Leviticus 26 - Lexham English Bible (LEB)

Blessings for Obedience

26 “‘You^[a] shall not make for yourselves idols and divine images, and you shall not raise up stone pillars for yourselves, and you shall not put a sculptured stone in your land in order to^[b] worship before it, because I am Yahweh your God.

² “‘You shall keep my Sabbaths, and you shall revere my sanctuary; I am Yahweh.

³ “‘If you walk in my statutes and you keep my commands and you do them, ⁴ then^[c] I will give you rains in their time, and the land shall give its produce, and the trees of the field shall give their fruit. ⁵ And for you the threshing season shall overtake the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall overtake the sowing, and you shall eat your food to your fill^[d] and you shall live securely^[e] in your land. ⁶ And I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and there shall not be anybody who makes you afraid,^[f] and I will remove harmful animals from the land, and no sword shall pass through your land.^{[g] 7} And you shall pursue your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before you.^{[h] 8} And five of^[i] you shall pursue a hundred, and a hundred of^[j] you shall pursue a myriad;^[k] and your enemies shall fall by the sword before you.^{[l] 9} And I will turn to you, and I will make you fruitful, and I will make you numerous; and I will keep my covenant with you. ¹⁰ And you shall eat old grain,^[m] and you shall clear away the old before the new.^{[n] 11} And I will put my dwelling place in your midst, and my inner self^[o] shall not abhor you. ¹² And I will walk about in your midst, and I shall be your God,^[p] and you shall be my people.^{[q] 13} I am Yahweh, your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from being their slaves; and I broke the bars of your yoke, and I caused you to walk erectly.

Punishment for Disobedience

¹⁴ “‘But^[r] if you do not listen to me and you do not carry out^[s] all these commands, ¹⁵ and if you reject my statutes and if your inner self^[t] abhors my regulations, to not carry out^[u] all my commands by your breaking my covenant, ¹⁶ I in turn^[v] will do this to you: then^[w] I will summon onto you horror, the wasting disease, and the fever that wastes eyes and that drains away life; and you shall sow your seed in vain,^[x] and your enemies shall eat it. ¹⁷ And I will set my face against you, and you shall be defeated before^[y] your enemies; and your haters shall rule over you, and you shall flee away, but^[z] there shall not be anybody who is pursuing^[aa] you.

¹⁸ “‘And if in spite of these things you do not listen to me, then^[ab] I will continue to discipline you seven times for your sins. ¹⁹ And I will break the pride of your strength; and I will make your heaven like iron^[ac] and your land like copper. ²⁰ And your strength shall be consumed in vain;^[ad] and your land shall not give its produce, and the land’s trees shall not give their fruit.

²¹ “‘And if you go against me in hostility and you are not willing to listen to me, then^[ae] I will add a plague onto you seven times according to your sins. ²² And I will send wild animals^[af] out among you, and they shall make you childless, and they shall cut down your domestic animals, and they shall make you fewer; and your roads shall be desolate.

²³ “‘And if you do not accept correction from^[ag] me through these things, but^[ah] you go against me in hostility, ²⁴ then^[ai] I myself^[aj] will also go against you in hostility, and I myself^[ak] also will strike you seven times for your sins. ²⁵ And I will bring upon you a sword that seeks vengeance for the covenant, and you shall be gathered to your cities; and I will send a plague in your midst, and you shall be given into the hand of an enemy. ²⁶ At my breaking the supply^[al] of bread^[am] for you, then^[an] ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall return your bread by weight; and you shall eat it, and you shall not be satisfied.

²⁷ “‘And if through this you do not listen to me and you go against me in hostility, ²⁸ then^[ao] I will go against you in hostile anger, and also^[ap] I myself^[aq] will discipline you seven times for your sins. ²⁹ And you shall eat the flesh of your sons; and the flesh of your daughters you shall eat. ³⁰ And I will destroy your high places, and I will cut down your incense altars, and I will place your corpses on your idols’ corpses; and my inner self^[ar] shall abhor you. ³¹ And I will lay your cities in ruins, and I will lay waste your sanctuaries; and I shall not smell your sacrifices’^[as] appeasing fragrance. ³² And I myself^[at] will lay waste the land, and your enemies who are living in it shall be appalled over it. ³³ And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will draw a sword behind you; and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a ruin. ³⁴ Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths all the days of its lying desolate, and you shall be in the land of your enemies; then the land shall rest, and it shall enjoy its Sabbaths. ³⁵ All the days of its lying desolate it shall rest for the time^[au] that it had not rested during your Sabbaths while you were living on it. ³⁶ As for^[av] the ones who remain among you, I will bring^[aw] fearfulness in their hearts in the land of their enemies; and a sound of a windblown leaf shall pursue them, and they shall flee like flight before^[ax] a sword, and they shall fall, but^[ay] there shall not be a pursuer. ³⁷ And they shall stumble over one another^[az] as from before^[ba] a sword, but^[bb] there shall not be a pursuer; and you shall have no resistance^[bc] before^[bd] your enemies. ³⁸ And you shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you. ³⁹ And because of their guilt, the ones among you who remain shall decay in the land of their enemies; and also because of the iniquities of their ancestors,^[be] they shall decay with them.

