Leviticuschapter 26
46 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
Key verse
And I will make My dwelling place among you, and My soul will not despise you.
It stands in Rain in season, and God walking among you, verses 3 to 13.
The chapter
Chapter summary
Blessings and curses. If you walk in my statutes and keep my commandments, rain in due season, the land yielding her increase, peace, the sword not through your land, fruitfulness, and my tabernacle among you. If not. Terror, consumption, fever; enemies eating your increase; the heavens iron and the earth brass; wild beasts, the sword, pestilence, famine. The curses escalate sevenfold for persistent refusal, ending in exile and a scattered people. And yet: ‘if they shall confess their iniquity … then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham’. The chapter is the prophets' quarry for centuries.
Context
Law · Moses · Leviticus overview
The world behind this chapter
Leviticus 26The history
Verse 46 signs the laws off as given in Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses, which places the whole chapter there. The dating follows the book's own setting.
The chapter is written in the form of a covenant's closing sanctions, with blessings attached to obedience and curses attached to refusal. Treaties in the ancient Near East commonly ended that way, and the hearers would have recognised the shape.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
A first hearer knew that rain in due season was the one thing in a farming year no man could arrange. Naming it first put the whole list of blessings on something outside human reach.
A first hearer knew what a yoke was and what the bars across it did. Breaking them is what lets an animal lift its head, which is why the blessings close with a promise that Israel would walk upright.
The famine language of verse 29 was not rhetorical to people who knew siege warfare. Scripture records it happening twice, at the siege of Samaria in 2 Kings 6:28 to 29 and at the fall of Jerusalem in Lamentations 4:10.
The reason given for the length of the exile depends on the previous chapter. Verses 34 and 35 say the land will take the sabbaths it was owed while the people are away, which is the reckoning 2 Chronicles 36:21 later uses for the seventy years in Babylon.
What it meant to them
For the generation at Sinai, this chapter set out the whole arc of what was coming before any of it happened. Holding the land depended on conduct inside it, and losing the land was described in advance.
It also set a limit. Verse 44 says that in the land of their enemies God would not cast them away or break his covenant with them, so the worst outcome named stopped short of the end of the nation.
Sources cited
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
- Gordon J. Wenham, The Book of Leviticus (NICOT), 1979
- Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch , 1864 to 1870
- This site's published dossier on Leviticus
Where the chapter sits
Leviticus 26 falls in The Holiness Code (chapters 17–26). ‘Ye shall be holy; for I the LORD your God am holy.’ Blood, sexual ethics, neighbor-love, feasts, jubilee, blessings and curses.
Blessings and curses. ‘If ye walk in my statutes’; the covenant's blessings, then its discipline if forsaken.
Before it: Day of Atonement, chapters 16. After it: Vows and dedications, chapters 27.
The whole shape of Leviticus→The structure of this chapter
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. No idols; keep my sabbathsvv. 1-2
The chapter opens by repeating two commands before it names a single blessing, no idols and keep my sabbaths. Both come back in the curses, images cut down at verse 30 and the land taking its sabbaths at verse 34. The section that decides whether Israel keeps the land begins with the two commandments Israel went on to break.
Leviticus 26:1
“Idols - literally, “things of nought.” Hebrew אלילים 'ĕlı̂ylı̂m. There appears to have been a play on the similarity in sound of this word to אלהים 'ĕlohı̂ym (God). Compare 1Co 8:4. Standing image - Either an upright statue, or a pillar, such as an obelisk or a Celtic menhir, set up for an idolatrous purpose (compare Exo 34:13 note).”
3 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Leviticus 26:1
“An image - Or pillar, that is, to worship it, or bow down to it, as it follows. Otherwise this was not simply prohibited, being practiced by holy men, both before and after this law.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 26:1
“For this reason, in order to root out the materials of idolatry, God's law proclaims, "You shall not make an idol"; and by adding, "Nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven or in the earth or in the sea," it utterly forbade such crafts to the servants of God. Enoch had anticipated this law when he prophesied that the demons and the spirits of the rebellious angels would turn to idolatry every element and property of the universe, everything which heaven and sea and earth contain, to be consecrated as a god against God.”
