Leviticus Twenty Six

by Dr. Henry M. Morris

(taken from the Defender's Study Bible)

Leviticus 26:1 Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the LORD your God.

Leviticus 26:2 Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD.

Leviticus 26:3 If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;

If ye walk. God's promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were unconditional (note Leviticus 26:44-45), but the great promises in Leviticus 26:4-10 were conditional on obedience.

Leviticus 26:4 Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.

Leviticus 26:5 And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.

Leviticus 26:6 And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.

Leviticus 26:7 And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.

Leviticus 26:8 And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.

Leviticus 26:9 For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you.

Leviticus 26:10 And ye shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new.

Leviticus 26:11 And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you.

Leviticus 26:12 And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.

my people. This beautiful promise, originally limited to the children of Israel, will ultimately be fulfilled to all the redeemed in the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:3; see also Exodus 6:7; Jeremiah 32:38; Zechariah 2:11).

Leviticus 26:13 I am the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright.

Leviticus 26:14 But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments;

not hearken. Compare Leviticus 26:3. The awful judgments prophesied in Leviticus 26:16-39 were to be the result of disobedience to the covenant made between God and the children of Israel.

Leviticus 26:15 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:

Leviticus 26:16 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.

Leviticus 26:17 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.

Leviticus 26:18 And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.

seven times. Whether the “seven times” refers to seven particular seasons of judgment, or is simply symbolic of intense fullness of punishment (seven being often an emblem of completeness) is not stated explicitly. Note also its repetition in Leviticus 26:21, 24, and 28. Actually the word “times” is only inferred in each of these four verses, with the regular word for “seven” translated as “seven times.” It is closely related to the word for “sevenfold.” Seven main judgments are mentioned: (1) eating by marauding animals (Leviticus 26:22); (2) slaughter by enemies (Leviticus 26:25); (3) pestilence (Leviticus 26:25); (4) famine (Leviticus 26:26); (5) cannibalism (Leviticus 26:29); (6) destruction of the cities (Leviticus 26:31); and (7) dispersion into other nations (Leviticus 26:33).

Leviticus 26:19 And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass:

Leviticus 26:20 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.

Leviticus 26:21 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.

Leviticus 26:22 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 highways shall be desolate.

Leviticus 26:23 And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me;

Leviticus 26:24 Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins.

Leviticus 26:25 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.

Leviticus 26:26 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.

Leviticus 26:27 And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me;

Leviticus 26:28 Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.

Leviticus 26:29 And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.

eat the flesh. The unthinkable crime of eating their own children (who had, presumably, died of starvation themselves) was actually committed in at least two recorded instances—the siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonian armies (Lamentations 2:20; 4:10), and the earlier siege of Samaria by the Assyrians (2 Kings 6:28).

Leviticus 26:30 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.

Leviticus 26:31 And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours.

Leviticus 26:32 And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it.

land into desolation. A land once “flowing with milk and honey,” as well as abundant fruit and pasturage, descended eventually into terrible desolation after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans and scattering the people in a.d. 135, continuing that way until it began to be restored by the Zionists in modern times.

Leviticus 26:33 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.

scatter you. There are at least seven recorded instances in the Old Testament when one or more of Israel's tribes were ruled by other nations: (1) capture by the king of Mesopotamia (Judges 3:8); (2) capture by the Moabites (Judges 3:14); (3) capture by the king of Canaan (Judges 4:2); (4) control by Midianites (Judges 6:1); (5) capture by the Philistines (Judges 10:7; 13:1); (6) captivity and exile of the northern tribes into Assyria (2 Kings 17:6) and (7) the Babylonian exile of Judah (2 Chronicles 36:17-21). The ultimate captivity and exile, of course, was by the Romans, when the Jews were finally scattered into all the nations of the world (Luke 21:24) because of their rejection of Christ.

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.

land enjoy her sabbaths. There were approximately 490 years in Israel's monarchy, from Saul to Zedekiah, followed by the 70 years of Babylonian captivity (Jeremiah 25:11, 12). During all this period, they failed to observe God's commanded Sabbatical and Jubilee years; hence, the Lord enforced the 70 rest years which were due His land.

Leviticus 26:35 As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.

Leviticus 26:36 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.

Leviticus 26:37 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.

Leviticus 26:38 And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.

Leviticus 26:39 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.

Leviticus 26:40 If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me;

Leviticus 26:41 And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity:

Leviticus 26:42 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.

Leviticus 26:43 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 despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes.

Leviticus 26:44 And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God.

not cast them away. The chosen people Israel have continued their existence as a distinct people for 3500 years, despite being without a homeland for most of that period. This constitutes an amazing testimony to divine inspiration and fulfilled prophecy. Before they had even entered their promised land, God had warned them they would be scattered away from it if they disobeyed. They were, indeed, scattered among the heathen again and again, yet God refused to “destroy them utterly” or to “break my covenant with them,” for He had made this promise to Abraham before they were born (Genesis 17:4-8).

Leviticus 26:45 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, that I might be their God: I am the LORD.

Leviticus 26:46 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.