⁴⁰ “‘But^[bf] when they confess their guilt and the guilt of their ancestors^[bg] in their infidelity that they displayed against me, and moreover that they went against me in hostility— ⁴¹ I myself^[bh] also^[bi] went against them in hostility, and I brought them into the land of their enemies—or if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and then they pay for their guilt, ⁴² I will remember^[bj] my covenant with Jacob; and I will remember also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. ⁴³ And the land shall be deserted by them, and it shall enjoy its Sabbaths in its being desolate from them, and they themselves^[bk] must pay for their guilt, simply because^[bl] they rejected my regulations, and their inner self^[bm] abhorred my statutes. ⁴⁴ And in spite of^[bn] this, when they are^[bo] in the land of their enemies I will not reject them, and I will not abhor them to destroy them, to break my covenant with them, because I am Yahweh their God. ⁴⁵ And I will remember the first covenant for them^[bp]—whom I brought out from the land of Egypt in the sight of^[bq] the nations to be their God.^[br] I am Yahweh.’”

⁴⁶ These are the rules and the regulations and the laws that Yahweh gave between himself and the Israelites^[bs] on Mount Sinai^[bt] through^[bu] Moses.

Footnotes

1. Leviticus 26:1 Plural throughout the entire chapter
2. Leviticus 26:1 Or “to”
3. Leviticus 26:4 Or “and”
4. Leviticus 26:5 Literally “to contentment”
5. Leviticus 26:5 Literally “with confidence”
6. Leviticus 26:6 Literally “who makes afraid” or “making afraid”
7. Leviticus 26:6 Literally “a sword shall not pass through in your land”
8. Leviticus 26:7 Literally “to your faces”
9. Leviticus 26:8 Hebrew “from”
10. Leviticus 26:8 Hebrew “from”
11. Leviticus 26:8 Or “ten thousand”
12. Leviticus 26:8 Literally “to your faces”
13. Leviticus 26:10 Literally “old what is stale”
14. Leviticus 26:10 Literally “old from the faces of new you shall bring out”
15. Leviticus 26:11 Or “soul”
16. Leviticus 26:12 Or “as a God for you”
17. Leviticus 26:12 Or “as a people for me”
18. Leviticus 26:14 Or “And”
19. Leviticus 26:14 Or “you do not do” or “you do not observe” or “you do not perform”
20. Leviticus 26:15 Or “soul”
21. Leviticus 26:15 Or “do” or “observe” or “perform”
22. Leviticus 26:16 Literally “also” or “indeed”
23. Leviticus 26:16 Or “and”
24. Leviticus 26:16 Literally “for the emptiness”
25. Leviticus 26:17 Literally “to the faces of”
26. Leviticus 26:17 Or “and”
27. Leviticus 26:17 Literally “who pursues” or “pursuing”
28. Leviticus 26:18 Or “and”
29. Leviticus 26:19 Or “iron ore”
30. Leviticus 26:20 Literally “to the emptiness”
31. Leviticus 26:21 Or “and”
32. Leviticus 26:22 Literally “the animals of the field”
33. Leviticus 26:23 Hebrew “for” or “to”
34. Leviticus 26:23 Or “and”
35. Leviticus 26:24 Or “and”
36. Leviticus 26:24 Emphatic personal pronoun
37. Leviticus 26:24 Emphatic personal pronoun
38. Leviticus 26:26 Literally “staff”
39. Leviticus 26:26 Or “food”
40. Leviticus 26:26 Or “and”
41. Leviticus 26:28 Or “and”
42. Leviticus 26:28 Or “surely”
43. Leviticus 26:28 Emphatic personal pronoun
44. Leviticus 26:30 Or “soul”
45. Leviticus 26:31 Implied by the use of the same phraseology in regard to the sacrifices in the early chapters of the book
46. Leviticus 26:32 Emphatic personal pronoun
47. Leviticus 26:35 Implied by context
48. Leviticus 26:36 Or “And”
49. Leviticus 26:36 Or “and I will bring”
50. Leviticus 26:36 Literally “of”
51. Leviticus 26:36 Or “and”
52. Leviticus 26:37 Literally “a man on his brother”
53. Leviticus 26:37 Literally “from the faces of”
54. Leviticus 26:37 Or “and”
55. Leviticus 26:37 Literally “it shall not be for you resistance”
56. Leviticus 26:37 Literally “to the faces of”
57. Leviticus 26:39 Or “fathers”
58. Leviticus 26:40 Or “And”
59. Leviticus 26:40 Or “fathers”
60. Leviticus 26:41 Emphatic personal pronoun
61. Leviticus 26:41 Or “surely”
62. Leviticus 26:42 Or “and I will remember”
63. Leviticus 26:43 Emphatic personal pronoun
64. Leviticus 26:43 Literally “because and in because”
65. Leviticus 26:43 Or “soul”
66. Leviticus 26:44 Literally “also even” or “moreover also” or “moreover even”
67. Leviticus 26:44 Literally “in their being”
68. Leviticus 26:45 Or “on behalf of them” or “on their behalf”
69. Leviticus 26:45 Literally “to the eyes of” or “for the eyes of”
70. Leviticus 26:45 Literally “to be for them for God” or “to be for them as a God”
71. Leviticus 26:46 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
72. Leviticus 26:46 Literally “the mountain of Sinai”
73. Leviticus 26:46 Literally “in/by the hand of”