Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Leviticus 26:14
But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments;
14 39. The penalties that shall ensue, if Israel prove disobedient (Cp. Deu 28:15 ff.)
They are arranged in five groups, viz. ( a) Lev 26:16-18, ( b) Lev 26:19-20, ( c) Lev 26:21; Lev 26:32, ( d) Lev 26:23-26, ( e) Lev 26:27-39, overthrow and exile of the nation.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Lev 26:14-19
But if ye will not hearken.
National transgression and disaster
I. A nations progressive apostasy.
1. Passive indifference to Divine teachings and appeals: Not hearken.
2. Non-compliance with Divine calls and claims: Not do.
3. Contemptuous rejection of Gods statutes: Despise (Mal 3:14-15).
4. Spiritual revolt from all sacred demands: Your soul abhor My judgments (Joh 3:20; Job 24:13). A fearful departure from God.
5. Violation of all covenant relationship: Ye break My covenant.
II. An apostate nations, calamities.
1. Sin brings disease and physical suffering in its train (Lev 26:16): Terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart. Impiety inevitably drifts into impurity.
2. Failure and penury follow quickly upon habits of indulgence and impurity: Sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it (Lev 26:16). Nothing succeeds in the hands of a dissipated and dissolute man, and he becomes a prey to his hated scorners and rivals.
3. A godless life invites the ravages of the enemy (Lev 26:17). God withdrew His protection, and adversaries swept down upon Israel. They who repudiate Divine government are taken captive by the devil at his will, and serve their enemies. Sin is very cruel. It slays its victims; slaughters their virtue, peace, happiness, hopes; destroys precious souls.
4. Sin also fills the life of wrongdoers with terrors; they flee when none pursueth. Even in nations there is strong confidence and a sound mind only when conscious of rectitude and the enjoyment of Gods approval. It paralyses a peoples heart to feel that Heaven is alienated and Divine favour lost. Armies, too, have gone with assurance into battles when convinced that God is with them–as Cromwells Ironsides–while enemies have fled with panic, as did the Spanish Armada, when possessed with alarm that God was against them.
5. There are the yet darker calamities of abject overthrow and Divine desertion: I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass (Lev 26:19)–a picture of prostration and helplessness which finds verification in
(1) Babylons fall–now lying buried amid bleaching sands, emblem of rebuked pride;
(2) the desolation of Jerusalem–now a waste scene, and her children the tribes of the wandering foot and weary breast;
(3) the buried cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum–interred beneath volcanic ashes, a monument of sudden wrath on a voluptuous people. Such historic admonitions warn against national impiety, and call mankind to seriousness and prayer; for even in the solemn threatenings of God there lies an overt assurance of mercy, that if a nation or individual will cease from apostasy and hearken unto Him (Lev 26:18), He will turn aside the seven times more punishment for sins, and show the forgiveness in which He delights, and the salvation which the glorious gospel of His grace proclaims. (W. H. Jellie.)
Gods warning against rebellion
I. How their sin is described, which would bring all this misery upon them. Not sins of ignorance and infirmity–God had provided sacrifices for these; not the sins they repented of and forsook, but sins presumptuously committed and obstinately persisted in.
1. A contempt of Gods commandments.
(1) Despising His statutes; both the duties enjoined, and the authority enjoining them. Those are hastening apace to their own ruin who begin to think it below them to be religious.
(2) Abhorring His judgments. They that begin by despising religion will soon come to loathe it; mean thoughts of it will ripen into ill thoughts of it. They that turn from it will turn against it, and their hearts rise at it.
(3) Breaking His covenant. They that reject the precept will come at last to renounce the covenant. Observe, it is Gods covenant they break–He made it, but they break it. Note–If a covenant be made and kept between God and man, God must have all the honour; but if ever it be broken, man must bear all the blame; on him shall this breach be.
2. A contempt of Gods corrections. Their contempt of Gods Word would not have brought them to ruin if they had not added to that a contempt of His rod, which should have brought them to repentance. Three ways this is expressed.
(1) If you will not for all this hearken to Me (Lev 26:18; Lev 26:21; Lev 26:27). If ye will not learn obedience by the things which you suffer, but be as deaf to the loud alarms of Gods judgments as you have been to the close reasonings of His Word, and the secret whispers of your own consciences, you are obstinate indeed.
(2) If ye will walk contrary to Me (Lev 26:21; Lev 26:23; Lev 26:27). All sinners walk contrary to God, to His truths, laws, and counsels, but those especially that are incorrigible under His judgments. The design of the rod is to humble them, and soften them, and bring them to repentance; but instead of this, their hearts are more hardened and exasperated against God, and in their distress they trespass yet more against Him (2Ch 28:22). This is walking contrary to God.
(3) If ye will not be reformed by these things. Gods design in punishing is to reform, by giving men sensible convictions of the evil of sin, and obliging them to seek unto Him for relief. This is the primary intention, but those that will not be reformed by the judgments of God must expect to be ruined by them.
II. How the misery is described which their sin would bring upon them.
1. God Himself would be against them; and this is the root and cause of all their misery.
(1) I will set My face against you (Lev 26:17); i.e., I will set Myself against you, set Myself to ruin you. These proud sinners God will resist, and face those down that confront His authority; or the face is put for the anger–I will show Myself highly displeased at you.
(2) I will walk contrary to you (Lev 26:24; Lev 26:28). With the froward He will wrestle (Psa 18:26). When God in His providence thwarts the designs of a people, which they thought well laid, crosseth their purposes, breaks their measures, blasts their endeavours, and disappoints their expectations-then He walks contrary to them. Note–There is nothing got by striving with God Almighty; for He will either break the heart or break the neck of those that contend with Him, will bring them either to repentance or ruin. I will walk at all adventures with you; so some read it, All covenant lovingkindness shall be forgotten, and I will leave you to common providence. Note, those that cast God off, it is just with Him to cast them off.
(3) As they continued obstinate, the: judgments should increase yet more upon them. If the first sensible tokens of Gods displeasure do not attain their end to humble and reform them, then (Lev 26:18), I will punish you seven times more; and again (Lev 26:21), I will bring seven times more plagues; and (Lev 26:24), I will punish you yet seven times; and (Lev 26:28), I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. Note–If lesser judgments do not do their work, God will send greater; for when He judgeth He will overcome. If true repentance do not stay process, it will go on till execution be taken out. Those that are obstinate and incorrigible, when they have weathered one storm, must expect another more violent; and how severely soever they are punished till they are in hell, still they must say there is worse behind, unless they repent. If the founder have hitherto melted in vain (Jer 6:29), the furnace will be heated seven times hotter (a proverbial expression used Dan 3:19), and again and again seven times hotter. And who among us can dwell with such devouring fire? God doth not begin with the sorest judgments, to show that He is patient, and delights not in the death of sinners; but if they repent not, He will proceed to the sorest, to show that He is righteous, and that He will not be mocked or set at defiance.
(4) Their misery is completed in that threatening (Lev 26:30), My soul shall abhor you. That man is as miserable as he can be whom God abhors, for His resentments are just and effective. Thus, if any man draw back, as these here are supposed to do, Gods soul shall have no pleasure in them (Heb 10:38); and He will spue them out of His mouth (Rev 3:16). It is spoken of as strange, and yet too true, Hath thy soul loathed Sion? (Jer 14:19.)
2. The whole creation would be at war with them; all Gods sore judgments would be sent against them, for He hath many arrows in His quiver. The threatenings here are very particular, because really they were prophecies; and He that foresaw all their rebellions knew they would prove so (see Deu 31:16; Deu 31:29). This long roll of threatenings shows that evil pursues sinners. Here is
(1) temporal judgments threatened.
(a) Diseases of body, which should be epidemical (Lev 26:16). All diseases are Gods servants, and do what He appoints them, and are often used as scourges wherewith He chastiseth a provoking people. The pestilence is threatened (Lev 26:25) to meet them when they are gathered together in their cities for fear of the sword. And the greater the concourse of people is, the greater desolation doth the pestilence make; and when it gets among the soldiers that should defend a place, it is of most fatal consequences.
(b) Famine and scarcity of bread, which should be brought upon them several ways, as:
(i.) By plunder (Lev 26:16): Your enemies shall eat it up, and carry it off, as the Madianites did (Jdg 6:5-6).
(ii.) By unseasonable weather, especially the want of rain (Lev 26:19); I will make your heaven as iron, letting fall no rain, but reflecting heat; and then the earth would of course be as hard and dry as brass, and their labour in ploughing and sowing would be in vain (Lev 26:26); for the increase of the earth depends upon Gods good providence more than upon mans good husbandry.
(iii.) By the besieging of their cities; for sure that must be supposed to reduce them to such extremity, as that they should eat the flesh of their sons and daughters (Lev 26:29).
(c) War, and the prevalency of their enemies over them: Ye shall be slain before your enemies (Lev 26:17).
(d) Wild beasts–lions, and bears, and wolves–which should increase upon them, and tear in pieces all that came in their way (Lev 26:22), as we read of two bears that in an instant killed forty and two children (2Ki 2:24). This one of the four sore judgments threatened (Eze 14:21), which plainly refers to this chapter. Man was made to have dominion over the creatures, and though many of them are stronger than he, yet none of them could have hurt him, nay, all of them should have served him, if he had not first shaken off Gods dominion, and so lost his own; and now the creatures are in rebellion against him that is in rebellion against his Maker, and when the Lord of those hosts pleaseth, are the executioners of His wrath and ministers of His justice.
(e) Captivity, or dispersion: I will scatter you among the heathen (Lev 26:33) in your enemies land (Lev 26:34). Never were more people so incorporated and united among themselves as they were; but for their sin God would scatter them, so that they should be lost among the heathen, from whom God had so graciously distinguished them, but with whom they had wickedly mingled themselves. Yet when they were scattered Divine justice had not done with them, but would draw out a sword after them, which should find them out, and follow them, wherever they were. Gods judgments, as they cannot be outfaced, so they cannot be outrun.
