Deuteronomy 28:15-68

Curses as Reversal of Blessings

28:15 “But if you ignore ¹  the Lord your God and are not careful to keep all his commandments and statutes I am giving you today, then all these curses will come upon you in full force: ²  28:16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the field. 28:17 Your basket and your mixing bowl will be cursed. 28:18 Your children ³  will be cursed, as well as the produce of your soil, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks. 28:19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. ⁴ 

Curses by Disease and Drought

28:20 “The Lord will send on you a curse, confusing you and opposing you ⁵  in everything you undertake ⁶  until you are destroyed and quickly perish because of the evil of your deeds, in that you have forsaken me. ⁷  28:21 The Lord will plague you with deadly diseases ⁸  until he has completely removed you from the land you are about to possess. 28:22 He ⁹  will afflict you with weakness, ¹⁰  fever, inflammation, infection, ¹¹  sword, ¹²  blight, and mildew; these will attack you until you perish. 28:23 The ¹³  sky ¹⁴  above your heads will be bronze and the earth beneath you iron. 28:24 The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust; it will come down on you from the sky until you are destroyed.

Curses by Defeat and Deportation

28:25 “The Lord will allow you to be struck down before your enemies; you will attack them from one direction but flee from them in seven directions and will become an object of terror ¹⁵  to all the kingdoms of the earth. 28:26 Your carcasses will be food for every bird of the sky and wild animal of the earth, and there will be no one to chase them off. 28:27 The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, eczema, and scabies, all of which cannot be healed. 28:28 The Lord will also subject you to madness, blindness, and confusion of mind. ¹⁶  28:29 You will feel your way along at noon like the blind person does in darkness and you will not succeed in anything you do; ¹⁷  you will be constantly oppressed and continually robbed, with no one to save you. 28:30 You will be engaged to a woman and another man will rape ¹⁸  her. You will build a house but not live in it. You will plant a vineyard but not even begin to use it. 28:31 Your ox will be slaughtered before your very eyes but you will not eat of it. Your donkey will be stolen from you as you watch and will not be returned to you. Your flock of sheep will be given to your enemies and there will be no one to save you. 28:32 Your sons and daughters will be given to another people while you look on in vain all day, and you will be powerless to do anything about it. ¹⁹  28:33 As for the produce of your land and all your labor, a people you do not know will consume it, and you will be nothing but oppressed and crushed for the rest of your lives. 28:34 You will go insane from seeing all this. 28:35 The Lord will afflict you in your knees and on your legs with painful, incurable boils – from the soles of your feet to the top of your head. 28:36 The Lord will force you and your king ²⁰  whom you will appoint over you to go away to a people whom you and your ancestors have not known, and you will serve other gods of wood and stone there. 28:37 You will become an occasion of horror, a proverb, and an object of ridicule to all the peoples to whom the Lord will drive you.

The Curse of Reversed Status

28:38 “You will take much seed to the field but gather little harvest, because locusts will consume it. 28:39 You will plant vineyards and cultivate them, but you will not drink wine or gather in grapes, because worms will eat them. 28:40 You will have olive trees throughout your territory but you will not anoint yourself with olive oil, because the olives will drop off the trees while still unripe. ²¹  28:41 You will bear sons and daughters but not keep them, because they will be taken into captivity. 28:42 Whirring locusts ²²  will take over every tree and all the produce of your soil. 28:43 The foreigners ²³  who reside among you will become higher and higher over you and you will become lower and lower. 28:44 They will lend to you but you will not lend to them; they will become the head and you will become the tail!

