CINXE.COM

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0;"/><title>Leviticus 26 Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</title><link rel="canonical" href="https://biblehub.com/commentaries/expositors/leviticus/26.htm" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/5001com.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 4800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 4800px)" href="/4801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1550px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1550px)" href="/1551.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1250px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1250px)" href="/1251.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1050px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1050px)" href="/1051.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 900px), only screen and (max-device-width: 900px)" href="/901.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 800px)" href="/801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 575px), only screen and (max-device-width: 575px)" href="/501.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-height: 450px), only screen and (max-device-height: 450px)" href="/h451.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /><script type="application/javascript" src="https://scripts.webcontentassessor.com/scripts/8a2459b64f9cac8122fc7f2eac4409c8555fac9383016db59c4c26e3d5b8b157"></script><script src='https://qd.admetricspro.com/js/biblehub/biblehub-layout-loader-revcatch.js'></script><script id='HyDgbd_1s' src='https://prebidads.revcatch.com/ads.js' type='text/javascript' async></script><script>(function(w,d,b,s,i){var cts=d.createElement(s);cts.async=true;cts.id='catchscript'; cts.dataset.appid=i;cts.src='https://app.protectsubrev.com/catch_rp.js?cb='+Math.random(); document.head.appendChild(cts); }) (window,document,'head','script','rc-anksrH');</script></head> <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-LR4HSKRP2H"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-LR4HSKRP2H'); </script><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/leviticus/26.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="//biblehu.com/bmcom/leviticus/26-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="/commentaries/">Commentary</a> > <a href="../">Ellicott</a> > <a href="../leviticus/">Leviticus</a></div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../leviticus/25.htm" title="Leviticus 25">◄</a> Leviticus 26 <a href="../leviticus/27.htm" title="Leviticus 27">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</div><div class="chap"> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-1.htm">Leviticus 26:1</a></div><div class="verse">Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up <i>any</i> image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I <i>am</i> the LORD your God.</div>XXVI.</span><p>(1) <span class= "bld">Ye shall make you no idols.</span>—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 26:47-55 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 <a href="/context/leviticus/19-3.htm" title="You shall fear every man his mother, and his father, and keep my sabbaths: I am the LORD your God.">Leviticus 19:3-4</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Idols.</span>—For this expression see <a href="/leviticus/19-4.htm" title="Turn you not to idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods: I am the LORD your God.">Leviticus 19:4</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">nor shall ye rear you up</span> <span class= "ital">a graven image or pillar. </span>Graven image is not only a plastic image of a heathen deity, but a visible or sensuous representation of the God of Israel (<a href="/context/exodus/20-19.htm" title="And they said to Moses, Speak you with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.">Exodus 20:19-20</a>; <a href="/context/deuteronomy/4-15.htm" title="Take you therefore good heed to yourselves; for you saw no manner of similitude on the day that the LORD spoke to you in Horeb out of the middle of the fire:">Deuteronomy 4:15-16</a>).<p><span class= "bld">A standing image.</span>—This expression, which only occurs once more in the text of the Authorised Version (<a href="/micah/5-13.htm" title="Your graven images also will I cut off, and your standing images out of the middle of you; and you shall no more worship the work of your hands.">Micah 5:13</a>), and four times in the Margin (<a href="/1_kings/14-23.htm" title="For they also built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree.">1Kings 14:23</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/43-13.htm" title="He shall break also the images of Bethshemesh, that is in the land of Egypt; and the houses of the gods of the Egyptians shall he burn with fire.">Jeremiah 43:13</a>; <a href="/hosea/3-4.htm" title="For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim:">Hosea 3:4</a>; <a href="/hosea/10-1.htm" title="Israel is an empty vine, he brings forth fruit to himself: according to the multitude of his fruit he has increased the altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images.">Hosea 10:1</a>), is the rendering of a Hebrew word (<span class= "ital">matzebah</span>)<span class= "ital">, </span>which is usually and more correctly translated “pillar” or “statue” (<a href="/genesis/28-18.htm" title="And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil on the top of it.">Genesis 28:18</a>; <a href="/genesis/28-22.htm" title="And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that you shall give me I will surely give the tenth to you.">Genesis 28:22</a>; <a href="/genesis/31-13.htm" title="I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar, and where you vowed a vow to me: now arise, get you out from this land, and return to the land of your kindred.">Genesis 31:13</a>, &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. (<a href="/genesis/28-18.htm" title="And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil on the top of it.">Genesis 28:18</a>; <a href="/genesis/28-22.htm" title="And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that you shall give me I will surely give the tenth to you.">Genesis 28:22</a>; <a href="/genesis/31-13.htm" title="I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar, and where you vowed a vow to me: now arise, get you out from this land, and return to the land of your kindred.">Genesis 31:13</a>; <a href="/genesis/35-14.htm" title="And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone: and he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon.">Genesis 35:14</a>, with <a href="/exodus/23-24.htm" title="You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but you shall utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images.">Exodus 23:24</a>; <a href="/exodus/34-13.htm" title="But you shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves:">Exodus 34:13</a>, &c.)<p><span class= "bld">Neither shall ye set up any image of stone.</span>—The authorities during the second Temple interpreted the words here rendered “images of stone” to denote <span class= "ital">beholding, </span>or <span class= "ital">worshipping stones</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>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,” <span class= "ital">i.e., </span>in an idolatrous manner. Hence, too, the ancient canon, “in your own land” (<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>in all other lands) “ye must not prostrate yourselves upon stones, but ye may prostrate yourselves upon the stones in the sanctuary.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-2.htm">Leviticus 26:2</a></div><div class="verse">Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I <i>am</i> the LORD.</div>(2) <span class= "bld">Ye shall keep my sabbaths . . . —</span>This is exactly the same precept laid down in chap 19:30, 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.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-3.htm">Leviticus 26:3</a></div><div class="verse">If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;</div>(3) <span class= "bld">If ye walk in my statutes.</span>—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.