heaven and earth conspire to destroy them. If, after all, their desperate hearts reject the warning, and continue impenitent, their ruin shall come. When God begins he will make an end with the sinner, nor leave him till he is brought to himself or to everlasting burnings. Their cities shall be besieged, and they shall eat their sons and daughters through the famine: their enemies shall throw down their walls, and lay their carcases on their idols. And whilst in desolation the land enjoys her sabbaths, the poor remnant shall be scattered among the heathen, nor even there be at rest. A sword shall pursue them, and their souls withal be as miserable as their bodies. Continual terror within shall torment their coward, guilty hearts; and in their iniquities they shall pine away without prospect of redress. Despair in this life is the consummation of a sinner's guilt, and, in hell, of his torment. Vengeance so exemplary shall even astonish their enemies, and they shall be seen and acknowledged the objects of God's just abhorrence. Note; (1.) What a dreadful thing is sin! (2.) How sure is the ruin of the impenitent sinner! (3.) How aggravated the guilt of that soul whom mercies cannot engage, nor corrections deter. (4.) How just will God appear, to give up those to despair, who have given up themselves to work wickedness. ELLICOTT, “Verse 38(38) And ye shall perish among the heathen.—Better, And ye shall be lost among the

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heathen, as the word here rendered “perish” is often translated. (See Deuteronomy 22:3; 1 Samuel 9:3; 1 Samuel 9:20; Jeremiah 1:6; Ezekiel 34:4; Ezekiel 34:16; Psalms 119:176, &c.) The context plainly shows that utter destruction is not meant here. The very next verse speaks of a remnant who are to pine away, whilst Leviticus 26:40 speaks of their confessing their guilt.The land of your enemies shall eat you up.—That is, they shall be so completely mixed up with the heathen nations amongst whom they are to be dispersed, and so utterly incorporated amongst them, that they will disappear, and have no separate existence. This is the sense of this peculiar phrase in Numbers 13:32; Ezekiel 36:13.WHEDON. “ 38. Ye shall perish among the heathen — Says Josephus, in Wars of the Jews: “The number of those that were carried captive during this whole war was ninety-seven thousand, and the number that perished during the whole siege one million one hundred thousand, the greater part of whom were, indeed, of the same nation with the citizens of Jerusalem, but not belonging to the city itself; for they were come up from all the country to the feast of unleavened bread and were on a sudden shut up by an army.” So many were led away into captivity that the slave markets of the world were glutted, and, in exact accordance with prophecy, there was no man to buy them. Deuteronomy 28:68.PETT, “Leviticus 26:38“And you shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.”For they will perish among the nations, and the land to which they have gone will eat them up. This was the fate that was to come on the expelled Canaanites (Exodus 23:28; Exodus 33:2; Exodus 34:11; Numbers 33:52; Deuteronomy 4:38; Deuteronomy 9:3-5; Deuteronomy 11:23; Deuteronomy 18:12), and if they behaved like the Canaanites it would come on them too. Compare also Numbers 13:32. What they had feared will actually happen.

39 Those of you who are left will waste away in the lands of their enemies because of their sins; also because of their ancestors’ sins they will waste away.

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BARNES, "Lev_26:39Iniquity - The meaning here is, in the punishment of their iniquity, and, in the next clause, in the punishment of the iniquity (as in Lev_26:41, Lev_26:43) of their fathers. In the next verse the same Hebrew word is properly represented by “iniquity.” Our translators have in several places put one of the English words in the text and the other in the margin (Gen_4:13; Gen_19:15; 2Ki_7:9; Psa_69:27, etc.). The language of Scripture does not make that trenchant division between sin and punishment which we are accustomed to do. Sin is its own punishment, having in itself, from its very commencement, the germ of death. “Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death” Jam_1:15; Rom_2:5; Rom_5:12.

GILL, "And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands,.... Such as were not taken off by any public calamity, as the sword or pestilence should gradually diminish and melt away like wax before the fire, and die in and for their iniquities in an enemy's country, see Eze_24:23, and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them; or for the iniquities of their evil fathers, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan; they treading in their steps, and doing the same evil deeds, whereby they filled up the measure of their fathers' sins, and brought upon them deserved punishment. Mat_23:32.

K&D, "But those who still remained under this oppression would pine away in their iniquities (ימקו, lit., to rot, moulder away), and “also in the iniquities of their fathers with them.” אתם refers to ת נ which are with them,” which they carry with them and“ ,עmust atone for (see at Exo_20:5),CALVIN, "39.And they that are left of you. This is another form of vengeance, that, although they may survive for a time, still they shall gradually pine away; and this may be referred both to those who go into captivity, and to those who shall remain in the land. He had before threatened that they should be destroyed either by famine or sword; but now lest they should boast that they had escaped, if they had not perished by a violent death, He pronounces that they also should die a lingering death; and He also declares the manner of it, viz., that He will fill their hearts with trembling, so that they should fly when none pursued them, (as Solomon also says, Proverbs 28:1,) and fear at the sound of a falling leaf. Thus He signifies that the ungodly shall be no better off, although free from external troubles, because they are afflicted internally by hidden torments; for although their audacity may proceed even to madness, still it cannot be but that their evil conscience should smite them continually. Their forgetfulness of God may sometimes stupify them; nay, they may seek to shake off all feeling; but, after God has suffered them thus to become

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brutalized, He presently interrupts their lethargy, and hurries them on so that they are their own executioners. This passage shews us that, the more strait-hearted the wicked are in their contempt of God, the weaker they become, so as to tremble at their own shadow; and this condition is far more wretched than to be cut off at a single blow. ELLICOTT, “Verse 39(39) And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity.—Better, But those that remain of you shall pine away because of their iniquity, that is, those who will survive the terrible doom described under the five warnings, will pine away with grief, reflecting upon their sins which have brought upon them these tribulations.And also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.—Better, and also on account of the iniquity of their fathers with them shall they pine away, that is, they shall pine away on account of their ancestral sins, which they repeat and reproduce. Hence the ancient Chaldee Versions render it, “And also on account of the evil sins of their fathers, which they hold fast in their hands, shall they pine away.” It may, however, also be rendered, “And also on account of the iniquities of their fathers which are with them;” that is, which they must bear and expiate. (See Exodus 20:5.)TRAPP, “Leviticus 26:39 And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.Ver. 39. Shall pine away in their iniquity,] i.e., saith Diodate, Forsake their hardness of heart, and humble themselves with tears and repentance. But I rather adhere to those who take the words for a dreadful threatening worse than all the rest, viz., that after all their losses, captivities, &c., they that were left should swelter and pine away in their iniquities, as if nothing could awake them.PETT, “Verses 39-46But Repentance Will Bring Mercy. God’s Mercy Is Unfailing (Leviticus 26:39-46).Compare here Deuteronomy 30:1-6. God’s judgments are in the earth that men might learn righteousness (Isaiah 26:9) His mercy is always thus open to those who repent (compare especially Jonah 3:1-10).Leviticus 26:39-41 a“And those who are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them. And they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass

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which they trespassed against me, and also that, because they walked contrary unto me, I also walked contrary unto them, and brought them into the land of their enemies.”Once the shock of the destruction of their country and exile has taken hold of them, they will come to their senses and recognise what they have done. They will pine away because of their sin and the sin of their fathers. They will admit their sin and their guilt, and the ways in which they have disobeyed His laws, and have walked in the opposite way to that in which He wanted them to go. For they will recognise that this is what has made God walk contrary to them, which has resulted in their being in the land of their enemies. See for example Psalms 137 and the book of Lamentations.