Tertullian· written before 220· ON IDOLATRY 4.1-2patristic
Leviticus 26:1
“They are the abstract of the second and fourth commandments, which, as they are by much the largest in the decalogue, so they are most frequently insisted on in other parts of the law.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 26:2
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
B. Rain in season, and God walking among you
1. (vv. 3-5)
Leviticus 26:3
“As “the book of the covenant” Exo. 20:22–23:33 concludes with promises and warnings Exo 23:20-33, so does this collection of laws contained in the Book of Leviticus. But the former passage relates to the conquest of the land of promise, this one to the subsequent history of the nation. The longer similar passage in Deuteronomy Deut. 27–30 is marked by broader and deeper promises and denunciations having immediate reference not only to outward consequences, but to the spiritual death incurred by transgressing the divine will.”
Leviticus 26:4
“Rain in due season - What in Scripture is called the early and the latter rain. The first fell in Palestine at the commencement of spring, and the latter in autumn - Calmet.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Leviticus 26:5
“Your threshing shall reach unto the vintage - According to Pliny, Hist. Nat., l. xviii., c. 18, the Egyptians reaped their barley six months, and their oats seven months, after seed time; for they sowed all their grain about the end of summer, when the overflowings of the Nile had ceased.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Leviticus 26:5
“Long harvests are often with us the consequences of bad weather, but with them they should be the effects of a great increase. This signified the abundance of grace which should be poured out in gospel times, when the ploughman should overtake the reaper ( Amos ix. 13 ), and a great harvest of souls should be gathered in to Christ.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 26:5
“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. 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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The blessings all stand on the condition set in verse 3, and the section then runs unbroken to verse 13. The first item promised is rain in due season, which is the one thing in a farming year no man can arrange for himself. Threshing runs into vintage and vintage into sowing, so the picture is a harvest too large to finish before the next one begins.
2. (vv. 6-8)
Leviticus 26:6
“The sword - That is, war, as the sword is oft taken. It shall not enter into it, nor have passage through it, much less shall your land be made the seat of war.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 26:7
“And ye shall chase your enemies,.... Who being overcome in battle, and put to the flight, should be pursued: and they shall fall before you by the sword; not by the sword of one another, as the Midianites did, Jdg 7:21, so Jarchi; but rather by the sword of the Israelites, for oftentimes multitudes of the enemy are killed in a pursuit.”
Leviticus 26:8
“And five of you shall chase an hundred,....”
Peace here is measured by sleep. A man lies down and nobody makes him afraid, the wild beasts are cleared out, and no army crosses the ground. The arithmetic of verse 8 then breaks on purpose, five chasing a hundred and a hundred chasing ten thousand, so the larger company fights at five times the rate of the smaller one.
3. (vv. 9-10)
Leviticus 26:10
“For just as the teachings of the new and old Testaments should come together, as it is written: "Consume the old things of the ancients, and remove the old things from the face of the new ones." Let the knowledge of the patriarchs be food for us, let the soul feast on the oracles of the prophets: let the inner being be nourished by such sustenance. But now let it not be the appearance of a lamb, but rather the reality of the body of Christ.”
Ambrose of Milan· written before 397· On Cain and Abel 2.6.19patristic
Fruitful and multiply are the words spoken over creation at Genesis 1:28 and over Noah at Genesis 9:1, and here they land on a nation. Establish my covenant is the language of Genesis 17:7, so the promise attached to obedience is the promise already made to Abraham. Verse 10 measures the blessing by a storage problem, old grain still in hand when the new crop arrives and needing to be carried out to make room.
4. (vv. 11-12)
Leviticus 26:12
“And I will walk among you,....”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 26:12
“God will be the source of every satisfaction, more than any heart can rightly crave, more than life and health, food and wealth, glory and honor, peace and every good—so that God, as St. Paul said, "may be all in all." He will be the consummation of all our desiring—the object of our unending vision, of our unlessening love, of our unwearying praise. And in this gift of vision, this response of love, this paean of praise, all alike will share, as all will share in everlasting life.”
Augustine of Hippo· written before 430· City of God 22.30patristic
Leviticus 26:12
- Quoted in2 Corinthians 6:16What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.”
'I will dwell in them... and they shall be my people' (w/ Eze 37:27)
The tent stops being a place Israel visits and becomes a place God lives. Walking among them recalls the LORD God walking in the garden at Genesis 3:8, and the three clauses of verse 12 give the whole covenant in one sentence. Paul takes these words up at 2 Corinthians 6:16 and applies them to the church as the temple of the living God.