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-4.htm">Leviticus 26:4</a></div><div class="verse">Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.</div>(4) <span class= "bld">Then I will give you rain in due season.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">then I will give you your rains in due season, </span>that is, the former and latter rains (<a href="/deuteronomy/11-14.htm" title="That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your corn, and your wine, and your oil.">Deuteronomy 11:14</a>). 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” (<a href="/ezekiel/34-26.htm" title="And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing.">Ezekiel 34:26</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-5.htm">Leviticus 26:5</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(5) <span class= "bld">And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage.</span>—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.<p><span class= "bld">The vintage shall reach unto the sowing time.</span>—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” (<a href="/amos/9-13.htm" title="Behold, the days come, said the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that sows seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.">Amos 9:13</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-6.htm">Leviticus 26:6</a></div><div class="verse">And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make <i>you</i> afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.</div>(6) <span class= "bld">And I will give peace.</span>—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 (<a href="/psalms/3-5.htm" title="I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the LORD sustained me.">Psalm 3:5</a>; <a href="/psalms/4-8.htm" title="I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for you, LORD, only make me dwell in safety.">Psalm 4:8</a>).<p><span class= "bld">I will rid evil beasts out of the land.</span>—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” (<a href="/ezekiel/34-25.htm" title="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 dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods.">Ezekiel 34:25</a>). The two passages should be uniform in the translation.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-7.htm">Leviticus 26:7</a></div><div class="verse">And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.</div>(7) <span class= "bld">And ye shall chase your enemies.</span>—If<span class= "bld">, </span>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.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-8.htm">Leviticus 26:8</a></div><div class="verse">And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.</div>(8) <span class= "bld">And five of you shall chase an hundred.</span>—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 (<a href="/deuteronomy/32-30.htm" title="How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up?">Deuteronomy 32:30</a>; <a href="/joshua/23-10.htm" title="One man of you shall chase a thousand: for the LORD your God, he it is that fights for you, as he has promised you.">Joshua 23:10</a>; <a href="/isaiah/30-17.htm" title="One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall you flee: till you be left as a beacon on the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on an hill.">Isaiah 30:17</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-9.htm">Leviticus 26:9</a></div><div class="verse">For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you.</div>(9) <span class= "bld">For I will have respect unto you.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">And I will turn unto you, </span>as it is rendered in the Authorised Version in <a href="/ezekiel/46-9.htm" title="But when the people of the land shall come before the LORD in the solemn feasts, he that enters in by the way of the north gate to worship shall go out by the way of the south gate; and he that enters by the way of the south gate shall go forth by the way of the north gate: he shall not return by the way of the gate whereby he came in, but shall go forth over against it.">Ezekiel 46:9</a>, the only other passage where this phrase occurs; that is, be merciful to them and bless them. (Comp. <a href="/2_kings/13-23.htm" title="And the LORD was gracious to them, and had compassion on them, and had respect to them, because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them, neither cast he them from his presence as yet.">2Kings 13:23</a>; <a href="/psalms/25-16.htm" title="Turn you to me, and have mercy on me; for I am desolate and afflicted.">Psalm 25:16</a>; <a href="/psalms/69-17.htm" title="And hide not your face from your servant; for I am in trouble: hear me speedily.">Psalm 69:17</a>, &c.)<p><span class= "bld">And multiply you, and establish my covenant with you.</span>—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 (<a href="/genesis/12-2.htm" title="And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing:">Genesis 12:2</a>; <a href="/genesis/13-16.htm" title="And I will make your seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall your seed also be numbered.">Genesis 13:16</a>; <a href="/genesis/15-5.htm" title="And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if you be able to number them: and he said to him, So shall your seed be.">Genesis 15:5</a>; <a href="/genesis/22-17.htm" title="That in blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is on the sea shore; and your seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;">Genesis 22:17</a>; <a href="/exodus/23-26.htm" title="There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in your land: the number of your days I will fulfill.">Exodus 23:26</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-10.htm">Leviticus 26:10</a></div><div class="verse">And ye shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new.</div>(10) <span class= "bld">And ye shall eat old store.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">old store which hath become old. </span>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.<p><span class= "bld">And bring forth the old because of the new.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">and remove the old on account of the new, </span>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.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-11.htm">Leviticus 26:11</a></div><div class="verse">And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you.</div>(11) <span class= "bld">And I will set my tabernacle among you.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">And I will set my dwelling-place among you. </span>(See <a href="/leviticus/15-31.htm" title="Thus shall you separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness; that they die not in their uncleanness, when they defile my tabernacle that is among them.">Leviticus 15:31</a>.) Not only will God bless them with these material blessings, but will permanently abide with them in the sanctuary erected in their midst.<p><span class= "bld">My soul shall not abhor you.</span>—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.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-12.htm">Leviticus 26:12</a></div><div class="verse">And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.</div>(12) <span class= "bld">And I will walk among you.</span>—This promise is quoted by St. Paul (<a href="/2_corinthians/6-16.htm" title="And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? for you are the temple of the living God; as God has said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.">2Corinthians 6:16</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-13.htm">Leviticus 26:13</a></div><div class="verse">I <i>am</i> 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 bands of your yoke, and made you go upright.</div>(13) <span class= "bld">I have broken the bands of your yoke.