28:45 All these curses will fall on you, pursuing and overtaking you until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the Lord your God by keeping his commandments and statutes that he has given ²⁴  you. 28:46 These curses ²⁵  will be a perpetual sign and wonder with reference to you and your descendants. ²⁶ 

The Curse of Military Siege

28:47 “Because you have not served the Lord your God joyfully and wholeheartedly with the abundance of everything you have, 28:48 instead in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and poverty ²⁷  you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you. They ²⁸  will place an iron yoke on your neck until they have destroyed you. 28:49 The Lord will raise up a distant nation against you, one from the other side of the earth ²⁹  as the eagle flies, ³⁰  a nation whose language you will not understand, 28:50 a nation of stern appearance that will have no regard for the elderly or pity for the young. 28:51 They ³¹  will devour the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your soil until you are destroyed. They will not leave you with any grain, new wine, olive oil, calves of your herds, ³²  or lambs of your flocks ³³  until they have destroyed you. 28:52 They will besiege all of your villages ³⁴  until all of your high and fortified walls collapse – those in which you put your confidence throughout the land. They will besiege all your villages throughout the land the Lord your God has given you. 28:53 You will then eat your own offspring, ³⁵  the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you, because of the severity of the siege ³⁶  by which your enemies will constrict you. 28:54 The man among you who is by nature tender and sensitive will turn against his brother, his beloved wife, and his remaining children. 28:55 He will withhold from all of them his children’s flesh that he is eating (since there is nothing else left), because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict ³⁷  you in your villages. 28:56 Likewise, the most ³⁸  tender and delicate of your women, who would never think of putting even the sole of her foot on the ground because of her daintiness, ³⁹  will turn against her beloved husband, her sons and daughters, 28:57 and will secretly eat her afterbirth ⁴⁰  and her newborn children ⁴¹  (since she has nothing else), ⁴²  because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict you in your villages.

The Curse of Covenant Termination

28:58 “If you refuse to obey ⁴³  all the words of this law, the things written in this scroll, and refuse to fear this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God, 28:59 then the Lord will increase your punishments and those of your descendants – great and long-lasting afflictions and severe, enduring illnesses. 28:60 He will infect you with all the diseases of Egypt ⁴⁴  that you dreaded, and they will persistently afflict you. ⁴⁵  28:61 Moreover, the Lord will bring upon you every kind of sickness and plague not mentioned in this scroll of commandments, ⁴⁶  until you have perished. 28:62 There will be very few of you left, though at one time you were as numerous as the stars in the sky, ⁴⁷  because you will have disobeyed ⁴⁸  the Lord your God. 28:63 This is what will happen: Just as the Lord delighted to do good for you and make you numerous, he ⁴⁹  will take delight in destroying and decimating you. You will be uprooted from the land you are about to possess. 28:64 The Lord will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods of wood and stone. 28:65 Among those nations you will have no rest nor will there be a place of peaceful rest for the soles of your feet, for there the Lord will give you an anxious heart, failing eyesight, and a spirit of despair. 28:66 Your life will hang in doubt before you; you will be terrified by night and day and will have no certainty of surviving from one day to the next. ⁵⁰  28:67 In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ And in the evening you will say, ‘I wish it were morning!’ because of the things you will fear and the things you will see. 28:68 Then the Lord will make you return to Egypt by ship, over a route I said to you that you would never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”