5. (v. 13)
Leviticus 26:13
“I am the Lord your Lord, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt,....”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 26:13
“Not sins of ignorance and infirmity; God had provided sacrifices for those. Not the sins they repented of and forsook; but the sins that were presumptuously committed, and obstinately persisted in.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The blessings close where the nation started, at the exodus. The bands of the yoke are the crossbars that hold a yoke down on the neck of an ox, and breaking them is what lets the animal lift its head. Made you go upright is the last phrase of the section, so the posture of a free man is where the whole list of blessings lands.
C. Terror, drought, and bread weighed out
1. (vv. 14-17)
Leviticus 26:14
“But if ye will not hearken unto me,....”
Leviticus 26:15
“Those that reject the precept will come at last to renounce the covenant. Observe, It is God's covenant which they break: he made it, but they break it. Note, If a covenant be made and kept between God and man, God must have all the honour; but, if ever it be broken, man must bear all the blame: on him shall this breach be.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 26:16
“What we translate terror, some think, signifies a particular disease, probably (says the learned bishop Patrick) the falling sickness, which is terror indeed: all chronical diseases are included in the consumption, and all acute diseases in the burning ague or fever.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 26:16
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Leviticus 26:17
“And I will set my face against you,....”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 26:17
“Your choice men shall die in battle, and those that hate you shall reign over you, and justly, since you are not willing that the God that loved you should reign over you;" 2 Chron. xii. Miserable is that people whose enemies are their rulers and have got dominion over them, or whose rulers have become their enemies and under-hand seek the ruin of their interests.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The curses run more than twice the length of the blessings, twenty-six verses against eleven. Verse 15 traces the failure inward before anything happens outside, from despising statutes, to a soul that abhors judgments, to a broken covenant. The first round strikes the body, the harvest and the nerve together, and it ends at verse 17 with men fleeing when no one pursues, which verse 36 takes up again.
2. (vv. 18-20)
Leviticus 26:18
“And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me,.... If such corrections by diseases of body, and by giving them up into the hands of their enemies, should be ineffectual to reform them, and bring them to obedience to the statutes and commandments of God, but should continue in their disobedience to him, and rebellion against him: then I will punish you seven times more for your sins; that is, abundantly more, with sorer punishments, and these more frequently repeated.”
Leviticus 26:19
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Leviticus 26:20
“And your strength shall be spent in vain,....”
Here the shape of the passage appears. The sentence is raised four times by the same phrase, seven times, at verses 18, 21, 24 and 28, and each round follows a fresh refusal to hear. Heaven as iron over earth as brass is a sky that gives no rain above ground that gives no crop, which reverses verse 4 clause for clause.
3. (vv. 21-22)
Leviticus 26:21
“All sinners walk contrary to God, to his truths, laws, and counsels; but those especially that are incorrigible under his judgments. The design of the rod is to humble them, and soften them, and bring them to repentance; but, instead of this, their hearts are more hardened and exasperated against God, and in their distress they trespass yet more against him, 2 Chron. xxviii.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 26:22
“I will also send wild beasts among you--This was one of the four judgments threatened (Eze 14:21; see also 2Ki 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).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Walk contrary is the chapter's own phrase for the breach, and it runs both directions. It is used of Israel at verses 21, 23, 27 and 40, and of God at verses 24, 28 and 41, so the answer is described in the same words as the offence. The beasts that were driven out at verse 6 come back, and the high ways lie desolate because nobody will travel them.
4. (vv. 23-24)
Leviticus 26:23
“And if ye will not be reformed by these things,.... Corrected and amended by these punishments, be prevailed upon to return from their evil ways to the Lord, and walk in his commandments, and keep his judgments, and do them: but will walk contrary unto me; See Gill on Lev 26:21.”
Leviticus 26:24
"I will walk at all adventures with you," so some read; "all covenant loving-kindness shall be forgotten, and I will leave you to common providence." Note, Those that cast off God deserve that he should cast them off. (3.) As they continued obstinate, the judgments should increase yet more upon them.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Reformed is the word that gives the passage its aim. The judgments are set out as correction with a purpose, and the escalation happens because the correction is refused. Andrew Bonar reads the rounds as discipline meant to bring the nation back, and Calvin makes the same point from the fact that each stage is announced in advance.