</span>—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 (<a href="/deuteronomy/28-48.htm" title="Therefore shall you serve your enemies which the LORD shall send against you, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron on your neck, until he have destroyed you.">Deuteronomy 28:48</a>; <a href="/isaiah/9-3.htm" title="You have multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before you according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.">Isaiah 9:3</a>; <a href="/isaiah/10-27.htm" title="And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off your shoulder, and his yoke from off your neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.">Isaiah 10:27</a>; <a href="/isaiah/14-25.htm" title="That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and on my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders.">Isaiah 14:25</a>, &c.), but nowhere are the words as like those in the passage before us as in <a href="/ezekiel/34-27.htm" title="And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the LORD, when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand of those that served themselves of them.">Ezekiel 34:27</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-14.htm">Leviticus 26:14</a></div><div class="verse">But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments;</div>(14) <span class= "bld">But if ye will not hearken unto me.</span>—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 <a href="/leviticus/26-17.htm" title="And I will set my face against you, and you shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and you shall flee when none pursues you.">Leviticus 26:17</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-15.htm">Leviticus 26:15</a></div><div class="verse">And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, <i>but</i> that ye break my covenant:</div>(15) <span class= "bld">And if ye shall despise my statutes.</span>—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.<p><span class= "bld">Or if your soul abhor my judgments.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">and if your soul, </span>&c, as the picture of their Apostasy goes on developing itself.<p><span class= "bld">But that ye break my covenant.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">that ye break, </span>&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 <a href="/genesis/17-14.htm" title="And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.">Genesis 17:14</a>.) The sense is more correctly given by rendering this clause “Thus breaking my covenant,” or “Thereby breaking my covenant.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-16.htm">Leviticus 26:16</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(16) <span class= "bld">I also will do this unto you.</span>—That is, He will do the same unto them; He will requite them in the same way, and abhor them.<p><span class= "bld">I will even appoint over you terror.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">and I will appoint, </span>&c, that is, God will visit them with terrible things, consisting of consumption and burning ague. These two diseases also occur together in <a href="/deuteronomy/28-22.htm" title="The LORD shall smite you with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue you until you perish.">Deuteronomy 28:22</a>, 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.<p><span class= "bld">That shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">that shall extinguish the eyes, and cause life to waste away. </span>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 <a href="/job/11-20.htm" title="But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and they shall not escape, and their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost.">Job 11:20</a>; <a href="/job/17-5.htm" title="He that speaks flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.">Job 17:5</a>; <a href="/job/31-16.htm" title="If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail;">Job 31:16</a>, &c, and for the whole phrase, comp. <a href="/deuteronomy/28-65.htm" title="And among these nations shall you find no ease, neither shall the sole of your foot have rest: but the LORD shall give you there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind:">Deuteronomy 28:65</a>; <a href="/1_samuel/2-23.htm" title="And he said to them, Why do you such things? for I hear of your evil dealings by all this people.">1Samuel 2:23</a>.<p><span class= "bld">And ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.</span>—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 <a href="/context/leviticus/26-4.htm" title="Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.">Leviticus 26:4-6</a>), 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 (<a href="/jeremiah/5-17.htm" title="And they shall eat up your harvest, and your bread, which your sons and your daughters should eat: they shall eat up your flocks and your herds: they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees: they shall impoverish your fenced cities, wherein you trusted, with the sword.">Jeremiah 5:17</a>). 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” (<a href="/micah/6-15.htm" title="You shall sow, but you shall not reap; you shall tread the olives, but you shall not anoint you with oil; and sweet wine, but shall not drink wine.">Micah 6:15</a>). For the reverse state of things, see <a href="/isaiah/62-8.htm" title="The LORD has sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, Surely I will no more give your corn to be meat for your enemies; and the sons of the stranger shall not drink your wine, for the which you have labored:">Isaiah 62:8</a>; <a href="/context/isaiah/65-22.htm" title="They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and my elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.">Isaiah 65:22-23</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-17.htm">Leviticus 26:17</a></div><div class="verse">And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you.</div>(17) <span class= "bld">And I will set my face against you.</span>—That is, make them feel his anger. (See Note on <a href="/leviticus/17-10.htm" title="And whatever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, that eats any manner of blood; I will even set my face against that soul that eats blood, and will cut him off from among his people.">Leviticus 17:10</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">Be slain before your enemies.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">be smitten before your enemies, </span>as this phrase is rendered in the Authorised Version (<a href="/numbers/14-42.htm" title="Go not up, for the LORD is not among you; that you be not smitten before your enemies.">Numbers 14:42</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/1-42.htm" title="And the LORD said to me, Say to them. Go not up, neither fight; for I am not among you; lest you be smitten before your enemies.">Deuteronomy 1:42</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/28-25.htm" title="The LORD shall cause you to be smitten before your enemies: you shall go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them: and shall be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.">Deuteronomy 28:25</a>).<p><span class= "bld">Shall reign over you.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">shall rule over you, </span>as the Authorised Version renders it in <a href="/isaiah/14-2.htm" title="And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.">Isaiah 14:2</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/29-15.htm" title="It shall be the basest of the kingdoms; neither shall it exalt itself any more above the nations: for I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations.">Ezekiel 29:15</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/34-4.htm" title="The diseased have you not strengthened, neither have you healed that which was sick, neither have you bound up that which was broken, neither have you brought again that which was driven away, neither have you sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have you ruled them.">Ezekiel 34:4</a>, &c.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-18.htm">Leviticus 26:18</a></div><div class="verse">And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.</div>(18) <span class= "bld">And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">and if up to these ye will not hearken unto me, </span>that is, if they should persist in their disobedience to the very end of those punishments mentioned in <a href="/context/leviticus/26-16.htm" title="I also will do this to you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.">Leviticus 26:16-17</a>. This verse, therefore, introduces the second degree of punishments, which ends with <a href="/leviticus/26-20.htm" title="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.">Leviticus 26:20</a>.