Deuteronomy 29:18-28

29:18 Beware that the heart of no man, woman, clan, or tribe among you turns away from the Lord our God today to pursue and serve the gods of those nations; beware that there is among you no root producing poisonous and bitter fruit. ⁵¹  29:19 When such a person ⁵²  hears the words of this oath he secretly ⁵³  blesses himself ⁵⁴  and says, “I will have peace though I continue to walk with a stubborn spirit.” ⁵⁵  This will destroy ⁵⁶  the watered ground with the parched. ⁵⁷  29:20 The Lord will be unwilling to forgive him, and his intense anger ⁵⁸  will rage ⁵⁹  against that man; all the curses ⁶⁰  written in this scroll will fall upon him ⁶¹  and the Lord will obliterate his name from memory. ⁶²  29:21 The Lord will single him out ⁶³  for judgment ⁶⁴  from all the tribes of Israel according to all the curses of the covenant written in this scroll of the law. 29:22 The generation to come – your descendants who will rise up after you, as well as the foreigner who will come from distant places – will see ⁶⁵  the afflictions of that land and the illnesses that the Lord has brought on it. 29:23 The whole land will be covered with brimstone, salt, and burning debris; it will not be planted nor will it sprout or produce grass. It will resemble the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord destroyed in his intense anger. ⁶⁶  29:24 Then all the nations will ask, “Why has the Lord done all this to this land? What is this fierce, heated display of anger ⁶⁷  all about?” 29:25 Then people will say, “Because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. 29:26 They went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods they did not know and that he did not permit them to worship. ⁶⁸  29:27 That is why the Lord’s anger erupted against this land, bringing on it all the curses ⁶⁹  written in this scroll. 29:28 So the Lord has uprooted them from their land in anger, wrath, and great rage and has deported them to another land, as is clear today.”

Leviticus 26:14-46

The Consequences of Disobedience

26:14 “‘If, however, ⁷⁰  you do not obey me and keep ⁷¹  all these commandments – 26:15 if you reject my statutes and abhor my regulations so that you do not keep ⁷²  all my commandments and you break my covenant – 26:16 I for my part ⁷³  will do this to you: I will inflict horror on you, consumption and fever, which diminish eyesight and drain away the vitality of life. ⁷⁴  You will sow your seed in vain because ⁷⁵  your enemies will eat it. ⁷⁶  26:17 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.

26:18 “‘If, in spite of all these things, ⁷⁷  you do not obey me, I will discipline you seven times more on account of your sins. ⁷⁸  26:19 I will break your strong pride and make your sky like iron and your land like bronze. 26:20 Your strength will be used up in vain, your land will not give its yield, and the trees of the land ⁷⁹  will not produce their fruit.

26:21 “‘If you walk in hostility against me ⁸⁰  and are not willing to obey me, I will increase your affliction ⁸¹  seven times according to your sins. 26:22 I will send the wild animals ⁸²  against you and they will bereave you of your children, ⁸³  annihilate your cattle, and diminish your population ⁸⁴  so that your roads will become deserted.

26:23 “‘If in spite of these things ⁸⁵  you do not allow yourselves to be disciplined and you walk in hostility against me, ⁸⁶  26:24 I myself will also walk in hostility against you and strike you ⁸⁷  seven times on account of your sins. 26:25 I will bring on you an avenging sword, a covenant vengeance. ⁸⁸  Although ⁸⁹  you will gather together into your cities, I will send pestilence among you and you will be given into enemy hands. ⁹⁰  26:26 When I break off your supply of bread, ⁹¹  ten women will bake your bread in one oven; they will ration your bread by weight, ⁹²  and you will eat and not be satisfied.

26:27 “‘If in spite of this ⁹³  you do not obey me but walk in hostility against me, ⁹⁴  26:28 I will walk in hostile rage against you ⁹⁵  and I myself will also discipline you seven times on account of your sins. 26:29 You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters. ⁹⁶  26:30 I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars, ⁹⁷  and I will stack your dead bodies on top of the lifeless bodies of your idols. ⁹⁸  I will abhor you. ⁹⁹  26:31 I will lay your cities waste ¹⁰⁰  and make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will refuse to smell your soothing aromas. 26:32 I myself will make the land desolate and your enemies who live in it will be appalled. 26:33 I will scatter you among the nations and unsheathe the sword ¹⁰¹  after you, so your land will become desolate and your cities will become a waste.

26:34 “‘Then the land will make up for ¹⁰²  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. 26:35 All the days of the desolation it will have the rest it did not have ¹⁰³  on your Sabbaths when you lived on it.

26:36 “‘As for ¹⁰⁴  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. 26:37 They will stumble over each other as those who flee before a sword, though ¹⁰⁵  there is no pursuer, and there will be no one to take a stand ¹⁰⁶  for you before your enemies. 26:38 You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will consume you.