(f) The utter ruin and desolation of their land, which should be so remarkable that their very enemies themselves, who had helped it forward, should in the review be astonished at it (Lev 26:32).
(i.) Their cities should be waste, forsaken, uninhabited, and all the buildings destroyed; those that escaped the desolations of war should fall to decay of themselves.
(ii.) Their sanctuaries should be a desolation, i.e., their synagogues, where they met for religious worship every Sabbath, as well as their Tabernacle, where they met thrice year.
(iii.) The country itself should be desolate, not tilled or husbanded (Lev 26:34-35); then the land should enjoy its sabbaths, because they bad not religiously observed the sabbatical years which God appointed them. They tilled their ground when God would have them let it rest, justly therefore were they driven out of it; and the expression intimates that the ground itself was pleased and easy when it was rid of the burthen of such sinners, under which it had groaned (Rom 8:20. &c.). The captivity in Babylon lasted seventy years, and so long the land enjoyed her sabbaths, as is said (2Ch 36:21) with reference to this here.
(g) The destruction of their idols, though rather a mercy than a judgment, yet being a necessary piece of justice, is here mentioned, to show what would be the sin that would bring all these miseries upon them (Lev 26:30).
(2) Spiritual judgments are here threatened which should seize the mind, for He that made that can, when He pleaseth, make His sword approach unto it. It is here threatened–
(a) that they should find no acceptance with God (Lev 26:31).
(b) That they should have no courage in their wars, but should be quite dispirited and disheartened (Lev 26:17; Lev 26:36). Those that cast off the fear of God expose themselves to the fear of everything else (Pro 28:1).
(c) That they should have no hope of the forgiveness of their sins (Lev 26:39; Eze 33:10). Note–It is a righteous thing with God, to leave those to despair of pardon that have presumed to sin; and it is owing to free grace, if we are not abandoned to pine away in the iniquity we are born in and have lived in. (Matthew Henry, D. D.)
Imprecations among the ancients
Imprecations like those set forth in our section were not unusual among the ancients; one brief parallel may here be inserted. When the people of Cirrba and others had polluted the temple of Delhi and profaned its holy treasures, the Amphictyons, after having devastated their territories, and sold the inhabitants as slaves, protested and swore that no one should ever cultivate the devoted land, and they publicly pronounced this curse: If any persons transgress this edict, whether private individuals, or a tribe, or a people, their land shall, bear no fruit, and the women shall bring forth no children who resemble their fathers, but shall give birth to monsters; nor shall the beasts produce young of a normal shape; misfortune shall befall them in their wars, their tribunals, and their public assemblies; they themselves, with their houses and their whole race, shall be destroyed; and they shall never again present to the gods an acceptable offering. (M. M. Kalisch, Ph. D.)
Gods warning a blessing
In the summer of 1884, when the cholera was raging in Spain, our newspapers constantly warned the people that dirt bred disease, and opened up a highway for the cholera to spread rapidly, if once it reached our shores. This theme was not dwelt on for the sake of frightening people, for the sake of the alarm, but to frighten them into doing a good thing which otherwise they would have left undone. The result, at least in New York City, was most beneficial. Alarm bred action and action cleansed the city as it never had been cleansed before. And not only did we have no cholera, but in the fall of 1885 the death-rate of the city had been unusually low. In this case forewarned was forearmed, and the warning was a blessing, and not a curse. The same is true of the patient and his wise physician. The latter sees, perhaps, that the manner of his patients living is injurious. It will end fatally, so he warns him. He does not do it merely to frighten him, but to frighten him away from the folly of his present manner of life. (A. F. Schauffler.)
Gods presence a source of blessing to a nation
When the king removes, the court and all the carriages follow after, and when they are gone the hangings are taken down; nothing is left behind but bare walls, dust, and rubbish. So if God removes from a man or a nation where He kept His court, His graces will not stay behind; and if they be gone, farewell peace, farewell comfort; down go the hangings of all prosperity, nothing is left behind but confusion and disorder. (J. Spencer.)
God unchangeable
The sun hath but one simple act of shining; yet do we not see that it doth unite clay and straw, dissolve ice and water? It hardens clay, and melteth wax; it makes the flowers to smell sweetly, and a dead corpse to scent loathsomely; the hot fire to be cold, and the cold water hotter; cures one man with its heat, yet therewith kills another. What is the reason? The cause is in the several objects, and their divers dispositions and constitutions, and not in the suns act of shining, which is one and the same thing. Or let a looking-glass be set in the window. Will it not represent to the eye diversity of objects? If thou go to it in decent and seemly apparel, shalt thou not see the like figure? If dejected, and in coarse raiment, will it not offer to thy view the same equal proportion? Do but stretch thyself, bend thy brow, and run against it, will it not resemble the like person and actions? Where now is the change–shall we conclude in the glass? No; for it is neither altered from the place nor in the nature. Thus the change of love and affection is not in God, but in respect of the object about which it is exercised. If one day God seem to love us, another to hate us, there is alteration within us first, not any in the Lord. We shall be sure to find a change, but it must be when we do change our ways; but God never changeth. Such as we are to ourselves, such will He be to us; if we run stubbornly against Him, He will walk stubbornly against us; with the froward He will be froward, but with the meek He will show Himself meek; yet one and the same God still, in whom there is not the least shadow of change imaginable. (J. Spencer.)
God proceeds from milder to sharper courses
The physician, when he findeth that the potion which he hath given his patient will not work, he seconds it with one more violent; but if he perceive the disease to be settled, then he puts him into a course of physic, so that, medice misere, he shall have at present but small comfort of his life. And thus doth the surgeon too: if a gentle plaster will not serve, then he applies that which is more corroding; and to prevent a gangrene, he makes use of his cauterising knife, and takes off the joint or member that is so ill affected. Even so God, when men profit not by such crosses as He hath formerly exercised them with, when they are not bettered by lighter afflictions, then He sends heavier, and proceeds from milder to sharper courses. If the dross of their sin will not come off, He will throw them into the melting-pot again and again, crush them harder in the press, and lay on such irons as shall enter more deep into their souls. If He strikes and they grieve not or they be so foolish that they will not know the judgment of their God, He will bring seven times more plagues upon them, cross upon cross, loss upon loss, trouble upon trouble, one sorrow upon the neck of another, till they are in a manner wasted and consumed. (J. Spencer.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
14, 15. But if ye will not hearkenunto me, &c.In proportion to the great and manifoldprivileges bestowed upon the Israelites would be the extent of theirnational criminality and the severity of their national punishmentsif they disobeyed.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But if ye will not hearken unto me,…. To his commandments, as the rule of their duty, and to his promises, as an encouragement to it, or to his prophets and ministers, explaining and enforcing his law, and exhorting to a cheerful obedience to it; so the Targum of Jonathan,
“if ye will not hearken to the doctrine of them that teach my laws;”
which was the sin of the Jews in later times, for which captivity and other calamities befell them, Jer 7:25;
and will not do all these commandments; which he had delivered to them by Moses, whether moral, ceremonial, or judicial, recorded in this book and in the preceding; even all of them were to be respected, attended to, and performed, for the law curses everyone that does not do all things it requires, Ga 3:10.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The Curse for Contempt of the Law. – The following judgments are threatened, not for single breaches of the law, but for contempt of all the laws, amounting to inward contempt of the divine commandments and a breach of the covenant (Lev 26:14, Lev 26:15), – for presumptuous and obstinate rebellion, therefore, against God and His commandments. For this, severe judgments are announced, which were to be carried to their uttermost in a fourfold series, if the hardening were obstinately continued. If Israel acted in opposition to the Lord in the manner stated, He would act towards them as follows (Lev 26:16, Lev 26:17): He would appoint over them terror, – a general notion, which is afterwards particularized as consisting of diseases, sowing without enjoying the fruit, defeat in war, and flight before their enemies. Two kinds of disease are mentioned by which life is destroyed: consumption and burning, i.e., burning fever, , febris , which cause the eyes (the light of this life) to disappear, and the soul (the life itself) to pine away; whereas in Exo 23:25; Exo 15:26, preservation from diseases is promised for obedience to the law. Of these diseases, consumption is at present very rare in Palestine and Syria, though it occurs in more elevated regions; but burning fever is one of the standing diseases. To these there would be added the invasion of the land by enemies, so that they would labour in vain and sow their seed to no purpose, for their enemies would consume the produce, as actually was the case (e.g., Jdg 6:3-4).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Threatenings. | B. C. 1490. |
14 But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments; 15 And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant: 16 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. 17 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. 18 And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. 19 And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass: 20 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. 21 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. 22 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 high ways shall be desolate. 23 And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me; 24 Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins. 25 And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my 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. 26 And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied. 27 And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me; 28 Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. 29 And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat. 30 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. 31 And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours. 32 And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. 33 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. 34 Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths. 35 As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it. 36 And upon them that are left alive 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. 37 And they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursueth: and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies. 38 And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. 39 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.
