Leviticus 26
English Standard Version
Blessings for Obedience
26 “You shall not make (A)idols for yourselves or erect an (B)image or (C)pillar, and you shall not set up a (D)figured stone in your land to bow down to it, for I am the Lord your God. 2 (E)You shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.
3 (F)“If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, 4 then (G)I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. 5 (H)Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. And (I)you shall eat your bread to the full and (J)dwell in your land securely. 6 (K)I will give peace in the land, and (L)you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And (M)I will remove harmful beasts from the land, (N)and the sword shall not go through your land. 7 You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. 8 (O)Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. 9 (P)I will turn to you and (Q)make you fruitful and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you. 10 You shall eat (R)old store long kept, and you shall clear out the old to make way for the new. 11 (S)I will make my dwelling[a] among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. 12 (T)And I (U)will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people. 13 (V)I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves. (W)And I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.
Punishment for Disobedience
14 (X)“But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, 15 if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but (Y)break my covenant, 16 then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with (Z)wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And (AA)you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 17 I will (AB)set my face against you, and (AC)you shall be struck down before your enemies. (AD)Those who hate you shall rule over you, and (AE)you shall flee when none pursues you. 18 And if in spite of this you will not listen to me, then I will discipline you again (AF)sevenfold for your sins, 19 and I will break (AG)the pride of your power, and I (AH)will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. 20 And (AI)your strength shall be spent in vain, for (AJ)your land shall not yield its increase, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.
21 (AK)“Then if you walk contrary to me and will not listen to me, I will continue striking you, sevenfold for your sins. 22 And (AL)I will let loose the wild beasts against you, which shall bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock and make you few in number, so that (AM)your roads shall be deserted.
23 “And (AN)if by this discipline you are not turned to me (AO)but walk contrary to me, 24 (AP)then I also will walk contrary to you, and I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins. 25 And (AQ)I will bring a sword upon you, that shall execute vengeance for the covenant. And if you gather within your cities, (AR)I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. 26 (AS)When I break your supply[b] of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven and shall dole out your bread again by weight, and (AT)you shall eat and not be satisfied.
27 “But (AU)if in spite of this you will not listen to me, but walk contrary to me, 28 then I will walk contrary to you (AV)in fury, and I myself will discipline you (AW)sevenfold for your sins. 29 (AX)You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters. 30 And (AY)I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars and (AZ)cast your dead bodies upon the dead bodies of your idols, and my soul will abhor you. 31 And I will (BA)lay your cities waste and will (BB)make your sanctuaries desolate, and (BC)I will not smell your pleasing aromas. 32 And (BD)I myself will devastate the land, so that your enemies who settle in it shall be (BE)appalled at it. 33 And (BF)I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.
34 (BG)“Then the land shall enjoy[c] its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, while you are in your enemies' land; then the land shall rest, and enjoy its Sabbaths. 35 As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, the rest that it did not have on your Sabbaths when you were dwelling in it. 36 And as for those of you who are left, (BH)I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The (BI)sound of a (BJ)driven leaf shall put them to flight, and they shall flee as one flees from the sword, and they shall fall when none pursues. 37 They shall stumble over one another, as if to escape a sword, though none pursues. And (BK)you shall have no power to stand before your enemies. 38 And you shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. 39 And those of you who are left shall (BL)rot away in your enemies' lands because of their iniquity, and also because of the iniquities of their fathers they shall rot away like them.
40 “But if (BM)they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery that they (BN)committed against me, and also in walking contrary to me, 41 so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies—if then their (BO)uncircumcised heart is (BP)humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, 42 then I will (BQ)remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will (BR)remember the land. 43 But (BS)the land shall be abandoned by them and enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them, and they shall make amends for their iniquity, because they spurned my rules and their soul abhorred my statutes. 44 Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, (BT)I will not spurn them, neither will I abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and (BU)break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God. 45 But I will for their sake remember the covenant with their forefathers, (BV)whom I brought out of the land of Egypt (BW)in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the Lord.”
46 (BX)These are the statutes and rules and laws that the Lord made between himself and the people of Israel through Moses (BY)on Mount Sinai.
Footnotes
- Leviticus 26:11 Hebrew tabernacle
- Leviticus 26:26 Hebrew staff
- Leviticus 26:34 Or pay for; twice in this verse; also verse 43
Leviticus 26
International Standard Version
Rewards for Obedience
26 “You are not to make worthless idols, images, or pillars for yourselves, nor set up for yourselves carved images to bow down to them in the land, because I am the Lord your God.
2 “You are to keep my Sabbath and fear my sanctuary. I am the Lord.
3 “If you live[a] by my statutes, obey my commands, and observe them, 4 then I’ll send[b] your rain in its season so that the land will yield its produce and the trees of the field will yield their fruit. 5 Threshing will extend to the time of vintage and the vintage will extend to the time of sowing, so that you’ll eat your bread to your satisfaction and live securely in your land. 6 I’ll give peace in the land so that you’ll lie down without fear. I’ll remove wild[c] beasts from the land, and not even war will come to[d] your land. 7 Instead, you’ll pursue your enemies and they’ll die[e] by the sword before you. 8 Five of you will chase a hundred, a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you.
