Leviticus 26

Do not make idols for yourselves. Do not set up a carved image or a sacred stone pillar. Do not place a carved stone in your land so you can bow down to it. I am the LORD your God.

1Ye 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.

Note"Sacred stone pillar" translates Hebrew *massebah*, an upright standing stone set up at a place of worship to mark a god's presence; the "carved stone" is a figured or inscribed stone laid on the ground for the same purpose. These were ordinary furniture of local religion in the region, not exotic objects. Also: where the text prints LORD in capitals it stands in for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew letters usually written YHWH, which readers traditionally did not say aloud.

2Keep my sabbath days, and treat my sanctuary with respect. I am the LORD.

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

Note"My sabbaths" is plural because more than the weekly rest day is meant: the seventh day, the rest days attached to the festivals, and the seventh-year rest of the farmland set out in chapter 25, which is what verse 34 comes back to. The sanctuary is the tent-shrine at the center of the camp.

3If you live by my rules, and keep my commands, and carry them out,

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

4then I will send you rain at the right time of year. The land will produce its crops, and the trees in the fields will bear their fruit.

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.

NoteIn this climate rain falls in two seasons only: the early rains of autumn that soften baked ground for plowing, and the later rains of spring that fill out the grain. "Rain at the right time of year" means both arriving on schedule. Farming here depended on rainfall, with no great river to irrigate from.

5Your threshing of grain will last until the grape harvest, and the grape harvest will last until planting time. You will eat all the food you want, and live safely in your land.

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.

NoteThreshing beats the grain loose from the harvested stalks and is normally finished in early summer; the grape harvest comes in late summer; sowing follows in autumn. Each job would ordinarily be over well before the next began. Harvests that run into one another describe crops too large to process before the next one arrives.

6I will give peace in the land. You will lie down and no one will make you afraid. I will clear dangerous animals out of the land, and no sword will pass through your country.

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.

Note"No sword will pass through your land" is not only about invasion: this territory was the land corridor between the empires of Egypt and Mesopotamia, and armies marched through it on their way to fight each other. To be spared passing armies was a real and specific thing to ask for.

7You will chase your enemies, and they will fall in front of you by the sword.

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

8Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will make ten thousand run away. Your enemies will fall in front of you by the sword.

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.

9I will turn toward you with favor. I will make you fruitful and give you many children, and I will keep my covenant with you.

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

NoteA covenant is a binding agreement between two parties, sworn and formally sealed, the word covers a treaty between kings, an alliance, or a marriage. Here the two parties are God and Israel, and the terms are the laws set out in the preceding chapters.

10You will still be eating grain stored from an earlier harvest, and you will have to clear out the old to make room for the new.

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

11I will place my dwelling among you, and I will not turn away from you in disgust.

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

NoteThe word translated "dwelling" is the one used for the tabernacle, the portable tent-shrine carried with the camp. To place his dwelling among them is to pitch his tent in the middle of theirs.

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

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

13I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would not be their slaves. I broke the bars of the yoke you carried and made you walk standing up straight.

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.

NoteA yoke is the wooden frame laid across the necks of draft animals, held in place by bars or pegs. Someone working under a load walks bent over; break the bars and he can straighten up. That is the picture behind "made you walk standing up straight", the posture of a free person rather than a slave.

14But if you will not listen to me, and will not carry out all these commands,

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

15and if you reject my rules, or if you find my decisions disgusting, so that you do not carry out all my commands but break my covenant,

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:

16then this is what I will do to you. I will bring on you sudden terror, a wasting disease, and a burning fever that will ruin your eyesight and drain the life out of you. You will plant your seed for nothing, because your enemies will eat the crop.

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.

NoteThe Hebrew names of the two illnesses are uncertain; the words suggest a wasting sickness and a burning fever, and translators can only approximate. The phrase behind "drain the life out of you" speaks of the *nephesh* (throat, appetite, life) failing.

17I will set my face against you, and you will be struck down by your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will run away when no one is even chasing you.

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.

NoteSetting the face against someone is a Hebrew idiom for turning deliberate, personal hostility on them. It is the exact reverse of verse 9, where the same face is turned toward them in favor.

18And if after all this you still will not listen to me, then I will punish you seven times over for your sins.

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

NoteSeven is the number of completeness in Hebrew usage, so "seven times over" means punishment in full measure rather than a literal multiplication by seven. The phrase returns at verses 21, 24 and 28, marking the stages by which the chapter escalates: each round begins with "and if after all this you still will not listen."

19I will break your stubborn pride. I will make the sky above you like iron and the ground under you like bronze.

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

NoteMetal gives nothing and takes nothing. A sky of iron lets no rain through; ground of bronze cannot be broken by a plow or take a seed. The two images together mean total agricultural failure from above and below.

20Your strength will be used up for nothing, because your land will not produce its crops, and the trees of the land will not bear their fruit.

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.

21And if you keep going against me, and will not listen to me, I will bring seven times more trouble on you, matching your sins.

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.

Note"Keep going against me" renders a Hebrew phrase found only in this chapter, where it occurs seven times. Its sense is disputed: it may mean walking in hostility, walking at cross purposes, or walking "as if by chance": that is, treating God as an accident rather than as the other party to an agreement.

22I will also send wild animals among you. They will take your children from you, destroy your livestock, and cut your numbers down, and your roads will lie empty.

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.

NoteEmpty roads are a standard ancient image for a country that has stopped working: travel and trade cease because no one dares go out, and the highways grass over.

23And if these things do not correct you, but you keep going against me,

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

24then I will go against you too, and I will punish you seven times over for your sins.

