Leviticus 26
The Lord sets forth the terms of His covenant with Israel, promising blessings and prosperity if they obey His commandments and observe His Sabbaths, but threatening severe punishments, including war, famine, and exile, if they disobey and reject His laws. The punishments will escalate in severity if Israel continues to rebel against God, ultimately leading to their defeat and dispersion among the Gentiles. However, even in exile, God will remember His covenant with Israel and will not cast them off entirely, and He will ultimately restore them to their land.
1I am the Lord your God. You shall not make for yourselves an idol or a graven image. Neither shall you erect a monument, or set up a conspicuous stone in your land, in order that you may adore it. For I am the Lord your God2Observe my Sabbaths, and be fearful toward my Sanctuary. I am the Lord3If you will walk in my precepts, and observe my commandments, and accomplish them, I will give to you rain in its time4and the ground shall bring forth its seedlings, and the trees shall be filled again with fruit5The threshing of the harvest shall last until the vintage, and the vintage shall overtake the sowing. And you shall eat your bread to fullness, and you shall live in your land without fear6I will give peace to your most distant regions. You will sleep, and there will be no one to strike you with terror. I will take away harmful wild beasts, and the sword will not cross your borders7You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall down at the sight of you8Five of yours will pursue a hundred foreigners, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand. Your enemies will fall by the sword in your sight9I will look with favor upon you, and I will cause you to increase; you will be multiplied, and I will confirm my covenant with you10You will eat the oldest of what is old, and, when what is new arrives, you will throw away what is old11I will set my tabernacle in your midst, and my soul will not cast you out12I will walk among you, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people13I am the Lord your God, who led you away from the land of the Egyptians, lest you serve them, and who broke the chains around your necks, so that you would walk upright14But if you will not listen to me, nor accomplish all of my commandments15if you despise my laws, and disdain my judgments, so that you do not accomplish those things which have been established by me, and so that you lead my covenant away into nullification16then I also will do these things to you. I will quickly visit you with destitution, and burning heat, which will waste away your eyes, and consume your lives. In vain will you sow your seed, which will be devoured by your enemies17I will set my face against you, and you will fall down before your enemies, and you will be subjugated to those who hate you. You will flee, though no one pursues18But if you will not be obedient to me in this way, then I will add sevenfold to your chastisement, because of your sins19And I will crush the pride in your hardness, and I will give to you heaven above like iron, and the earth below like brass20Your labor will be consumed to no purpose; the land will not bring forth seedlings, nor will the trees provide their fruit21If you walk as an adversary to me, and if you are not willing to listen to me, I will add sevenfold to your plagues, because of your sins22And I will send upon you the wild beasts of the field, which will consume you and your cattle, and which will reduce everything to paucity, and cause your roadways to become desolate23But if you are not willing to receive discipline in this way, and you still walk as an adversary to me24likewise, I will advance against you as an adversary, and I will strike you seven times, because of your sins25And I will lead over you the sword that shall avenge my covenant. And when you will have fled into the cities, I will send a pestilence into your midst, and you will be delivered into the hands of your enemies26After this, I will have broken the staff of your bread, so that ten women bake bread in one oven, and distribute it by weight. And you shall eat and not be filled27Then, if you will not listen to me through these things, and you still walk against me28then I also will advance against you, with an opposing fury, and I will chastise you with seven plagues, because of your sins29so much so that you will eat the flesh of your sons and your daughters30I will destroy your high places, and I will break apart your false images. You will fall among the ruins of your idols, and my soul will abominate you31so much so that I will reduce your cities to a wilderness, and I will make your Sanctuaries desolate, and I will no longer accept the most sweet odors32And I will utterly ruin your land, and your enemies shall be stupefied at it, when they will have become its inhabitants33Then I will scatter you among the Gentiles, and I will unsheathe the sword after you. And your land will be deserted, and your cities will be demolished34Then the land will be pleased by her Sabbaths, throughout all the days of her solitude. So, while you will b35in the land of the enemy, she will worship and rest in the Sabbath of her solitude, because she will not have rested in your Sabbaths, when you lived in her36And whoever of you will remain, I will send terror into their hearts in the regions of their enemies. The sound of a flying leaf will terrify them, and so they will flee, as if from the sword. They will fall, though no one pursues37And they will each fall upon their brothers, as if they were fleeing from wars; no one among you will dare to resist your foes38You will perish among the Gentiles, and the land of the enemy will consume you39But if some few of these still remain, they shall waste away in their iniquities, in the land of their enemies, and they will be afflicted, because of the sins of their fathers and their own sins40until they confess their iniquities, and those of their ancestors, by which they have transgressed against me and walked as adversaries to me41Therefore, I also will walk against them, and I will lead them into a hostile land, until their uncircumcised mind shall be ashamed. Then shall they pray on behalf of their impiety42And I will remember my covenant, which I formed with Jacob, and Isaac, and Abraham. I will also remember the land43which, when she will be left behind by them, shall be pleased by her Sabbaths, enduring solitude because of them. Yet truly, they shall pray for their sins, because they cast aside my judgments, and they despised my laws44And even after so much, when they were in the land of their enemy, I did not cast them off entirely, and I did not so despise them that they would be consumed, nor so that I would nullify my covenant with them. For I am the Lord their God45And I will remember my original covenant, when I led them away from the land of Egypt, in the sight of the Gentiles, so as to be their God. I am the Lord.46These are the judgments, and precepts, and laws, which the Lord has granted between himself and the sons of Israel, on mount Sinai, by the hand of Moses.
Share this chapter