40 “‘But if they will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors—their unfaithfulness and their hostility toward me,

BARNES, "Lev_26:40trespass - The Hebrew word signifies an injury inflicted on the rights of a person, as distinguished from a sin or iniquity regarded as an outrage of the divine law. Every wrong act is of course both a sin and a trespass against God. In this place Yahweh takes the breach of the covenant as a personal trespass.

GILL, "If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers,.... The Targum of Jonathan adds,"in the time of their distress;''which might serve to bring their sins to remembrance, and them to a confession of them, not only of their own sins, but of their fathers' also; acknowledging thereby that they had been guilty of sinning against God for a long course of years past; and that God had been long suffering towards them, and bore much with them before he brought his judgments on them, which were just, and what they righteously deserved; and such a confession Daniel made, Dan_9:4; and the words may as well be rendered absolute as conditional, or better, and as a prediction of what would be done by them when in captivity and distress, "and they shall confess their iniquity" (c); with shame and sorrow, with repentance for it, and abhorrence of it; or otherwise, if the confession was only verbal and hypocritical, it would not be acceptable: with their trespass which they trespassed against me; along with their own iniquities, and those of their fathers, they should confess, their trespass against the Lord

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would be acknowledged by them; which seems to design some particular and grievous sin committed by them, by which perhaps is meant their idolatry, a capital sin, directly against God, and what those people were prone unto: and that also they have walked contrary unto me; to his mind and will, to his laws, commands, statutes, and ordinances, disregarding him and them, as if enemies to him; or "by chance"; See Gill on Lev_26:21.

HENRY 40-46, “Here the chapter concludes with gracious promises of the return of God's favour to them upon their repentance, that they might not (unless it were their own fault) pine away in their iniquity. Behold, with wonder, the riches of God's mercy to a people that had obstinately stood it out against the judgments of God, and would never think of surrendering till they were reduced to the last extremity. Yet turn to strong-hold, you prisoners of hope, Zec_9:12. As bad as things are, they may be mended. Yet there is hope in Israel. Observe,

I. How the repentance which would qualify them for this mercy is described, Lev_26:40, Lev_26:41. The instances of it are three: - 1. Confession, by which they must give glory to God, and take shame to themselves. There must be a confession of sin, their own and their fathers', which they must lament the guilt of because they feel the smart of it; that thus they may cut off the entail of wrath. They must in their confession put sin under its worst character, as walking contrary to God; this is the sinfulness of sin, the worst thing in it, and which in our repentance we should especially bewail. There must also be a confession of wrath; they must overlook the instruments of their trouble and the second causes, and confess that God has walked contrary to them, and so dealt with them according to their sins. Such a confession as this we find made by Daniel just before the dawning of the day of their deliverance (ch. 9), and the like, Ezr_9:1-15 and Neh_9:2. Remorse and godly sorrow for sin: If their uncircumcised heart be humbled.An impenitent, unbelieving, unhumbled heart, is called an uncircumcised heart, the heart of a Gentile that is a stranger to God, rather than the heart of an Israelite in covenant with him. True circumcision is of the heart (Rom_2:29), without which the circumcision of the flesh avails nothing, Jer_9:26. Now in repentance this uncircumcised heart was humbled, that is, it was truly broken and contrite for sin. Note, A humble heart under humbling providences prepares for deliverance and true comfort. 3. Submission to the justice of God in all his dealings; if they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity (Lev_26:41 and again Lev_26:43), that is, if they justify God and condemn themselves, patiently bear the punishment as that which they have well deserved, and carefully answer the ends o it as that which God has well designed, accept it as a kindness, take it as physic, and improve it, then they are penitents indeed.II. How the mercy which they should obtain upon their repentance is described. 1. They should not be abandoned: Though they have despised my judgments, yet, for all that, I will not cast them away, Lev_26:43, Lev_26:44. He speaks as a tender Father that cannot find in his heart to disinherit a son that has been very provoking. How shall I do it? Hos_11:8, Hos_11:9. Till he had laid the foundations of a church for himself in the Gentile world, the Jewish church was not quite forsaken, nor cast away. 2. They should be remembered: I will remember the land with favour, which is grounded upon the promise before, I will remember my covenant (Lev_26:42), which is repeated, Lev_26:45. God is said to remember the covenant when he performs the promises of it, purely for his faithfulness' sake; not because there is any thing in us to recommend us to

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his favour, but because he will be as good as his word. This is the church's plea. Psa_74:20, Have respect unto the covenant. He will remember the constitution of the covenant, which is such as leaves room for repentance, and promises pardon upon repentance; and the Mediator of the covenant, who was promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and was sent, when the fulness of time came, in remembrance of that holy covenant. The word covenant is thrice repeated, to intimate that God is ever mindful of it and would have us to be so. The persons also with whom the covenant was made are mentioned in an unusual manner, per modum ascensus - in the ascending line,beginning with Jacob, to lead them gradually to the most ancient promise, which was made to the father of the faithful: thus (Mic_7:20) he is said to perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham. He will for their sakes (Lev_26:45), not their merit's sake, but their benefit's sake, remember the covenant of their ancestors, and upon that score show kindness to them, though most unworthy; they are therefore said to be, as touching the election, beloved for the fathers' sake, Rom_11:28. Note, When those that have walked contrary to God in a way of sin return to him by sincere repentance, though he has walked contrary to them in a way of judgment he will return to them in a way of special mercy, pursuant to the covenant of redemption and grace. None are so ready to repent as God is to forgive upon repentance, through Christ, who is given for a covenant.Lastly, These are said to be the laws which the Lord made between him and the children of Israel, Lev_26:46. His communion with his church is kept up by his law. He manifests not only his dominion over them, but his favour to them, by giving them his law; and they manifest not only their holy fear, but their holy love, by the observance of it; and thus it is made between them, rather as a covenant than a law; for he draws with the cords of a man.

JAMISON 40-45, “If they shall confess their iniquity, etc. — This passage holds out the gracious promise of divine forgiveness and favor on their repentance, and their happy restoration to their land, in memory of the covenant made with their fathers (Rom_2:1-29).

