Leviticus 26:13-16

26:13 I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from being their slaves, and I broke the bars of your yoke and caused you to walk upright.

The Consequences of Disobedience

26:14 “‘If, however, you do not obey me and keep all these commandments – 26:15 if you reject my statutes and abhor my regulations so that you do not keep all my commandments and you break my covenant – 26:16 I for my part will do this to you: I will inflict horror on you, consumption and fever, which diminish eyesight and drain away the vitality of life. You will sow your seed in vain because your enemies will eat it.


tn Heb “from being to them slaves.”

tn In other words, to walk as free people and not as slaves. Cf. NIV “with (+ your CEV, NLT) heads held high”; NCV “proudly.”

tn Heb “And if.”

tn Heb “and do not do.”

tn Heb “to not do.”

tn Or “I also” (see HALOT 76 s.v. אַף 6.b).

tn 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.

tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have causal force here.

10 tn That is, “your enemies will eat” the produce that grows from the sown seed.