After God had set the blessing before them (the life and good which would make them a happy people if they would be obedient), he here sets the curse before them, the death and evil which would make them as miserable if they were disobedient. Let them not think themselves so deeply rooted as that God’s power could not ruin them, nor so highly favoured as that his justice would not ruin them if they revolted from him and rebelled against him; no You only have I known, therefore I will punish you soonest and sorest. Amos iii. 2. Observe,
I. How their sin is described, which would bring all this misery upon them. Not sins of ignorance and infirmity; God had provided sacrifices for those. Not the sins they repented of and forsook; but the sins that were presumptuously committed, and obstinately persisted in. Two things would certainly bring this ruin upon them:–
1. A contempt of God’s commandments (v. 14): “If you will not hearken to me speaking to you by the law, nor do all these commandments, that is, desire and endeavour to do them, and, wherein you miss it, make use of the prescribed remedies.” Thus their sin is supposed to begin in mere carelessness, and neglect, and omission. These are bad enough, but they make way for worse; for the people are brought in (v. 15) as, (1.) Despising God’s statutes, both the duties enjoined and the authority enjoining them, thinking meanly of the law and the Law-maker. Note, Those are hastening apace to their own ruin who begin to think it below them to be religious. (2.) Abhorring his judgments, their very souls abhorring them. Note, Those that begin to despise religion will come by degrees to loathe it; and mean thoughts of it will ripen into ill thoughts of it; those that turn from it will turn against it, and their hearts will rise at it. (3.) Breaking his covenant. Though every breach of the commandment does not amount to a breach of the covenant (we were undone if it did), yet, when men have come to such a pitch of impiety as to despise and abhor the commandment, the next step will be to disown God, and all relation to him. Those that reject the precept will come at last to renounce the covenant. Observe, It is God’s covenant which they break: he made it, but they break it. Note, If a covenant be made and kept between God and man, God must have all the honour; but, if ever it be broken, man must bear all the blame: on him shall this breach be.
2. A contempt of his corrections. Even their disobedience would not have been their destruction if they had not been obstinate and impenitent in it, notwithstanding the methods God took to reclaim them. Their contempt of God’s word would not have brought them to ruin, if they had not added to that a contempt of his rod, which should have brought them to repentance. Three ways this is expressed:– (1.) “If you will not for all this hearken to me,Lev 26:18; Lev 26:21; Lev 26:27. If you will not learn obedience by the things which you suffer, but be as deaf to the loud alarms of God’s judgments as you have been to the close reasonings of his word and the secret whispers of your own consciences, you are obstinate indeed.” (2.) “If you walk contrary to me,Lev 26:21; Lev 26:23; Lev 26:27. All sinners walk contrary to God, to his truths, laws, and counsels; but those especially that are incorrigible under his judgments. The design of the rod is to humble them, and soften them, and bring them to repentance; but, instead of this, their hearts are more hardened and exasperated against God, and in their distress they trespass yet more against him, 2 Chron. xxviii. 22. This is walking contrary to God. Some read it, “If you walk at all adventures with me, carelessly and presumptuously, as if you heeded not either what you do, whether it be right or wrong, or what God does with you, whether it be for you or against you, blundering on in wilful ignorance.” (3.) If you will not be reformed by these things. God’s design in punishing is to reform, by giving men sensible convictions of the evil of sin, and obliging them to seek unto him for relief: this is the primary intention; but those that will not be reformed by the judgments of God must expect to be ruined by them. Those have a great deal to answer for that have been long and often under God’s correcting hand, and yet go on frowardly in a sinful way; sick and in pain, and yet not reformed; crossed and impoverished, and yet not reformed; broken with breach upon breach, yet not returning to the Lord, Amos iv. 6, c.
II. How the misery is described which their sin would bring upon them, under two heads:–
1. God himself would be against them and this is the root and cause of all their misery. (1.) I will set my face against you (v. 17), that is, “I will set myself against you, set myself to ruin you.” These proud sinners God will resist, and face those down that confront his authority. Or the face is put for the anger: “I will show myself highly displeased at you.” (2.) I will walk contrary to you (Lev 26:24; Lev 26:28); with the forward he will wrestle, Ps. xxviii. 26 [margin]. When God in his providence thwarts the designs of a people, which they thought well laid, crosses their purposes, breaks their measures, blasts their endeavours, and disappoints their expectations, then he walks contrary to them. Note, There is nothing got by striving with God Almighty, for he will break either the heart or the neck of those that contend with him, will bring them either to repentance or ruin. “I will walk at all adventures with you,” so some read; “all covenant loving-kindness shall be forgotten, and I will leave you to common providence.” Note, Those that cast off God deserve that he should cast them off. (3.) As they continued obstinate, the judgments should increase yet more upon them. If the first sensible tokens of God’s displeasures do not attain their end, to humble and reform them, then (v. 18), I will punish you seven times more, and again (v. 21), I will bring seven times more plagues, and (v. 24), I will punish you yet seven times, and (v. 28), I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. Note, If less judgments do not do their work, God will send greater; for, when he judges, he will overcome. If true repentance do not stay process, it will go on till execution be taken out. Those that are obstinate and incorrigible, when they have weathered one storm must expect another more violent; and, how severely soever they are punished, till they are in hell they must still say, “There is worse behind,” unless they repent. If the founder have hitherto melted in vain (Jer. vi. 29), the furnace will be heated seven times hotter (a proverbial expression, used Dan. iii. 19), and again and again seven times hotter; and who among us can dwell with such devouring fire? God does not begin with the sorest judgments, to show that he is patient, and delights not in the death of sinners; but, if they repent not, he will proceed to the sorest, to show that he is righteous, and that he will not be mocked or set at defiance. (4.) Their misery is completed in that threatening: My soul shall abhor you, v. 30. That man is as miserable as he can be whom God abhors; for his resentments are just and effective. Thus if any man draw back, as these are supposed to do, God’s soul shall have no pleasure in him (Heb. x. 38), and he will spue them out of his mouth, Rev. iii. 16. It is spoken of as strange, and yet too true, Hath thy soul loathed Zion? Jer. xiv. 19.
2. The whole creation would be at war with them. All God’s sore judgments would be sent against them; for he hath many arrows in his quiver. The threatenings here are very particular, because really they were prophecies, and he that foresaw all their rebellions knew they would prove so; see Deu 31:16; Deu 31:29. This long roll of threatening shows that evil pursues sinners. We have here,
(1.) Temporal judgments threatened. [1.] Diseases of body, which should be epidemical: I will appoint over you, as task-masters, to rule you with rigour, terror, consumption, and the burning ague, v. 16. What we translate terror, some think, signifies a particular disease, probably (says the learned bishop Patrick) the falling sickness, which is terror indeed: all chronical diseases are included in the consumption, and all acute diseases in the burning ague or fever. These consume the eyes, and cause sorrow both to those that are visited with them and to their friends and relations. Note, All diseases are God’s servants; they do what he appoints them, and are often used as scourges wherewith he chastises a provoking people. The pestilence is threatened (v. 25) to meet them, when they are gathered together in their cities for fear of the sword. The greater the concourse of people is, the greater desolation does the pestilence make; and, when it gets among the soldiers that should defend a place, it is of most fatal consequence. [2.] Famine and scarcity of bread, which should be brought upon them several ways; as, First, By plunder (v. 16): Your enemies shall eat it up, and carry it off as the Midianites did, Jdg 6:5; Jdg 6:6. Secondly, By unseasonable weather, especially the want of rain (v. 19): I will make your heaven as iron, letting fall no rain, but reflecting heat, and then the earth would of course be as dry and hard as brass, and their labour in ploughing and sowing would be in vain (v. 20); for the increase of the earth depends upon God’s good providence more than upon man’s good husbandry. This should be the breaking of the staff of bread (v. 26), which life leans upon, and is supported by, on which perhaps they had leaned more than upon God’s blessing. There should be so great a dearth of corn that, whereas every family used to fill an oven of their own with household bread, now ten families should have to fill but one over, which would bring themselves and their children and servants to short allowance, so that they should eat and not be satisfied. The less they had the more craving should their appetites be. Thirdly, By the besieging of their cities, which would reduce them to such an extremity that they should eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, v. 29. [3.] War, and the prevailing of their enemies over them: “You shall be slain before your enemies, v. 17. Your choice men shall die in battle, and those that hate you shall reign over you, and justly, since you are not willing that the God that loved you should reign over you;” 2 Chron. xii. 8. Miserable is that people whose enemies are their rulers and have got dominion over them, or whose rulers have become their enemies and under-hand seek the ruin of their interests. Thus God would break the pride of their power, v. 19. God had given them power over the nations; but when they, instead of being thankful for that power, and improving it for the service of God’s kingdom, grew proud of it, and perverted the intentions of it, it was just with God to break it. Thus God would bring a sword upon them to avenge the quarrel of his covenant, v. 25. Note, God has a just quarrel with those that break covenant with him, for he will not be mocked by the treachery of perfidious men; and one way or other he will avenge this quarrel upon those that play at fast and loose with him. [4.] Wild beasts, lions, bears, and wolves, which should increase upon them, and tear in pieces all that come in their way (v. 22), as we read of two bears that in an instant killed forty-two children, 2 Kings ii. 24. This is one of the four sore judgments threatened Ezek. xiv. 21, which plainly refers to this chapter. Man was made to have dominion over the creatures, and, though many of them are stronger than he, yet none of them could have hurt him, nay, all of them would have served him, if he had not first shaken off God’s dominion, and so lost his own; and now the creatures are in rebellion against him that is in rebellion against his Maker, and, when the Lord of those hosts pleases, they are the executioners of his wrath and the ministers of his justice. [5.] Captivity, or dispersion: I will scatter you among the heathen (v. 33), in your enemies’ land, v. 34. Never were any people so incorporated and united among themselves as they were; but for their sin God would scatter them, so that they should be lost among the heathen, from whom God had graciously distinguished them, but with whom they had wickedly mingled themselves. Yet, when they were scattered, divine justice had not done with them, but would draw out a sword after them, which would find them out, and follow them wherever they were. God’s judgments, as they cannot be outfaced, so they cannot be outrun. [6.] The utter ruin and desolation of their land, which should be so remarkable that their very enemies themselves, who ha helped it forward, should in the review be astonished at it, v. 32. First, Their cities should be waste, forsaken, uninhabited, and all the buildings destroyed; those that escaped the desolations of war should fall to decay of themselves. Secondly, Their sanctuaries should be a desolation, that is, their synagogues where they met for religious worship every sabbath, as well as their tabernacle where they met thrice a year. Thirdly, The country itself should be desolate, not tilled or husbanded (Lev 26:34; Lev 26:35); then the land should enjoy its sabbaths, because they had not religiously observed the sabbatical years which God appointed them. They tilled their ground when God would have them let it rest; justly therefore were they driven out of it; and the expression intimates that the ground itself was pleased and easy when it was rid of the burden of such sinners, under which it had groaned, Rom. viii. 20, c. The captivity in Babylon lasted seventy years, and so long the land enjoyed her sabbaths, as is said (2 Chron. xxxvi. 21) with reference to this. [7.] The destruction of their idols, though rather a mercy than a judgment, yet, being a necessary piece of justice, is here mentioned, to show what would be the sin that would bring all these miseries upon them: I will destroy your high places, <i>v. 30. Those that will not be parted from their sins by the commands of God shall be parted from them by his judgments; since they would not destroy their high places, God would. And, to upbraid them with the unreasonable fondness they had shown for their idols, it is foretold that their carcases should be cast upon the carcases of their idols. Those that are wedded to their lusts will sooner or later have enough of them. Their idols would not be able to help either themselves or their worshippers; but, those that made them being like them, they should both perish alike, and fall together as blind into the ditch.