Restoration through Confession and Repentance

26:39 “‘As for the ones who remain among you, they will rot away because of ¹⁰⁷  their iniquity in the lands of your enemies, and they will also rot away because of their ancestors’ ¹⁰⁸  iniquities which are with them. 26:40 However, when ¹⁰⁹  they confess their iniquity and their ancestors’ iniquity which they committed by trespassing against me, ¹¹⁰  by which they also walked ¹¹¹  in hostility against me ¹¹²  26:41 (and I myself will walk in hostility against them and bring them into the land of their enemies), and ¹¹³  then their uncircumcised hearts become humbled and they make up for ¹¹⁴  their iniquity, 26:42 I will remember my covenant with Jacob and also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham, ¹¹⁵  and I will remember the land. 26:43 The land will be abandoned by them ¹¹⁶  in order that it may make up for ¹¹⁷  its Sabbaths while it is made desolate ¹¹⁸  without them, ¹¹⁹  and they will make up for their iniquity because ¹²⁰  they have rejected my regulations and have abhorred ¹²¹  my statutes. 26:44 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. 26:45 I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors ¹²²  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

26:46 These are the statutes, regulations, and instructions which the Lord established ¹²³  between himself and the Israelites at Mount Sinai through ¹²⁴  Moses.

Leviticus 26:2

26:2 You must keep my Sabbaths and reverence ¹²⁵  my sanctuary. I am the Lord.

Leviticus 1:1

Introduction to the Sacrificial Regulations

1:1 Then the Lord called to Moses and spoke to him ¹²⁶  from the Meeting Tent: ¹²⁷ 

Luke 19:42-44

19:42 saying, “If you had only known on this day, ¹²⁸  even you, the things that make for peace! ¹²⁹  But now they are hidden ¹³⁰  from your eyes. 19:43 For the days will come upon you when your enemies will build ¹³¹  an embankment ¹³²  against you and surround you and close in on you from every side. 19:44 They will demolish you ¹³³  – you and your children within your walls ¹³⁴  – and they will not leave within you one stone ¹³⁵  on top of another, ¹³⁶  because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.” ¹³⁷ 

Luke 21:24

21:24 They ¹³⁸  will fall by the edge ¹³⁹  of the sword and be led away as captives ¹⁴⁰  among all nations. Jerusalem ¹⁴¹  will be trampled down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. ¹⁴² 

[28:15]  ¹ tn Heb “do not hear the voice of.”

[28:15]  ² tn Heb “and overtake you” (so NIV, NRSV); NAB, NLT “and overwhelm you.”

[28:18]  ³ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[28:19]  ⁴ sn See note on the similar expression in v. 6.

[28:20]  ⁵ tn Heb “the curse, the confusion, and the rebuke” (NASB and NIV similar); NRSV “disaster, panic, and frustration.”

[28:20]  ⁶ tn Heb “in all the stretching out of your hand.”

[28:20]  ⁷ tc For the MT first person common singular suffix (“me”), the LXX reads either “Lord” (Lucian) or third person masculine singular suffix (“him”; various codices). The MT’s more difficult reading probably represents the original text.

[28:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “will cause pestilence to cling to you.”

[28:22]  ⁹ tn Heb “The Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

[28:22]  ¹⁰ tn Or perhaps “consumption” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV). The term is from a verbal root that indicates a weakening of one’s physical strength (cf. NAB “wasting”; NIV, NLT “wasting disease”).

[28:22]  ¹¹ tn Heb “hot fever”; NIV “scorching heat.”

[28:22]  ¹² tn Or “drought” (so NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[28:23]  ¹³ tc The MT reads “Your.” The LXX reads “Heaven will be to you.”

