Leviticus 26:27-39

The results of neglect of the third warning: the extremities of famine and captivity; siege; desolation of the country, destruction of the cities, uselessness of all religious observances; dispersion of the nation; desertion of Palestine and abject misery of the survivors. Such experiences of famine and siege as are described in 2 Kings 6:25 f. would be familiar in the last years of Jerusalem, and the reference to exile (more definite than in Deuteronomy 28; cf. to Egypt, 68) suggests the years after, and immediately before, 586 B.C. The mention of the local sanctuaries (Leviticus 26:31) shows that they cannot all have been destroyed in the reformation of 621 B.C. The reference to the Sabbaths of the land breaks the sense and appears to be an insertion.