Leviticus 26

Reward for Obedience

1 “ ‘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.
2 “ ‘Observe my Sabbaths and have reverence for my sanctuary. I am the LORD.
3 “ ‘If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands,
4 I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit.
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.
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.
7 You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you.
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.
9 “ ‘I will look on you with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers, and I will keep my covenant with you.
10 You will still be eating last year’s harvest when you will have to move it out to make room for the new.
11 I will put my dwelling place[a] among you, and I will not abhor you.
12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.
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 enabled you to walk with heads held high.

Punishment for Disobedience

14 “ ‘But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands,
15 and if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws and fail to carry out all my commands and so violate my covenant,
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.
17 I will set my face against you so that you will be defeated by your enemies; those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee even when no one is pursuing you.
18 “ ‘If after all this you will not listen to me, I will punish you for your sins seven times over.
19 I will break down your stubborn pride and make the sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze.
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.
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.
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.
23 “ ‘If in spite of these things you do not accept my correction but continue to be hostile toward me,
24 I myself will be hostile toward you and will afflict you for your sins seven times over.
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.
26 When I cut off your supply of bread, ten 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.
27 “ ‘If in spite of this you still do not listen to me but continue to be hostile toward me,
28 then in my anger I will be hostile toward you, and I myself will punish you for your sins seven times over.
29 You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters.
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.
31 I will turn your cities into ruins and lay waste your sanctuaries, and I will take no delight in the pleasing aroma of your offerings.
32 I myself will lay waste the land, so that your enemies who live there will be appalled.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
38 You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will devour you.
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.
40 “ ‘But if they will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors—their unfaithfulness and their hostility toward me,
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,
42 I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.
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 rejected my laws and abhorred my decrees.
44 Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them or abhor them so as to destroy them completely, breaking my covenant with them. I am the LORD their God.
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.’ ”
46 These are the decrees, the laws and the regulations that the LORD established at Mount Sinai between himself and the Israelites through Moses.