[28:23]  ¹⁴ tn Or “heavens” (also in the following verse). The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[28:25]  ¹⁵ tc The meaningless MT reading זַעֲוָה (za’avah) is clearly a transposition of the more commonly attested Hebrew noun זְוָעָה (zÿva’ah, “terror”).

[28:28]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “heart” (so KJV, NASB).

[28:29]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “you will not cause your ways to prosper.”

[28:30]  ¹⁸ tc For MT reading שָׁגַל (shagal, “ravish; violate”), the Syriac, Targum, and Vulgate presume the less violent שָׁכַב (shakhav, “lie with”). The unexpected counterpart to betrothal here favors the originality of the MT.

[28:32]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and there will be no power in your hand”; NCV “there will be nothing you can do.”

[28:36]  ²⁰ tc The LXX reads the plural “kings.”

[28:40]  ²¹ tn Heb “your olives will drop off” (נָשַׁל, nashal), referring to the olives dropping off before they ripen.

[28:42]  ²² tn The Hebrew term denotes some sort of buzzing or whirring insect; some have understood this to be a type of locust (KJV, NIV, CEV), but other insects have also been suggested: “buzzing insects” (NAB); “the cricket” (NASB); “the cicada” (NRSV).

[28:43]  ²³ tn Heb “the foreigner.” This is a collective singular and has therefore been translated as plural; this includes the pronouns in the following verse, which are also singular in the Hebrew text.

[28:45]  ²⁴ tn Heb “commanded”; NAB, NIV, TEV “he gave you.”

[28:46]  ²⁵ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the curses mentioned previously) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[28:46]  ²⁶ tn Heb “seed” (so KJV, ASV).

[28:48]  ²⁷ tn Heb “lack of everything.”

[28:48]  ²⁸ tn Heb “he” (also later in this verse). The pronoun is a collective singular referring to the enemies (cf. CEV, NLT). Many translations understand the singular pronoun to refer to the Lord (cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NCV, NRSV, TEV).

[28:49]  ²⁹ tn Heb “from the end of the earth.”

[28:49]  ³⁰ tn Some translations understand this to mean “like an eagle swoops down” (e.g., NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT), comparing the swift attack of an eagle to the attack of the Israelites’ enemies.

[28:51]  ³¹ tn Heb “it” (so NRSV), a collective singular referring to the invading nation (several times in this verse and v. 52).

[28:51]  ³² tn Heb “increase of herds.”

[28:51]  ³³ tn Heb “growth of flocks.”

[28:52]  ³⁴ tn Heb “gates,” also in vv. 55, 57.

[28:53]  ³⁵ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NRSV); NASB “the offspring of your own body.”

[28:53]  ³⁶ tn Heb “siege and stress.”

[28:55]  ³⁷ tn Heb “besiege,” redundant with the noun “siege.”

[28:56]  ³⁸ tc The LXX adds σφόδρα (sfodra, “very”) to bring the description into line with v. 54.

[28:56]  ³⁹ tn Heb “delicateness and tenderness.”

[28:57]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb includes “that which comes out from between her feet.”

[28:57]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “her sons that she will bear.”

[28:57]  ⁴² tn Heb includes “in her need for everything.”

[28:58]  ⁴³ tn Heb “If you are not careful to do.”

[28:60]  ⁴⁴ sn These are the plagues the Lord inflicted on the Egyptians prior to the exodus which, though they did not fall upon the Israelites, must have caused great terror (cf. Exod 15:26).

[28:60]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “will cling to you” (so NIV); NLT “will claim you.”

[28:61]  ⁴⁶ tn The Hebrew term תּוֹרָה (torah) can refer either (1) to the whole Pentateuch or, more likely, (2) to the book of Deuteronomy or even (3) only to this curse section of the covenant text. “Scroll” better reflects the actual document, since “book” conveys the notion of a bound book with pages to the modern English reader. Cf. KJV, NASB, NRSV “the book of this law”; NIV, NLT “this Book of the Law”; TEV “this book of God’s laws and teachings.”

