1You shall not make idols to yourselves; and you shall not set up for yourselves graven images, or a memorial pillar. And you shall not place any stone image in your land, to bow yourselves to it; for I am Jehovah your God. 2You shall keep My sabbaths, and revere My sanctuary; I am Jehovah. 3If you walk in My statutes, and keep My commandments, and do them, 4then I will give you rains in their season, and the land shall give her produce, and the tree of the field shall give its fruit; 5and your threshing shall reach to the vintage, and the vintage shall reach to the sowing time; and you shall eat your bread to satisfaction, and live in your land securely. 6And I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall terrify you. And I shall cause evil beasts to cease out of the land, and the sword shall not pass over into your land. 7And you shall pursue your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. 8And five of you shall pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you shall pursue a myriad; and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. 9And I shall turn My face toward you and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and shall establish My covenant with you. 10And you shall eat very old store, and clear away the old store because of the new. 11And I will set My tabernacle in your midst, and My soul shall not loathe you; 12and I shall walk always in your midst, and shall be God to you, and you, you shall be people to Me; 13I am Jehovah your God, who has brought you out from the land of the Egyptians, from being their slaves; and I will break the bars of your yoke, and cause you to stand erect. 14And if you will not listen to Me, and do not do all these commands; 15and if you reject My statutes, and if your soul hates My judgments, so as not to do all My commands, to the breaking of My covenant; 16I will also do this to you, and I shall appoint terror over you, the wasting, and the burning fever, destroying the eyes, and consuming the soul; and you shall sow your seed in vain, and your enemies will eat it. 17And I shall set My face against you, and you shall be smitten before your enemies; and those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee, and there will be no one pursuing you. 18And if after these things you will not listen to Me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sin; 19and I will break the pride of your strength, and will make your heavens as iron, and your earth as bronze; 20and your strength shall be consumed in vain, and your land shall not give her produce, and the tree of the land shall not give its fruit. 21And if you walk contrary to Me, and are not willing to listen to Me, then I will bring seven times more plagues on you according to your sins, 22and send against you the beast of the field, and it shall bereave you. And I shall cut off your livestock and shall make you few, so that your ways are desolate. 23And if you are not chastised by Me by these things, and shall walk contrary to Me, 24then I, I also, shall walk contrary to you, and shall smite you, even I, seven times more for your sins; 25and I will bring a sword on you, executing the vengeance of the covenant, and you shall be gathered to your cities, and I shall send pestilence into your midst; and you shall be given into the hand of an enemy. 26When I break to you the staff of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and shall give back your bread by weight; and you shall eat, and shall not be satisfied. 27If you will not listen to Me for this, and shall walk contrary to Me, 28then I also will walk contrary to you in fury. I also will chastise you, I also, seven times for your sins. 29And you shall eat of the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat of the flesh of your daughters. 30And I shall destroy your high places and cut down your altars, and shall put your dead bodies on the carcasses of your idols. And My soul shall loathe you. 31And I shall make your cities a waste, and shall make your sanctuaries desolate; and I shall not smell your sweet fragrances. 32And I shall make the land desolate, and your enemies who are living in it shall be astonished at it. 33And I will scatter you among nations, and shall draw out the sword after you, and your land shall become a waste, and your cities shall be a desolation. 34Then the land shall enjoy its sabbaths, all the days of the desolation. And you shall be in the land of your enemies; then the land shall enjoy rest, and shall enjoy its sabbaths. 35It shall rest all the days of the desolation, that which it has not rested in your sabbaths while you lived on it. 36And those who are left of you, I shall also bring a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a driven leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as one flees from the sword; and they shall fall when no one pursues. 37And they shall stumble upon one another, as if it were before the sword, when no one pursues. And you shall have no power to stand before your enemies. 38And you shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall devour you. 39And of those who are left of you, they shall putrefy in their iniquity, in the lands of your enemies; and also in the iniquities of their fathers, they shall putrefy with them. 40And if they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass with which they have trespassed against Me; and, also, that they have walked contrary to Me, 41that I also have walked contrary to them, and I have brought them into the land of their enemies; if their uncircumcised hearts are then humbled, and they then have accepted punishment for their iniquity; 42then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and also My covenant with Isaac, and I shall also remember My covenant with Abraham, and I shall remember the land. 43For the land shall be forsaken by them, and shall satisfy for its sabbaths, in the desolation without them. And they shall satisfy for their iniquity, because, even because, they have kicked against My judgments, and their soul has loathed My statutes. 44And yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I hate them, to consume them, to break My covenant with them; for I am Jehovah their God. 45Then I shall remember for them the covenant of the first fathers, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God; I am Jehovah. 46These are the statutes and the judgments and the laws which Jehovah has given between Him and the sons of Israel, in Mount Sinai, by the hand of Moses.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 OF IDOLATRY. (
Lev 26:1-
Lev 26:2)
Ye shall make you no idols--Idolatry had been previously forbidden (
Exod 20:4-
Exod 20:5), but the law was repeated here with reference to some particular forms of it that were very prevalent among the neighboring nations.
a standing image--that is, "upright pillar."
image of stone--that is, an obelisk, inscribed with hieroglyphical and superstitious characters; the former denoting the common and smaller pillars of the Syrians or Canaanites; the latter, pointing to the large and elaborate obelisks which the Egyptians worshipped as guardian divinities, or used as stones of adoration to stimulate religious worship. The Israelites were enjoined to beware of them.
