Leviticus

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.

1Do not make idols, statues that people bow to like gods. Do not carve images or set up stone pillars. Do not put a carved stone in your land to bow down to it. I am the LORD your God.

2Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD.

2Keep my Sabbaths, my special days of rest. Show respect for my holy tent, the place where I am worshiped. I am the LORD.

3If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;

3If you live by my rules and carefully do what I command,

4Then 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.

4then I will send rain at the right time. The ground will grow good crops. The trees will be full of fruit.

5And 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.

5You will still be beating out the grain when the grapes are ready. You will still be picking grapes when it is time to plant again. You will have all the food you want. You will live safely in your land.

6And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.

6I will give peace in the land. You will lie down to sleep with nothing to fear. I will clear dangerous wild animals out of the land. No army will march through your land with swords.

7And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.

7You will chase your enemies away. They will fall in battle in front of you.

8And 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.

8Five of you will chase a hundred enemies. A hundred of you will chase ten thousand. Your enemies will fall in battle in front of you.

9For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you.

9I will turn toward you and be good to you. I will give you many children, and your people will grow. I will keep my covenant with you, the promise agreement between us.

10And ye shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new.

10You will still be eating grain from last year. You will have to move it out to make room for the new crop.

11And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you.

11I will put my holy tent right among you. I will never turn away from you in disgust.

12And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.

12I will walk among you. I will be your God, and you will be my people.

13I 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.

13I am the LORD your God. I brought you out of Egypt so you would not be slaves there. I broke the heavy wooden bars that held you down. Now you can walk standing tall.

14But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments;

14But suppose you will not listen to me. Suppose you will not do all these commands.

15And 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:

15Suppose you turn away from my rules and hate my decisions. Suppose you refuse to do what I command and break our covenant.

16I 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.

16Then this is what I will do to you. I will send sudden fear, wasting sickness, and burning fever. Your eyes will grow weak, and your strength will drain away. You will plant seed for nothing, because your enemies will eat the crop.

17And 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.

17I will turn against you. Your enemies will beat you in battle. People who hate you will rule over you. You will run away even when no one is chasing you.

18And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.

18If you still will not listen to me after all this, I will punish you seven times more for your sins.

Note"Seven times" is a way of saying "much more," not an exact count.

19And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass:

19I will break your stubborn pride. I will make the sky above you hard as iron, so no rain falls. I will make the ground hard as metal.

20And 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.

20You will work hard for nothing. Your land will grow no crops. Your trees will give no fruit.

21And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins.

21If you keep standing against me and will not listen, I will bring seven times more trouble on you for your sins.

22I 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.

22I will send wild animals among you. They will take your children away and kill your farm animals. Your numbers will drop, and your roads will be empty.

23And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me;

23If even this does not turn you back to me, and you keep standing against me,

24Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins.

24then I will stand against you too. I will punish you seven times more for your sins.

25And 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.

25I will bring war on you to punish you for breaking our covenant. When you hide inside your cities, I will send deadly sickness among you. Then you will be handed over to your enemies.

26And 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.

26I will cut off your supply of bread. Ten women will bake all their bread in one oven. They will hand it out in small weighed pieces. You will eat, but you will still be hungry.

27And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me;

27If after all this you still will not listen, and you keep standing against me,

28Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.

28then I will stand against you in anger. I myself will punish you seven times more for your sins.

29And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.

29You will eat the bodies of your own sons. You will eat the bodies of your own daughters.

30And 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.

30I will wreck your worship places on the hills. I will cut down the altars where you burn incense. I will pile your dead bodies on the broken pieces of your idols. I will turn away from you in disgust.

31And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours.

31I will turn your cities into piles of rubble. I will leave your worship places empty and ruined. I will not accept the sweet smell of your offerings.

32And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it.

32I will leave the land empty and ruined. Your enemies who live there will be shocked at what they see.

33And 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.

33I will scatter you among other nations. I will send war after you. Your land will be empty, and your cities will lie in ruins.

34Then 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.

34Then the land will finally get its rest years. It will rest the whole time it lies empty. It will rest while you live in the land of your enemies.

NoteGod's law told the people to let their fields rest every seventh year. This verse says the empty land will finally get all that missed rest.

35As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.

35All the time it lies empty, the land will rest. It will get the rest it did not get when you lived on it.

36And 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 shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth.

36Some of you will still be alive in enemy lands. I will make your hearts weak with fear. Even a leaf blowing in the wind will send you running. You will run as if from a sword and fall when no one is chasing you.

37And 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.

37You will trip over each other as if running from a battle. But no one will be behind you. You will not be able to stand up to your enemies.

38And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.

38You will die among the other nations. The land of your enemies will swallow you up.

39And 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.

39Those of you still alive in enemy lands will slowly waste away. Your own sins will wear you down. The sins of your fathers will wear you down too.

40If 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;

40But suppose they admit their sins and the sins of their fathers. Suppose they admit they were not faithful to me and stood against me.

41And 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:

41They will admit that I stood against them and sent them into enemy lands. Then suppose their stubborn hearts become humble, and they take the punishment they have earned.

NoteThe KJV says "uncircumcised hearts." It means hearts that are hard and closed, not anything about the body.

42Then 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.

42Then I will remember my covenant with Jacob. I will remember my covenant with Isaac and with Abraham. And I will remember the land.

43The 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.

43The land will be left behind by them. It will get its rest years while it lies empty without them. They will take the punishment for their sins. This is because they turned away from my decisions and hated my rules.

44And 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.

44Even so, while they live in enemy lands, I will not throw them away. I will not turn from them in disgust or wipe them out. I will not break my covenant with them. I am the LORD their God.

45But 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.

45For their sake I will remember the covenant I made with their ancestors. I brought those people out of Egypt while other nations watched. I did it so I could be their God. I am the LORD.

46These 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.

46These are the rules, decisions, and laws the LORD gave. He gave them to the people of Israel through Moses at Mount Sinai.