(2.) Spiritual judgments are here threatened. These should seize the mind; for he that made the mind can, when he pleases, make his sword approach to it. It is here threatened, [1.] That they should find no acceptance with God: I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours, v. 31. Though the judgments of God upon them did not separate them and their sins, yet they extorted incense from them; but in vain–even their incense was an abomination, Isa. i. 13. [2.] That they should have no courage in their wars, but should be quite dispirited and disheartened. They should not only fear and flee (v. 17), but fear and fall, when none pursued, v. 36. A guilty conscience would be their continual terror, so that not only the sound of a trumpet, but the very sound of a leaf, should chase them. Note, Those that cast off the fear of God expose themselves to the fear of every thing else, Prov. xxviii. 1. Their very fears should dash them one against another,Lev 26:37; Lev 26:38. And those that had increased one another’s guilt would now increase one another’s fears. [3.] That they should have no hope of the forgiveness of their sins (v. 39): They shall pine away in their iniquity, and how should they then live? Ezek. xxxiii. 10. Note, It is a righteous thing with God to leave those to despair of pardon that have presumed to sin; and it is owing to free grace if we are not abandoned to pine away in the iniquity we were born in and have lived in.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Verses 14-39 list the degrees of punishment God promised to send upon the disobedient. Compare with De 28:15-68.
The purpose of this punishment: to turn the people away from their sins and back to God, compare Heb 12:5-13; Pr 3:11, 12. Each succeeding degree of punishment is greater and more intense than the preceding one. This shows that failure to repent and forsake sin results in greater judgment.
Verses 14-20 list the first two of these degrees.
1. The first degree, consisting of two stages:
(1) Physical illness,
(a) “Terror,” behalah, “trouble, haste.”
(b) “Consumption,” schachepheth, “wasting away.”
(c) “Burning ague,” qaddachath, “fever.”
(2) Enemies, who would:
(a) oppress them by destroying their crops before they could reap and enjoy the harvest, and
(b) would subdue and oppress them and cause them to be afraid.
If this punishment failed to turn the rebellious one back to God, then He would take other, sterner measures.
2. The second degree: withholding of rain in the appropriate season. This would cause the heavens to seem to be as iron, and the fields to be as brass (copper). Without rain, no crops would grow, either of grain, orchard, or vineyard.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
14. But if ye will not hearken unto me. Thus far a kind invitation has been set before the people in the shape of promises, in order that the observance of the Law might be rendered pleasant and agreeable; since, as we have already seen, our obedience is then only approved by God when we obey willingly. But, inasmuch as the sluggishness of our flesh has need of spurring, threatenings are also added to inspire terror, and at any rate to extort what ought to have been spontaneously performed. It may seem indeed that it may thus be inferred that threats are absurdly misplaced when applied to produce obedience to the Law, which ought to be voluntary; for he who is compelled by fear will never love God; and this is the main point in the Law. But what I have already shewn, will in some measure avail to solve this difficulty, viz., that the Law is deadly to transgressors, because it holds them tight under that condemnation from which they would wish to be released by vain presumptions; whilst threats are also useful to the children of God for a different purpose, both that they may be prepared to fear God heartily before they are regenerate, and also that, after their regeneration, their corrupt affections may be daily subdued. For although they sincerely desire to devote themselves altogether to God, still they have to contend continually with the remainders of their flesh. Thus, then, although the direct object of threats is to alarm the reprobate, still they likewise apply to believers, for the purpose of stimulating their sluggishness, inasmuch as they are not yet thoroughly regenerate, but still burdened with the remainders of sin.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
3. THE CHASTISEMENTS FOR DISOBEDIENCE 26:1439
TEXT 26:1439
14
But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments;
15
and if ye shall reject my statutes, and if your soul abhor mine ordinances, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant;
16
I also will do this unto you: I will appoint terror over you, even consumption and fever, that shall consume the eyes, and make the soul to pine away; and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.
17
And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be smitten before your enemies: they that hate you shall rule over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you.
18
And if ye will not yet for these things hearken unto me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins.
19
And I will break the pride of your power: and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass;
20
and your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield its increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruit.
21
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.
22
And I will send the beast of the field among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your ways shall become desolate.
23
And if by these things ye will not be reformed unto me, but will walk contrary unto me:
24
then will I also walk contrary unto you; and I will smite you, even I, seven times for your sins.
25
And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall execute the vengeance of the covenant; and ye shall be gathered together within your cities: and I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
26
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: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied.
27
And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me;
28
then I will walk contrary unto you in wrath; and I also will chastise you seven times for your sins.
29
And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.
30
And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your sun-images, and cast your dead bodies upon the bodies of your idols; and my soul shall abhor you.
31
And I will make your cities a waste, and will bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savor of your sweet odors.
32
And I will bring the land into desolation; and your enemies that dwell therein shall be astonished at it.
33
And you will I scatter among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you: and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.
34
Then shall the land enjoy its sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye are in your enemies land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy its sabbaths.
35
As long as it lieth desolate it shall have rest, even the rest which it had not in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.
36
And as for them that are left of you, I will send a faintness into their heart in the lands of their enemies: and the sound of a driven leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as one fleeth from the sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth.
37
And they shall stumble one upon another, as it were before the sword, when none pursueth: and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies.
38
And ye shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.
39
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.
THOUGHT QUESTIONS 26:1439
642.
Please notice all the words used to describe Israels response to Gods will: (1) will not hearken; (2) will not do; (3) ye shall despise; (4) if your soul shall abhor; (5) ye shall break my covenant. Are they progressive? Define each one. Discuss.
643.
Mark the promises of destruction as they compare with the promises of prosperity: (1) sudden terror; (2) consumption and fever; (3) sow your seed in vain; (4) I will set my face against you; (5) flee when no one pursues.
644.
God seems to promise to deal with Israel in stages. Cf. Lev. 26:18 ff. What is involved in the expression sevenfold?
645.
The heavens are to be iron and the earth is to be brass. What is meant?
646.
Explain Lev. 26:20 in your own words.
647.
The plague will be according to the sins. How so?
648.
The wild beasts are to return or be released. Are we to understand from this that their actions are under the control of God? Cf. 2Ki. 17:25-26. Discuss.
649.
Why would anyone want to walk contrary to the ways of God?
650.
Lev. 26:25 definitely attributes to God the responsibility of war and pestilence. Explain. Cf. Num. 16:49; 2Sa. 24:15.
651.
What is the meaning of the thought of ten women baking in one oven? Are we to understand that God is promising rationing? Cf. Hag. 1:6.
652.
Cannibalism is promised in Lev. 26:29. Is this inevitable? Cf. II. Kings Lev. 6:28-29.
653.
Dead bodies are to be thrown on bodies. What is meant as in Lev. 26:30? Cf. 2Ki. 23:8; 2Ki. 23:20.
654.
Consider the fact that all these words were spoken (and written) at Sinai many, many years before they were literally fulfilled. What lesson does this teach us?
655.
Lev. 26:30 seems to say that God has a soulwhat is meant?
656.
Read 2Ki. 25:4-10 and 2Ch. 36:19 for a fulfillment of Lev. 26:31.
657.
The prophecy of scattering the nation of Israel among all nations and the drawing of their enemies sword out against them has surely been fulfilled again and again. Why? Cf. Psa. 44:11-14.
658.
The sabbath rest for the land will be enforced. How? Why? Cf. 2Ch. 36:21.
659.
Notice carefully the promises in Lev. 26:36 through 39. Each of these tragedies are attributed to God: (1) dejection, or discouragement; (2) running scared; (3) no courage; (4) loss of national identity; (5) deep grief. Explain how such was (and is) true and yet God is not morally responsible.
