Leviticus 26 - Introduction

Leviticus 26:1-46. A Concluding Exhortation, embodying Promises and Warnings (H, except 1, 2, 46 R p [73])

[73] A Reviser, who, probably after that collection had been combined with the Priestly Code, introduced further elements from that Code.

This ch., closing as it does the collection called the -Law of Holiness" (17 26), bears all the characteristics of H, and is evidently the work of the compiler of that document. Accordingly it views the land and agriculture as fundamentally connected with religious observances (cp. chs. 19, 23, 25). Its one command (apart from Leviticus 26:1, see below) is to let the land lie fallow in the seventh year (Leviticus 26:34). It begins and ends with characteristic expressions of the -Law of Holiness," -If ye walk in my statutes" (Leviticus 26:3), -I am the Lord" (Leviticus 26:45). For an examination of the remarkable amount of coincidences in language between this ch. and Ezekiel see Intr. to Pent.(p. 240), and for discussion of the dates of the two see App. III, pp. 177 ff. in this volume.

The ch. may be analysed as follows:

(1) Leviticus 26:1, idolatry forbidden, and the sabbath to be observed;

(2) Leviticus 26:3, concluding exhortation; (3) Leviticus 26:46, conclusion.

When we compare this ch. with the similar exhortations and warnings in Exodus 23:20 ff.; Deuteronomy 28, it will seem probable that such was the recognised method of concluding a collection of laws prepared for promulgation.