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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Leviticus 26:14 - 26:33
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The Curse upon the Disobedient
v. 14. But if ye will not hearken unto Me, and will not do all these commandments,
v. 15. 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, willfully set it aside,
v. 16. I also will do this unto you: I will even appoint over you terror, order it to strike them, to fill their hearts with nameless dread, consumption, and the burning ague, a consuming fever, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart; and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it, they would find no difficulty about entering the country and taking the standing grain or the contents of the granaries.
v. 17. And I will set My face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies, with no chance of overcoming them; they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you, which is characteristic of the godless and wicked, Pro_28:1; Psa_53:5. After this preliminary summary the Lord now announces the form which His punishment mould take in a carefully graded series which reaches its climax in the last part of the Chapter.
v. 18. And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.
v. 19. And I will break the pride, the majesty, the glory, the boast, of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron and your earth as brass, withholding both the rain above and the fruitfulness below;
v. 20. and your strength shall be spent in vain, in the fruitless endeavor to coax the land into producing; for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits. That was the first degree of the increased punishment: an absolute lack of fertility in the land.
v. 21. And 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, as the second step of the intensified curse.
v. 22. I will also send wild beasts among you, the larger predatory beasts and birds, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your highways shall be desolate on account of the reduced number of inhabitants. These were the two punishments of the second increased degree: loss caused by beasts of prey and bereavement.
v. 23. And if ye will not be reformed by Me by these things, if they would not learn their lesson as held before them by the Lord, but will walk contrary unto Me,
v. 24. then will I also walk contrary unto you, be engaged in continual acts of aggressive enmity, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins, as the third step in the increased revenge.
v. 25. And I will bring a sword upon you, permit the scourge of war to sweep their country, that shall avenge the quarrel of My covenant; and when ye are gathered together within your cities, where the greater density of the population made the spread of diseases easier, I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered in to the hand of the enemy, for war and epidemics usually come together.
v. 26. And when I have broken the staff of your bread, which is here also represented as the staff of life, the proverbial expression denoting the infliction of extreme scarcity, ten women, of as many households, shall bake your bread in one oven, where formerly ten were needed, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight, in careful rations; and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied. That was the third stage of God's increased punishment: war, pestilence, and famine.
v. 27. And if ye will not for all this hearken unto Me, but walk contrary unto Me,
v. 28. then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury, in consuming anger; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins, in some last horrible catastrophes.
v. 29. And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat, in a madness of cannibal hunger brought on by the severe famine.
v. 30. And I will destroy your high places, where idolatrous worship was carried on, and cut down your images, the pillars erected to the heathen deities, and cast your carcasses upon the carcasses of your idols, and My soul shall abhor you, be filled with loathing at their sight.
v. 31. And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, the houses of idolatry erected in spite of the warning of Jehovah; and I will not smell the savor of your sweet odors, the burnt sacrifices which they brought in the insolence of their hypocrisy, as though the Lord would accept the mere outward work, without faith of the heart.
v. 32. And I will bring the land in to desolation; and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it, even they would be surprised at the distinct marks of God's punitive justice, as they were in evidence everywhere.
v. 33. And I will scatter you among the heathen, in a shameful captivity equivalent to slavery, and will draw out a sword after you, drive them from their homes with a drawn sword; and your land shall be desolate and your cities waste. That was the climax of God's revenging justice: destruction of all idols and their sanctuaries, complete overthrow of the cities, desolation of the land, and deportation of its inhabitants. These threats hold good even today. If we turn away from God, deny Him faith and obedience, and despise His commandments, He will take away His blessings, peace and prosperity, from us and even visit His anger upon us. Therefore we should fear His wrath and not act contrary to His commandments.