<p><span class= "bld">I will punish you seven times more.</span>—That is, indefinitely or unceasingly; many more times. Seven being a complete number is often used to denote thoroughness (see Note on <a href="/leviticus/4-6.htm" title="And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle of the blood seven times before the LORD, before the veil of the sanctuary.">Leviticus 4:6</a>), a large or indefinite number. Hence the declaration “He shall deliver thee in six troubles; yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee” (<a href="/job/5-19.htm" title="He shall deliver you in six troubles: yes, in seven there shall no evil touch you.">Job 5:19</a>), and “if he trespass against thee seven times in <span class= "bld">a </span>day” (<a href="/luke/17-4.htm" title="And if he trespass against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to you, saying, I repent; you shall forgive him.">Luke 17:4</a>), that is, an indefinite number of times. (Comp. also <a href="/psalms/119-164.htm" title="Seven times a day do I praise you because of your righteous judgments.">Psalm 119:164</a>; <a href="/proverbs/24-16.htm" title="For a just man falls seven times, and rises up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.">Proverbs 24:16</a>, &c.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-19.htm">Leviticus 26:19</a></div><div class="verse">And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass:</div>(19) <span class= "bld">And I will break the pride of your power.</span>—That is, the strength which is the cause of your pride, the wealth which they derive from the abundant harvests mentioned in <a href="/context/leviticus/26-4.htm" title="Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.">Leviticus 26:4-5</a>, as is evident from what follows immediately, where the punishment is threatened against the resources of this power or wealth. Comp. <a href="/ezekiel/30-6.htm" title="Thus said the LORD; They also that uphold Egypt shall fall; and the pride of her power shall come down: from the tower of Syene shall they fall in it by the sword, said the Lord GOD.">Ezekiel 30:6</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/33-28.htm" title="For I will lay the land most desolate, and the pomp of her strength shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, that none shall pass through.">Ezekiel 33:28</a>.) 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 <a href="/ezekiel/24-21.htm" title="Speak to the house of Israel, Thus said the Lord GOD; Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the excellency of your strength, the desire of your eyes, and that which your soul pities; and your sons and your daughters whom you have left shall fall by the sword.">Ezekiel 24:21</a>. 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.”<p><span class= "bld">I will make your heaven as iron.</span>—That is, the heaven which is over them shall yield no more rain than if it were of metal. In <a href="/deuteronomy/28-23.htm" title="And your heaven that is over your head shall be brass, and the earth that is under you shall be iron.">Deuteronomy 28:23</a>, where the same punishment is threatened, and the same figure is used, the metals are reversed, the heaven is brass, and the earth iron.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-20.htm">Leviticus 26:20</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(20) <span class= "bld">And your strength shall be spent in vain.</span>—That is, with the heaven over them as metal, their labour expended in ploughing, digging, and sowing will be perfectly useless.<p><span class= "bld">Your land shall not yield her increase,</span> as no amount of human labour will make up for the want of rain. In <a href="/deuteronomy/11-17.htm" title="And then the LORD's wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest you perish quickly from off the good land which the LORD gives you.">Deuteronomy 11:17</a>, 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 <span class= "ital">her fruit.”</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-21.htm">Leviticus 26:21</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(21) <span class= "bld">And if ye walk contrary unto me.</span>—That is, continue the defiance of the Divine law, and rebel against God’s authority. The third warning, contained in <a href="/context/leviticus/26-21.htm" title="And if you walk contrary to me, and will not listen to me; I will bring seven times more plagues on you according to your sins.">Leviticus 26:21-22</a>, threatens them with destruction by wild beasts.<p><span class= "bld">Seven times more plagues.</span>—That is, a still greater number. (See <a href="/leviticus/26-18.htm" title="And if you will not yet for all this listen to me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.">Leviticus 26:18</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">According to your sins.</span>—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.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-22.htm">Leviticus 26:22</a></div><div class="verse">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; and your <i>high</i> ways shall be desolate.</div>(22) <span class= "bld">I will also send wild beasts.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">and I will send wild beasts. </span>Wild beasts, which abounded in Palestine (<a href="/exodus/23-29.htm" title="I will not drive them out from before you in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against you.">Exodus 23:29</a>), are used as a punishment for sin (<a href="/deuteronomy/32-24.htm" title="They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts on them, with the poison of serpents of the dust.">Deuteronomy 32:24</a>; <a href="/2_kings/17-25.htm" title="And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not the LORD: therefore the LORD sent lions among them, which slew some of them.">2Kings 17:25</a>; <a href="/context/isaiah/13-21.htm" title="But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there.">Isaiah 13:21-22</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/14-15.htm" title="If I cause noisome beasts to pass through the land, and they spoil it, so that it be desolate, that no man may pass through because of the beasts:">Ezekiel 14:15</a>, &c.).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-23.htm">Leviticus 26:23</a></div><div class="verse">And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me;</div>(23) <span class= "bld">And if ye will not be reformed.</span>—The fourth warning (<a href="/context/leviticus/26-23.htm" title="And if you will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary to me;">Leviticus 26:23-26</a>) threatens the rebellious Israelites with a more intensified form of the punishment partially mentioned in the first warning. (See <a href="/leviticus/26-17.htm" title="And I will set my face against you, and you shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and you shall flee when none pursues you.">Leviticus 26:17</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-24.htm">Leviticus 26:24</a></div><div class="verse">Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins.</div>(24) <span class= "bld">Then will I also walk contrary unto you.</span>—By their increased 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.<p><span class= "bld">And will punish you yet.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">and I also will smite you. </span>(See <a href="/leviticus/26-28.htm" title="Then I will walk contrary to you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.">Leviticus 26:28</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-25.htm">Leviticus 26:25</a></div><div class="verse">And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of <i>my</i> 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.</div>(25) <span class= "bld">That shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">that shall avenge my covenant, </span>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.”<p><span class= "bld">And when ye are gathered together within your cities.