PARAPHRASE 26:1439
But if you will not listen to Me or obey Me, but reject My laws, this is what I will do to you: I will punish you with sudden terrors and panic, and with tuberculosis and burning fever; your eyes shall be consumed and your life shall ebb away; you will sow your crops in vain, for your enemies will eat them. I will set My face against you and you will flee before your attackers; those who hate you will rule you; you will even run when no one is chasing you! And if you still disobey Me, I will punish you seven times more severely for your sins. I will break your proud power and make your heavens as iron, and your earth as bronze. Your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield its crops, now your trees their fruit. And if even then you will not obey Me and listen to Me, I will send you seven times more plagues because of your sins. I will send wild animals to kill your children and destroy your cattle and reduce your numbers so that your roads will be deserted. And if even this will not reform you, but you continue to walk against My wishes, then I will walk against your wishes, and I, even I, will personally smite you seven times for your sin. I will revenge the breaking of My covenant by bringing war against you. You will flee to your cities, and I will send a plague among you there; and you will be conquered by your enemies. I will destroy your food supply so that one oven will be large enough to bake all the bread available for ten entire families; and you will still be hungry after your pittance has been doled out to you. And if you still wont listen to Me or obey Me, then I will let loose My great anger and send you seven times greater punishment for your sins. You shall eat your own sons and daughters, and I will destroy the altars on the hills where you worship your idols, and I will cut down your incense altars, leaving your dead bodies to rot among your idols; and I will abhor you. I will make your cities desolate, and destroy your places of worship, and will not respond to your incense offerings. Yes, I will desolate your land; your enemies shall live in it, utterly amazed at what I have done to you. I will scatter you out among the nations, destroying you with war as you go. Your land shall be desolate and your cities destroyed. Then at last the land will rest and make up for the many years you refused to let it lie idle; for it will lie desolate all the years that you are captives in enemy lands. Yes, then the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths! It will make up for the rest you didnt give it every seventh year when you lived upon it. And for those who are left alive, I will cause them to be dragged away to distant lands as prisoners of war, and slaves. There they will live in constant fear. The sound of a leaf driven in the wind will send them fleeing as though chased by a man with a sword; they shall fall when no one is pursuing them. Yes, though none pursue they shall stumble over each other in flight, as though fleeing in battle, with no power to stand before their enemies. You shall perish among the nations and be destroyed among your enemies. Those left shall pine away in enemy lands because of their sins, the same sins as those of their fathers.
COMMENT 26:1439
Lev. 26:14-17 Notice the progressive nature of rejection: (1) will not hearken or indifference, somewhat passive; (2) will not do i.e. resistance is in it; (3) despise or contempt, to spurn, a volitional turning away; (4) a break with the covenant, the marriage has been dissolved, divorce is filed. We can surely trace the progress of spiritual adultery in this pattern. Cf. Gen. 17:14.
There is also a cumulative and progressive nature in Gods response to mans rejection: (1) a sudden sickness called here consumption and fever. It will affect the eyes. Is such to suggest that the eyes of their heart had already been consumed? Cf. Deu. 28:22; (2) a deep discouragement will set in and you will pine away; (3) sow your seed and your enemies will reap your crop; (4) slain before your enemies; (5) constant fear and dread of what will happen next. Cf. 1Sa. 4:10; 1Sa. 31:1.
Why would anyone want to bring upon themselves such terrible suffering? Perhaps the first generation was warned and did not walk in the way of destruction, but every generation must be educated. We are always only one generation from rejection.
Lev. 26:18-20 Yet a further set of punishments are promised for persistent disobedience. The use of the expression sevenfold more refers to a continuing and indefinite number of punishments. The converse of this is found in Job. 5:19 : He shall deliver thee in six troubles; yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. Our Lord used this expression of seven to refer to an indefinite number of times in Luk. 17:4.
It is very important that we see that God is not against pride per se, i.e. pride of itself, but the object of pride which in this case was self instead of God. If man could not be proud of God and had not the capacity to honor Him there could be no real worship. It is when man takes pride in himself as if he were the originator of what he enjoys that God sets His face against him. The heavens will be as unresponsive as metal to such a person. God wants man to know that He has sent the rain and He produced the fruit. If God withheld the rain in what could you take pride? All your plowing, digging and sowing will be perfectly useless. The ground could as well be brass instead of soil. Cf. Deu. 11:17.
Lev. 26:21-22 These verses contain the third warning to Israel. God threatens them with destruction by wild beasts. To continue in defiance of God and rebel against His authority is to court disaster. The frequency and intensity of trouble will continue. Wild animals were used before as a means of punishment for sin: Cf. Deu. 32:24; 2Ki. 17:25; Isa. 13:21-22; Eze. 14:15. Instead of his original lordship over the creatures, lo! the beasts of the field rise up against rebellious man. This strange foe advances to their dwellings; and the cattle grazing before their door, and their little children playing on the grass, are devoured before their eyes by this new assailant . . . the leopard watches his opportunity; the evening wolf ravages the flock; and the bear tears what he finds within his reach; the lion springs on his prey. (Bonar) What a sad strange commentary on the way of the transgressor.
Lev. 26:23-26 If there is one obvious lesson from this chapter it is that God in heaven is affected by mans conduct on earth. We cannot set our hearts contrary to God and escape His response.
The sword goes through the land! Instead of peace and safety, the blood of Israel is shed by violent hands. The blood that ratified their covenant with God has been despised; therefore, lo! their own blood must be shed to avenge the broken covenant.
Pestilence and plague ravage their cities. Thinking to escape the sword of the invader, they betake themselves to fenced cities, and defy the enemy. But the Lord scales their walls and leads in His troops, i.e. the pestilence with all its horrors. The raging pestilence soon weakens the hands of the defenders of their cities, and opens the gates to the foe. Know then that it is a bitter thing to depart from the Lord. Famine follows pestilence. So scarce is food now, that instead of each family having its own oven, one oven will suffice for ten families, and the quantity given to each is scrupulously weighed, and none receive enough to satisfy their hunger. When Judah felt these horrors of famine in the siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, they might know assuredly that the Lords arrows were coming fast from His quiver (Cf. Jer. 38:9). (Ibid)
Lev. 26:27-33 This is the fifth and last warning of destruction. The land is to be totally destroyed. God had promised opposition before but in Lev. 26:28 He adds fury to His opposition. The details of such fury are described in the ensuing verses.
Cannibalism was promised and practiced. Cf. Deu. 28:53-57; 2Ki. 6:28-29. In the siege of Samaria by the Syrians and at the siege of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, parents ate their children. Cf. Lam. 4:10; Jer. 19:9; Eze. 5:10; Zec. 11:9. In the siege of Jerusalem by Titus it is reported that 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 of it in her house.
The destruction of the high places is promised in a manner that indicates Gods utter contempt for idolatry. The use of the expression high places must be read in its context to decide its use. At times Jehovah was worshipped in these high places. Cf. Jdg. 6:25-26; Jdg. 13:16-23; 1Sa. 7:10; 1Ki. 3:2; 2Ki. 12:3; 1Ch. 21:26. The high places here as elsewhere (Cf. Num. 22:41; Num. 33:52; Deu. 12:2; Jos. 13:17) were used for idolatry. The breaking down of such eminences should speak to Israel of their inability to save. How strange that they would prefer such gods to the One true God who had again and again demonstrated His power to save.
The idols to the sun-god, the pillars to the gods of the stars, will be hacked down and broken up. The dismembered bodies of such gods will be thrown together in a heap. On top of the pile will be thrown your own dead bodies! Your carcasses will be mingled with your gods in a manure pit! When apostate Israel have succumbed to the sword, famine and pestilence, they will not even have a decent burial! Cf. Isa. 17:8; 2Ch. 14:5; 2Ch. 34:7. The words of Ezekiel are a graphic fulfillment of this promise: 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 down the dead carcasses of your children before their idols, and I will scatter your bones round about your altars. Cf. Eze. 6:4-5.
Not only will the elevated spots outside the cities with their idols be destroyed, and the carcasses of the deluded people be scattered among their remains, but the cities themselves will be converted into ruins and desolations. Cf. Jer. 4:7; Jer. 9:11; Eze. 6:6; Eze. 12:20; Neh. 2:17. Even the sanctuary (the tabernacle or Temple) with all its holy places, sacred edifices, and the synagogues will be leveled. Cf. Jer. 51:51; Eze. 21:7; Amo. 7:9; Psa. 68:36; Psa. 74:7. God here reverses His promise that He made to dwell in the midst of His people. When this awful destruction of the sanctuary is to take place God will not regard the fact that the odor of sweet sacrifices is being offered up. The service which may then be performed to Him will not hinder Him from executing this judgment.
From the ruin of the cities and the sanctuaries the desolation extends to the whole country. While the devastations up till now were the results of God permitting hostile invasions and conquests, the desolation of the whole country and the dispersion of the Israelites described in Lev. 26:32-33 are to be the work of God Himself. He who has promised to bless the land in so marvelous a manner (Cf. Lev. 26:4-10) 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. (Cf. Jer. 9:11; Eze. 5:15; Eze. 33:28-29; Eze. 35:10; Eze. 36:5) (Ginsburg)
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. 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 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, who neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them. Cf. Jer. 9:16; Jer. 42:16-18; Eze. 12:14. (Ibid)
Lev. 26:34-39 At long last the land can have its rest. The sabbath rest for the land had been ignored for several years. What the nation would not give voluntarily, God will now obtain by punishment. The land will lay fallow for several years while Gods people are held in bondage. We wonder if anyone bothered to read what God gave Moses in the wilderness of Sinai? Such history written ahead of time would be the most impressive of all warnings.
The few inhabitants left in the promised land will be full of fear and timidity. Cf. Deu. 28:65-67. Are we to conclude that this excessive apprehension is produced by God or the circumstances? We could easily say that God produced the circumstances and they produced the fear. Those who were formerly bold as lions are now running like rabbits. Israel will intermarry with the heathen. Many of them will lose their national identity, Cf. Deu. 22:3; I Sam. 11:3, 20; Jer. 50:6; Eze. 34:4; Eze. 34:16. We take the expression the land of your enemies shall eat you up to refer to the sad mix-up and complete confusion to prevail in the land of their enemies. So utterly incorporated among them would they become as to disappear with no separate existence. Cf. Num. 13:32; Eze. 36:13.
FACT QUESTIONS 26:1439
648.
Show the four progressive steps of rejection and the five responses of God to mans rejection.
649.
How does the warning in these verses relate to us?
650.
How is the expression sevenfold used in this chapter?
651.
God is not against the capacity of pride. Why?
652.
What is the meaning of the phrase the heavens as iron and the earth as brass?
653.
There are five sets of warnings in these verses. Trace and mark them.
654.
Are we to understand God used the beasts of the field to punish man? Give examples. Discuss.
655.
When the sword is used in war there are two or three inevitable consequences. What are they?
656.