K&D 40-43, “In this state of pining away under their enemies, they would confess to themselves their own and their fathers' sins, i.e., would make the discovery that their sufferings were a punishment from God for their sins, and acknowledge that they were suffering what they had deserved, through their unfaithfulness to their God and rebellion against Him, for which He had been obliged to set Himself in hostility to them, and bring them into the land of their enemies; or rather their uncircumcised hearts would then humble themselves, and they would look with satisfaction upon this fruit of their sin. The construction is the following: וזכרתי (Lev_26:42) corresponds to התודו(Lev_26:40) as the apodosis; so that, according to the more strictly logical connection, which is customary in our language, we may unite Lev_26:40, Lev_26:41 in one period with Lev_26:42. “If they shall confess their iniquity...or rather their uncircumcised heart shall humble itself...I will remember My covenant.” With במעלם a parenthetical clause is introduced into the main sentence explanatory of the iniquity, and reaches as far as “into the land of their enemies.” With יכנע ־אז or if, etc.,” the main sentence is“ ,אresumed. א, “or rather” (as in 1Sa_29:3), bringing out the humiliation of the heart as

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the most important result to which the confession of sin ought to deepen itself. The heart is called “uncircumcised” as being unsanctified, and not susceptible to the manifestations of divine grace. נם את־ע בעי לבספב  עב פ ףןץףיח הןךץ ו ירצו

םש פץ ב (lxx), they will take pleasure, rejoice in their misdeeds, i.e., in the consequences and results of them-that their misdeed have so deeply humbled them, and brought them to the knowledge of the corruption into which they have fallen: a bold and, so to speak, paradoxical expression for their complete change of heart, which we may render thus: “they will enjoy their misdeeds,” as רצה may be rendered in the same way in Lev_26:43 also.

(Note: Luther has translated ן ע in this sense, “punishment of iniquity,” and observes in the marginal notes, - “(Pleasure), i.e., just as they had pleasure in their sins and felt disgust at My laws, so they would now take pleasure in their punishment and say, 'We have just what we deserve. This is what we have to thank our cursed sin for. It is just, O God, quite just.' And these are thoughts and words of earnest repentance, hating itself from the bottom of the heart, and crying out, Shame upon me, what have I done? This pleases God, so that He becomes gracious once more.”)

But where punishment bears such fruit, God looks upon the sinner with favour again. When Israel had gone so far, He would remember His covenant with the fathers (“My covenant with Jacob,” יעקב the suffix is attached to the governing noun, as in :בריתיLev_6:3, because the noun governed, being a proper name, could not take the suffix), and remember the land (including its inhabitants), which, as is repeated again in Lev_26:43, would be left by them (become desolate) and enjoy its Sabbaths whilst it was waste (depopulated) from (i.e., away from, without) them; and they would enjoy their iniquity, because they had despised the judgments of the Lord, and their soul had rejected His statues.

CALVIN, "40.If they shall confess their iniquity. Although Moses has been discoursing of very severe and cruel punishments, still he declares that even in the midst of this awful severity God is to be appeased if only the people should repent, notwithstanding that they may have stripped themselves of all hope of pardon by their long-continued sins. For he does not address sinners in general, but those who by their obstinacy and brutal impetuosity have come nearer and nearer to the vengeance of God; and even these he encourages to a good hope, if only they be converted from their hearts. Let us be assured, then, that God’s mercy is offered to the worst of men, who have been plunged by their guilt in the depths of despair, as though it reached even to hell itself. Whence, too, it follows, that all punishments are like spurs to rouse the inert and hesitating to repentance, whilst the sorer plagues are intended to break their hard hearts. Yet at the same time it must be observed that this favor is vouchsafed by special privilege to the Church of God; for Moses soon afterwards expressly assigns its cause, i e. , that God will remember His covenant. Whence it is plain that God, out of regard to His gratuitous adoption, will be gracious to the unworthy whom He has elected; and whence also it comes to pass, that, provided we do not close the gate of hope against ourselves, God will still voluntarily come forward to reconcile us to Himself, if only we lay hold of the

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covenant from which we have fallen by our own guilt, like ship-wrecked sailors seizing a plank to carry them safe into port. But it will be well for us earnestly to examine the fruits of repentance which Moses here enumerates. In the first place stands confession, not such as is exacted under the Papacy, that wretched men should unburden themselves in the ear of a priest (sacrifici,) as if secretly disgorging their sins, but whereby they acknowledge themselves to be guilty before God. This confession stands contrasted both with the noisy complaints, and the subterfuges and evasions of the wicked. A memorable instance of it occurs in the case of David, who, when overwhelmed by the reproof of the Prophet Nathan, ingenuously confesses that he has sinned against God. (2 Samuel 12:13.) By the word “fathers” He magnifies the greatness of their sins, because for a long space of time they had not ceased to add sin to sin, as if the fathers had conspired with their children, and the children with their own descendants; and, since God is a just avenger even to the third and fourth generation, it is not without reason that posterity is commanded humbly to pray that God would pardon the guilt contracted long ago. Hence also it is plainly seen how little the imitation of their fathers will avail to extenuate the faults of the children, since we perceive that it renders them less excusable, so far is God from admitting this silly plea. It is further added, that their confession should correspond with the greatness of their transgressions, and that it should not be trifling and perfunctory; for although hypocrites, when convicted, do not deny that they have sinned, still in confessing they extenuate their guilt, as if they were only guilty of venial offenses. God, therefore, would have the circumstances of their sins taken into account, and this also He prescribes with respect to their obstinacy, lest they should pretend that their punishments were not deservedly redoubled, because they had walked (233) at adventures with God.Finally, in order to prove the reality of their conversion, all dissembling is excluded by the humbling of their hearts; for it is as if God would reject their prayers, until in sincere and heart-felt humility they should seek for pardon. This humiliation is contrasted with security as well as with contumacy and pride; and it is also compared with circumcision, where the heart is called uncircumcised before it is subdued and reduced to obedience. For, whereas circumcision was a mark of distinction between the people of God and heathen nations, it must needs have been also a sign of regeneration. (234) But since the Jews neglected the truth, and foolishly and improperly gloried only in the outward symbol, Moses, by reproving the uncircumcision of their hearts, refutes that empty boast. Thus, as Paul testifies, unless the Law be obeyed, literal circumcision is useless, and is made into uncircumcision. (Romans 2:25.) So Moses accuses the Israelites of unfaithfulness, because they profess to be God’s holy people, whilst they cherish filthiness and uncleanness in their heart. The Prophets also often reproach them with being uncircumcised in heart, or in ears; and in this Stephen followed them. (Jeremiah 6:10; Ezekiel 44:7; Acts 7:51.)Others elicit a very different meaning from the words (235) which we have translated, “let them atone ( propitient) for their iniquity.” The noun used is עון, gnevon, which means both iniquity and punishment; and the verb רצה, ratzah,

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which is to expiate, or to esteem grateful, or to appease. Some, therefore, explain it, they shall bear their punishment patiently, or esteem it pleasant; but it appears to me that Moses connects with repentance the desire of appeasing God, without which men are never really dissatisfied with themselves, or renounce their sins; and his allusion is to the sacrifices and legal ablutions, whereby they reconciled themselves to God. The sum is, that when they shall seriously endeavor to return to God’s favor, He will be propitiated towards them on account of His covenant.COFFMAN, “Verse 40"And they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass which they trespassed against me, and also that, because they walked contrary unto me, I also walked contrary unto them, and brought them into the land of their enemies: if then their uncircumcised heart be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity; then will I remember my covenant with Jacob; and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land. The land also shall be left by them, and shall enjoy its sabbaths, while it layeth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity; because, even because they rejected mine ordinances, and their soul abhorred my statutes. And yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them; for I am Jehovah their God; but I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am Jehovah."Of all the inappropriate places for scholars to introduce speculations regarding a "millennium" in which the preference and precedence of the old Israel is a major factor, this must be the supreme example. Yes indeed, God here promised not to destroy the Jews "utterly," but the promise of His remembering the covenant of their ancestors was made to be contingent, absolutely, upon their confession and acknowledgement of God's severe punishment as justly required because of their transgressions, and upon their return in humility to the duties forsaken."Whether Jewish repentance has been or ever will be so full as to obtain this blessing cannot be decided now."[32] The Divine picture of the status of Jewry is found in both the O.T. and the N.T. In the O.T., it is that of Jonah, still pouting, still angry because God spared Gentiles, and still resisting the intention of God to spare Nineveh. In the N.T., the picture is the same - that of the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son, still angry, still refusing to go in unto the feast, still adamant before the loving father's pleading. The whole problem is still an issue that only time and the unfolding of God's will can reveal.In this connection, there is also the very great possibility, even the utmost likelihood, that, "All of the blessings promised through Moses and the prophets to repentant and restored Israel find their full accomplishment in the Spiritual Israel,"[33] which