Leviticus 26 Commentary

Chapter 26

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

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

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

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

Cross References 113

  • 1. S Exodus 20:4; Leviticus 19:4; Deuteronomy 5:8
  • 2. Psalms 97:7; Isaiah 48:5; Jeremiah 44:19; Habakkuk 2:18
  • 3. S Exodus 23:24
  • 4. Numbers 33:52
  • 5. S Exodus 20:8
  • 6. Leviticus 19:30
  • 7. S Genesis 26:5; S Exodus 24:8; Deuteronomy 6:17; Deuteronomy 7:12; Deuteronomy 11:13,22; Deuteronomy 28:1,9
  • 8. Deuteronomy 11:14; Deuteronomy 28:12; Psalms 68:9; Jeremiah 5:24; Hosea 6:3; Joel 2:23; Zechariah 10:1
  • 9. Job 5:10; Psalms 65:9; Psalms 104:13; Psalms 147:8; Jeremiah 5:24
  • 10. S Exodus 23:26; S Leviticus 25:19; S Job 14:9; Psalms 67:6
  • 11. Deuteronomy 6:11; Deuteronomy 11:15; Ezekiel 36:29-30; Joel 2:19,26; Amos 9:13
  • 12. S Leviticus 25:18
  • 13. Psalms 29:11; Psalms 37:11; Psalms 85:8; Psalms 147:14; Isaiah 26:3; Isaiah 54:13; Isaiah 60:18; Haggai 2:9
  • 14. Psalms 3:5; Psalms 4:8; Proverbs 3:24
  • 15. Job 11:18,19; Isaiah 17:2; Jeremiah 30:10; Micah 4:4; Zephaniah 3:13
  • 16. S ver 22; S Genesis 37:20
  • 17. Psalms 18:37; Psalms 44:5
  • 18. Isaiah 30:17
  • 19. Deuteronomy 28:7; Deuteronomy 32:30; Joshua 23:10; Judges 15:15; 1 Chronicles 12:14
  • 20. S Genesis 1:22; S Genesis 17:6; Nehemiah 9:23
  • 21. S Genesis 17:7
  • 22. Leviticus 25:22
  • 23. Exodus 25:8; Psalms 74:7; Psalms 76:2; Ezekiel 37:27
  • 24. ver 15,43,44; Deuteronomy 31:6; 1 Samuel 12:22; 1 Kings 6:13; 2 Kings 17:15
  • 25. S Genesis 3:8
  • 26. S Genesis 17:7
  • 27. Exodus 6:7; Jeremiah 7:23; Jeremiah 11:4; Jeremiah 24:7; Jeremiah 30:22; Jeremiah 31:1; Zechariah 13:9; 2 Corinthians 6:16*
  • 28. Leviticus 11:44
  • 29. S Exodus 6:6; S Exodus 13:3
  • 30. Isaiah 10:27; Jeremiah 2:20; Jeremiah 27:2; Jeremiah 28:10; Jeremiah 30:8; Ezekiel 30:18; Ezekiel 34:27; Hosea 11:4
  • 31. Deuteronomy 28:15-68; Malachi 2:2
  • 32. S ver 11
  • 33. S Genesis 17:7
  • 34. Deuteronomy 28:22,35; Psalms 78:33
  • 35. ver 39; 1 Samuel 2:33; Psalms 107:17; Ezekiel 4:17; Ezekiel 24:23; Ezekiel 33:10
  • 36. Judges 6:3-6; Job 31:8
  • 37. Leviticus 17:10; Ezekiel 15:7
  • 38. Deuteronomy 28:48; Joshua 7:12; Judges 2:15; 1 Kings 8:33; 2 Chronicles 6:24
  • 39. Joshua 7:4; Jeremiah 19:7; Jeremiah 21:7
  • 40. Psalms 106:41
  • 41. ver 36,37; Deuteronomy 28:7,25; Psalms 53:5; Proverbs 28:1; Isaiah 30:17
  • 42. ver 14
  • 43. Psalms 99:8; Jeremiah 21:14; Amos 3:14
  • 44. ver 21
  • 45. Psalms 10:4; Psalms 73:6; Isaiah 16:6; Isaiah 25:11; Isaiah 28:1-3; Jeremiah 13:9; Jeremiah 48:29; Ezekiel 24:21; Amos 6:8; Zephaniah 3:11
  • 46. Deuteronomy 28:23; Job 38:38
  • 47. Deuteronomy 28:38; Psalms 127:1; Isaiah 17:11; Isaiah 49:4; Jeremiah 12:13; Micah 6:15; Haggai 1:6
  • 48. Deuteronomy 11:17; Deuteronomy 28:24
  • 49. ver 41
  • 50. ver 18; S Genesis 4:15
  • 51. S Genesis 37:20; Deuteronomy 32:24
  • 52. Deuteronomy 28:62; Jeremiah 42:2
  • 53. Jeremiah 5:6; Jeremiah 14:16; Jeremiah 15:3; Jeremiah 16:4; Ezekiel 14:15
  • 54. Jeremiah 2:30; Jeremiah 5:3; Jeremiah 7:28; Jeremiah 17:23; Jeremiah 32:33; Zephaniah 3:2
  • 55. 2 Samuel 22:27
  • 56. Jeremiah 5:17; Jeremiah 15:3; Jeremiah 47:6; Ezekiel 11:8; Ezekiel 14:17; Ezekiel 21:4; Ezekiel 33:2
  • 57. Jeremiah 50:28; Jeremiah 51:6,11
  • 58. S Exodus 5:3; S Exodus 9:3; Numbers 16:46; 1 Kings 8:37; Habakkuk 3:5; Numbers 14:12; Ezekiel 5:17
  • 59. 1 Kings 8:37; 1 Kings 18:2; 2 Kings 4:38; 2 Kings 6:25; 2 Kings 8:1; 2 Kings 25:3; Ezekiel 5:16">Ps 10Ezekiel 5:16; Isaiah 3:1; Isaiah 9:20; Jeremiah 37:21; Jeremiah 52:6; Ezekiel 4:16,17; Ezekiel 5:16; Ezekiel 14:13; Hosea 4:10; Micah 6:14
  • 60. ver 14
  • 61. Deuteronomy 32:19; Judges 2:14; Psalms 78:59; Psalms 106:40
  • 62. Deuteronomy 7:10; Job 34:11; Isaiah 59:18; Isaiah 65:6-7; Isaiah 66:6; Jeremiah 17:10; Jeremiah 25:29; Joel 3:4
  • 63. ver 18
  • 64. 2 Kings 6:29; Jeremiah 19:9; Lamentations 4:10; Ezekiel 5:10
  • 65. Deuteronomy 28:53