</span>—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. <a href="/context/jeremiah/21-6.htm" title="And I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast: they shall die of a great pestilence.">Jeremiah 21:6-9</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/5-12.htm" title="A third part of you shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the middle of you: and a third part shall fall by the sword round about you; and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.">Ezekiel 5:12</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/7-15.htm" title="The sword is without, and the pestilence and the famine within: he that is in the field shall die with the sword; and he that is in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him.">Ezekiel 7:15</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-26.htm">Leviticus 26:26</a></div><div class="verse"><i>And</i> when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver <i>you</i> your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied.</div>(26)<span class= "bld">And when I have broken the staff of your bread.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">when I break you the staff of bread, </span>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 (<a href="/isaiah/3-1.htm" title="For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, does take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water.">Isaiah 3:1</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/4-16.htm" title="Moreover he said to me, Son of man, 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:">Ezekiel 4:16</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/5-16.htm" title="When I shall send on them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for their destruction, and which I will send to destroy you: and I will increase the famine on you, and will break your staff of bread:">Ezekiel 5:16</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/14-13.htm" title="Son of man, when the land sins against me by trespassing grievously, then will I stretch out my hand on it, and will break the staff of the bread thereof, and will send famine on it, and will cut off man and beast from it:">Ezekiel 14:13</a>; <a href="/psalms/105-16.htm" title="Moreover he called for a famine on the land: he broke the whole staff of bread.">Psalm 105:16</a>). 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.<p><span class= "bld">Ten women shall bake your bread in one oven.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">then ten women, </span>&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.<p><span class= "bld">And they shall deliver you your bread again by weight.</span>—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” (<a href="/context/ezekiel/4-16.htm" title="Moreover he said to me, Son of man, 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:">Ezekiel 4:16-17</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-27.htm">Leviticus 26:27</a></div><div class="verse">And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me;</div>(27) <span class= "bld">And if he will not for all this hearken unto me.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">And if, notwithstanding these, ye will not hearken unto me, </span>that is, if in spite of these awful punishments they persist in rebellion against God. With this reiterated formula the fifth warning is introduced (<a href="/context/leviticus/26-27.htm" title="And if you will not for all this listen to me, but walk contrary to me;">Leviticus 26:27-33</a>), which threatens the total destruction of the land and the people in the midst of the most appalling horrors.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-28.htm">Leviticus 26:28</a></div><div class="verse">Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.</div>(28) <span class= "bld">Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury.</span>—Whilst in <a href="/leviticus/26-24.htm" title="Then will I also walk contrary to you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins.">Leviticus 26:24</a> 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 addition “in fury” as the provocation is more intense.<p><span class= "bld">And I, even I, will chastise you.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">And I also will chastise you. </span>The verb here is different from the one in <a href="/leviticus/26-24.htm" title="Then will I also walk contrary to you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins.">Leviticus 26:24</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-29.htm">Leviticus 26:29</a></div><div class="verse">And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.</div>(29) <span class= "bld">And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons.</span>—The harrowing scene here described is also depicted in <a href="/context/deuteronomy/28-53.htm" title="And you shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, which the LORD your God has given you, in the siege, and in the narrow place, with which your enemies shall distress you:">Deuteronomy 28:53-57</a>. This prediction actually came to pass at the siege of Samaria by the Syrians (<a href="/context/2_kings/6-28.htm" title="And the king said to her, What ails you? And she answered, This woman said to me, Give your son, that we may eat him to day, and we will eat my son to morrow.">2Kings 6:28-29</a>), 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” (<a href="/lamentations/4-10.htm" title="The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.">Lamentations 4:10</a>; comp. also <a href="/jeremiah/19-9.htm" title="And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and narrow place, with which their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.">Jeremiah 19:9</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/5-10.htm" title="Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the middle of you, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments in you, and the whole remnant of you will I scatter into all the winds.">Ezekiel 5:10</a>; <a href="/zechariah/11-9.htm" title="Then said I, I will not feed you: that that dies, let it die; and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another.">Zechariah 11:9</a>, &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 the rest in her house.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-30.htm">Leviticus 26:30</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(30) <span class= "bld">And I will destroy your high places.</span>—Though these eminences were also used for the worship of Jehovah (<a href="/context/judges/6-25.htm" title="And it came to pass the same night, that the LORD said to him, Take your father's young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the grove that is by it:">Judges 6:25-26</a>; <a href="/context/judges/13-16.htm" title="And the angel of the LORD said to Manoah, Though you detain me, I will not eat of your bread: and if you will offer a burnt offering, you must offer it to the LORD. For Manoah knew not that he was an angel of the LORD.">Judges 13:16-23</a>; <a href="/1_samuel/7-10.htm" title="And as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel: but the LORD thundered with a great thunder on that day on the Philistines, and discomfited them; and they were smitten before Israel.">1Samuel 7:10</a>; <a href="/1_kings/3-2.htm" title="Only the people sacrificed in high places, because there was no house built to the name of the LORD, until those days.">1Kings 3:2</a>; <a href="/2_kings/12-3.htm" title="But the high places were not taken away: the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places.">2Kings 12:3</a>; <a href="/1_chronicles/21-26.htm" title="And David built there an altar to the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called on the LORD; and he answered him from heaven by fire on the altar of burnt offering.">1Chronicles 21:26</a>, &c.), the context shows that the high places here are such as were dedicated to idolatrous worship (<a href="/numbers/22-41.htm" title="And it came to pass on the morrow, that Balak took Balaam, and brought him up into the high places of Baal, that there he might see the utmost part of the people.">Numbers 22:41</a>; <a href="/numbers/33-52.htm" title="Then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places:">Numbers 33:52</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/12-2.htm" title="You shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which you shall possess served their gods, on the high mountains, and on the hills, and under every green tree:">Deuteronomy 12:2</a>; <a href="/joshua/13-17.htm" title="Heshbon, and all her cities that are in the plain; Dibon, and Bamothbaal, and Bethbaalmeon,">Joshua 13:17</a>, &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.