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is the Church of Jesus Christ, the only Israel that God now has.ELLICOTT, “Verse 40(40) If they shall confess their iniquity.—Better, And they shall confess, that is, when their sufferings have reached this terrible point, the Israelites will realise and confess their iniquities and those of their fathers who have perished in these terrible punishments, on account of their sins, and who are no longer alive to confess their sins themselves. The whole description is present to the Lawgiver’s mind; hence the different degrees of the sins, the various stages of the sufferings, and the ultimate penitence of the people are described as passing before our eyes, as if exhibited in a kaleidoscope.With their trespass which they trespassed against me.—Better, because of their trespass that they have, &c., as this phrase is rendered in the Authorised Version in Daniel 9:7.EBC, “THE PROMISED RESTORATIONLeviticus 26:40-45"And they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass which they trespassed against Me, and also that because they have walked contrary unto Me, I also walked contrary unto them, and brought them into the land of their enemies: if then their uncircumcised heart be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity; then will I remember My covenant with Jacob; and also My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land. The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them; and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they rejected My judgments, and their soul abhorred My statutes. And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly. and to break My covenant with them: for I am the Lord their God: but I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the Lord."This closing section of this extraordinary chapter yet remains to be considered. It is the most remarkable of all, whether from a historical or a religious point of view. It declares that even under so extreme visitations of Divine wrath, and howsoever long Israel’s stubborn rebellion and impenitence should continue, yet the nation should never become extinct and pass away. Very impressive are the words (Leviticus 26:43-45) which emphasise this prediction: "The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them; and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they rejected My judgments, and their soul abhorred My statutes. And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break My covenant with them: for I am the Lord their

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God: but I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the Lord."As to what is included in this promise of everlasting covenant mercy, we are told explicitly (Leviticus 26:40) that as the final result of these repeated and long-continued judgments, the children of Israel "shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass which they trespassed" against the Lord. Also they will acknowledge (Leviticus 26:41) that all these calamities have been sent upon them by the Lord; that it is because they have walked contrary unto Him that He has also walked contrary unto them, and brought them into the land of their enemies. And then follows the great promise (Leviticus 26:41-42): "If then their uncircumcised heart be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity; then will I remember My covenant with Jacob; and also My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land."These words are very full and explicit. That they have had already a partial and inadequate fulfilment in the restoration from Babylon, and the spiritual quickening by which it was accompanied, is not to be denied. But one only needs to refer to the covenants to which reference is made, and especially the covenant with Abraham, as recorded in the book of Genesis, to see that by no possibility can that Babylonian reatoration be said to have exhausted this prophecy. Since those earlier days Israel has again forsaken the Lord, and committed the greatest of all their national sins in the rejection and crucifixion of the promised Messiah; and therefore, again, according to the threat of the earlier part of this chapter, they have been cast out of their land and scattered among the nations, and the land, again, for centuries has been left a desolation. But for all this, God’s covenant with Israel has not lapsed, nor, as we are here formally assured, can it ever lapse. To imagine, with some, that because of the new dispensation of grace to the Gentiles which has come in, therefore the promises of this covenant have become void, is a mistake which is fatal to all right understanding of the prophetic word. As for the spiritual blessing of true repentance and a national turning unto God, Zechariah, after the Babylonian captivity, represents the prediction as yet to have a larger and far more blessed fulfilment, in a day which, beyond all controversy, has never yet risen on the world. For it is written: {Zechariah 12:8-14, Zechariah 13:1} "In that day I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they shall look unto Me whom they have pierced: and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn; all the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart. In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness." And that this great promise, which implies by its very terms the previous "piercing" of the Messiah, is still valid for the nation in the new dispensation, is expressly testified by the Apostle Paul, who formally teaches, with regard to Israel, that "God did not cast off His people which He foreknew"; that "the gifts and calling of God

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are without repentance"; and that therefore the days are surely coming when "all Israel shall be saved". {Romans 11:2; Romans 11:29; Romans 11:26}And while nothing is said in this chapter of Leviticus as to the relation of this future repentance of Israel to the establishment of the kingdom of God, we only speak according to the express teaching both of the later prophets and of the apostles, when we add that we are not to think of this covenant of God concerning Israel as of little consequence to our faith and hope as Christians. For we are plainly taught, with regard to the present exclusion and impenitence of Israel, {Romans 11:15} that "the receiving of them" again shall be as "life from the dead"; which, again, is only what long before had been declared in the Old Testament; {Psalms 102:13-16} that when God shall arise and have mercy upon Zion, and the set time to have pity upon her shall come, the nations shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth His glory.And while we may grant that the matter is in itself of less moment, it is yet of importance to observe that the very covenant which promises spiritual mercy to the people, as explicitly assures us (ver. 42) that, when Israel confesses its sin, God "will remember the land" as well as the people. All that has been said for the present and unchangeable validity of the former part of this promise, is of necessity true for this latter part also. To affirm the former, and on that ground maintain the faith and expectation of the future repentance of Israel, and yet deny the latter part of this promise, which is no less verbally explicit, regarding the land of Israel, is an inconsistency of interpretation which is as astonishing as it is common. For the restoration of the scattered nation to their land is repeatedly promised, as here, in connection with, and yet in clear distinction from, their conversion, by both the pre-and post-exilian prophets. And if, for reasons not hard to discover, the promise concerning the land is not in so many words repeated in the New Testament. its future fulfilment is yet, to say the least, distinctly assumed in the prediction of Christ, {Luke 21:24} that Israel, because of their rejection of Him, should be "led captive into all the nations, and Jerusalem be trodden down of the Gentiles,"-not forever, but only-"until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." Surely these words of our Lord imply that, whenever these "times of the Gentiles" shall have run their course, their present domination over the Holy City and the Holy Land shall end.Nor is such a restoration of Israel to their land, with all that it implies, inconsistent, as some have urged, with the spirit and principles of the Gospel. Many a Gentile nation is greatly favoured of the Lord, and, as one mark of that favour, is permitted to abide in peace and prosperity in their own land. Why should it be any more alien to the spirit of the Gospel that penitent Israel should be blessed in like manner, and, upon their turning unto the Lord, also, like many other nations, be permitted to dwell in peace and safety in that land which lies almost empty and desolate for them until this day? And if it be urged that, admitting this interpretation, we shall also be obliged to admit that Israel is in the future to be exalted to a position of preeminence among the nations, which, again, is inconsistent, it is said, with the principles of the Gospel dispensation, we must again deny this last assertion, and for a similar