5. (vv. 25-26)
Leviticus 26:25
“The quarrel of my covenant - That is, my quarrel with you for your breach of your covenant made with me.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 26:26
“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 (Eze 4:16).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Leviticus 26:26
“When I have broken the staff of your bread - By sending a famine or scarcity of bread, which is the staff and support of man's present life. Ten women - That is, ten or many families, for the women took care for the bread and food of all the family.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 26:26
“Ten women shall bake your bread in one oven - Though in general every family in the East bakes its own bread, yet there are some public bakehouses where the bread of several families is baked at a certain price. Moses here foretells that the desolation should be so great and the want so pressing that there should be many idle hands to be employed, many mouths to be fed, and very little for each: Ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, etc.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The sword avenges the quarrel of the covenant, so the war is legal action taken on a broken agreement. The cities that gather people behind walls for safety become the place the pestilence finds them. Ten women baking in one oven is scarcity described from the kitchen, fuel enough for a single fire and bread handed back by weight.
D. Scattered among the nations
1. (vv. 27-28)
Leviticus 26:27
“And if ye for all this will not hearken unto me,.... To his commands, and to his prophets sent unto them time after time, and all his corrections and chastisements being ineffectual to reform them, and make them obedient to him: but walk contrary unto me; See Gill on Lev 26:21.”
Leviticus 26:28
“Then I will walk contrary to you also in fury,....”
The verb changes at verse 28. Punish stands at verses 18 and 24, chastise stands here, and the doubled I, even I puts the speaker in front of the act. Fury is the strongest word in the chapter and it arrives only at the fourth refusal.
2. (v. 29)
Leviticus 26:29
“Ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, etc. - This was literally fulfilled at the siege of Jerusalem. Josephus, Wars of the Jews, book vii., chap. ii., gives us a particular instance in dreadful detail of a woman named Mary, who, in the extremity of the famine during the siege, killed her sucking child, roasted, and had eaten part of it when discovered by the soldiers! See this threatened, Jer 19:9 (note).”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
This is the floor of the passage, and Scripture records it happening. Two women agree to it during the siege of Samaria at 2 Kings 6:28-29, and Lamentations 4:10 says the hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children in the fall of Jerusalem. Deuteronomy 28:53-57 gives the same warning at greater length, and Josephus describes it again inside Jerusalem during the siege of AD 70.
3. (vv. 30-31)
Leviticus 26:30
“Those that will not be parted from their sins by the commands of God shall be parted from them by his judgments; since they would not destroy their high places, God would. And, to upbraid them with the unreasonable fondness they had shown for their idols, it is foretold that their carcases should be cast upon the carcases of their idols.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 26:30
“The carcases of your idols - So he calls them, either to signify that their idols how specious soever or glorious in their eyes, were in truth but lifeless and contemptible carcases; or to shew that their idols should be so far from helping them, that they should be thrown down and broken with them, and both should lie together in a forlorn and loathsome state.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 26:31
“First, Their cities should be waste, forsaken, uninhabited, and all the buildings destroyed; those that escaped the desolations of war should fall to decay of themselves. Secondly, Their sanctuaries should be a desolation, that is, their synagogues where they met for religious worship every sabbath, as well as their tabernacle where they met thrice a year.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 26:31
“And yours emphatically, not mine, for I disown and abhor it, and all the services you do in it, because you have defiled it. I will not smell - Not own or accept them. Your sweet odours - Either of the incense, or of your sacrifices, which when offered with faith and obedience, are sweet and acceptable to me.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The carcases of the worshippers are cast on the carcases of their idols, so the dead god and the dead man lie in one heap. Verse 31 closes the worship from the other end, cities waste, sanctuaries desolate, and the sweet savour that runs sixteen times through this book no longer smelled. My soul shall abhor you at the end of verse 30 answers my soul shall not abhor you at verse 11.
4. (vv. 32-33)
Leviticus 26:32
“And I will bring the land into desolation,....”
Leviticus 26:33
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Scattering is the last of the curses and it undoes the gift of the land itself. The enemies who take the ground are described as astonished at what they find, which is a detail a reader expects in a lament rather than in a threat. Deuteronomy 29:24-28 works the same picture into a scene where the nations stand over the ruin and ask why the LORD did this.
5. (vv. 34-35)
Leviticus 26:34
“Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths - This Houbigant observes to be a historical truth - “From Saul to the Babylonish captivity are numbered about four hundred and ninety years, during which period there were seventy Sabbaths of years; for 7, multiplied by 70, make 490. Now the Babylonish captivity lasted seventy years, and during that time the land of Israel rested.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 26:34
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Leviticus 26:35
“As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest,....”