2 Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary--Very frequently, in this Book of the Law, the Sabbath and the sanctuary are mentioned as antidotes to idolatry.
3 A BLESSING TO THE OBEDIENT. (
Lev 26:3-
Lev 26:13)
If ye walk in my statutes--In that covenant into which God graciously entered with the people of Israel, He promised to bestow upon them a variety of blessings, so long as they continued obedient to Him as their Almighty Ruler; and in their subsequent history that people found every promise amply fulfilled, in the enjoyment of plenty, peace, a populous country, and victory over all enemies.
4 I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase--Rain seldom fell in Judea except at two seasons--the former rain at the end of autumn, the seedtime; and the latter rain in spring, before the beginning of harvest (
Jer 5:24).
5 your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time, &c.--The barley harvest in Judea was about the middle of April; the wheat harvest about six weeks after, or in the beginning of June. After the harvest came the vintage, and fruit gathering towards the latter end of July. Moses led the Hebrews to believe that, provided they were faithful to God, there would be no idle time between the harvest and vintage, so great would be the increase. (See
Amos 9:13). This promise would be very animating to a people who had come from a country where, for three months, they were pent up without being able to walk abroad because the fields were under water.
10 ye shall eat old store--Their stock of old corn would be still unexhausted and large when the next harvest brought a new supply.
13 I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright--a metaphorical expression to denote their emancipation from Egyptian slavery.
14 A CURSE TO THE DISOBEDIENT. (Lev. 26:14-39)
But if ye will not hearken unto me, &c.--In proportion to the great and manifold privileges bestowed upon the Israelites would be the extent of their national criminality and the severity of their national punishments if they disobeyed.
16 I will even appoint over you terror--the falling sickness [PATRICK].
consumption, and the burning ague--Some consider these as symptoms of the same disease--consumption followed by the shivering, burning, and sweating fits that are the usual concomitants of that malady. According to the Septuagint, "ague" is "the jaundice," which disorders the eyes and produces great depression of spirits. Others, however, consider the word as referring to a scorching wind; no certain explanation can be given.
18 if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more--that is, with far more severe and protracted calamities.
19 I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass--No figures could have been employed to convey a better idea of severe and long-continued famine.
22 I will also send wild beasts among you--This was one of the four judgments threatened (
Ezek 14:21; see also
2Kgs 2:4).
your highways shall be desolate--Trade and commerce will be destroyed--freedom and safety will be gone--neither stranger nor native will be found on the roads (
Isa 33:8). This is an exact picture of the present state of the Holy Land, which has long lain in a state of desolation, brought on by the sins of the ancient Jews.
26 ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, &c.--The bread used in families is usually baked by women, and at home. But sometimes also, in times of scarcity, it is baked in public ovens for want of fuel; and the scarcity predicted here would be so great, that one oven would be sufficient to bake as much as ten women used in ordinary occasions to provide for family use; and even this scanty portion of bread would be distributed by weight (
Ezek 4:16).
29 ye shall eat the flesh of your sons--The revolting picture was actually exhibited at the siege of Samaria, at the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar (
Lam 4:10), and at the destruction of that city by the Romans. (See on
Deut 28:53).
30 I will destroy your high places--Consecrated enclosures on the tops of mountains, or on little hillocks, raised for practising the rites of idolatry.
cut down your images--According to some, those images were made in the form of chariots (
2Kgs 23:11); according to others, they were of a conical form, like small pyramids. Reared in honor of the sun, they were usually placed on a very high situation, to enable the worshippers to have a better view of the rising sun. They were forbidden to the Israelites, and when set up, ordered to be destroyed.
cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, &c.--Like the statues of idols, which, when broken, lie neglected and contemned, the Jews during the sieges and subsequent captivity often wanted the rites of sepulture.
31 I will make your cities waste--This destruction of its numerous and flourishing cities, which was brought upon Judea through the sins of Israel, took place by the forced removal of the people during, and long after, the captivity. But it is realized to a far greater extent now.
bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours--the tabernacle and temple, as is evident from the tenor of the subsequent clause, in which God announces that He will not accept or regard their sacrifices.
33 I will scatter you among the heathen, &c.--as was done when the elite of the nation were removed into Assyria and placed in various parts of the kingdom.
34 Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, &c.--A long arrear of sabbatic years had accumulated through the avarice and apostasy of the Israelites, who had deprived their land of its appointed season of rest. The number of those sabbatic years seems to have been seventy, as determined by the duration of the captivity. This early prediction is very remarkable, considering that the usual policy of the Assyrian conquerors was to send colonies to cultivate and inhabit their newly acquired provinces.
38 the land of your enemies shall eat you up, &c.--On the removal of the ten tribes into captivity, they never returned, and all traces of them were lost.
40 If they shall confess their iniquity, &c.--This passage holds out the gracious promise of divine forgiveness and favor on their repentance, and their happy restoration to their land, in memory of the covenant made with their fathers (Rom. 2:1-29).
46 These are the statutes and judgments and laws--It has been thought by some that the last chapter was originally placed after the twenty-fifth [ADAM CLARKE], while others consider that the next chapter was added as an appendix, in consequence of many people being influenced by the promises and threats of the preceding one, to resolve that they would dedicate themselves and their possessions to the service of God [CALMET].