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reason. If not inconsistent with the Gospel that the British nation, for example, should today hold a position of exceptional eminence and world wide influence among the nations, how can it be inconsistent with the Gospel that Israel, when repentant before God, should be in like manner exalted of Him to national eminence and glory?While in itself this question may be of little consequence, yet in another aspect it is of no small moment that we steadfastly affirm the permanent validity of this part of the promise of the covenant with Israel as given in this chapter. For it is not too much to say that the logic and the exegesis which make the promise to have become void with regard to Israel’s land, if accepted, would equally justify one in affirming the abrogation of the promise of Israel’s final repentance, if the exigencies of any eschatological theory should seem to require it. Either both parts of this promise in Leviticus 26:42 are still valid, or neither is now valid; and if either is still in force, the other is in force also. These two, the promise concerning the people, and the promise concerning the land, stand or fall together.WHEDON, “ MERCY AFTER JUDGMENTS — ISRAEL NOT UTTERLY DESTROYED, Leviticus 26:40-46.40. If they shall confess — Confession implies conviction of sin and sincere repentance. David said, “I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.”And the iniquity of their fathers — So far as they had endorsed the iniquity of their fathers, by approving and imitating it, they were in a modified sense guilty. Thus must we reprint not only of our actual sins but abhor their source, the poison stung into our nature by the transgression of our first parents. By so doing we obtain, through faith in Jesus Christ, not only justification from our personal sins, but the still greater blessing of entire sanctification from that corrupt state of heart which is technically called sin.PULPIT, “Leviticus 26:40-45God's pardon will, even yet, as always, follow upon confession of sin and genuine repentance. They must recognize not only that they have sinned, but that their sufferings have been a punishment for those sins at God's hand. This will work in them humble acquiescence in God's doings, and then he will remember his covenant with Jacob, and also his covenant with Isaac, and also his covenant with Abraham, and for the sake of the covenant of their ancestors, he will not east them away, neither will he abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break his covenant with them. Whether Jewish repentance has been or ever will be so full as to obtain this blessing, cannot be decided now. Perhaps it may be the case that all the blessings promised by Moses and by future prophets to repentant and restored Israel are to find their accomplishment in the spiritual Israel, the children of Abraham who is "the father of all them that believe" (Romans 4:11), seeing that "God is able of

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stones to raise up children unto Abraham" (Matthew 3:9).Leviticus 26:46This is the closing paragraph of the Book of Leviticus; to which another chapter has been added, in the form of an appendix, on the subject of vows.

41 which made me hostile toward them so that I sent them into the land of their enemies—then when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin,

BARNES, "Lev_26:41Uncircumcised hearts - The outward sign of the covenant might be preserved, but the answering grace in the heart would be wanting (Act_7:51; Rom_2:28-29; Jer_6:10; Jer_9:26; compare Col_2:11).Accept of the punishment of their iniquity - literally, enjoy their iniquity. The word here and in Lev_26:43 rendered “accept” in this phrase, is the same as is rendered “enjoy” in the expression “the land shall enjoy her sabbaths” Lev_26:34. The antithesis in Lev_26:43 is this: The land shall enjoy her sabbaths - and they shall enjoy the punishment of their iniquity. The meaning is, that the land being desolate shall have the blessing of rest, and they having repented shall have the blessing of chastisement. The feelings of a devout captive Israelite are beautifully expressed in Tobit 13:1-18.

GILL, "And that I also have walked contrary unto them,.... Showed no regard unto them, as if he took no care of them, or in a providential way concerned himself for them, but let what would befall them; yea, came out in the way of his judgments against them, as if he was an enemy to them; see Gill on Lev_26:24, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; should acknowledge the hand of God in it, that he himself brought them out of their own country into an enemy's land, as Assyria, Babylon, and other nations: and that this was not the chance of war, or owing to the superior power or skill of their enemies, but to the just judgment of God upon them for their sins, who on that account delivered them up into the hands of their enemies:

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if then their uncircumcised heart be humbled; their foolish proud heart, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan; it signifies a sinful, wicked, hard, and impenitent heart, brought to a sense of sin, to repentance and humiliation for it. Jarchi interprets it, "or if their uncircumcised heart", &c. as in Exo_2:23; and observes another sense of the word, "perhaps their uncircumcised heart", &c. not only would in words confess their sins, but be truly humbled at heart for them: and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity; take it well at the hand of God, bear it patiently without murmuring, or thinking themselves hardly dealt by, but freely owning it is less than their iniquities deserve; or complete and finish the punishment of their sins, as Aben Ezra, which upon their humiliation should be put an end to, and cease. Jarchi takes the word in the sense of atonement and pacification, as if by their chastisement their sins were expiated (d), and God was pacified toward them: but rather it denotes the free and full pardon of their sins, manifested to them upon their repentance and humiliation for sin. ELLICOTT, “Verse 41(41) And that I also have walked contrary unto them.—That is, and they shall also confess that through their walking contrary unto God, He also walked contrary unto them, and brought them into the land of their enemies.If then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled.—Better, or rather, their uncircumcised hearts shall be humbled. This is a resumption of the statement made at the beginning of Leviticus 26:40, viz., “And they shall confess their iniquity . . . ;” or rather, their uncircumcised hearts shall be humbled. That is, perverse and stubborn hearts; too proud to make an humble confession. (See Leviticus 19:23, with Jeremiah 9:26.) The same metaphor is used by the Apostle: “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost” (Acts 7:51).Accept of the punishment of their iniquity.—Rather, accept willingly, that is, they will acknowledge the justice of their punishment, and be in that frame of mind when they will freely own that the punishment is not commensurate with their guilt, and willingly accept the Divine retribution. The exact shade of meaning covered by this phrase in the original cannot adequately be given in a translation, since the verb here translated “accept,” or “accept willingly,” is the same which is translated “enjoy” in Leviticus 26:34. The whole phrase denotes literally, they shall rejoice in their iniquity, or in the punishment of their iniquity; they will take it joyfully, as the best and most appropriate means to bring them to repentance. The nearest approach to it is the passage, “I will bear the indignation of the Lord, for I have sinned against him” (Micah 7:9).TRAPP, “Leviticus 26:41 And [that] I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity:

