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Leviticus 26:15

in Leviticus 26

and if you reject My statutes, despise My ordinances, and neglect to carry out all My commandments, and so break My covenant,

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

and if ye shall reject my statutes, and if your soul abhor mine ordinances, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant;

KJV

And 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:

This verse in Leviticus 26

Commentary

5 notes on this verse

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

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.

This site's exposition

But if ye will not hearken unto me

on Leviticus 26:14-17

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.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

John Wesley

1703–1791

Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)

proposed

Break my covenant - Break your part of that covenant made between me and you, and thereby discharge me from the blessings promised on my part.
And if ye shall despise my statutes,....

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

If ye shall despise my statutes - abhor my judgments - As these words, and others of a similar import, which point out different properties of the revelation of God, are frequently occurring, I Judge it best to take a general view of them, once for all, in this place, and show how they differ among themselves, and what property of the Divine law each points out.

The words behind it

16 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וְאִם־and if

    veim-H5181069 times

  • בְּחֻקֹּתַ֣י<in> statutes my

    bechukotaiH2708104 times

  • תִּמְאָ֔סוּyou will reject

    timasuH398876 times

  • וְאִ֥םand if

    veimH5181069 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H85310935 times

  • מִשְׁפָּטַ֖יjudgments my

    mishpataiH4941422 times

  • תִּגְעַ֣לit will abhor

    tigalH160210 times

  • נַפְשְׁכֶ֑םself your

    nafshekhemH5315754 times

  • לְבִלְתִּ֤יto not

    leviltiH1115112 times

  • עֲשׂוֹת֙to do

    ʾasotH62132628 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H85310935 times

  • כָּל־all

    kol-H36055413 times

  • מִצְוֹתַ֔יcommandments my

    mitzvotaiH4687181 times

  • לְהַפְרְכֶ֖םto break you

    lehafrekhemH6565

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H85310935 times

  • בְּרִיתִֽי׃covenant my

    beritiH1285284 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Numbers 15:31

    He shall certainly be cut off, because he has despised the word of the LORD and broken His commandment; his guilt remains on him.”

    it leads to

    • 2 Samuel 12:9

      Why then have you despised the command of the LORD by doing evil in His sight? You put Uriah the Hittite to the sword and took his wife as your own, for you have…

    • Proverbs 13:13

      He who despises instruction will pay the penalty, but the one who respects a command will be rewarded.

  • Through

    Deuteronomy 31:16

    And the LORD said to Moses, “You will soon rest with your fathers, and these people will rise up and prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will…

    it leads to

    • Judges 10:6

      And again the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD. They served the Baals, the Ashtoreths, the gods of Aram, Sidon, and Moab, and the gods of the Ammonites and Philistines. Thus…

    • Judges 10:13

      But you have forsaken Me and served other gods, so I will no longer save you.

    • Judges 2:12

      Thus they forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they followed after various gods of the peoples around them. They bowed down…

    • Exodus 34:15

      Do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you, and you will eat their sacrifices.

  • Through

    Isaiah 24:5

    The earth is defiled by its people; they have transgressed the laws; they have overstepped the decrees and broken the everlasting covenant.

    it leads to

    • Hebrews 13:20

      Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep,

  • Through

    2 Kings 17:15

    They rejected His statutes and the covenant He had made with their fathers, as well as the decrees He had given them. They pursued worthless idols and themselves became worthless, going after the surrounding…

    it leads to

    • Deuteronomy 12:30–31

      be careful not to be ensnared by their ways after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods, asking, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.”

Where this verse is studied

About Leviticus

Moses and Aaron Appear before Pharaoh, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Moses and Aaron Appear before Pharaoh, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.