The Third Book of Moses: Leviticus

⭑ Berean Study Bible :: World English Bible Catholic ⭑

- Chapter 26 -

“You must not make idols for yourselves or set up a carved image or sacred pillar; you must not place a sculpted stone in your land to bow down to it. For I am the LORD your God.

You must keep My Sabbaths and have reverence for My sanctuary. I am the LORD.

If you follow My statutes and carefully keep My commandments,

I will give you rains in their season, and the land will yield its produce, and the trees of the field will bear their fruit.

Your threshing will continue until the grape harvest, and the grape harvest will continue until sowing time; you will have your fill of food to eat and will dwell securely in your land.

And I will give peace to the land, and you will lie down with nothing to fear. I will rid the land of dangerous animals, and no sword will pass through your land.

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

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

I will turn toward you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will establish My covenant with you.

You will still be eating the old supply of grain when you need to clear it out to make room for the new.

And I will make My dwelling place

(a)

among you, and My soul will not despise (b) you.

I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be My people.(c)

I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians. I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk in uprightness.

Punishments for Disobedience

(Leviticus 20:1–9; Deuteronomy 28:15–68)

If, however, you fail to obey Me and to carry out all these commandments,

and if you reject My statutes, despise My ordinances, and neglect to carry out all My commandments, and so break My covenant,

then this is what I will do to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting disease, and fever that will destroy your sight and drain your life. You will sow your seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it.

And I will set My face against you, so that you will be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when no one pursues you.

And if after all this you will not obey Me, I will proceed to punish you sevenfold for your sins.

I will break down your stubborn pride and make your sky like iron and your land like bronze,

and your strength will be spent in vain. For your land will not yield its produce, and the trees of the land will not bear their fruit.

If you walk in hostility toward Me and refuse to obey Me, I will multiply your plagues seven times, according to your sins.

I will send wild animals against you to rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and reduce your numbers, until your roads lie desolate.

And if in spite of these things you do not accept My discipline, but continue to walk in hostility toward Me,

then I will act with hostility toward you, and I will strike you sevenfold for your sins.

And I will bring a sword against you to execute the vengeance of the covenant. Though you withdraw into your cities, I will send a plague among you, and you will be delivered into the hand of the enemy.

When I cut off your supply

(d)

of bread, ten women will bake your bread in a single oven and dole out your bread by weight, so that you will eat but not be satisfied.

But if in spite of all this you do not obey Me, but continue to walk in hostility toward Me,

then I will walk in fury against you, and I, even I, will punish you sevenfold for your sins.

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

I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and heap your lifeless bodies on the lifeless remains of your idols; and My soul will despise you.

I will reduce your cities to rubble and lay waste your sanctuaries, and I will refuse to smell the pleasing aroma of your sacrifices.

And I will lay waste the land, so that your enemies who dwell in it will be appalled.

But I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out a sword after you as your land becomes desolate and your cities are laid waste.

Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths all the days it lies desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies. At that time the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths.

As long as it lies desolate, the land will have the rest it did not receive during the Sabbaths when you lived in it.

As for those of you who survive, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies, so that even the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight. And they will flee as one flees the sword, and fall when no one pursues them.

They will stumble over one another as before the sword, though no one is behind them. So you will not be able to stand against your enemies.

You will perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies will consume you.

Those of you who survive in the lands of your enemies will waste away in their iniquity and will decay in the sins of their fathers.

God Remembers Those Who Repent

But if they will confess their iniquity and that of their fathers in the unfaithfulness that they practiced against Me, by which they have also walked in hostility toward Me—

and I acted with hostility toward them and brought them into the land of their enemies—and if their uncircumcised hearts will be humbled and they will make amends for their iniquity,

then I will remember My covenant with Jacob and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.

For the land will be abandoned by them, and it will enjoy its Sabbaths by lying desolate without them. And they will pay the penalty for their iniquity, because they rejected My ordinances and abhorred My statutes.

Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject or despise them so as to destroy them and break My covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God.

But for their sake I will remember the covenant with their fathers, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the LORD.”

These are the statutes, ordinances, and laws that the LORD established between Himself and the Israelites through Moses on Mount Sinai.

Footnotes

(a)26:11 Or My tabernacle

(b)26:11 Or reject; also in verse 30

(d)26:26 Hebrew staff

“‘You shall make for yourselves no idols, and you shall not raise up a carved image or a pillar, and you shall not place any figured stone in your land, to bow down to it; for I am the LORD your God.

“‘You shall keep my Sabbaths, and have reverence for my sanctuary. I am the LORD.

“‘If you walk in my statutes and keep my commandments, and do them,

then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.

Your threshing shall continue until the vintage, and the vintage shall continue until the sowing time. You shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.

“‘I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and no one will make you afraid. I will remove evil animals out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.

You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.

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

“‘I will have respect for you, make you fruitful, multiply you, and will establish my covenant with you.

You shall eat old supplies long kept, and you shall move out the old because of the new.

I will set my tent among you, and my soul won’t abhor you.

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

I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves. I have broken the bars of your yoke, and made you walk upright.

Punishments for Disobedience

(Leviticus 20:1–9; Deuteronomy 28:15–68)

“‘But if you will not listen to me, and will not do all these commandments,

and if you shall reject my statutes, and if your soul abhors my ordinances, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant,

I also will do this to you: I will appoint terror over you, even consumption and fever, that shall consume the eyes, and make the soul to pine away. You will sow your seed in vain, for your enemies will eat it.

I will set my face against you, and you will be struck before your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you; and you will flee when no one pursues you.

“‘If you in spite of these things will not listen to me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins.

I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your sky like iron, and your soil like bronze.

Your strength will be spent in vain; for your land won’t yield its increase, neither will the trees of the land yield their fruit.

“‘If you walk contrary to me, and won’t listen to me, then I will bring seven times more plagues on you according to your sins.

I will send the wild animals among you, which will rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and make you few in number. Your roads will become desolate.

“‘If by these things you won’t be turned back to me, but will walk contrary to me,

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

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

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

“‘If you in spite of this won’t listen to me, but walk contrary to me,

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

You will eat the flesh of your sons, and you will eat the flesh of your daughters.

I will destroy your high places, and cut down your incense altars, and cast your dead bodies upon the bodies of your idols; and my soul will abhor you.

I will lay your cities waste, and will bring your sanctuaries to desolation. I will not take delight in the sweet fragrance of your offerings.

I will bring the land into desolation, and your enemies who dwell in it will be astonished at it.

I will scatter you among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you. Your land will be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.

Then the land will enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies’ land. Even then the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths.

As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, even the rest which it didn’t have in your Sabbaths when you lived on it.

“‘As for those of you who are left, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a driven leaf will put them to flight; and they shall flee, as one flees from the sword. They will fall when no one pursues.

They will stumble over one another, as it were before the sword, when no one pursues. You will have no power to stand before your enemies.

You will perish among the nations. The land of your enemies will eat you up.

Those of you who are left will pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers they shall pine away with them.

God Remembers Those Who Repent

“‘If they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass which they trespassed against me; and also that because they walked contrary to me,

I also walked contrary to them, and brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled, and they then accept the punishment of their iniquity,

then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham; and I will remember the land.

The land also will be left by them, and will enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them; and they will accept the punishment of their iniquity because they rejected my ordinances, and their soul abhorred my statutes.

Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly and to break my covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God.

But I will for their sake remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the LORD.’”

These are the statutes, ordinances, and laws, which the LORD made between him and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai by Moses.