Leviticus 26 (NET)

Exhortation to Obedience

1 “‘You must not make for yourselves idols,1 so you must not set up for yourselves a carved image or a pillar, and you must not place a sculpted stone in your land to bow down before2 it, for I am the Lord your God. 2 You must keep my Sabbaths and reverence3 my sanctuary. I am the Lord.

The Benefits of Obedience

3 “‘If you walk in my statutes and are sure to obey my commandments,4 4 I will give you your rains in their time so that5 the land will give its yield and the trees of the field will produce their fruit.6 5 Threshing season will extend for you until the season for harvesting grapes,7 and the season for harvesting grapes will extend until sowing season, so8 you will eat your bread until you are satisfied,9 and you will live securely in your land. 6 I will grant peace in the land so that10 you will lie down to sleep without anyone terrifying you.11 I will remove harmful animals12 from the land, and no sword of war13 will pass through your land. 7 You will pursue your enemies and they will fall before you by the sword.14 8 Five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword. 9 I will turn to you, make you fruitful, multiply you, and maintain15 my covenant with you. 10 You will still be eating stored produce from the previous year16 and will have to clean out what is stored from the previous year to make room for new.17

11 “‘I will put my tabernacle18 in your midst and I will not abhor you.19 12 I will walk among you, and I will be your God and you will be my people. 13 I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from being their slaves,20 and I broke the bars of your yoke and caused you to walk upright.21

The Consequences of Disobedience

14 “‘If, however,22 you do not obey me and keep23 all these commandments – 15 if you reject my statutes and abhor my regulations so that you do not keep24 all my commandments and you break my covenant – 16 I for my part25 will do this to you: I will inflict horror on you, consumption and fever, which diminish eyesight and drain away the vitality of life.26 You will sow your seed in vain because27 your enemies will eat it.28 17 I will set my face against you. You will be struck down before your enemies, those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when there is no one pursuing you.

18 “‘If, in spite of all these things,29 you do not obey me, I will discipline you seven times more on account of your sins.30 19 I will break your strong pride and make your sky like iron and your land like bronze. 20 Your strength will be used up in vain, your land will not give its yield, and the trees of the land31 will not produce their fruit.

21 “‘If you walk in hostility against me32 and are not willing to obey me, I will increase your affliction33 seven times according to your sins. 22 I will send the wild animals34 against you and they will bereave you of your children,35 annihilate your cattle, and diminish your population36 so that your roads will become deserted.

23 “‘If in spite of these things37 you do not allow yourselves to be disciplined and you walk in hostility against me,38 24 I myself will also walk in hostility against you and strike you39 seven times on account of your sins. 25 I will bring on you an avenging sword, a covenant vengeance.40 Although41 you will gather together into your cities, I will send pestilence among you and you will be given into enemy hands.42 26 When I break off your supply of bread,43 ten women will bake your bread in one oven; they will ration your bread by weight,44 and you will eat and not be satisfied.

27 “‘If in spite of this45 you do not obey me but walk in hostility against me,46 28 I will walk in hostile rage against you47 and I myself will also discipline you seven times on account of your sins. 29 You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters.48 30 I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars,49 and I will stack your dead bodies on top of the lifeless bodies of your idols.50 I will abhor you.51 31 I will lay your cities waste52 and make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will refuse to smell your soothing aromas. 32 I myself will make the land desolate and your enemies who live in it will be appalled. 33 I will scatter you among the nations and unsheathe the sword53 after you, so your land will become desolate and your cities will become a waste.

34 “‘Then the land will make up for54 its Sabbaths all the days it lies desolate while you are in the land of your enemies; then the land will rest and make up its Sabbaths. 35 All the days of the desolation it will have the rest it did not have55 on your Sabbaths when you lived on it.

36 “‘As for56 the ones who remain among you, I will bring despair into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a blowing leaf will pursue them, and they will flee as one who flees the sword and fall down even though there is no pursuer. 37 They will stumble over each other as those who flee before a sword, though57 there is no pursuer, and there will be no one to take a stand58 for you before your enemies. 38 You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will consume you.