[28:62]  ⁴⁷ tn Or “heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[28:62]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “have not listened to the voice of.”

[28:63]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

[28:66]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “you will not be confident in your life.” The phrase “from one day to the next” is implied by the following verse.

[29:18]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “yielding fruit poisonous and wormwood.” The Hebrew noun לַעֲנָה (la’anah) literally means “wormwood” (so KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB), but is used figuratively for anything extremely bitter, thus here “fruit poisonous and bitter.”

[29:19]  ⁵² tn Heb “he”; the referent (the subject of the warning in v. 18) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[29:19]  ⁵³ tn Heb “in his heart.”

[29:19]  ⁵⁴ tn Or “invokes a blessing on himself.” A formalized word of blessing is in view, the content of which appears later in the verse.

[29:19]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “heart.”

[29:19]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “thus destroying.” For stylistic reasons the translation begins a new sentence here.

[29:19]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “the watered with the parched.” The word “ground” is implied. The exact meaning of the phrase is uncertain although it appears to be figurative. This appears to be a proverbial observation employing a figure of speech (a merism) suggesting totality. That is, the Israelite who violates the letter and even spirit of the covenant will harm not only himself but everything he touches – “the watered and the parched.” Cf. CEV “you will cause the rest of Israel to be punished along with you.”

[29:20]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “the wrath of the Lord and his zeal.” The expression is a hendiadys, a figure in which the second noun becomes adjectival to the first.

[29:20]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “smoke,” or “smolder.”

[29:20]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “the entire oath.”

[29:20]  ⁶¹ tn Or “will lie in wait against him.”

[29:20]  ⁶² tn Heb “blot out his name from under the sky.”

[29:21]  ⁶³ tn Heb “set him apart.”

[29:21]  ⁶⁴ tn Heb “for evil”; NAB “for doom”; NASB “for adversity”; NIV “for disaster”; NRSV “for calamity.”

[29:22]  ⁶⁵ tn Heb “will say and see.” One expects a quotation to appear, but it seems to be omitted. To avoid confusion in the translation, the verb “will say” is omitted.

[29:23]  ⁶⁶ tn Heb “the anger and the wrath.” This construction is a hendiadys intended to intensify the emotion.

[29:24]  ⁶⁷ tn Heb “this great burning of anger”; KJV “the heat of this great anger.”

[29:26]  ⁶⁸ tn Heb “did not assign to them”; NASB, NRSV “had not allotted to them.”

[29:27]  ⁶⁹ tn Heb “the entire curse.”

[26:14]  ⁷⁰ tn Heb “And if.”

[26:14]  ⁷¹ tn Heb “and do not do.”

[26:15]  ⁷² tn Heb “to not do.”

[26:16]  ⁷³ tn Or “I also” (see HALOT 76 s.v. אַף 6.b).

[26:16]  ⁷⁴ 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.

[26:16]  ⁷⁵ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have causal force here.

[26:16]  ⁷⁶ tn That is, “your enemies will eat” the produce that grows from the sown seed.

[26:18]  ⁷⁷ tn Heb “And if until these.”

[26:18]  ⁷⁸ tn Heb “I will add to discipline you seven [times] on your sins.”

[26:20]  ⁷⁹ tn 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.”

[26:21]  ⁸⁰ tn Heb “hostile with me,” but see the added preposition בְּ (bet) on the phrase “in hostility” in v. 24 and 27.

[26:21]  ⁸¹ tn Heb “your blow, stroke”; cf. TEV “punishment”; NLT “I will inflict you with seven more disasters.”

[26:22]  ⁸² tn 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.

[26:22]  ⁸³ tn The words “of your children” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied.

[26:22]  ⁸⁴ tn Heb “and diminish you.”

[26:23]  ⁸⁵ tn Heb “And if in these.”

[26:23]  ⁸⁶ tn Heb “with me,” but see the added preposition בְּ (bet) on the phrase “in hostility” in vv. 24 and 27.