  • 66. Deuteronomy 12:2; 1 Samuel 9:12; 1 Samuel 10:5; 1 Kings 3:2,4; 1 Kings 12:31; 1 Kings 13:2,32; 2 Kings 17:29; 2 Kings 23:20; 2 Chronicles 34:3; Psalms 78:58; Ezekiel 6:3; Ezekiel 16:16; Amos 7:9
  • 67. 2 Chronicles 34:4; Isaiah 17:8; Isaiah 27:9; Ezekiel 6:6
  • 68. Isaiah 21:9; Jeremiah 50:2; Ezekiel 6:13
  • 69. Psalms 106:40; Amos 6:8
  • 70. Nehemiah 1:3; Isaiah 1:7; Isaiah 3:8,26; Isaiah 6:11; Isaiah 24:12; Isaiah 61:4; Jeremiah 4:7; Jeremiah 9:11; Jeremiah 25:11; Jeremiah 34:22; Jeremiah 44:2,6,22; Ezekiel 36:33; Micah 2:4; Micah 3:12; Zephaniah 2:5; Zephaniah 3:6
  • 71. 2 Kings 22:19
  • 72. Psalms 74:3-7; Isaiah 63:18; Isaiah 64:11; Lamentations 2:7; Ezekiel 24:21; Amos 7:9
  • 73. Amos 5:21,22; Amos 8:10
  • 74. Isaiah 5:6; Jeremiah 9:11; Jeremiah 12:11; Jeremiah 25:11; Jeremiah 26:9; Jeremiah 33:10; Jeremiah 34:22; Jeremiah 44:22
  • 75. 1 Kings 9:8; 2 Chronicles 29:8; Isaiah 52:14; Jeremiah 18:16; Jeremiah 19:8; Jeremiah 48:39; Ezekiel 5:14; Ezekiel 26:16; Ezekiel 27:35; Ezekiel 28:19
  • 76. Jeremiah 40:15; Jeremiah 50:17; Ezekiel 34:6; Joel 3:2
  • 77. Deuteronomy 4:27; Deuteronomy 28:64; Nehemiah 1:8; Psalms 44:11; Psalms 106:27; Jeremiah 4:11; Jeremiah 9:16; Jeremiah 13:24; Jeremiah 31:10; Ezekiel 5:10; Ezekiel 12:15; Ezekiel 17:21; Ezekiel 20:23; Ezekiel 22:15; Zechariah 7:14
  • 78. Jeremiah 42:16; Amos 9:4
  • 79. Isaiah 49:19; Jeremiah 7:34
  • 80. ver 31; 1 Samuel 15:22; Job 36:11; Jeremiah 40:3
  • 81. Isaiah 1:7; Jeremiah 7:34; Jeremiah 25:11; Jeremiah 44:6; Ezekiel 33:29
  • 82. ver 43; 2 Chronicles 36:21
  • 83. S Leviticus 25:4
  • 84. Job 13:25
  • 85. 2 Kings 25:5; Psalms 58:7; Lamentations 1:3,6; Lamentations 4:19; Ezekiel 21:7
  • 86. S ver 17
  • 87. Jeremiah 6:21; Jeremiah 13:16; Jeremiah 46:16; Ezekiel 3:20; Nahum 3:3
  • 88. Joshua 7:12
  • 89. Job 4:9; Job 36:12; Psalms 1:6; Isaiah 1:28; Jeremiah 16:4; Jeremiah 44:27
  • 90. Deuteronomy 4:26
  • 91. Exodus 20:5; Isaiah 14:21
  • 92. S ver 16; Isaiah 24:16; Ezekiel 4:17
  • 93. S Leviticus 5:5
  • 94. Psalms 32:5; Psalms 38:18
  • 95. Nehemiah 9:2; Psalms 106:6; Jeremiah 3:12-15; Jeremiah 14:20; Hosea 5:15; Luke 15:18; 1 John 1:9
  • 96. S ver 21
  • 97. Deuteronomy 10:16; Deuteronomy 30:6; Jeremiah 4:4; Jeremiah 9:25,26; Ezekiel 44:7,9; Acts 7:51
  • 98. 2 Chronicles 7:14; 2 Chronicles 12:6; Ezekiel 20:43
  • 99. Isaiah 6:7; Isaiah 33:24; Isaiah 40:2; Isaiah 53:5,6,11
  • 100. Genesis 22:15-18; Genesis 28:15; Genesis 35:11-12
  • 101. S Genesis 26:5
  • 102. S Exodus 2:24
  • 103. Psalms 69:25; Isaiah 6:11; Isaiah 32:14; Isaiah 62:4; Jeremiah 2:15; Jeremiah 44:2; Lamentations 1:1; Ezekiel 36:4
  • 104. Numbers 11:20; Numbers 14:31; 1 Samuel 8:7; Psalms 106:24
  • 105. S ver 11; Ezekiel 20:13
  • 106. S ver 33; 2 Kings 17:20; 2 Kings 25:11; 2 Chronicles 6:36; 2 Chronicles 36:20
  • 107. S ver 11; Romans 11:2
  • 108. Deuteronomy 4:31; Jeremiah 4:27; Jeremiah 5:10; Jeremiah 30:11
  • 109. Judges 2:1; Jeremiah 31:37; Jeremiah 33:26; Jeremiah 51:5
  • 110. Genesis 17:7; Deuteronomy 4:31
  • 111. Exodus 6:8; Leviticus 25:38
  • 112. S Exodus 19:11
  • 113. S Leviticus 7:38; Leviticus 27:34

Footnotes 2

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO LEVITICUS 26

In this chapter, after a repetition of some laws against idolatry, and concerning keeping sabbaths, and reverencing the sanctuary of God, Le 26:1,2; in order to encourage the Israelites to keep the various statutes and commandments in this book, and in the preceding, many promises are made of plenty, and peace, and safety from enemies, and of the presence of God with them, Le 26:3-13; and on the contrary, to such as should despise and break his commandments, the most grievous things are threatened, as diseases of body, destruction by their enemies, barrenness and unfruitfulness of land, the sore judgments of wild beasts, famine, sword, and pestilence, Le 26:14-39; and yet after all, when they should confess their sins, and were humbled for them, the Lord promises to remember the covenant he made with their ancestors, and would deal kindly with them, and not cast them away, and utterly destroy them, Le 26:40-46.

Leviticus 26 Commentaries

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