33 And I will scatter you among the nations, and will draw out the sword after you; and your land shall be desolation, and your cities waste.
34 Then shall the land enjoy its sabbaths all the days of the desolation, when ye are in your enemies' land; then shall the land rest, and enjoy its sabbaths.
35 All the days of the desolation it shall rest, [the days in] which it did not rest on your sabbaths, when ye dwelt therein.
36 And as to those that remain of you -- I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies, that the sound of a driven leaf shall chase them, and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth;
37 and they shall stumble one over 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 nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.
39 And they that remain of you shall waste away through their iniquity in your enemies' lands; and also through the iniquities of their fathers shall they waste away with them.
40 And they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, through their unfaithfulness wherein they were unfaithful to me, and also that they have walked contrary unto me,
41 so that I also walked contrary unto them, and brought them into the land of their enemies. If then their uncircumcised heart be humbled, and they then accept the punishment of their iniquity,
42 I will 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 For the land shall be left by them, and shall enjoy its sabbaths, when it is in desolation without them; and they shall accept the punishment of their iniquity; because, even because they despised my judgments, and their soul abhorred my statutes.
44 And yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not despise them, and will not abhor them, to make an end of them utterly, to break my covenant with them, for I am Jehovah their God.
45 But I will remember toward them the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt before the eyes of the nations, that I might be their God: I am Jehovah.
46 These are the statutes and ordinances and laws which Jehovah made between him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai, by the hand of Moses.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Leviticus 26
Commentary on Leviticus 26 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 26
This chapter is a solemn conclusion of the main body of the levitical law. The precepts that follow in this and the following book either relate to some particular matters or are repetitions and explications of the foregoing institutions. Now this chapter contains a general enforcement of all those laws by promises of reward in case of obedience on the one hand, and threatenings of punishment for disobedience on the other hand, the former to work upon hope, the latter on fear, those two handles of the soul, by which it is taken hold of and managed. Here is,
Lev 26:1-13
Here is,
Lev 26:14-39
After God had set the blessing before them (the life and good which would make them a happy people if they would be obedient), he here sets the curse before them, the death and evil which would make them as miserable if they were disobedient. Let them not think themselves so deeply rooted as that God's power could not ruin them, nor so highly favoured as that his justice would not ruin them if they revolted from him and rebelled against him; no You only have I known, therefore I will punish you soonest and sorest. Amos 3:2. Observe,
Lev 26:40-46
Here the chapter concludes with gracious promises of the return of God's favour to them upon their repentance, that they might not (unless it were their own fault) pine away in their iniquity. Behold, with wonder, the riches of God's mercy to a people that had obstinately stood it out against the judgments of God, and would never think of surrendering till they were reduced to the last extremity. Yet turn to strong-hold, you prisoners of hope, Zec. 9:12. As bad as things are, they may be mended. Yet there is hope in Israel. Observe,
Lastly, These are said to be the laws which the Lord made between him and the children of Israel, v. 46. His communion with his church is kept up by his law. He manifests not only his dominion over them, but his favour to them, by giving them his law; and they manifest not only their holy fear, but their holy love, by the observance of it; and thus it is made between them, rather as a covenant than a law; for he draws with the cords of a man.