<p><span class= "bld">And cut down your images.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">and cut down your sun-images, </span>or <span class= "ital">solar-statues, </span>that is, idolatrous pillars of the sun-god (<a href="/isaiah/17-8.htm" title="And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall respect that which his fingers have made, either the groves, or the images.">Isaiah 17:8</a>; <a href="/2_chronicles/14-5.htm" title="Also he took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the images: and the kingdom was quiet before him.">2Chronicles 14:5</a>; <a href="/2_chronicles/34-7.htm" title="And when he had broken down the altars and the groves, and had beaten the graven images into powder, and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.">2Chronicles 34:7</a>).<p><span class= "bld">And cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols.</span>—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 dead carcases of the children of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones round about your altars” (<a href="/context/ezekiel/6-4.htm" title="And your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken: and I will cast down your slain men before your idols.">Ezekiel 6:4-5</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-31.htm">Leviticus 26:31</a></div><div class="verse">And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours.</div>(31) <span class= "bld">I will make your cities waste.</span>—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 (<a href="/jeremiah/4-7.htm" title="The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make your land desolate; and your cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant.">Jeremiah 4:7</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/9-11.htm" title="And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.">Jeremiah 9:11</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/6-6.htm" title="In all your dwelling places the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished.">Ezekiel 6:6</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/12-20.htm" title="And the cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste, and the land shall be desolate; and you shall know that I am the LORD.">Ezekiel 12:20</a>; <a href="/nehemiah/2-17.htm" title="Then said I to them, You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach.">Nehemiah 2:17</a>, &c.).<p><span class= "bld">And bring your sanctuaries unto desolation.</span>—Even the sanctuary with all its holy places (<a href="/jeremiah/51-51.htm" title="We are confounded, because we have heard reproach: shame has covered our faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the LORD's house.">Jeremiah 51:51</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/21-7.htm" title="And it shall be, when they say to you, Why sigh you? that you shall answer, For the tidings; because it comes: and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water: behold, it comes, and shall be brought to pass, said the Lord GOD.">Ezekiel 21:7</a>; <a href="/amos/7-9.htm" title="And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.">Amos 7:9</a>; Pss. 68:36, <a href="/psalms/74-7.htm" title="They have cast fire into your sanctuary, they have defiled by casting down the dwelling place of your name to the ground.">Psalm 74:7</a>. &c.), sacred edifices, synagogues, &c. (<a href="/leviticus/21-23.htm" title="Only he shall not go in to the veil, nor come near to the altar, because he has a blemish; that he profane not my sanctuaries: for I the LORD do sanctify them.">Leviticus 21:23</a>), 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 <a href="/leviticus/26-11.htm" title="And I set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you.">Leviticus 26:11</a>) if they will walk according to His commandments.<p><span class= "bld">I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours.</span>—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 <a href="/leviticus/1-9.htm" title="But his inwards and his legs shall he wash in water: and the priest shall burn all on the altar, to be a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet smell to the LORD.">Leviticus 1:9</a>.) The service which may then be performed to Him will not hinder Him from executing this judgment.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-32.htm">Leviticus 26:32</a></div><div class="verse">And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it.</div>(32) <span class= "bld">And I will bring the land into desolation. </span>Better, <span class= "ital">And I myself will bring, </span>&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 (<a href="/context/leviticus/26-4.htm" title="Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.">Leviticus 26:4-10</a>) 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 (<a href="/jeremiah/9-11.htm" title="And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.">Jeremiah 9:11</a> : <a href="/ezekiel/5-15.htm" title="So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment to the nations that are round about you, when I shall execute judgments in you in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes. I the LORD have spoken it.">Ezekiel 5:15</a>; <a href="/context/ezekiel/33-28.htm" title="For I will lay the land most desolate, and the pomp of her strength shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, that none shall pass through.">Ezekiel 33:28-29</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/35-10.htm" title="Because you have said, These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it; whereas the LORD was there:">Ezekiel 35:10</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/36-5.htm" title="Therefore thus said the Lord GOD; Surely in the fire of my jealousy have I spoken against the residue of the heathen, and against all Idumea, which have appointed my land into their possession with the joy of all their heart, with despiteful minds, to cast it out for a prey.">Ezekiel 36:5</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-33.htm">Leviticus 26:33</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(33) <span class= "bld">And I will scatter you among the heathen.</span>—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.<p><span class= "bld">And will draw out a sword after you.</span>—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 <a href="/leviticus/26-6.htm" title="And I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.">Leviticus 26:6</a>) 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” (<a href="/jeremiah/9-16.htm" title="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.">Jeremiah 9:16</a>, with <a href="/context/jeremiah/42-16.htm" title="Then it shall come to pass, that the sword, which you feared, shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine, whereof you were afraid, shall follow close after you there in Egypt; and there you shall die.">Jeremiah 42:16-18</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/12-14.htm" title="And I will scatter toward every wind all that are about him to help him, and all his bands; and I will draw out the sword after them.">Ezekiel 12:14</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-34.htm">Leviticus 26:34</a></div><div class="verse">Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye <i>be</i> in your enemies' land; <i>even</i> then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths.</div>(34) <span class= "bld">Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths.</span>—The land, which participates both in the happiness and misery of the Israelites (see <a href="/leviticus/18-25.htm" title="And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof on it, and the land itself vomits out her inhabitants.">Leviticus 18:25</a>), 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.