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, ¹  and I broke the bars of your yoke and caused you to walk upright. ² 

The Consequences of Disobedience

26:14 “‘If, however, ³  you do not obey me and keep ⁴  all these commandments – 26:15 if you reject my statutes and abhor my regulations so that you do not keep ⁵  all my commandments and you break my covenant – 26:16 I for my part ⁶  will do this to you: I will inflict horror on you, consumption and fever, which diminish eyesight and drain away the vitality of life. ⁷  You will sow your seed in vain because ⁸  your enemies will eat it. ⁹ 

[26:13]  ¹ tn Heb “from being to them slaves.”

[26:13]  ² tn In other words, to walk as free people and not as slaves. Cf. NIV “with (+ your CEV, NLT) heads held high”; NCV “proudly.”

[26:14]  ³ tn Heb “And if.”

[26:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “and do not do.”

[26:15]  ⁵ tn Heb “to not do.”

[26:16]  ⁷ tn Or “I also” (see HALOT 76 s.v. אַף 6.b).

[26:16]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have causal force here.

[26:16]  ¹⁰ tn That is, “your enemies will eat” the produce that grows from the sown seed.