[26:24]  ⁸⁷ tn Heb “and I myself will also strike you.”

[26:25]  ⁸⁸ tn Heb “vengeance of covenant”; cf. NAB “the avenger of my covenant.”

[26:25]  ⁸⁹ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) has a concessive force in this context.

[26:25]  ⁹⁰ tn 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).

[26:26]  ⁹¹ tn Heb “When I break to you staff of bread” (KJV, ASV, and NASB all similar).

[26:26]  ⁹² tn Heb “they will return your bread in weight.”

[26:27]  ⁹³ tn Heb “And if in this.”

[26:27]  ⁹⁴ tn Heb “with me.”

[26:28]  ⁹⁵ tn 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.”

[26:29]  ⁹⁶ tn 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.

[26:30]  ⁹⁷ sn 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.”

[26:30]  ⁹⁸ tn 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.

[26:30]  ⁹⁹ tn Heb “and my soul will abhor you.”

[26:31]  ¹⁰⁰ tn Heb “And I will give your cities a waste”; NLT “make your cities desolate.”

[26:33]  ¹⁰¹ tn Heb “and I will empty sword” (see HALOT 1228 s.v. ריק 3).

[26:34]  ¹⁰² tn 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).

[26:35]  ¹⁰³ tn Heb “it shall rest which it did not rest.”

[26:36]  ¹⁰⁴ tn Heb “And.”

[26:37]  ¹⁰⁵ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) is used in a concessive sense here.

[26:37]  ¹⁰⁶ tn 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.

[26:39]  ¹⁰⁷ tn Heb “in” (so KJV, ASV; also later in this verse).

[26:39]  ¹⁰⁸ tn Heb “fathers’” (also in the following verse).

[26:40]  ¹⁰⁹ tn 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.

[26:40]  ¹¹⁰ tn 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.”

[26:40]  ¹¹¹ tn Heb “and also which they walked.”

[26:40]  ¹¹² tn Heb “with me.”

[26:41]  ¹¹³ tn Heb “or then,” although the LXX has “then” and the Syriac “and then.”

[26:41]  ¹¹⁴ tn Heb “and then they make up for.” On the verb “make up for” see the note on v. 34 above.

[26:42]  ¹¹⁵ tn Heb “my covenant with Abraham I will remember.” The phrase “I will remember” has not been repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[26:43]  ¹¹⁶ tn Heb “from them.” The preposition “from” refers here to the agent of the action (J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 455).

[26:43]  ¹¹⁷ tn The jussive form of the verb with the simple vav (ו) here calls for a translation that expresses purpose.

[26:43]  ¹¹⁸ tn The verb is the Hophal infinitive construct with the third feminine singular suffix (GKC 182 §67.y; cf. v. 34).

[26:43]  ¹¹⁹ tn Heb “from them.”

[26:43]  ¹²⁰ tn 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).

[26:43]  ¹²¹ tn Heb “and their soul has abhorred.”

[26:45]  ¹²² tn Heb “covenant of former ones.”

[26:46]  ¹²³ tn Heb “gave” (so NLT); KJV, ASV, NCV “made.”

[26:46]  ¹²⁴ tn Heb “by the hand of” (so KJV).

[26:2]  ¹²⁵ tn Heb “and my sanctuary you shall fear.” Cf. NCV “respect”; CEV “honor.”

[1:1]  ¹²⁶ tn Heb “And he (the Lord) called (וַיִּקְרָא, vayyiqra’) to Moses and the Lord spoke (וַיְדַבֵּר, vayÿdabber) to him from the tent of meeting.” The MT assumes “Lord” in the first clause but places it in the second clause (after “spoke”). This is somewhat awkward, especially in terms of English style; most English versions reverse this and place “Lord” in the first clause (right after “called”). The Syriac version does the same.