Describe the extreme conditions that follow in the wake of war. Could this happen in our land?
657.
God adds something to His promise of opposition as in Lev. 26:28. What is it?
658.
The destruction of the high places indicates Gods utter contempt for idol worship. How so?
659.
Even the sanctuaries of God will be destroyed. How? Why?
660.
God himself participates in the last stage of destruction. What is it?
661.
At long last the land can rest. What is meant by this thought?
662.
What will happen to the few remaining inhabitants of Canaan?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(14) But if ye will not hearken unto me.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 Lev. 26:17.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
THREATENINGS AGAINST DISOBEDIENCE, Lev 26:14-39.
Law is necessary to government. But we can no more have law without penalty than we can have a coin without a reverse side. Accountability implies free agents, with intelligence sufficient to apprehend the consequences of actions in the form of rewards and punishments distinctly announced beforehand. The seasonableness and the clearness of this announcement enhance the guiltiness of transgression and intensify the punishment. This graphic portrayal of the issues of disobedience leaves rebellious Israel without excuse. “This graduated advance of the judgments of God is so depicted in the following passage that four times in succession new and multiplied punishments are announced: 1) Utter barrenness in their land, that is to say, one heavier punishment, Lev 26:18-20; Leviticus 2) the extermination of their cattle by beasts of prey, and childlessness two punishments, Lev 26:21-22; Leviticus 3) war, plague, and famine three punishments, Lev 26:23-26; Leviticus 4) the destruction of all idolatrous abominations, the overthrow of their towns and holy places, the devastation of the land, and the dispersion of the people among the heathen four punishments which would bring the Israelites to the verge of destruction, Lev 26:27-33. These divine threats embrace the whole of Israel’s future.” Keil and Delitzsch.
14. Not hearken not do A refusal to give undivided attention and earnest heed to the law of God by the proper use of our perceptive and reflective powers is as culpable as wilful disobedience, inasmuch as it implies a disregard of the divine authority. The most solemn and frequent injunction of Christ was this, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” It is worthy of remark that the process of apostasy begins with sins of omission, and in the next verse ends with sins of commission.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Cursings ( Lev 26:14-38 ).
In the ancient second millennium covenants the cursings were regularly more than the blessings, and so it is here. The devastating consequence of disobedience and unfaithfulness is now laid out in all its detail. We have here a foretaste of the history of Israel, for Moses was a prophet. But this was not just prophecy, they were the words of someone who was aware of the troubles and problems that could come on an unprotected nation, and who recognised what God could bring on them from the lessons of history. Moses was well aware of those. He would have both seen and heard about such things during his upbringing. It was enlightened awareness, not the trickery of an oracle which could claim to be right whatever happened.
Lev 26:14-15
“But if you will not hearken to me, and will not do all these commandments; and if you shall reject my statutes, and if your soul abhor my ordinances, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant;”
Here is the picture of the one who will be cursed. He does not obey God. He does not love His word. It is not that he does not believe. Like the devils he believes and trembles. It is that he does not have responsive faith. He does not hear God’s voice and respond to it, he does not do what God requires in His commands. He chooses to reject God’s statutes and live his own life. He does not like what God demands, thus he turns from it and breaks the covenant. He does not live as God requires.
Lev 26:16
“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; and you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.”
To such a person God will react with the very opposite of His blessings. Note that God says that He will be directly active in it. It may not seem like that, but that will be how it will be. He will be against them. He will put them through hard and difficult times, He will make them afraid with wasting disease and fever, their eyes will suffer, their inner hearts will be full of grief. When they sow their seed it will be in vain. It is the enemy who will eat of it. In every way times will be hard.
Sometimes such things happen to us as a test, to see whether we will be faithful or not, and to chasten us and purify us so that our love and response to Him becomes stronger (Heb 12:5-11). But we need to be aware that if we claim to be His people, then disobedience to his will can result in what goes beyond chastening to a harshness of judgment that will bring us to deep repentance. As we discover at the end of the chapter this would be His purpose for Israel. But the way would first be very hard.
Lev 26:17
“And I will set my face against you, and you shall be smitten before your enemies: they that hate you shall rule over you; and you shall flee when no one pursues you.”
For He will set His face against them, and when their enemies come they will be unable to combat them. They will be smitten before them. They will come under the rulership of tyrants who do not seek their good. And things will be so bad that they will even run away when there is nothing really to be afraid of. Their nerve will have gone. They will be without faith.
This picture is not of the outside world but of the supposed people of God. We need to be afraid when we do not look to God in obedience, for then we face a long track downwards. God is not mocked. The lampstand can be taken out of its place. Many of the lands which first flourished under the Gospel are now trodden down under Islam. They did not believe it could happen, but it did, for they had lost their true faith.
Lev 26:18
“And if you will not yet for these things hearken to me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins.”
And if they still do not listen to Him then their chastisement will increase sevenfold. Instead of sevenfold divine blessing there will be sevenfold divine chastisement.
Lev 26:19-20
“And I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as bronze, and your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield its increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruit.”
He will break the pride of their power. They would be so sure of their power and ability to withstand. They would be so sure of their leaders, so confident in themselves. But God will break that in which they trust, that of which they are so proud (compare Isa 22:8-12).
And the heavens would be like iron. There would be no rain from them, no response. And the earth would be like bronze, hard and unyielding. All their efforts to produce grain and fruit would be in vain. The land would not yield its increase. The trees would not yield their fruit.
As the history tells us this would take a long time. But it would happen again and again over hundreds of years until every particle was fulfilled. The mills of God may only grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small. And the sad thing was that they did not always realise that it had happened or would happen until it was too late. They thought that things would be fine.
There is no man or blessed nation which is not vulnerable to God’s judgment in the light of continual disobedience and apathy.
Lev 26:21-22
“And if you walk contrary to me, and will not hearken to me, I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins, and I will send the beast of the field among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your ways shall become desolate.”
And if they still disobeyed Him and would not listen, the plagues and troubles that came on them would increase seven times because their sins had increased seven times. And he would send among them lions, and leopards, and bears who would seize their children, destroy their cattle, and even attack them so that their numbers decreased (compare 2Ki 17:25-26). Their ways would be desolate.
Lev 26:23-24
“And if by these things you will not be reformed to me, but will walk contrary unto me; then will I also walk contrary unto you; and I will smite you, even I, seven times for your sins.”
And if they still would not listen and be reformed, but continued to walk in the opposite direction to His will, then He would walk in the opposition to them and smite them another seven times for their sins. With the previous warning this made seven times seven. The number seven of blessing was being turned against them and becoming the number seven of doom.
Lev 26:25
“And I will bring a sword on you, which will execute the vengeance of the covenant; and you shall be gathered together within your cities: and I will send the pestilence among you; and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.”
And if they still would not listen a powerful enemy would come against them, one who would smite with the sword and execute against them the vengeance of the covenant. Note the phrase ‘vengeance of the covenant’. This covenant which was intended to be such a blessing to them would become the instrument of their judgment. God’s goodness spurned becomes a terrible weapon against men.
Lev 26:26
“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: and you shall eat, and not be satisfied.”
Not only would the sword slay, but also famine. Their staff of bread, that food that they relied on and leaned on, would be broken. There would be so little that one small oven would be sufficient for ten women to bake in. Indeed the food would be rationed and handed out by weighing it, as in a siege, and there would never be enough. They would eat and not be satisfied.
Lev 26:27-28
“ And if you will not for all this hearken to me, but walk contrary to me; then I will walk contrary to you in wrath; and I also will chastise you seven times for your sins.”
And if they still would not listen but continued to walk contrary to Him, His anger would be roused and He would walk even more contrary to them. They would be chastised seven times for their sins. Divine retribution would come on them.
Lev 26:29
“And you shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall you eat.”
For they would come to such a state that they would eat their own children because their hunger had become so desperate. This may refer to the final stages of a long siege when men are desperate enough even for cannibalism (compare Jer 19:9), or it may be referring to their offering their children in sacrifice to Molech. For to ‘eat flesh’ regularly means to kill someone (Psa 27:2; Mic 3:3; compare (Psa 14:4; Psa 53:4). This latter would tie in with the next verse.
Lev 26:30
“And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your sun-images, and cast your dead bodies on the bodies of your idols; and my soul shall abhor you.”
We see here examples of their disobedience. They would be offering incense at high places where altars had been built, and worshipping before sun-images. So God would destroy their high places and would cut down their sun-images and then toss their own bodies on to the bodies of their idols. And because of their idolatry God would have an aversion against them. Compare Eze 6:6-7. As a priest Ezekiel would know Leviticus by heart.
Lev 26:31-32
“And I will make your cities a waste, and will bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours. And I will bring the land into desolation; and your enemies who dwell in it shall be astonished at it.”
The land would be invaded, their cities laid waste, their holy place become a desolation, and God would not regard their offerings. The land will be so desolated that even their enemies will be astonished at it.
Lev 26:33
“And you will I scatter among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.”
Just as Israel were to scatter the Canaanites among the nations, so would be done to Israel. They in their turn would be scattered among the nations, and their land would be desolated, and their cities laid waste. Compare Deu 4:27; Deu 28:64.
Lev 26:34
“Then shall the land enjoy its sabbaths, as long as it lies desolate, and you are in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy its sabbaths.”
For one way or another God would ensure that His land enjoyed its sabbaths, and if Israel would not ensure it voluntarily, then He would bring it about compulsorily. If Israel failed to observe God’s sabbatical years, then God Himself would require them of them. For every year in which they had failed to give the land its rest, and more, God would give the land its rest. It would be deserted, and what would grow would grow of itself. There would be no sowing, no reaping, only continual desolation. (Compare 2Ch 36:21). Later Jeremiah would declare that the time would be ‘seventy years’ (Jer 25:11-12; Jer 29:10). Not the recurrence of seven intensified. Daniel would speak of seventy sevens (Daniel 9).
