Leviticus 26:14-32

The Consequences of Disobedience

26:14 “‘If, however, ¹  you do not obey me and keep ²  all these commandments – 26:15 if you reject my statutes and abhor my regulations so that you do not keep ³  all my commandments and you break my covenant – 26:16 I for my part ⁴  will do this to you: I will inflict horror on you, consumption and fever, which diminish eyesight and drain away the vitality of life. ⁵  You will sow your seed in vain because ⁶  your enemies will eat it. ⁷  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, ⁸  you do not obey me, I will discipline you seven times more on account of your sins. ⁹  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 ¹⁰  will not produce their fruit.

26:21 “‘If you walk in hostility against me ¹¹  and are not willing to obey me, I will increase your affliction ¹²  seven times according to your sins. 26:22 I will send the wild animals ¹³  against you and they will bereave you of your children, ¹⁴  annihilate your cattle, and diminish your population ¹⁵  so that your roads will become deserted.

26:23 “‘If in spite of these things ¹⁶  you do not allow yourselves to be disciplined and you walk in hostility against me, ¹⁷  26:24 I myself will also walk in hostility against you and strike you ¹⁸  seven times on account of your sins. 26:25 I will bring on you an avenging sword, a covenant vengeance. ¹⁹  Although ²⁰  you will gather together into your cities, I will send pestilence among you and you will be given into enemy hands. ²¹  26:26 When I break off your supply of bread, ²²  ten women will bake your bread in one oven; they will ration your bread by weight, ²³  and you will eat and not be satisfied.

26:27 “‘If in spite of this ²⁴  you do not obey me but walk in hostility against me, ²⁵  26:28 I will walk in hostile rage against you ²⁶  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. ²⁷  26:30 I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars, ²⁸  and I will stack your dead bodies on top of the lifeless bodies of your idols. ²⁹  I will abhor you. ³⁰  26:31 I will lay your cities waste ³¹  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.

[26:14]  ¹ tn Heb “And if.”

[26:14]  ² tn Heb “and do not do.”

[26:15]  ³ tn Heb “to not do.”

[26:16]  ⁴ tn Or “I also” (see HALOT 76 s.v. אַף 6.b).

[26:16]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have causal force here.

[26:16]  ⁷ tn That is, “your enemies will eat” the produce that grows from the sown seed.

[26:18]  ⁸ tn Heb “And if until these.”

[26:18]  ⁹ tn Heb “I will add to discipline you seven [times] on your sins.”

[26:20]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn Heb “hostile with me,” but see the added preposition בְּ (bet) on the phrase “in hostility” in v. 24 and 27.

[26:21]  ¹² tn Heb “your blow, stroke”; cf. TEV “punishment”; NLT “I will inflict you with seven more disasters.”

[26:22]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ tn The words “of your children” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied.

[26:22]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and diminish you.”

[26:23]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “And if in these.”

[26:23]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “with me,” but see the added preposition בְּ (bet) on the phrase “in hostility” in vv. 24 and 27.

[26:24]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and I myself will also strike you.”

[26:25]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “vengeance of covenant”; cf. NAB “the avenger of my covenant.”

[26:25]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) has a concessive force in this context.

[26:25]  ²¹ 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]  ²² tn Heb “When I break to you staff of bread” (KJV, ASV, and NASB all similar).

[26:26]  ²³ tn Heb “they will return your bread in weight.”

[26:27]  ²⁴ tn Heb “And if in this.”

[26:27]  ²⁵ tn Heb “with me.”

[26:28]  ²⁶ 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]  ²⁷ 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]  ²⁸ 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]  ²⁹ 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]  ³⁰ tn Heb “and my soul will abhor you.”

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