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-35.htm">Leviticus 26:35</a></div><div class="verse">As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.</div>(35) <span class= "bld">As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest . . . —</span>Better, <span class= "ital">All the days of its desolation shall it keep that rest which it did not rest, </span>&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. <a href="/jeremiah/34-17.htm" title="Therefore thus said the LORD; You have not listened to me, in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother, and every man to his neighbor: behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, said the LORD, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.">Jeremiah 34:17</a>; <a href="/2_chronicles/36-21.htm" title="To fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfill three score and ten years.">2Chronicles 36:21</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-36.htm">Leviticus 26:36</a></div><div class="verse">And upon them that are left <i>alive</i> 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.</div>(36, 37) <span class= "bld">And upon them that are left alive of you.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">And as to those that remain of you, </span>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 <a href="/leviticus/26-39.htm" title="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.">Leviticus 26:39</a>, where the same phrase occurs. Where these will remain is explained in the next clause.<p><span class= "bld">I will send a faintness into their hearts.</span>—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. <a href="/context/deuteronomy/28-65.htm" title="And among these nations shall you find no ease, neither shall the sole of your foot have rest: but the LORD shall give you there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind:">Deuteronomy 28:65-67</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-38.htm">Leviticus 26:38</a></div><div class="verse">And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.</div>(38) <span class= "bld">And ye shall perish among the heathen.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">And ye shall be lost among the heathen, </span>as the word here rendered “perish” is often translated. (See <a href="/deuteronomy/22-3.htm" title="In like manner shall you do with his ass; and so shall you do with his raiment; and with all lost thing of your brother's, which he has lost, and you have found, shall you do likewise: you may not hide yourself.">Deuteronomy 22:3</a>; <a href="/1_samuel/9-3.htm" title="And the asses of Kish Saul's father were lost. And Kish said to Saul his son, Take now one of the servants with you, and arise, go seek the asses.">1Samuel 9:3</a>; <a href="/1_samuel/9-20.htm" title="And as for your asses that were lost three days ago, set not your mind on them; for they are found. And on whom is all the desire of Israel? Is it not on you, and on all your father's house?">1Samuel 9:20</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/1-6.htm" title="Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.">Jeremiah 1:6</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/34-4.htm" title="The diseased have you not strengthened, neither have you healed that which was sick, neither have you bound up that which was broken, neither have you brought again that which was driven away, neither have you sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have you ruled them.">Ezekiel 34:4</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/34-16.htm" title="I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment.">Ezekiel 34:16</a>; <a href="/psalms/119-176.htm" title="I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your servant; for I do not forget your commandments.">Psalm 119:176</a>, &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 <a href="/leviticus/26-40.htm" title="If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary to me;">Leviticus 26:40</a> speaks of their confessing their guilt.<p><span class= "bld">The land of your enemies shall eat you up.</span>—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 <a href="/numbers/13-32.htm" title="And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched to the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eats up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.">Numbers 13:32</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/36-13.htm" title="Thus said the Lord GOD; Because they say to you, You land devour up men, and have bereaved your nations:">Ezekiel 36:13</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-39.htm">Leviticus 26:39</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(39) <span class= "bld">And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">But those that remain of you shall pine away because of their iniquity, </span>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.<p><span class= "bld">And also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">and also on account of the iniquity of their fathers with them shall they pine away, </span>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 <a href="/exodus/20-5.htm" title="You shall not bow down yourself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;">Exodus 20:5</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-40.htm">Leviticus 26:40</a></div><div class="verse">If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me;</div>(40) <span class= "bld">If they shall confess their iniquity.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">And they shall confess, </span>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.<p><span class= "bld">With their trespass which they trespassed against me.—</span>Better, <span class= "ital">because of their trespass that they have, </span>&c., as this phrase is rendered in the Authorised Version in <a href="/daniel/9-7.htm" title="O LORD, righteousness belongs to you, but to us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries where you have driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against you.">Daniel 9:7</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-41.htm">Leviticus 26:41</a></div><div class="verse">And <i>that</i> 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:</div>(41) <span class= "bld">And that I also have walked contrary unto them.</span>—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.<p><span class= "bld">If then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled.</span>—Better, or rather, <span class= "ital">their uncircumcised</span> <span class= "ital">hearts shall be humbled. </span>This is a resumption of the statement made at the beginning of <a href="/leviticus/26-40.htm" title="If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary to me;">Leviticus 26:40</a>, viz., “And they shall confess their iniquity . . . ;” or rather, <span class= "ital">their uncircumcised hearts shall be humbled. </span>That is, perverse and stubborn hearts; too proud to make an humble confession. (See <a href="/leviticus/19-23.htm" title="And when you shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food, then you shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised: three years shall it be as uncircumcised to you: it shall not be eaten of.">Leviticus 19:23</a>, with <a href="/jeremiah/9-26.htm" title="Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.">Jeremiah 9:26</a>.) The same metaphor is used by the Apostle: “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost” (<a href="/acts/7-51.htm" title="You stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do you.">Acts 7:51</a>).<p><span class= "bld">Accept of the punishment of their iniquity.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">accept willingly, </span>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 <a href="/leviticus/26-34.htm" title="Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lies desolate, and you be in your enemies' land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths.">Leviticus 26:34</a>. The whole phrase denotes literally, <span class= "ital">they shall rejoice in their iniquity, </span>or <span class= "ital">in the punishment of their iniquity; </span>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” (<a href="/micah/7-9.htm" title="I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness.">Micah 7:9</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-42.htm">Leviticus 26:42</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(42) <span class= "bld">Then will I remember.