Lev 26:35
“As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, even the rest which it had not in your sabbaths, when you dwelt on it.”
What they sowed in sin, they would reap in judgment. The desolated land would have the rest that they had failed to give it. If they refused to obey God he would bring His purpose about in His own way. Man’s disobedience cannot thwart God, it can only bring problems on himself.
Lev 26:36-37
“And as for those who are left of you, I will send a faintness into their heart in the lands of their enemies: and the sound of a driven leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as one flees from the sword; and they shall fall when none pursues. And they shall stumble one on another, as it were before the sword, when none pursues: and you shall have no power to stand before your enemies.”
And the judgment will still continue to follow the remnant who survive. They will be faint in heart. Even the sound of a leaf driven by the wind will alarm them. Their state will be such that they will imagine fears even when there are none. They will run even when there is no enemy, pursued by their own fears. They will fall over one another in their desperation to escape from their illusions. They will be without the strength to stand up to their enemies. They will be possessed with imaginary terrors.
Lev 26:38
“And you shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.”
For they will perish among the nations, and the land to which they have gone will eat them up. This was the fate that was to come on the expelled Canaanites (Exo 23:28; Exo 33:2; Exo 34:11; Num 33:52; Deu 4:38; Deu 9:3-5; Deu 11:23; Deu 18:12), and if they behaved like the Canaanites it would come on them too. Compare also Num 13:32. What they had feared will actually happen.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Curse upon the Disobedient
v. 14. But if ye will not hearken unto Me, and will not do all these commandments, v. 15. and if ye shall despise My statutes, or if your soul abhor My judgments, so that ye will not do all My commandments, but that ye break My covenant, v. 16. I also will do this unto you v. 17. And I will set My face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies, v. 18. And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.
v. 19. And I will break the pride, v. 20. and your strength shall be spent in vain, v. 21. 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, v. 22. I will also send wild beasts among you, v. 23. And if ye will not be reformed by Me by these things, v. 24. then will I also walk contrary unto you v. 25. And I will bring a sword upon you, v. 26. And when I have broken the staff of your bread, v. 27. And if ye will not for all this hearken unto Me, but walk contrary unto Me, v. 28. then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury, v. 29. And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat, v. 30. And I will destroy your high places, v. 31. And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, v. 32. And I will bring the land in to desolation; and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it, v. 33. And I will scatter you among the heathen,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Here the subject changeth, and an awful but comes in. I would request the Reader to remark with me the progress of sin. First it begins in refusing to hearken to GOD. Mal 2:2 .
Secondly, after refusing to hearken, the sinner learns to despise GOD’S judgments. This was a sad step in the first unhappy transgression. Gen 3:4 . Thirdly, after breaking GOD’S covenant, depend upon it, the transition from forgetting GOD to the disowning GOD is quickly made. And what is every man by nature, when left to himself, but like that sinner of old? Exo 5:2 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Lev 26:14 But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments;
Ver. 14. But if ye will not hearken. ] Here we may observe twice so many threatenings as promises; which serves to set forth the baseness of our natures, that will do more for fear than love.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Lev 26:18, Deu 28:15-68, Jer 17:27, Lam 1:18, Lam 2:17, Mal 2:2, Act 3:23, Heb 12:25
Reciprocal: Exo 9:2 – General Num 32:15 – if ye turn Num 32:23 – if ye will Deu 11:28 – General Deu 28:58 – If thou wilt Deu 29:27 – all the curses Deu 31:29 – and evil Jos 23:15 – so shall Jdg 6:1 – did evil 1Sa 12:15 – But if ye 2Ch 7:19 – if ye turn away 2Ch 34:21 – great 2Ch 36:17 – who slew Ezr 9:7 – for our iniquities Psa 44:10 – Thou Psa 69:24 – Pour Pro 3:33 – curse Isa 5:25 – For all Jer 26:4 – If Jer 28:8 – prophesied Jer 32:23 – therefore Jer 35:17 – Behold Jer 36:31 – will bring Dan 9:11 – the curse Dan 9:13 – As it is Dan 9:27 – that determined Hos 7:12 – as their Amo 2:4 – because Mat 21:41 – He will Luk 21:22 – all
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Lev 26:14. If ye will not hearken, &c. If, notwithstanding these great promises, which were designed to work upon their gratitude and obedience, they should generally become transgressors of his laws, God threatens that they should be visited with as extraordinary plagues; with poverty and vexation at home, and alarms of war and destruction from foreign enemies, such as would dispirit and rob them of all true comfort, even in the land of promise.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Lev 26:14-26. The punishments of disobedience: plague and defeat, to be followed, after neglect of this warning, by infertility and wild animals and, if repentance is still withheld, by the threefold penalty of sword, pestilence, and famine. Sin is to be paid for seven times over (contrast Isa 40:2). This is the great prophetic commonplace from Am. (Lev 4:4-13) onwards. In the famine what would have been the portion of one family has to be eked out among ten.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
3. The warning for contempt of the law 26:14-33
These punishments would come on the Israelites not for individual errors and sins but for a settled contempt for the whole covenant. They manifested such contempt in presumptuous and obstinate rebellion against the law (Lev 26:14-15).
"In the curses the converse of the blessings is spelled out. It was usual in legal texts for the curses to be much fuller and longer than the blessings section (cf. Deuteronomy 28 . . .). But this disproportion has a positive didactic purpose as well. It is very easy to take the blessings of rain, peace, and even God’s presence for granted. It is salutary to be reminded in detail of what life is like when his providential gifts are removed." [Note: Wenham, The Book . . ., p. 330.]
Moses revealed five levels or waves of punishment. If Israel did not turn back to God after the first penalties, God would bring the second on them, and so on.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The "terror" spoken of (Lev 26:16) is probably a description of the Israelites’ general feeling in response to the particular calamities that follow. These punishments were disease, lack of agricultural fruitfulness, and defeat by their enemies.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
“THE VENGEANCE OF THE COVENANT”
Lev 26:14-46
“But if ye will not hearken unto Me, and will not do all these commandments; and if ye shall reject My statutes, and if your soul abhor My judgments, so that ye will not do all My commandments, but break My covenant; I also will do this unto you; I will appoint terror over you, even consumption and fever, that shall consume the eyes, and make the soul to pine away: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. And I will set My face against you, and ye shall be smitten before your enemies: they that hate you shall rule over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you. And if ye will not yet for these things hearken unto me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins. And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass: 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 fruit. 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. And I will send the beast of the field among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your ways shall become desolate. And if by these things ye will not be reformed unto Me, but will walk contrary unto Me; then will I also walk contrary unto you; and I will smite you, even I, seven times for your sins. And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall execute the vengeance of the covenant and ye shall be gathered together within your cities: and I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall 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: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied. And if ye will not for all this hearken unto Me; but walk contrary unto Me; then I will walk contrary unto you in fury; and I also will chastise you seven times for your sins. And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat. And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your sun images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols; and My soul shall abhor you. And I will make your cities a waste, and will bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours. And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. And you will I scatter among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you: and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste. Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths. As long as it lieth desolate it shall have rest; even the rest which it had not in your sabbaths when ye dwelt upon it. And as for them that are left of you I will send a faintness into their heart in the lands of their enemies: and the sound of a driven leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as one fleeth from the sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth. And they shall stumble one upon another, as it were before the sword, when none pursueth: and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies. And ye shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. 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. And they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass which they trespassed against Me, and also that because they have walked contrary unto Me, I also walked contrary unto them, and brought them into the land of their enemies: if then their uncircumcised heart be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity; 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. 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 rejected My judgments, and their soul abhorred My statutes. And yet for all that, when they be 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 sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth 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 and judgments and laws, which the Lord made between Him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.”
So, if Israel should not obey the commandments of the Lord, but break that covenant which they had made with Him, when they had said unto the Lord: {Exo 24:7} “All that the Lord hath spoken will we do, and be obedient”; then they are threatened, first in a general way (Lev 26:14-17) with terrible judgments, which shall reverse, and more than reverse, all the blessings. God will appoint over them “terror”; disease shall ravage them, consumption and fever; their enemies shall lay waste the land, defeat them in battle, and rule over them; and instead of five of them chasing a hundred, they should flee when none was pursuing (Lev 26:17-18). Then follow four series of threats, each conditioned by the supposition that through what they should have already experienced of Jehovahs judgment they should not repent; each also introduced by the formula, “I will chastise (or “smite”) you seven times for your sins.” In these four times repeated series of denunciations, thus introduced, we are not to insist that numerical precision was intended; neither can we, with some, give to the “seven times” a numerical or temporal reference. The thought which runs through all these denunciations, and determines the form which they take, is this: that the judgments threatened as to follow each new display of hardness and impenitence on the part of Israel shall be marked by continually increasing severity; and the phrase “seven times,” by the reference to the sacred number “seven,” intimates that the vengeance should be “the vengeance of the covenant” (Lev 26:25), and also the awful thoroughness and completeness with which the threatened judgments, in case of their continued obduracy, would be inflicted.
This interpretation is sustained by the details of each section. The first series (Lev 26:18-20), in which the threatenings of Lev 26:14-17 are developed, adds to what had been previously threatened, the withholding of harvest for lack of rain. He who had promised to send the rains “in their season,” if they were obedient, now declares that if they will not hearken unto Him for the other chastisements before denounced, He will “make their heaven as iron, and their earth as brass.” The second series threatens in addition their devastation by wild beasts, which shall rob them of their children and their cattle; and also, in consequence of these great judgments, with a great diminution of their numbers. The third series (Lev 26:23-26) repeats under forms still more intense, the threats of sword, pestilence, and famine. The staff of bread shall be broken, and when, stricken with pestilence, they are gathered together in their cities, one oven shall suffice ten women for their baking, and bread shall be distributed by rations and in insufficient quantity (Lev 26:25-26).
