Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Leviticus 26:34

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.

34. Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths ] The verb rh has for its general meaning in al. ‘to accept,’ ‘to be satisfied with,’ and so ‘to enjoy,’ the land being regarded as having been long deprived of its rights, which are now restored. Accordingly the Hiph. (as the causative voice), occurring only in 34 b, may perhaps mean ‘cause [God] to accept’ her sabbaths, and so virtually ‘pay back’ those which had been disregarded and were due to God. The same verb is rendered ‘accept’ in Lev 26:41 ; Lev 26:43. See on Lev 26:41.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Verse 34. Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths] This Houbigant observes to be a historical truth. – “From Saul to the Babylonish captivity are numbered about four hundred and ninety years, during which period there were seventy Sabbaths of years; for 7, multiplied by 70, make 490. Now the Babylonish captivity lasted seventy years, and during that time the land of Israel rested. Therefore the land rested just as many years in the Babylonish captivity, as it should have rested Sabbaths if the Jews had observed the laws relative to the Sabbaths of the land.” This is a most remarkable fact, and deserves to be particularly noticed, as a most literal fulfilment of the prophetic declaration in this verse: Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies’ land.

May it not be argued from this that the law concerning the Sabbatical year was observed till Saul’s time, as it is only after this period the land enjoyed its rest in the seventy years’ captivity? And if that breach of the law was thus punished, may it not be presumed it had been fulfilled till then, or else the captivity would have lasted longer, i. e., till the land had enjoyed all its rests, of which it had ever been thus deprived?

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Either,

1. Because it shall be rid of you, who were the unprofitable and heavy burdens thereof, under whom it in a manner groaned. Or rather,

2. Because it shall now enjoy those sabbatical years of rest from tillage, which you through covetousness ofttimes would not give it, as the next verse informs us, though God commanded it, Lev 25:4.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

34. Then shall the land enjoy hersabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, &c.A long arrearof sabbatic years had accumulated through the avarice and apostasy ofthe Israelites, who had deprived their land of its appointed seasonof rest. The number of those sabbatic years seems to have beenseventy, as determined by the duration of the captivity. This earlyprediction is very remarkable, considering that the usual policy ofthe Assyrian conquerors was to send colonies to cultivate and inhabittheir newly acquired provinces.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths,…. The sabbatical years, or seventh year sabbaths, when, according to the law in the preceding chapter, it was to rest from tillage, Le 25:2:

as long as it lieth desolate, and ye [be] in your enemies’ land; so long it should lie uncultivated, at least in part, there not being a sufficient number left to till it in general, or as it should be; this was the case during the seventy years’ captivity in Babylon;

[even] then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths; or complete them, as Aben Ezra, which is a bitter sarcasm upon them for their neglect of observance of the law concerning the sabbatical years; but now the land should have its sabbaths of rest whether they would or not; and it seems as if it was on account of this sin, as well as others, that they were carried captive; and it is remarkable, if what Maimonides x says is right, that it was at the going out or end of a sabbatical year, that the first temple was destroyed, and the Jews carried captive, and endured a seventy years’ captivity; which some say was because they had neglected seventy sabbatical years; see

2Ch 36:21.

x Hilchot Shemitah Vejobel, c. 10. sect. 3.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Object of the Divine Judgments in Relation to the Land and Nation of Israel. – Lev 26:34 and Lev 26:35. The land would then enjoy and keep its Sabbaths, so long as it was desolate, and Israel was in the land of its foes. , during the whole period of its devastation. inf. Hophal with the suffix, in which the mappik is wanting, as in Exo 2:3 (cf. Ewald, 131e). to have satisfaction: with and an accusative it signifies to take delight, take pleasure, in anything, e.g., in rest after the day’s work is done (Job 14:6); here also to enjoy rest (not “to pay its debt:” Ges., Kn.). The keeping of the Sabbath was not a performance binding upon the land, nor had the land been in fault because the Sabbath was not kept. As the earth groans under the pressure of the sin of men, so does it rejoice in deliverance from this pressure, and participation in the blessed rest of the whole creation. : the land “ will rest (keep) what it has not rested on your Sabbaths and whilst you dwelt in it; ” i.e., it will make up the rest which you did not give it on your Sabbaths (daily and yearly). It is evident from this, that the keeping of the Sabbaths and sabbatical years was suspended when the apostasy of the nation increased, – a result which could be clearly foreseen in consequence of the inward dislike of a sinner to the commandments of the holy God, and which is described in 2Ch 26:21 as having actually occurred.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

34. Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths. In order that the observance of the Sabbath should be the more honored, God in a manner associated the land in it together with man; for whereas the land had rest every seventh year from sowing, and harvest, and all cultivation, He thus desired to stir up men more effectually to a greater reverence for the Sabbath. God now bitterly reproves the Israelites because they not only profane the Sabbath themselves, but do not even allow the land to enjoy its prescribed rest; for this repose of the seventh year did not hinder the land from continually groaning under a heavy burden as long as it nourished such ungodly inhabitants. He says, therefore, that the land was disturbed by ceaseless inquietude, and thus was deprived of its lawful Sabbaths, since it bore on its shoulders, as it were, and not without great distress, such impious despisers of God. Moreover, because the whole worship of God is sometimes included by synecdoche in the word Sabbath, (Jer 17:21; Eze 20:12,) He indirectly administers a sharp reproof to His people, because not only is He defrauded of His right by their impiety, but He cannot be duly honored in the Holy Land unless He expels them all from hence; as if He had said, that this was the only means that remained for the assertion of the honor due to His name, viz., that the land should be cleared of its inhabitants, and reduced to desolation; inasmuch as this extorted rest should be substituted in the room of the voluntary Sabbath.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(34) Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths.The land, which participates both in the happiness and misery of the Israelites (see Lev. 18:25), and which through their disobedience of the Divine laws would be deprived of her sabbatical rests as long as the rebellious people occupy it, would now at last be able to enjoy its prescribed legal rest, when it is ridden of these defiant transgressors, and as long as they remain in exile.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

34. Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths The sabbatical years are here referred to. Probably from the death of Joshua to the time of the Babylonish captivity, seventy of the years of rest had been neglected. During the seventy years in Babylon the land of Canaan had a period of rest equivalent to the number of which it had been defrauded by the disobedience of the Hebrews.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

The Effects of these Visitations and the Restoration of the Covenant

v. 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. It is here implied that Israel, in its revolt against Jehovah and His commandments, would omit the observance of the sabbatical years, and that the land, suffering under the oppression of this greed, would feel the relief brought about by the deportation of the owners.

v. 35. As long as it lieth desolate, it shall rest, because it did not rest in your Sabbaths when ye blood upon it.

v. 36. And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies, filling their hearts with a cowardly fear, with the despondency of an unreasonable terror; 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, victims more of their own terror than of any harm done to them by their enemies,

v. 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.

v. 38. And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. Cf Numbers 13-32; Eze 36:13.

v. 39. And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands, So long as they remain in their unrepentant attitude toward God; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them; for if the children follow in the footsteps of their sinful parents, the sins of the latter are visited upon them also. But now the mercy of the Lord comes into the foreground Again.

v. 40. If they shall confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, the guilt which they brought upon themselves by their misdeeds, with their trespass which they trespassed against Me, and that also they have walked contrary unto Me, an open confession being necessary to show the sincerity of their repentance;

v. 41. and that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies, thereby freely acknowledging that they were suffering a well-deserved punishment; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity,

v. 42. then will I remember My covenant with Jacob, and also My covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember, with all the blessings promised therein; and I will remember the land, turn back to it with thoughts of love and kindness.

v. 43. The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her Sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them, being free from the oppression of a population that disregarded the will of the Lord; and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity, bowing their backs to the Lord’s chastening rod; because, even because they despised My judgments, and because their soul abhorred My statutes.

v. 44. And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, when it seems that they are absolutely forsaken by God, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them to destroy them utterly, for that had not been the purpose of His punishment in the first place, and to break My covenant with them; for I am the Lord, their God, who always has mercy upon the repentant sinner.

v. 45. But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen. I am the Lord. In this way the punishment of the Lord would finally result in blessing the people, in bringing them back to the fellowship of the covenant which He had never repudiated.

v. 46. 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. The history of Israel, as foreshadowed in this Chapter, is an example of warning to all men. Unto those that are disobedient to the truth the Lord will render tribulation and anguish, Rom 2:8-9. He will in flaming fire take vengeance on them that know not God, that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, 2Th 1:8-9. But His mercy is always ready to turn to those that come to Him with a sorrowful and repentant heart.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Lev 26:34. Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths See 2Ch 36:21. There can be no need to point out to the attentive reader the striking energy of many of the expressions in this chapter.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Lev 26:34 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.

Ver. 34. Then shall the land rest, and enjoy her Sabbaths. ] Rest from your disquietments, whilst ye sinned upon it; and gat out the heart of it to spend it on your lusts. Compare 2Ch 36:21 . Where there is not a resting from sin, the Sabbaths are not truly kept.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

enjoy. Figure of speech Prosopopatheia. App-6. Compare Lev 18:25.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

This was fulfilled during the Babylonish captivity: for, from Saul to the captivity are about 490 years, during which period there were 70 sabbaths of years neglected by the Hebrews. Now the Babylonish captivity lasted 70 years, and during that time the land of Israel rested. Lev 25:2-4, Lev 25:10, 2Ch 36:21

Reciprocal: Exo 23:11 – the seventh Lev 25:4 – General Lev 26:43 – shall enjoy 1Ki 8:46 – unto the land 2Ch 6:36 – thou be angry Isa 1:7 – country Jer 6:8 – lest I Jer 18:16 – make Jer 34:17 – behold Dan 9:7 – whither

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

e land of Palestine had not been damaged by the heathen, but it had been made to lie uncultivated. That was in order for It to enjoy its sabbaths. (See Lev 26:34-35; Lev 26:43.) The most significant thought is in the words to my people. Even had the land produced anything in the 70-year captivity, the people of Israel could not have used it because they were exiles in a country far away.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Lev 26:34. The land shall enjoy her sabbaths It shall enjoy those sabbatical years of rest from tillage, which you, through covetousness, would not give it: a most seasonable warning this. Jeremiah complains, that in his time they had contemned the ordinance of God respecting the septennial sabbaths, and had not given their servants liberty, (Jer 34:17,) and gives this as one cause of their being delivered to slavery, Lam 1:3. And this is expressly mentioned as a principal reason of their seventy years captivity, 2Ch 36:21.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

4. The objective of God’s judgments in relation to the land and the nation of Israel 26:34-46

In this section God explained that His discipline for disobedience would be to produce repentance and return to Himself by the Israelites (cf. Pro 3:12; Heb 12:6).

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

The length of the Babylonian captivity was 70 years because the Israelites failed to observe 70 sabbatical years in the land (2Ch 36:21; cf. Jer 29:10), between about 1406 and 586 B.C. Wolf took Lev 26:34 as a prophecy that the Israelites would not obey the instructions given in chapter 25 about observing the sabbatical years. [Note: Wolf, p. 183.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)