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Ver. 41. Accept of the punishment of their iniquity.] Taking all in good part, as less than their deserts; yea, taking God’s part against themselves, humbly submitting to his justice, and imploring his mercy.WHEDON, “ 41. And that… I have brought — Their captivity should be ascribed not merely to natural causes, after the style of the modern deist, but to the direct interposition of the personal God whose law had been broken.Uncircumcised hearts — Circumcision — “the putting away the filthiness of the flesh” — symbolizes the cleansing of the spiritual being through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. Romans 2:29, note. Till this is accomplished, the people of God are uncircumcised in heart, and are very often in humiliating captivity to the world. For the entire Hebrew nation was in a true and vastly important sense a typical people, whose history is full of spiritual lessons to the Christian Church.Accept of the punishment — Recognise its justice and their own ill desert. The Hebrew verb ratsah is here used figuratively, and signifies to pay off, as a debt, and not, as Drs. Keil and Murphy render it, to enjoy.PETT, “Leviticus 26:41-42 (41b-42)“If then their uncircumcised heart be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity, then will I remember my covenant with Jacob; and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.”Then everything will depend on their response. The uncircumcised heart is one that has not responded to the act of circumcision by genuine covenant obedience. Being outwardly circumcised, God is saying, is of no use unless the heart is circumcised as well. For circumcision to mean anything it must be revealed in the direction which their hearts take. A circumcised heart is one that loves God and His covenant, and reveals it by obedience. Compare Deuteronomy 10:16; Deuteronomy 30:6; Jeremiah 4:4; Jeremiah 9:26; Ezekiel 44:7; Ezekiel 44:9; Acts 7:51). Just as a circumcised ear is one that hears and obeys (Jeremiah 6:10).In the New Testament this is where the emphasis is laid. He is a true man of God who is circumcised in the heart (Romans 2:26-29), for the true Christian has been circumcised with the circumcision made without hands by the putting off of the body of flesh by the circumcision of Christ (Colossians 2:11). By partaking with Him in His death we partake in all that He is and in the significance of His circumcision. What matters in Christ is not circumcision, or uncircumcision, but a new creature (Galatians 6:15),a revealing of faith that works by love (Galatians 5:6). Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, what matters is the response of the heart, keeping of the commandments of God (1 Corinthians 7:19).

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So if in their need the circumcised of Israel recognise that in God’s eyes they are really uncircumcised, because their circumcision has not reached their hearts, and will circumcise the foreskins of their hearts and not those of their flesh (Deuteronomy 10:16; Jeremiah 4:4) by true repentance and faith, then God will remember His covenant, the covenant He made with Jacob, and the one He made with Isaac and Abraham. Then He will remember the land. God’s response is limited to those whose hearts are genuine, and who reveal it by love and obedience. In returning and in rest they will be saved. In quietness and confidence will be their strength (Isaiah 30:15). And one evidence of this will be their patient waiting in the land to which God has sent them until their time of chastening is over.For we need to recognise the important lesson that while God forgives immediately, very often the consequences of our sins go on. We cannot call back what we have done.

42 I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.

GILL, "Then i will also remember my covenant with Jacob,.... Would fulfil and make good all that he had promised in covenant with Jacob, and his posterity: the account begins with him, and rises upwards to Abraham, whereas it usually begins with Abraham, and descends to Jacob; no sufficient reason is given for this alteration, though several are attempted by the Jewish writers (e): and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; which chiefly respects the multiplication of their seed, the continuance of them, and the Messiah springing from them; which is the mercy promised to these fathers, and the principal part of the covenant made with them, and which was remembered and performed when God visited and redeemed his people by him, Luk_1:68, and I will remember the land; the land of Judea, and return the Jews to it, and make it fruitful, after he had given it rest from tillage for many years, which was fulfilled at their return from the captivity of Babylon.

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ELLICOTT, “Verse 42(42) Then will I remember.—That is, perform the covenant God made. The expression “remember” frequently denotes “to be mindful,” “to perform,” especially when used with regard to God; as, for instance, “I have remembered my covenant,” &c. (Exodus 6:5-6); “He remembered for them his covenant” (Psalms 106:45).My covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham.—When thus brought to repentance, the Lord will perform towards them the covenant which He made with their ancestors, and in which He not only promised that the Israelites are to be a numerous people, but that they are to possess the land for ever (Exodus 32:13). From the fact that the expression “covenant” is here exceptionally repeated before the name of each patriarch, the authorities during the second Temple rightly concluded that it refers to three distinct covenants made respectively with the patriarchs. Hence the Chaldee Versions render it, “And I will remember in mercy the covenant which I covenanted with Jacob at Bethel [Genesis 35:9-15], and also the covenant which I covenanted with Isaac at Mount Moriah [Genesis 22], and the covenant which I covenanted with Abraham between the divided pieces [of the sacrifices (Genesis 15:18-21)].” The ancients also call attention to the fact that whilst in all other passages where the three patriarchs are mentioned together, the order is according to their seniority, viz., Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Genesis 1:24; Exodus 2:24; Exodus 6:8; Exodus 32:13; Deuteronomy 29:13; Deuteronomy 34:4; 2 Kings 13:23; Psalms 105:8-10; 1 Chronicles 16:16-17), this is the solitary instance where the regular order is inverted.WHEDON, “Verse 4242. Will I remember — Memory cannot be properly predicated of the Omniscient — one with whom there is no succession of thoughts and no past nor future. He will surely bring to pass that which he has promised in the covenant with the patriarchs. Strictly speaking, God’s covenant with Abraham respecting the greatness of his seed was quite unconditional, except circumcision, and it amounts to a promise or an act of mere favour. See Galatians 3:15-16, where επαγγελια, promise, and διαθηκη, covenant, are used as synonymes.

43 For the land will be deserted by them and will enjoy its sabbaths while it lies desolate without them. They will pay for their sins because they 143

rejected my laws and abhorred my decrees.

GILL, "The land also shall be left of them,.... This seems to refer to a second time, when this should be the case of the land of Judea again, as it was when subdued by the Romans, and the Jews were carried captive from it, and so it was left by them, as it has been ever since: and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while lieth desolate without them; shall be as in the sabbatical years, uncultivated, neither ploughed nor sown, nor reaped; and thus the land of Canaan, though once so very fruitful, is now desolate and barren, being without its former inhabitants, and so it is like to be until it is restored to them again: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity; that is, when made sensible of their sins, and particularly of their iniquity of rejecting the Messiah; they will not think it hard that they have been punished in so severe a manner, but own the righteous hand of God in it, and be humble under it; and confessing their sins with true sorrow and repentance for them, looking at him whom they have pierced, and mourn, shall have the free and full remission of their sins applied unto them: because, even, because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes; despised and abhorred Christ, his doctrines and ordinances, which was the reason of their being carried captive out of their land, when it was forsaken by them, and lay desolate as to this day, especially with respect to any benefit of it enjoyed by them; and which, when they are sensible of, will be a reason of their accepting the punishment of their iniquity so readily, and not murmur at the hand of God upon them, or reflect on his dealings with them, but freely and fully confess their sins, that he may be justified in all that he has done.CALVIN, "43.The land also shall be left of them. He again refers to the punishment of banishment, which is equivalent to their being disinherited; and at the same time repeats that the worship of God could not be restored in the Holy Land, until it should be purified from their defilements; yet immediately afterwards He moderates this severity, inasmuch as, when He seemed to deal with them most rigorously, He still will not utterly cast them off. The verbs He uses (236) are in the past tense, though they have reference to the future; as much as to say, even then “they shall feel that they are not rejected.” He therefore stretches out His hand to them, as it were, in their miserable estate, to uplift them to confidence, and commands them, although afflicted with the extremity of trouble, nevertheless to put their trust in His Covenant. Herein His marvelous and inestimable goodness is displayed, in still retaining as His own those who are alienated from Him: thus, it is said in Hosea, (Hosea 2:23,) “I will say to them that are not my people, Thou art my people.”When He promises that He will remember His covenant “for their sakes,” He does