Restoration through Confession and Repentance

39 “‘As for the ones who remain among you, they will rot away because of59 their iniquity in the lands of your enemies, and they will also rot away because of their ancestors’60 iniquities which are with them. 40 However, when61 they confess their iniquity and their ancestors’ iniquity which they committed by trespassing against me,62 by which they also walked63 in hostility against me64 41 (and I myself will walk in hostility against them and bring them into the land of their enemies), and65 then their uncircumcised hearts become humbled and they make up for66 their iniquity, 42 I will remember my covenant with Jacob and also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham,67 and I will remember the land. 43 The land will be abandoned by them68 in order that it may make up for69 its Sabbaths while it is made desolate70 without them,71 and they will make up for their iniquity because72 they have rejected my regulations and have abhorred73 my statutes. 44 In spite of this, however, when they are in the land of their enemies I will not reject them and abhor them to make a complete end of them, to break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God. 45 I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors74 whom I brought out from the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am the Lord.’”

Summary Colophon

46 These are the statutes, regulations, and instructions which the Lord established75 between himself and the Israelites at Mount Sinai through76 Moses.

1sn For the literature regarding the difficult etymology and meaning of the term for “idols” (אֱלִילִם, ’elilim), see the literature cited in the note on Lev 19:4. It appears to be a diminutive play on words with אֵל (’el, “god, God”) and, perhaps at the same time, recalls a common Semitic word for “worthless, weak, powerless, nothingness.” Snaith suggests a rendering of “worthless godlings.” 2tn Heb “on.” The “sculpted stone” appears to be some sort of stone with images carved into (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 181, and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 449). 3tn Heb “and my sanctuary you shall fear.” Cf. NCV “respect”; CEV “honor.” 4tn Heb “and my commandments you shall keep and do them.” This appears to be a kind of verbal hendiadys, where the first verb is a modifier of the action of the second verb (see GKC 386 §120.d, although שָׁמַר [shamar, “to keep”] is not cited there; cf. Lev 20:8; 25:18, etc.). 5tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here. 6tn Heb “the tree of the field will give its fruit.” As a collective singular this has been translated as plural. 7tn Heb “will reach for you the vintage season.” 8tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here. 9tn Heb “to satisfaction”; KJV, ASV, NASB “to the full.” 10tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here. 11tn Heb “and there will be no one who terrifies.” The words “to sleep” have been supplied in the translation for clarity. 12tn Heb “harmful animal,” singular, but taken here as a collective plural (so almost all English versions). 13tn Heb “no sword”; the words “of war” are supplied in the translation to indicate what the metaphor of the sword represents. 14tn Heb “to the sword.” 15tn Heb “cause to arise,” but probably used here for the Lord’s intention of confirming or maintaining the covenant commitment made at Sinai. Cf. KJV “establish”; NASB “will confirm”; NAB “carry out”; NIV “will keep.” 16tn Heb “old [produce] growing old.” 17tn Heb “and old from the presence of new you will bring out.” 18tn LXX codexes Vaticanus and Alexandrinus have “my covenant” rather than “my tabernacle.” Cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV “my dwelling.” 19tn Heb “and my soul [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh] will not abhor you.” 20tn Heb “from being to them slaves.” 21tn In other words, to walk as free people and not as slaves. Cf. NIV “with (+ your CEV, NLT) heads held high”; NCV “proudly.” 22tn Heb “And if.” 23tn Heb “and do not do.” 24tn Heb “to not do.” 25tn Or “I also” (see HALOT 76 s.v. אַף 6.b). 26tn Heb “soul.” These expressions may refer either to the physical effects of consumption and fever as the rendering in the text suggests (e.g., J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 452, 454, “diminishing eyesight and loss of appetite”), or perhaps the more psychological effects, “which exhausts the eyes” because of anxious hope “and causes depression” (Heb “causes soul [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh] to pine away”), e.g., B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 185. 27tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have causal force here. 28tn That is, “your enemies will eat” the produce that grows from the sown seed. 29tn Heb “And if until these.” 30tn Heb “I will add to discipline you seven [times] on your sins.” 31tn Heb “the tree of the land will not give its fruit.” The collective singular has been translated as a plural. Tg. Onq., some medieval Hebrew mss, Smr, LXX, and Tg. Ps.