Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Leviticus 26:38
And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.
Verse 38. The land of your enemies shall eat you up.] Does this refer to the total loss of the ten tribes? These are so completely swallowed up in some enemies‘ land, that nothing concerning their existence or place of residence remains but mere conjecture.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
38. the land of your enemies shalleat you up, &c.On the removal of the ten tribes intocaptivity, they never returned, and all traces of them were lost.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And ye shall perish among the Heathen,…. Not utterly, but great numbers of them, through change of air, and different diet, as Aben Ezra, and through the cruel usage of their enemies; for there is a body of them which continues unto this day; unless this is to be understood of the ten tribes, as R. Akiba b interprets it, who are supposed to be entirely lost and swallowed up among the nations where they were carried captive:
and the land of your enemies shall eat you up; they should die in it through one disease or another; by the pestilence, as the Targum of Jonathan, and so be buried in it; in which sense it may be said to eat them up, or consume them, for the grave swallows up and consumes all that are put into it; Jarchi says, this is to be understood of those that die in captivity.
b In Torat Cohanim, ut supra. (par. 1. fol. 197. 2.)
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(38) And ye shall perish among the heathen.Better, And ye shall be lost among the heathen, as the word here rendered perish is often translated. (See Deu. 22:3; 1Sa. 9:3; 1Sa. 9:20; Jer. 1:6; Eze. 34:4; Eze. 34:16; Psa. 119:176, &c.) The context plainly shows that utter destruction is not meant here. The very next verse speaks of a remnant who are to pine away, whilst Lev. 26:40 speaks of their confessing their guilt.
The land of your enemies shall eat you up.That is, they shall be so completely mixed up with the heathen nations amongst whom they are to be dispersed, and so utterly incorporated amongst them, that they will disappear, and have no separate existence. This is the sense of this peculiar phrase in Num. 13:32; Eze. 36:13.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
38. Ye shall perish among the heathen Says Josephus, in Wars of the Jews: “The number of those that were carried captive during this whole war was ninety-seven thousand, and the number that perished during the whole siege one million one hundred thousand, the greater part of whom were, indeed, of the same nation with the citizens of Jerusalem, but not belonging to the city itself; for they were come up from all the country to the feast of unleavened bread and were on a sudden shut up by an army.” So many were led away into captivity that the slave markets of the world were glutted, and, in exact accordance with prophecy, there was no man to buy them. Deu 28:68.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Lev 26:38. The land of your enemies shall eat you up This was literally fulfilled in the captivity of the ten tribes, as well as in the sufferings and oppressions, which the rest of the family of Israel have undergone for their own and the iniquities of their fathers; Lev 26:39.
REFLECTIONS.As God encouraged to obedience by rewards, he threatened the disobedient with the most awful judgments. If mercy will not draw them, at least let terror drive them.
1. The sins that God threatens are, wilful disobedience persisted in, with impenitence under their chastisements. This is supposed to begin in carelessness and disregard of God’s commandments, the consequence of which would soon be to despise them. Sin is a down-hill road; the transition from evil to worse is most natural. When they began to slight religion, destruction would hasten apace; they would then loath it, and breaking off every restraint, give scope to the insatiable lusts of their corrupted hearts. Such is the usual process of evil. God will visit for these things; and if his rod of correction is despised, his sword of judgment shall be unsheathed. Before he strikes, he warns: if they will hearken to the calls of his word, and the pleadings of their conscience; if they turn from the evil of their way, and reform their course of evil, there will be hope: but when his calls are rejected with obstinacy, and his judgments exasperate and harden instead of humbling them, then woe unto them. Note; They who resist the calls of God, and the convictions of conscience, and, under the corrections of sickness and affliction, continue unhumbled, impatient, murmuring, and unreformed, have nothing to hope for, but wrath to the uttermost.
2. The punishments to be inflicted on the rebellious. The first and sorest judgment, and the cause of all the rest, is God’s face being set against them. They who contend with their Maker will find the struggle most unequal. He threatens to cross their designs, and disappoint their hopes; evil and misfortune shall attend them as their shadows. Diseases, like a flight of locusts, shall seize upon their bodies; unfruitful seasons shall make their lands barren, and the sword of their enemies shall be drenched in their blood. If these judgments have no effect, greater shall follow: God will not stay his arm from punishment, whilst we refuse to bow our hearts in penitence. The beasts of the earth shall devour their children, and, as executioners of God’s wrath, make their habitations desolate. If they remain yet incorrigible, heavier and thicker strokes descend. Whilst the sinner is out of hell, there is hope; but every rejected call hardens him thither. Famine shall stalk through their barren land, and pestilence devour and depopulate their cities. God thus arms all creation against his enemies, and heaven and earth conspire to destroy them. If, after all, their desperate hearts reject the warning, and continue impenitent, their ruin shall come. When God begins he will make an end with the sinner, nor leave him till he is brought to himself or to everlasting burnings. Their cities shall be besieged, and they shall eat their sons and daughters through the famine: their enemies shall throw down their walls, and lay their carcases on their idols. And whilst in desolation the land enjoys her sabbaths, the poor remnant shall be scattered among the heathen, nor even there be at rest. A sword shall pursue them, and their souls withal be as miserable as their bodies. Continual terror within shall torment their coward, guilty hearts; and in their iniquities they shall pine away without prospect of redress. Despair in this life is the consummation of a sinner’s guilt, and, in hell, of his torment. Vengeance so exemplary shall even astonish their enemies, and they shall be seen and acknowledged the objects of God’s just abhorrence. Note; (1.) What a dreadful thing is sin! (2.) How sure is the ruin of the impenitent sinner! (3.) How aggravated the guilt of that soul whom mercies cannot engage, nor corrections deter. (4.) How just will God appear, to give up those to despair, who have given up themselves to work wickedness.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Deu 4:27, Deu 28:48, Deu 28:68, Isa 27:13, Jer 42:17, Jer 42:18, Jer 42:22, Jer 44:12-14, Jer 44:27, Jer 44:28
Reciprocal: Deu 28:20 – until thou be Deu 32:26 – General 2Ki 15:29 – carried them 2Ki 17:6 – carried Jer 15:14 – pass Eze 36:19 – I scattered Zec 11:11 – knew