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not mean for their merit, or because they have acquired such a favor for themselves; but for their profit or salvation, in that the recollection of the Covenant shall extend even to them. Their deliverance (from Egypt) is also added in confirmation of the Covenant, as though He had said that He would be the more disposed to forgive them, not only because He always perseveres in His faithfulness to His promises, but because He would maintain His goodness towards them, and carry it on even to the end. Thus we see He refers the cause of His mercy only to Himself.ELLICOTT, “Verse 43(43) The land also shall be left of them.—Better, but the land shall be deserted by them. The solemn warning is here reiterated, that before God will remember His covenant with the patriarchs, and also be mindful of the land, the land must be depopulated of its rebellious inhabitants, and enjoy the Sabbaths which have been denied to it. This verse, therefore which is substantially a repetition of Leviticus 26:33-34, seems to have been inserted here to deprecate more solemnly the heinousness of their sins.TRAPP, “Leviticus 26:43 The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes.Ver. 43. They shall accept,] q.d., I will give them to do what I require of them. See Leviticus 26:41. PETT, “Leviticus 26:43“The land also shall be left by them, and shall enjoy its sabbaths, while it lies desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity; because, even because they rejected my ordinances, and their soul abhorred my statutes.”So they would have to wait until the land had enjoyed the period of rest laid down by God. They would have to patiently accept the punishment of their iniquity, while their land remained in desolation. And this would be because they had rejected His ordinances and hated His requirements as expressed in His statutes.

44 Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them or abhor 145

them so as to destroy them completely, breaking my covenant with them. I am the Lord their God.

CLARKE, "Neither will I abhor them to destroy them utterly - Though God has literally fulfilled all his threatenings upon this people in dispossessing them of their land, destroying their polity, overturning their city, demolishing their temple, and scattering themselves over the face of the whole earth; yet he has, in his providence, strangely preserved them as a distinct people, and in very considerable numbers also. He still remembers the covenant of their ancestors, and in his providence and grace he has some very important design in their favor. All Israel shall yet be saved, and, with the Gentiles, they shall all be restored to his favor; and under Christ Jesus, the great Shepherd; become, with them, one grand everlasting fold.

GILL, "And yet for all that,.... I will have on them, in or through my Word, as the Targum of Jonathan; notwithstanding their many and great sins and transgressions, and the sad and miserable condition they were brought into by them, the Lord would have mercy on them and be gracious to them, through Christ and for his sake, and convert and save them, see Rom_11:26; the Jews, as Fagius tells us, wonderfully delight themselves with this passage, and read it with the greatest joy and pleasure, and with an elevated voice; concluding from hence that they shall certainly return to their own land; and because the first word in this verse is in sound the same as the Germans use for an "ape", they call this paragraph "the golden ape", and say, when this shall be fulfilled the golden age will take place with them: a very learned man (f) has wrote a dissertation upon it: when they shall be in the land of their enemies; of the Romans and other nations, among whom they have been disposed ever since the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus: I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly; for though they have been cast away by the Lord out of their land, and from being his people, and enjoying either the civil or religious privileges they formerly did; and though they have been cast off with abhorrence, and had in great detestation by him, for their sin of rejecting the Messiah, as appears by the punishment inflicted on them; yet not so as to make an utter end of them as a body of people, for, notwithstanding their dispersion everywhere, and their long captivity, they remain a distinct people from all others, which seems to forebode something favourable to them: and to break my covenant with them; which he will not do, even his promise of the future call and conversion of them, and of their return to their own land: for I am the Lord their God; their covenant God, and a covenant keeping God, Rom_11:27.

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K&D, "“And yet, even with regard to this, when they shall be in the land of their enemies, have I not despised them.” That is to say, if it shall have come even so far as that they are in the land of their enemies (the words גם־זאת stand first in an absolute sense, and are strengthened or intensified by ואף and more fully explained by תם בהי I have not rejected them, to destroy them and break My covenant with them. For I ,(וגוam Jehovah their God, who, as the absolutely existing and unchangeably faithful One, keeps His promises and does not repent of His calling (Rom_11:29).

ELLICOTT, “Verse 44(44) And yet for all that.—Better, And yet even so, that is, even if it be so that they remain exiles in foreign lands for a long time, this is no proof that God has finally cast them off, has given them over to destruction, and abrogated His covenant with them. He is always their God, and will keep His covenant for ever.WHEDON, “Verse 4444. Neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly — The purpose of Jehovah embraced the ultimate conversion to the Lord Jesus of that generation of Jews who should be on the earth when the fulness of the Gentiles has been brought to Christ. Towards this end the marvellous continuance of the Jews in their world-wide dispersion manifestly looks. See Luke 21:24; Romans 11:25-26, notes. After the fulness of the Gentiles has been brought into the kingdom of Christ, so strong will be the faith of the Church that an era of great spiritual illumination will come, in which the seed of Abraham will be as powerfully converted as was Saul of Tarsus.PETT, “Leviticus 26:44“And yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them; for I am Yahweh their God;”But of one thing they could be certain. He would not forget them for ever. While they had broken the covenant, He would not. He therefore would not totally reject them, or hate them, or destroy them utterly. He would not break His covenant with them. And this was because of Who He Is. He is Yahweh, the One Who will be what He wants to be, Who does what He wants to do, Who brings into being what He wants to bring into being.

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45 But for their sake I will remember the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am the Lord.’”

GILL, "But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors,.... Or rather, "remember to them" (g), to their good and benefit, for their profit and advantage, not for their desert and merit, for any worth or worthiness in them; this covenant respects not the covenant made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as in Lev_26:42; but with their fathers, either at Sinai, or rather in the plains of Moab, Deu_29:1, for it follows: whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the Heathen, that I might be their God; whom he brought out of great bondage and distress in Egypt, with an high hand and outstretched arm, and in the sight of the Egyptians, who were not able to oppose it, yea, because of their plagues, were urgent for it; and in the sight of all the nations round about, who heard of the wonderful power of God in the deliverance of his people; and this he did that he might appear to be their covenant God, who had taken them into covenant with him, and had taken them under his care and protection, and would be still their King and their God; and who also, in like manner, it may be here suggested, would deliver the people of the Jews out of their present exiled and captive state and condition in the sight of the whole world, and declare himself their covenant God and Father: I am the Lord; whose will is sovereign, whose power is uncontrollable, who is a covenant keeping God, faithful to his promises, and able to perform them.

K&D, "He would therefore remember the covenant with the forefathers, whom He had brought out of Egypt before the eyes of the nations, to be a God to them; and He would renew the covenant with the fathers to them (the descendants), to gather them again out of the heathen, and adopt them again as His nation (cf. Deu_30:3-5). In this way the judgment would eventually turn to a blessing, if they would bend in true repentance under the mighty hand of their God.