-J. have “the field” as in v. 4, rather than “the land.” 32tn Heb “hostile with me,” but see the added preposition בְּ (bet) on the phrase “in hostility” in v. 24 and 27. 33tn Heb “your blow, stroke”; cf. TEV “punishment”; NLT “I will inflict you with seven more disasters.” 34tn Heb “the animal of the field.” This collective singular has been translated as a plural. The expression “animal of the field” refers to a wild (i.e., nondomesticated) animal. 35tn The words “of your children” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied. 36tn Heb “and diminish you.” 37tn Heb “And if in these.” 38tn Heb “with me,” but see the added preposition בְּ (bet) on the phrase “in hostility” in vv. 24 and 27. 39tn Heb “and I myself will also strike you.” 40tn Heb “vengeance of covenant”; cf. NAB “the avenger of my covenant.” 41tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) has a concessive force in this context. 42tn Heb “in hand of enemy,” but Tg. Ps.-J. and Tg. Neof. have “in the hands of your enemies” (J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 454). 43tn Heb “When I break to you staff of bread” (KJV, ASV, and NASB all similar). 44tn Heb “they will return your bread in weight.” 45tn Heb “And if in this.” 46tn Heb “with me.” 47tn Heb “in rage of hostility with you”; NASB “with wrathful hostility”; NRSV “I will continue hostile to you in fury”; CEV “I’ll get really furious.” 48tn Heb “and the flesh of your daughters you will eat.” The phrase “you will eat” has not been repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons. 49sn Regarding these cultic installations, see the remarks in B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 188, and R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:903. The term rendered “incense altars” might better be rendered “sanctuaries [of foreign deities]” or “stelae.” 50tn The translation reflects the Hebrew wordplay “your corpses…the corpses of your idols.” Since idols, being lifeless, do not really have “corpses,” the translation uses “dead bodies” for people and “lifeless bodies” for the idols. 51tn Heb “and my soul will abhor you.” 52tn Heb “And I will give your cities a waste”; NLT “make your cities desolate.” 53tn Heb “and I will empty sword” (see HALOT 1228 s.v. ריק 3). 54tn There are two Hebrew roots רָצָה (ratsah), one meaning “to be pleased with; to take pleasure” (HALOT 1280-81 s.v. רצה; cf. “enjoy” in NASB, NIV, NRSV, and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 452), and the other meaning “to restore” (HALOT 1281-82 s.v. II רצה; cf. NAB “retrieve” and B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 189). 55tn Heb “it shall rest which it did not rest.” 56tn Heb “And.” 57tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) is used in a concessive sense here. 58tn The term rendered “to stand up” is a noun, not an infinitive. It occurs only here and appears to designate someone who would take a powerful stand for them against their enemies. 59tn Heb “in” (so KJV, ASV; also later in this verse). 60tn Heb “fathers’” (also in the following verse). 61tn Heb “And.” Many English versions take this to be a conditional clause (“if…”) though there is no conditional particle (see, e.g., NASB, NIV, NRSV; but see the very different rendering in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 190). The temporal translation offered here (“when”) takes into account the particle אָז (’az, “then”), which occurs twice in v. 41. The obvious contextual contrast between vv. 39 and 40 is expressed by “however” in the translation. 62tn Heb “in their trespassing which they trespassed in me.” See the note on Lev 5:15, although the term is used in a more technical sense there in relation to the “guilt offering.” 63tn Heb “and also which they walked.” 64tn Heb “with me.” 65tn Heb “or then,” although the LXX has “then” and the Syriac “and then.” 66tn Heb “and then they make up for.” On the verb “make up for” see the note on v. 34 above. 67tn Heb “my covenant with Abraham I will remember.” The phrase “I will remember” has not been repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons. 68tn Heb “from them.” The preposition “from” refers here to the agent of the action (J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 455). 69tn The jussive form of the verb with the simple vav (ו) here calls for a translation that expresses purpose. 70tn The verb is the Hophal infinitive construct with the third feminine singular suffix (GKC 182 §67.y; cf. v. 34). 71tn Heb “from them.” 72tn Heb “because and in because,” a double expression, which is used only here and in Ezek 13:10 (without the vav) for emphasis (GKC 492 §158.b). 73tn Heb “and their soul has abhorred.” 74tn Heb “covenant of former ones.”sn For similar expressions referring back to the ancestors who refused to follow the stipulations of the Mosaic covenant see, for example, Deut 19:14, Jer 11:10, and Ps 79:8 (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 192, and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 471). 75tn Heb “gave” (so NLT); KJV, ASV, NCV “made.” 76tn Heb “by the hand of” (so KJV).