It is intimated that with these extraordinary judgments it shall become increasingly evident that it is Jehovah who is thus dealing with them for the breach of His covenant. This is suggested (Lev 26:24) by the emphatic use of the personal pronoun in the Hebrew, only to be rendered in English by a stress of voice; and by the declaration (Lev 26:25) that the sword which should be brought upon them should “execute the vengeance of the covenant.”
The same remark applies with still more emphasis to the next and last of these subsections (Lev 26:27-39), the terrific denunciations of which are introduced by these words, which almost seem to flash with the fire of Gods avenging wrath: “If ye will walk contrary unto Me; then I will walk contrary unto you in fury (lit., ” I will walk with you in fury of opposition”); and I also will chastise you seven times for your sins.” All that has been threatened before is here repeated with every circumstance which could add terror to the picture. Was famine threatened? it shall be so awful in its severity that they shall eat the flesh of their own sons and daughters. The high places which had been the scenes of their licentious worship should be destroyed, and the “sun images” which they had worshipped, going after Baal, should be cut down; and, in visible sign of the Divine wrath and of Gods holy contempt for the impotent idols for which they had forsaken the Lord, upon the fallen idols should lie the dead corpses of their worshippers. The sanctuaries (with special, -though, perhaps, not exclusive, -reference, as the following words show, to the holy places of Jehovahs tabernacle or temple) should become a desolation; the sweet savour of their sacrifices should be rejected. The holy people should be scattered into other lands; the land should become so desolate that those of their enemies who should dwell in it should themselves be astonished at its transformation. And so. while they should be scattered in their enemies land, the land would “enjoy her sabbaths”; i.e., it should thus, untilled and desolate, enjoy the rest which Jehovah had commanded them to give the land each seventh year, which they had not observed. Meanwhile, the condition of the banished nation in the lands of their captivity should be most pitiful: minished in number, those that were left alive should pine away in their iniquities, and in the iniquity of their fathers; timid and broken spirited, they should flee before the sound of a broken leaf, and the land of their enemies should “eat them up.”
And herewith ends the second section of this remarkable prophecy. Promising Israel the highest prosperity in the land of Canaan, if they will keep the words of this covenant, it threatens them with successive judgments of sword, famine, and pestilence, of continually increasing severity, to culminate, if they yet persist in disobedience, in their expulsion from the land for a prolonged period; and predicts their continued existence, despite the most distressing conditions, in the lands of their enemies, while their own land meanwhile lies desolate and untilled without them.
The fundamental importance and instructiveness of this prophecy is evident from the fact that all later predictions concerning the fortunes of Israel are but its more detailed exposition and application to successive historical conditions. Still more evident is its profound significance when we recall to mind the fact, disputed by none, that not only is it an epitome of all later prophecy of Holy Scripture concerning Israel, but, no less truly, an epitome of Israels history. So strictly true is this that we may accurately describe the history of that nation, from the days of Moses until now, as but the translation of this chapter from the language of prediction into that of history.
The facts which illustrate this statement are so familiar that one scarcely needs to refer to them. The numerous visitations in the days of the Judges, when again and again the people were given into the hands of their enemies for their sins, and so often as then they repented, were again and again delivered; the heavier judgments of later days, first in the days of the earlier kings, and afterwards culminating in the captivity of the ten tribes, following the siege and capture of Samaria, 721 B.C., and, still later, the terrible siege and capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, 586 B.C., to the horrors of which the Lamentations of Jeremiah bear most sorrowful witness; -what were all these events, with others of lesser importance, but a historical unfolding of this twenty-sixth chapter of Leviticus?
And how, since Old Testament days, this prophecy has been continually illustrated in Israels history, is, or should be, familiar to all. As apostasy has succeeded to apostasy, judgment has followed upon judgment. To a Nebuchadnezzar succeeded an Antiochus Epiphanes; and, after the Greco-Syrian judgment, then, following the supreme national crime of the rejection and crucifixion of their promised Messiah, came the Roman captivity, the most terrible of all; a judgment continued even until now in the eighteen hundred years of Israels exile from the land of the covenant, and their scattering among the nations, -eighteen hundred years of tragic suffering, such as no other nation has ever known, or, knowing, has yet survived; sufferings which are still exhibited before the eyes of all the world today in the bitter experiences of the four millions of Jews in the Empire of the Czar, and the persecutions of Anti-Shemitism in other lands.
Existing, rather than living, under such conditions for centuries, as a natural result, the Jewish people became few in number, as here predicted; having been reduced from not less than seven or eight millions in the days of the kingdom, to a minimum, about two hundred years ago, of not more than three millions. And, strangest of all, throughout this time the once fertile land has lain desolate, for the Gentiles have never settled in it in any great number; and in place of a population of five hundred to the square mile in the days of Solomon, we find now only a few hundred thousand miserable people, and the most of the land, for lack of cultivation, in such a condition that nothing can easily exceed its desolation. And when we have said all this, and much more that might be said without exaggeration, we have but simply testified that Lev 26:31-34 of this chapter have in the fullest possible sense become historical fact. For it was written (Lev 26:32-34):
“I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. And you will I scatter among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you: and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste. Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths.”
These facts make this chapter to he an apologetic of prime importance. It is this, because we have here evidence of foreknowledge, and therefore of the supernatural inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God in the prophecy here recorded. The facts cannot be adequately explained, either on the supposition of fortunate guessing or of accidental coincidence. It was not indeed impossible to forecast on natural grounds that Israel would become corrupt, or that, if so, they should experience disaster in consequence of their moral depravation. For God has not one law for Israel and another for other nations. Nor does the argument rest on the details of these threatened judgments, as consisting in the sword, famine, and pestilence; for other nations have experienced these calamities, though, indeed, few in equal measure with Israel; and of these one has a natural dependence on another.
But setting aside these elements of the prophecy, as of less apologetic significance, two particulars yet remain in which this predicted experience has been unique, and antecedently to the event in so high degree improbable, that we can reasonably think here neither of shrewd human forecast nor of chance agreement of prediction and fulfilment. The one is the predicted survival of exiled Israel as a nation in the land of their enemies, their indestructibility throughout centuries of unequalled suffering; the other, the extraordinary fact that their land, so rich and fertile, which was at that time and for centuries afterwards one of the principal highways of the worlds commerce and travel, the coveted possession of many nations from a remote antiquity, should during the whole period of Israels banishment remain comparatively unoccupied and untilled.
As regards the former particular, we may search history in vain for a similar phenomenon. Here is a people who, at their best, as compared with many other nations, such as the Egyptians, Babylonians, and Romans, were few in number and in material resources; who now have been scattered from their land for centuries, crushed and oppressed always, in a degree and for a length of time never experienced by any other people; yet never merging in the nations with whom they were mingled, or losing in the least their peculiar racial characteristics and distinct national identity. This, although now for a long time matter of history, was yet, a priori, so improbable that all history records no other instance of the kind; and yet all this had to be if those words of Lev 26:44 were to prove true: “When they be in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly.” With abundant reason has Professor Christlieb referred to this fact as an unanswerable apologetic, thus:
“We point to the people of Israel as a perennial historical miracle. The continued existence of this nation up to the present day, the preservation of its national peculiarities throughout thousands of years, in spite of all dispersion and oppression, remains so unparalleled a phenomenon, that without the special providential preparation of God, and His constant interference and protection, it would be impossible for us to explain it. For where else is there a people over which such judgments have passed, and yet not ended in destruction?”
No less remarkable and significant is the long-continued depopulation of the land of Israel. For it was and is by nature a richly fertile land; and at the time of this prediction-whether it be assigned to an earlier or later period – it was upon one of the chief commercial and military routes of the world, and its possession has thus been an object of ambition to all the dominant nations of history. Surely, one would have expected that if Israel should be cast out of such a land, it would at once and always be occupied by others who should cultivate its proverbially productive soil. But it was not to be so, for it had been otherwise written. And yet it seems as if it had scarcely been possible that through all these later centuries of the history of Christendom, the land could have thus lain desolate, except for the so momentous discovery in 1497 of the Cape route to India, by which event – which no one could in so remote days have well anticipated-the tide of commerce with the East was turned away from Egypt, Syria, and Palestine. to the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans; so that the land of Israel was left, like a city made to stand solitary in a desert by the shifting of the channel of a river; and its predicted desolation thus went on to receive its most complete, consummate, and now long-realised fulfilment.
So, then, stands the case. It is truly difficult to understand how one can fairly escape the inference from these facts, namely, that they imply in this chapter such a prescience of the future as is not possible to man, and therefore demonstrate that the Spirit of God must, in the deepest and truest sense, have been the author of these predictions of the future of the chosen people and their land.
And it is of the very first importance, with reference to the controversies of our day regarding this question, that we note the fact that the argument is of such a nature that it is not in the least dependent upon the date that any may have assigned to the origin of this chapter. Even though we should, with Graf and Wellhausen, attribute its composition to exilian or postexilian times, it would still remain true that the chapter contained unmistakable predictions regarding the nation and the land; predictions which, if fulfilled, no doubt, in a degree, in the days of the Babylonian exile and the return, were yet to receive a fulfilment far more minute, exhaustive, and impressive, in centuries which then were still in a far distant future. But if this be granted, it is plain that these facts impose a limitation upon the conclusions of criticism. That only is true science which takes into view all the facts with respect to any phenomenon for which one seeks to account; and in this case the facts which are to be explained by any theory, are not merely peculiarities of style and vocabulary, etc., but also this phenomenon of a demonstrably predictive element in the chapter; a phenomenon which requires for its explanation the assumption of a supernatural inspiration as one of the factors in its authorship. But if this is so, how can we reconcile with such a Divine inspiration any theory which makes the last statement of the chapter, that “these are the statutes which the Lord made in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses,” to be untrue, and the preceding “laws” to be thus, in plain language, a forgery of exilian or post-exilian times?