The sabbath years commanded in Leviticus 25 are the reason the exile is given a length. The land takes the rest it was owed while the people are away, and 2 Chronicles 36:21 reads the seventy years of Babylon as exactly that, the land keeping sabbath until threescore and ten years were fulfilled. Jeremiah 25:11-12 supplies the number and Chronicles supplies the reason.
6. (vv. 36-39)
Leviticus 26:36
“And upon them that are left alive of you,....”
Leviticus 26:37
“And they shall fall one upon another,.... In their hurry and confusion, everyone making all the haste he can to escape the imaginary danger; or "a man upon his brother" (z); his friend, as Aben Ezra interprets it, having no regard to relation and friendship, every one endeavouring to save himself.”
Leviticus 26:38
“The land of your enemies shall eat you up - Does this refer to the total loss of the ten tribes? These are so completely swallowed up in some enemies’ land, that nothing concerning their existence or place of residence remains but mere conjecture.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Leviticus 26:39
“And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands,....”
The last of it is done to the mind. A shaken leaf chases them, they fall over each other with no sword behind them, and the fear promised back at verse 17 has become the whole of their condition. Pine away falls twice in verse 39, once for their own iniquity and once for the iniquities of their fathers, so the survivors carry two accounts at the same time.
E. If they confess, I will remember the covenant
1. (vv. 40-41)
Leviticus 26:40
“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 (Ro 2:1-29).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Leviticus 26:41
“And, if then their uncircumcised, that is, impure, carnal, profane, and impenitent hearts be humbled, that is, subdued, purged, reformed: if to this confession they add sincere humiliation and reformation, I will do what follows.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The turn comes on a confession with no sacrifice attached to it, which is worth noticing in a book made of sacrifices. Uncircumcised hearts be humbled asks that the sign cut in the flesh be true of the inward man, language Deuteronomy 30:6 and Jeremiah 4:4 take up and Paul carries to Romans 2:29. Daniel prays this passage back to God at Daniel 9:4-19, confessing the iniquity of the fathers in the last year of the exile.
2. (v. 42)
Leviticus 26:42
“I will remember my covenant - So as to make good all that I have promised in it. For words of knowledge or remembrance in scripture, commonly denote affection and kindness.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Remember falls three times in this one verse, at the end of the longest curse passage in the Torah. The patriarchs are named backwards, Jacob first and Abraham last, and checked across the whole King James text this is the only place the covenant formula runs in that order. The sequence counts back from the generation sitting in exile to the man the promise was first made to, and then the verse adds the land.
3. (vv. 43-45)
Leviticus 26:43
“The land also shall be left of them,....”
Leviticus 26:44
“Neither will I abhor them to destroy them utterly - Though God has literally fulfilled all his threatenings upon this people in dispossessing them of their land, destroying their polity, overturning their city, demolishing their temple, and scattering themselves over the face of the whole earth; yet he has, in his providence, strangely preserved them as a distinct people, and in very considerable numbers also. He still remembers the covenant of their ancestors, and in his providence and grace he has some very important design in their favor.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Leviticus 26:45
“God is said to remember the covenant when he performs the promises of it, purely for his faithfulness' sake; not because there is any thing in us to recommend us to his favour, but because he will be as good as his word. This is the church's plea. 20 , Have respect unto the covenant.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Verse 43 restates the desolation straight after the promise of verse 42, so the record of what caused the exile stands unsoftened beside the mercy. Verse 44 then sets the limit on the whole passage, that in the land of their enemies God will not cast them away nor break his covenant with them. Paul asks whether God has cast away his people at Romans 11:1-2 and answers on the same ground, that God foreknew them.
4. (v. 46)
Leviticus 26:46
“These are the statutes, and judgments, etc. - See on Lev 26:15 (note). This verse appears to be the proper concluding verse of the whole book; and I rather think that the 27th chapter originally followed the 25th.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
This sentence closes the book. It signs the laws off as given in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses, and the same Sinai formula stands at Leviticus 25:1 and again at 27:34. Chapter 27 follows an ending that has already been written, which is why it reads as an appendix on vows and valuations rather than a continuation of the holiness code.
This page carries no textual note on Leviticus 26. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
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The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Andrew Bonar, A Commentary on Leviticus; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentary on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.