COKE, “Leviticus 26:45. But I will for their sakes remember the covenant, &c.— Houbigant renders this, Therefore will I remember my covenant of old with them, when——It might be rendered, nearer to the Hebrew, I will remember for or towards them: להם lahem, erga eos, in the Syriac and Arabic versions. This is one of those texts of Scripture from which the Jews derive great consolation, promising themselves from hence a sure deliverance from their national exile; insomuch, that

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they cannot forbear, expressing their joy by elevating their voice when this passage is read. And when they turn to that Lord of glory whom they crucified, this promise will have its full completion. ELLICOTT, “Verse 45(45) But I will for their sakes remember the covenant.—Better, And will remember unto them the covenant, that is, as their God He will execute to them the covenant which He made with their ancestors. This verse is therefore closely connected with the preceding verse.WHEDON, “ 45. The covenant of their ancestors included certain earthly blessings of a national character, the trusteeship of the oracles of God, the adoption as his first-born, the glory, and the promises. All spiritual blessings in Christ are theirs, also, on condition of accepting him as their Messiah, and special providential care over Israel till that time. This promise is now in process of fulfilment in a most marvellous manner. The Jews have existed as a nation without a country and without a king more than eighteen centuries, resisting absorption into the nations among which they have been scattered, and assimilation to their character and faith.PETT, “Leviticus 26:45“But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am Yahweh.”And so for their sakes He will remember the covenant He had made with their ancestors when He brought them forth from the land of Egypt in the sight of all the nations, revealing Himself as their God, as Yahweh. For His own name’s sake He will deliver them and restore them that all the world might know that He had the power to do so, and that He was faithful and true.And it is important to recognise that He did do so. He brought them back to the land and established them there. The opportunity was there for them once more to be His people. And He brought their Messiah and called on them to respond to Him, and those who responded became the true Israel, and as His ‘congregation’ the Church await His return. This promise is therefore already fulfilled. In His church all Israel is saved (Romans 11:26).

46 These are the decrees, the laws and the 149

regulations that the Lord established at Mount Sinai between himself and the Israelites through Moses.

CLARKE, "These are the statutes, and judgments, etc. - See on Lev_26:15(note). This verse appears to be the proper concluding verse of the whole book; and I rather think that the 27th chapter originally followed the 25th. As the law was anciently written upon skins of parchment, sheep or goat skins, pasted or stitched together, and all rolled up in one roll, the matter being written in columns, one of those columns might have been very easily displaced, and thus whole chapters might have been readily interchanged - It is likely that this might have been the case in the present instance. Others endeavor to solve this difficulty, by supposing that the 27th chapter was added after the book had been finished; and therefore there is apparently a double conclusion, one at the end of the 26th and the other at the end of the 27th chapter. However the above may have been, all the ancient versions agree in concluding both the chapters in nearly the same way; yet the 26th chapter must be allowed to be by far the most natural conclusion of the book. The most important points in this chapter have already been particularly noticed in the notes; and to those on the 15th, 34th, and 44th verses, the reader is especially referred. How unwilling is God to cast off his people! and yet how sure is their rejection if they refuse to obey and live to him! No nation has ever been so signally elected as the Jews; and yet no nation has ever been so signally and so awfully reprobated. O Britain, be not high-minded, but fear! Behold here the goodness and severity of God!

GILL, "These are the statutes, and judgments, and laws,.... Which refer not only to those in this chapter, but in all the preceding chapters in this book, and respect them all, whether ceremonial, moral, or judicial, which may be signified by these three words: which the Lord made between him and the children of Israel; the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan are,"between his Word and the children of Israel:" in Mount Sinai; or near it, in the wilderness of it, while the children of Israel lay encamped about it: by the hand of Moses; they were first delivered to him, and by means of him to the people.

JAMISON, "These are the statutes and judgments and laws — It has been thought by some that the last chapter was originally placed after the twenty-fifth [Adam Clarke], while others consider that the next chapter was added as an appendix, in

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consequence of many people being influenced by the promises and threats of the preceding one, to resolve that they would dedicate themselves and their possessions to the service of God [Calmet].

K&D, "Lev_26:46 contains the close of the entire book, or rather of the whole of the covenant legislation from Ex 25 onwards, although the expression “in Mount Sinai” points back primarily to Lev_25:1.

COFFMAN, “Verse 46"These are the statutes and ordinances and laws, which Jehovah made between him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by Moses."All scholars seem to agree that this concludes the narrative of all the Sinaitic laws which God gave through Moses. The next chapter appears to have the nature of an appendix. "This verse supplies a suitable conclusion for the main content of Leviticus. What we have in Leviticus 27 is by way of a short appendix on sacred gifts."[34]Only God could have been the author of the amazing teaching of Leviticus, and this is the precise and reiterated declaration throughout the whole Pentateuch that God indeed did give all of these revelations and instructions to Moses, who in turn, acting upon the commandment of God, wrote them in a book (the Pentateuch, of course), and delivered it to the Jewish people, whom God designated as "custodians" of the O.T. Scriptures (Romans 3:2).COKE, “Leviticus 26:46. These are the statutes, &c.— See the note on the first verse of the next chapter.REFLECTIONS.—While there is life there is hope. It is never too late to return to God. The greatness of our provocations, or the length of our rebellions, prevent not his compassions towards us. May such patience and goodness of God lead us to repentance!1. Their repentance is here described. They must confess their sins, and acknowledge God's hand in their visitation. Deep humiliation of heart must accompany these penitent acknowledgments, in the view of their baseness and ingratitude to their gracious God, with humble acquiescence in their punishment, glorifying God in the justice of it. Note; (1.) The great evil of sin is the opposition of the heart to God. This carnal mind is the heaviest burden to the awakened soul. (2.) When God's grace joins with his afflictive providences, then the convinced soul is softened to sensibility, and bowed into the dust of humiliation. (3.) The humble soul will ever bear the miseries that sin has brought upon it with patience, and be more

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solicitous to have the end of the visitation answered, than the burden of it removed.2. Mercy promised to them on returning to their God: not indeed for their sake, but because of that covenant which God had established with their fathers. He will remember mercy in the midst of judgment, and, as a tender father, extend to them that favour which they had so justly forfeited. Note; It is for Jesus's sake, not our own, that the least regard can be shewed us; and in him there is such fulness of merit, and freedom of promise, that none need despair.Thus Moses concludes his message from God, and Israel are to prove their obedience. While they do so, God will be in the midst of them, and they shall experience the blessings of fidelity.ELLICOTT, “(46) These are the statutes and judgments.—That is, the statutes and judgments contained in Leviticus 25:1 to Leviticus 26:45.In Mount Sinai.—That is, in the mountainous district of Sinai. This group of statutes therefore concludes with the very phrase with which it began (see Leviticus 25:1), thus showing that it forms a section by itself.WHEDON, “ 46. In mount Sinai — The whole Sinaitic peninsula is thus designated. It is not necessary to suppose that the whole of the ceremonial law was delivered on the summit of the mount where the decalogue was received.By the hand of Moses — Says Dr. Green, in his reply to W. Robertson Smith: “The Mosaic origin of the Levitical laws is abundantly declared by the formulas with which they are introduced, and which occur over and over again: The LORD spake unto Moses, or the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron; and the formulas by which they are often followed, for example, Leviticus 7:37-38; Leviticus 23:44; Leviticus 27:34.”PETT, “Leviticus 26:46“These are the statutes and ordinances and laws, which Yahweh made between him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by Moses.”This further record is now closed with a colophon stating what is in the record, the occasion of its writing, and the responsible author, Moses. It is a record of the statutes, ordinances and laws which Yahweh made between Himself and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai by Moses, as spoken directly to Moses as brought together and recorded by the writer. It probably covers Leviticus 17:1 to Leviticus 26:46, although it may cover the whole of Leviticus. Compare Leviticus 7:37-38; Leviticus 11:46-47; Leviticus 14:54-57; Leviticus 15:32-33; Leviticus 16:34.

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