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

25I will bring a sword against you to carry out the punishment my covenant calls for. When you gather inside your cities, I will send a deadly sickness among you, and you will be handed over to the enemy.

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.

NoteTreaties between a great king and a lesser one ended with a list of rewards for keeping the terms and curses for breaking them, and the wronged party was entitled to take vengeance for the breach. This chapter is built on that pattern, and the sword here is the covenant's enforcement clause rather than random violence. A besieged population crowded inside city walls was exactly the condition in which epidemics spread.

26When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will bake your bread in one oven, and they will hand your bread back to you weighed out in small amounts. You will eat, and you will not be satisfied.

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.

Note"The staff of bread" is the supporting stick that bread gives a person; breaking it means cutting off the food supply. Ten women sharing one oven means there is so little dough that a single oven serves ten households, normally each would bake her own. Bread handed back "by weight" is bread rationed, weighed out rather than taken freely.

27And if after all this you still will not listen to me, but keep going against me,

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

28then I will go against you in fury. I myself will punish you seven times over for your sins.

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

29You will eat the flesh of your sons, and you will eat the flesh of your daughters.

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

NoteSieges in the ancient Near East could last months or years, and accounts from Israel and from its neighbors record starving cities reduced to this. The line is the recognized extreme of siege warfare, and it appears in the curse lists of other ancient treaties as well.

30I will destroy your worship sites on the hills, cut down your incense altars, and pile your dead bodies on the lifeless remains of your idols. I will turn away from you in disgust.

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.

NoteA "high place" was an open-air worship site, often on a hill or raised platform, usually equipped with an altar, a standing stone and other furniture; such shrines were the normal local form of worship throughout the region. The word behind "idols" (*gillulim*) is a contemptuous Hebrew term, close in sound and sense to "dung-pellets"; the verse plays on the fact that corpses and images both end as the same kind of lifeless lump.

31I will turn your cities into ruins and leave your holy places empty, and I will not smell the pleasing smell of your offerings.

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

NoteA burnt offering sent smoke upward, and the fixed phrase for God accepting it was that he smelled the "soothing smell." Refusing to smell it means refusing the offering: the sacrifices continue to be made but are not received.

32I will leave the land in ruins, and your enemies who settle in it will be shocked at the sight of it.

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

33I will scatter you among the nations and draw a sword to chase after you. Your land will be left empty and your cities in ruins.

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.

NoteScattering among the nations is exile, deporting a conquered population away from its own land, which was standard imperial policy in the centuries after this text describes. Where the King James has "heathen," the Hebrew word simply means "the nations," everyone who is not Israel; it carries no suggestion of savagery.

34Then the land will enjoy its sabbath rests all the time it lies empty, while you are in your enemies' land. Then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths.

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.

NoteChapter 25 requires the farmland to be left unworked every seventh year, a sabbath for the land itself. The logic here is arithmetic: the rest the land was owed and did not get while it was being farmed will be taken instead while it lies empty of people.

35All the time it lies empty it will rest, because it did not rest during your sabbaths when you were living on it.

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

36As for those of you who are left alive, I will put fear in their hearts in the lands of their enemies. Even the sound of a leaf blowing will send them running. They will run as if running from a sword, and they will fall when no one is chasing them.

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.

37They will stumble over one another as if a sword were behind them, when no one is chasing them. You will have no strength to stand up against your enemies.

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.

38You will die among the nations, and the land of your enemies will swallow you up.

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

39Those of you who are left will waste away in the lands of your enemies because of their own sin. They will also waste away because of the sins of their fathers, along with them.

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.

NoteThe Hebrew word behind "sin" here covers the wrong done, the guilt it incurs, and the punishment that follows, all in one term; English needs separate words for these, so a translator has to choose. The verb translated "waste away" is used of bones or flesh rotting.

40If they confess their sin and the sin of their fathers, and the unfaithfulness they showed toward me, and that they also went against me,

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;

41and that I too went against them and brought them into the land of their enemies, and if their stubborn hearts are then humbled and they accept the punishment for their sin,

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:

NoteCircumcision was the physical mark of the covenant made with Abraham, so to call a heart "uncircumcised" is to say it is unmarked, closed, resistant to what it should be open to; the same image is used elsewhere of ears that will not hear and lips that will not speak plainly. "Accept the punishment" translates a verb that can mean either submitting to a penalty or paying it off; the original leaves both open.

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

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.

NoteThe three names run backwards through the generations (Jacob, his father Isaac, his grandfather Abraham) arriving at the original promise, which included this land. In Hebrew usage "remember" means to act on something, not merely to call it to mind.

43The land will be left behind by them and will enjoy its sabbath rests while it lies empty without them. And they will accept the punishment for their sin, because they rejected my decisions and found my rules disgusting.

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.

44Yet even so, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not throw them away or turn from them in disgust so as to destroy them completely and break my covenant with them. For I am the LORD their God.

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.

45For their sake I will remember the covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt while the nations watched, so that I might be their God. I am the LORD.

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.

Note"The covenant with their ancestors" here means the agreement made with the generation brought out of Egypt. "While the nations watched" points out that the exodus had foreign witnesses; in the ancient world a god's standing among outsiders was bound up with what became of the people attached to him.

46These are the rules, the decisions, and the laws that the LORD set between himself and the people of Israel at Mount Sinai, given through Moses.

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.

Note"These are the rules, the decisions, and the laws..." is a closing formula used to mark the end of a block of law; similar lines close other sections of Leviticus. It reads as the end of the book, and the chapter that follows, on vows and valuations, has the character of an appendix.