</span>—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. (<a href="/context/exodus/6-5.htm" title="And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant.">Exodus 6:5-6</a>); “He remembered for them his covenant” (<a href="/psalms/106-45.htm" title="And he remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercies.">Psalm 106:45</a>).<p><span class= "bld">My covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham.</span>—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 (<a href="/exodus/32-13.htm" title="Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give to your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.">Exodus 32:13</a>). 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 [<a href="/context/genesis/35-9.htm" title="And God appeared to Jacob again, when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed him.">Genesis 35:9-15</a>], 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 (<a href="/context/genesis/15-18.htm" title="In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, To your seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:">Genesis 15:18-21</a>)].” 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 (<a href="/genesis/1-24.htm" title="And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.">Genesis 1:24</a>; <a href="/exodus/2-24.htm" title="And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.">Exodus 2:24</a>; <a href="/exodus/6-8.htm" title="And I will bring you in to the land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage: I am the LORD.">Exodus 6:8</a>; <a href="/exodus/32-13.htm" title="Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give to your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.">Exodus 32:13</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/29-13.htm" title="That he may establish you to day for a people to himself, and that he may be to you a God, as he has said to you, and as he has sworn to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.">Deuteronomy 29:13</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/34-4.htm" title="And the LORD said to him, This is the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, I will give it to your seed: I have caused you to see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over thither.">Deuteronomy 34:4</a>; <a href="/2_kings/13-23.htm" title="And the LORD was gracious to them, and had compassion on them, and had respect to them, because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them, neither cast he them from his presence as yet.">2Kings 13:23</a>; <a href="/context/psalms/105-8.htm" title="He has remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations.">Psalm 105:8-10</a>; <a href="/context/1_chronicles/16-16.htm" title="Even of the covenant which he made with Abraham, and of his oath to Isaac;">1Chronicles 16:16-17</a>), this is the solitary instance where the regular order is inverted.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-43.htm">Leviticus 26:43</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(43) <span class= "bld">The land also shall be left of them.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">but the land shall be deserted by them. </span>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 <a href="/context/leviticus/26-33.htm" title="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.">Leviticus 26:33-34</a>, seems to have been inserted here to deprecate more solemnly the heinousness of their sins.<span class= "bld"><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-44.htm">Leviticus 26:44</a></div><div class="verse">And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I <i>am</i> the LORD their God.</div>(44) <span class= "bld">And yet for all that.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">And yet even so, </span>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.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-45.htm">Leviticus 26:45</a></div><div class="verse">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 heathen, that I might be their God: I <i>am</i> the LORD.</div>(45) <span class= "bld">But I will for their sakes remember the covenant.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">And will remember unto them the covenant, </span>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.<span class= "bld"><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/26-46.htm">Leviticus 26:46</a></div><div class="verse">These <i>are</i> 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.</div>(46) <span class= "bld">These are the statutes and judgments.</span>—That is, the statutes and judgments contained in <a href="/leviticus/25-1.htm" title="And the LORD spoke to Moses in mount Sinai, saying,">Leviticus 25:1</a> to <a href="/leviticus/26-45.htm" title="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 heathen, that I might be their God: I am the LORD.">Leviticus 26:45</a>.<span class= "bld"><p>In Mount Sinai.</span>—That is, in the mountainous district of Sinai. This group of statutes therefore concludes with the very phrase with which it began (see <a href="/leviticus/25-1.htm" title="And the LORD spoke to Moses in mount Sinai, saying,">Leviticus 25:1</a>), thus showing that it forms a section by itself.<p><span class= "bld"><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. Used by Permission. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a href="/">Bible Hub</a></div></div></div></div></td></tr></table></div><div id="left"><a href="../leviticus/25.htm" onmouseover='lft.src="/leftgif.png"' onmouseout='lft.src="/left.png"' title="Leviticus 25"><img src="/left.png" name="lft" border="0" alt="Leviticus 25" /></a></div><div id="right"><a href="../leviticus/27.htm" onmouseover='rght.src="/rightgif.png"' onmouseout='rght.src="/right.png"' title="Leviticus 27"><img src="/right.png" name="rght" border="0" alt="Leviticus 27" /></a></div><div id="botleft"><a href="#" onmouseover='botleft.src="/botleftgif.png"' onmouseout='botleft.src="/botleft.png"' title="Top of Page"><img src="/botleft.png" name="botleft" border="0" alt="Top of Page" /></a></div><div id="botright"><a href="#" onmouseover='botright.src="/botrightgif.png"' onmouseout='botright.src="/botright.png"' title="Top of Page"><img src="/botright.png" name="botright" border="0" alt="Top of Page" /></a></div><div id="rightbox"><div class="padright"><div id="pic"><iframe width="100%" height="860" scrolling="no" src="//biblescan.com/mpc/leviticus/26-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></div></div></div><div id="rightbox4"><div class="padright2"><div id="spons1"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tr><td class="sp1"><iframe width="122" height="860" scrolling="no" src="/commentaries/ellicott/sidemenu.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></div><div id="bot"><br /><br /><div align="center"> <script id="3d27ed63fc4348d5b062c4527ae09445"> (new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=51ce25d5-1a8c-424a-8695-4bd48c750f35&cid=3a9f82d0-4344-4f8d-ac0c-e1a0eb43a405'; </script> <script id="b817b7107f1d4a7997da1b3c33457e03"> (new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=cb0edd8b-b416-47eb-8c6d-3cc96561f7e8&cid=3a9f82d0-4344-4f8d-ac0c-e1a0eb43a405'; </script><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-2'> </div><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-0' style='max-width: 300px;'> </div><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-3'> </div><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-1' style='max-width: 300px;'> </div><br /><br />  <div align="center" id='div-gpt-ad-1531425649696-0'> </div><br /><br /> <ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:inline-block;width:200px;height:200px" data-ad-client="ca-pub-3753401421161123" data-ad-slot="3592799687"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script> <br /><br /> </div><iframe width="100%" height="1500" scrolling="no" src="/botmenubhchap.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></div></td></tr></table></body></html>