Leviticus 26:1-46
1 Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the LORD your God.
2 Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD.
3 If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;
4 Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
5 And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.
6 And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rida evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.
7 And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.
8 And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.
9 For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you.
10 And ye shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new.
11 And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you.
12 And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.
13 I am the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright.
14 But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments;
15 And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant:
16 I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.
17 And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you.
18 And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.
19 And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass:
20 And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits.
21 And if ye walk contraryb unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins.
22 I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate.
23 And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me;
24 Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins.
25 And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
26 And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied.
27 And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me;
28 Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.
29 And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.
30 And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you.
31 And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours.
32 And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it.
33 And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.
34 Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies' land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths.
35 As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.
36 And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shakenc leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth.
37 And they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursueth: and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies.
38 And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.
39 And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.
40 If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me;
41 And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity:
42 Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.
43 The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes.
44 And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God.
45 But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the LORD.
46 These are the statutes and judgments and laws, which the LORD made between him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.
Leviticus 26:1. Neither set up any image of stone, any large sightly stone. The druids were apt to bring or roll large stones from afar, as at Stone-henge, at Shap in Westmoreland; at Stanton Drew, near Bristol; and at Abury, Wilts. These were ancient temples, approached by serpentine walks, and seats of idolatry of Sabian origin.
Leviticus 26:8. Ten thousand, or a multitude shall be put to flight. This was done by Gideon; also by Jonathan and his armour bearer. 1 Samuel 14 1 Samuel 14.
Leviticus 26:18. Seven times. This phrase, often used in the scriptures, signifies the visiting of the long accumulated load of guilt upon a hardened people.
Leviticus 26:22. Wild beasts shall rob you of your children. The LXX have omitted children, probably because they understood them to be included in the destruction of the people and the cattle. Though their commission be special here; yet there are physical causes for the irruptions of wild beasts. Cold drives the wolf from the northern region in quest of food, and thirst in the droughty summers attracts the lion to the river.
Leviticus 26:29. Eat the flesh of your sons. This calamity came upon them when Benhadad besieged Samaria, 2 Kings 6; when the Babylonians besieged Jerusalem, Lamentations 4:10; and when the Romans also besieged it, as is most lamentably recorded by Josephus.
REFLECTIONS.
From a multitude of passages it evidently appears that the Hebrew covenant had its stipulated conditions; and that obedience was enforced by the sanctifying motives of rewards and punishments. So the Lord saith by Isaiah: If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured by the sword. The new covenant being in substance the same as the old, it is by like appeals that God still addresses the christian world.
The blessings of this covenant were the utmost riches of the harvest and vintage; protection from the sword, and from beasts of prey; increase of children, and the constant presence of the divine glory. The holy prophets have abundantly improved those temporal blessings, to adumbrate the more glorious blessings of the gospel. Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy wine and milk, without money and without price. Isaiah 55; Matthew 22.
The punishments denounced against apostasy are of the most awful kind; but not more awful than were actually inflicted. Let sinners read and learn. Let them behold God rising to avenge the quarrel of his covenant; war, pestilence and famine, roll as angry tempests before the frowns of his countenance. Do the wicked hope to escape? Do they plead for a system of mercy nowhere known in the sacred writings? When, I would ask, did Israel forsake the Lord and go unpunished? When has he been wanting to reward the evil doer according to his work?
We have next a very striking and luminous prediction of the Babylonian captivity. How forcible is the language of retribution in these words: “That the land may enjoy her sabbaths.” But if Israel, it may be objected, were carried away to Babylon, would not the neighbouring nations enter and possess their lands? Here providence has guarded the credit of prophecy; for all the neighbouring nations were at the same time so diminished by the armies of Chaldea, as to be very few in number. Isaiah 40:6.
The promises of restoration, in case of humiliation for their sin, are not less remarkable than the menaces of chastisement. How good, how very good and gracious is the Lord, not to leave an afflicted people without an encouraging word of hope: and how valuable must that word be to an afflicted people. It is the Magna Charta of heaven, most willingly granted for our encouragement and support in the day of adversity. We should therefore rejoice more at God's word than they that find great treasure.
If these are the high conditions of the covenant, the Lord's ways with man; let us learn to abide in his precepts, and revere his words. Oh how infinitely better to avoid apostasy, than barely to escape hell by a repentance deferred; or peradventure to fall into the pit, and rise no more. Lord, keep us from falling, and let not the penitent be discouraged; for as is thy majesty, so is thy mercy.