[1:1]  ¹²⁷ sn The second clause of v. 1, “and the Lord spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying,” introduces the following discourse. This is a standard introductory formula (see, e.g., Exod 20:1; 25:1; 31:1; etc.). The combination of the first and second clauses is, therefore, “bulky” because of the way they happen to be juxtaposed in this transitional verse (J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 8). The first clause of v. 1 connects the book back to the end of the Book of Exodus while the second looks forward the ritual legislation that follows in Lev 1:2ff. There are two “Tents of Meeting”: the one that stood outside the camp (see, e.g., Exod 33:7) and the one that stood in the midst of the camp (Exod 40:2; Num 2:2ff) and served as the Lord’s residence until the construction of the temple in the days of Solomon (Exod 27:21; 29:4; 1 Kgs 8:4; 2 Chr 5:5, etc.; cf. 2 Sam 7:6). Exod 40:35 uses both “tabernacle” and “tent of meeting” to refer to the same tent: “Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.” It is clear that “tent of meeting” in Lev 1:1 refers to the “tabernacle.” The latter term refers to the tent as a “residence,” while the former refers to it as a divinely appointed place of “meeting” between God and man (see R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:873-77 and 2:1130-34). This corresponds to the change in terms in Exod 40:35, where “tent of meeting” is used when referring to Moses’ inability to enter the tent, but “tabernacle” when referring to the Lord taking up residence there in the form of the glory cloud. The quotation introduced here extends from Lev 1:2 through 3:17, and encompasses the burnt, grain, and peace offering regulations. Compare the notes on Lev 4:1; 5:14; and 6:1 [5:20 HT] below.

[19:42]  ¹²⁸ sn On this day. They had missed the time of Messiah’s coming; see v. 44.

[19:42]  ¹²⁹ tn Grk “the things toward peace.” This expression seems to mean “the things that would ‘lead to,’ ‘bring about,’ or ‘make for’ peace.”

[19:42]  ¹³⁰ sn But now they are hidden from your eyes. This becomes an oracle of doom in the classic OT sense; see Luke 13:31-35; 11:49-51; Jer 9:2; 13:7; 14:7. They are now blind and under judgment (Jer 15:5; Ps 122:6).

[19:43]  ¹³¹ sn Jesus now predicted the events that would be fulfilled in the fall of Jerusalem in a.d. 70. The details of the siege have led some to see Luke writing this after Jerusalem’s fall, but the language of the verse is like God’s exilic judgment for covenant unfaithfulness (Hab 2:8; Jer 6:6, 14; 8:13-22; 9:1; Ezek 4:2; 26:8; Isa 29:1-4). Specific details are lacking and the procedures described (build an embankment against you) were standard Roman military tactics.

[19:43]  ¹³² sn An embankment refers to either wooden barricades or earthworks, or a combination of the two.

[19:44]  ¹³³ tn Grk “They will raze you to the ground.”

[19:44]  ¹³⁴ tn Grk “your children within you.” The phrase “[your] walls” has been supplied in the translation to clarify that the city of Jerusalem, metaphorically pictured as an individual, is spoken of here.

[19:44]  ¹³⁵ sn (Not) one stone on top of another is an idiom for total destruction.

[19:44]  ¹³⁶ tn Grk “leave stone on stone.”

[19:44]  ¹³⁷ tn Grk “the time of your visitation.” To clarify what this refers to, the words “from God” are supplied at the end of the verse, although they do not occur in the Greek text.

[21:24]  ¹³⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[21:24]  ¹³⁹ tn Grk “by the mouth of the sword” (an idiom for the edge of a sword).

[21:24]  ¹⁴⁰ sn Here is the predicted judgment against the nation until the time of Gentile rule has passed: Its people will be led away as captives.

[21:24]  ¹⁴¹ tn Grk “And Jerusalem.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[21:24]  ¹⁴² sn Until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled implies a time when Israel again has a central role in God’s plan.