9 “I’ll look after you, ensuring that you’ll be fruitful. I’ll increase your number[f] and keep[g] my covenant with you. 10 When you have consumed what was stored of the old, then you’ll take out the old and replace it with what’s new. 11 I’ll set up my tent in your midst and I[h] won’t loathe you. 12 I’ll walk among you. I will be your God, and you’ll be my people. 13 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you will no longer be their slaves, since I’ve broken their oppressive yoke upon you to make you walk upright.”
Cascading Consequences
14 “But if you won’t listen to me and obey all these commands, 15 and if you refuse my statutes, loathe my ordinances, and fail to carry out all of my commands, thereby breaching my covenant, 16 then I will certainly do this to you: I’ll appoint sudden terror to infect you like tuberculosis and fever. Your eyes will fail and your life will waste away. You’ll plant in vain, because your enemies will consume what you plant. 17 I’ll set my face against you so that you’ll be defeated before your enemies. Those who hate you will have dominion over you and you’ll keep fleeing even when no one is pursuing you.
18 “If, despite all of this, you still don’t listen to me, then I’ll punish you seven times more on account of your sins. 19 I’ll break your mighty pride.[i] I’ll make the heavens to be like iron and the ground like bronze. 20 Your strength will be spent in vain, because your land won’t yield its produce and the trees of the land won’t yield their fruit.
21 “If you live life contrary to me and remain unwilling to listen to me, then I’ll add to your wounds seven times more on account of your sins. 22 I’ll send wild beasts against you from the open country to deprive you of your children, destroy your cattle, and decrease your number[j] so that your roads become desolate.
23 “If, despite these things, you still won’t return to me, but live life contrary to me, 24 then I’ll certainly oppose[k] you. I’ll take vengeance against you seven fold on account of your sins. 25 I’ll bring the sword against you to execute the vengeance of my covenant. When you gather in your cities, I’ll send a pestilence. As a result, you’ll be delivered into the control of your enemies. 26 When I destroy the source of your bread, ten women will bake bread in one oven. Then they’ll return back your bread by weight. You’ll eat but won’t be satisfied.
27 “If, after all of this time, you don’t listen to me, but instead live life contrary to me, 28 I’ll oppose[l] you with vicious rage. Indeed, I myself will punish you seven fold on account of your sins. 29 At that time, you’ll eat the flesh of your sons and you’ll eat the flesh of your daughters. 30 I’ll destroy your high places and cut down your sun pillars. Then I’ll cast your dead bodies on top of the bodies of your idols. I’ll loathe you. 31 I’ll lay your cities to waste and destroy your sanctuaries so I don’t have to smell the scent of your soothing odors. 32 I’ll make the land so desolate that your enemies who live in it will be astonished.”
Captivity among the Nations
33 “I’ll scatter you among the nations and draw the sword after you so that your land becomes desolate and your towns become ruins. 34 Then the land will finally be pleased with its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate while you are in the land of your enemies. At that time, the land will rest and take its Sabbaths. 35 As long as it lies desolate, it will have rest that it will not have had during your Sabbaths when you were living in it.
36 “As for the remnants among you, I’ll bring despair in their hearts in the land of their enemies so that even the sound of a blown leaf will chase them and they flee as though pursued by the sword and fall when no one is pursuing. 37 They’ll stumble over each other as though fleeing before the sword, even though no one is pursuing.
“You won’t have power to resist your enemies. 38 You’ll perish among the nations and the land of your enemies will consume you. 39 The remnants among you will waste away in the land of your enemies due to their iniquity. Indeed, they’ll also waste away on account of the iniquities of their ancestors with them.”
Return from Captivity
40 “Nevertheless, when they confess their iniquity, the iniquity of their ancestors, and their unfaithfulness by which they acted unfaithfully against me by living life contrary to me— 41 causing me to oppose them and take them to the land of their enemies so that the uncircumcised foreskin of their hearts can be humbled and so that they accept the punishment of their iniquity— 42 then I’ll remember my covenant with Jacob, my covenant with Isaac, and my covenant with Abraham. I’ll also remember the land. 43 They will leave the land so it can rest while it lies desolate without them. That’s when they’ll receive the punishment of their iniquity, because indeed they will have rejected my ordinances and despised my statutes. 44 Yet, despite all of these things, when they’re in the land of their enemies, I won’t reject or despise them so as to completely destroy them and by doing so violate my covenant with them, because I am the Lord their God. 45 Instead, on account of them, I’ll remember my covenant with their ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt right before the eyes of the nations, so that I could be their God. I am the Lord.”
46 These are the statutes, ordinances, and laws that the Lord made between himself and the Israelis on Mount Sinai, as recorded by the hand of Moses.
Footnotes
- Leviticus 26:3 Lit. walk
- Leviticus 26:4 Lit. give
- Leviticus 26:6 Lit. evil
- Leviticus 26:6 Lit. sword won’t pass through
- Leviticus 26:7 Lit. fall
- Leviticus 26:9 Lit. multiply you
- Leviticus 26:9 Lit. raise or establish
- Leviticus 26:11 Lit. my soul
- Leviticus 26:19 Lit. pride of your strength
- Leviticus 26:22 The Heb. lacks your number
- Leviticus 26:24 Lit. walk against
- Leviticus 26:28 Lit. walk against
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
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