^26:1“ ‘You must not make for yourselves idols,¹ so you must not set up for yourselves a carved image or a pillar, and you must not place a sculpted stone in your land to bow down before² it, for I am the Lord your God. ^26:2You must keep my Sabbaths and reverence³ my sanctuary. I am the Lord.

The Benefits of Obedience

^26:3“ ‘If you walk in my statutes and are sure to obey my commandments,⁴^26:4I will give you your rains in their time so that⁵ the land will give its yield and the trees of the field will produce their fruit.⁶^26:5Threshing season will extend for you until the season for harvesting grapes,⁷ and the season for harvesting grapes will extend until sowing season, so⁸ you will eat your bread until you are satisfied,⁹ and you will live securely in your land. ^26:6I will grant peace in the land so that¹⁰ you will lie down to sleep without anyone terrifying you.¹¹ I will remove harmful animals¹² from the land, and no sword of war¹³ will pass through your land. ^26:7You will pursue your enemies and they will fall before you by the sword.¹⁴^26:8Five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword. ^26:9I will turn to you, make you fruitful, multiply you, and maintain¹⁵ my covenant with you. ^26:10You will still be eating stored produce from the previous year¹⁶ and will have to clean out what is stored from the previous year to make room for new.¹⁷

^26:11“ ‘I will put my tabernacle¹⁸ in your midst and I will not abhor you.¹⁹^26:12I will walk among you, and I will be your God and you will be my people. ^26:13I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from being their slaves,²⁰ and I broke the bars of your yoke and caused you to walk upright.²¹

The Consequences of Disobedience

^26:14“ ‘If, however,²² you do not obey me and keep²³ all these commandments—^26:15if you reject my statutes and abhor my regulations so that you do not keep²⁴ all my commandments and you break my covenant—^26:16I for my part²⁵ will do this to you: I will inflict horror on you, consumption and fever, which diminish eyesight and drain away the vitality of life.²⁶ You will sow your seed in vain because²⁷ your enemies will eat it.²⁸^26:17I will set my face against you. You will be struck down before your enemies, those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when there is no one pursuing you.

^26:18“ ‘If, in spite of all these things,²⁹ you do not obey me, I will discipline you seven times more on account of your sins.³⁰^26:19I will break your strong pride and make your sky like iron and your land like bronze. ^26:20Your strength will be used up in vain, your land will not give its yield, and the trees of the land³¹ will not produce their fruit.

^26:21“ ‘If you walk in hostility against me³² and are not willing to obey me, I will increase your affliction³³ seven times according to your sins. ^26:22I will send the wild animals³⁴ against you and they will bereave you of your children,³⁵ annihilate your cattle, and diminish your population³⁶ so that your roads will become deserted.

^26:23“ ‘If in spite of these things³⁷ you do not allow yourselves to be disciplined and you walk in hostility against me,³⁸^26:24I myself will also walk in hostility against you and strike you³⁹ seven times on account of your sins. ^26:25I will bring on you an avenging sword, a covenant vengeance.⁴⁰ Although⁴¹ you will gather together into your cities, I will send pestilence among you and you will be given into enemy hands.⁴²^26:26When I break off your supply of bread,⁴³ ten women will bake your bread in one oven; they will ration your bread by weight,⁴⁴ and you will eat and not be satisfied.

^26:27“ ‘If in spite of this⁴⁵ you do not obey me but walk in hostility against me,⁴⁶^26:28I will walk in hostile rage against you⁴⁷ and I myself will also discipline you seven times on account of your sins. ^26:29You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters.⁴⁸^26:30I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars,⁴⁹ and I will stack your dead bodies on top of the lifeless bodies of your idols.⁵⁰ I will abhor you.⁵¹^26:31I will lay your cities waste⁵² and make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will refuse to smell your soothing aromas. ^26:32I myself will make the land desolate and your enemies who live in it will be appalled. ^26:33I will scatter you among the nations and unsheathe the sword⁵³ after you, so your land will become desolate and your cities will become a waste.

^26:34“ ‘Then the land will make up for⁵⁴ its Sabbaths all the days it lies desolate while you are in the land of your enemies; then the land will rest and make up its Sabbaths. ^26:35All the days of the desolation it will have the rest it did not have⁵⁵ on your Sabbaths when you lived on it.

^26:36“ ‘As for⁵⁶ the ones who remain among you, I will bring despair into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a blowing leaf will pursue them, and they will flee as one who flees the sword and fall down even though there is no pursuer. ^26:37They will stumble over each other as those who flee before a sword, though⁵⁷ there is no pursuer, and there will be no one to take a stand⁵⁸ for you before your enemies. ^26:38You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will consume you.

Restoration through Confession and Repentance

^26:39“ ‘As for the ones who remain among you, they will rot away because of⁵⁹ their iniquity in the lands of your enemies, and they will also rot away because of their ancestors’⁶⁰ iniquities which are with them. ^26:40However, when⁶¹ they confess their iniquity and their ancestors’ iniquity which they committed by trespassing against me,⁶² by which they also walked⁶³ in hostility against me⁶⁴^26:41(and I myself will walk in hostility against them and bring them into the land of their enemies), and⁶⁵ then their uncircumcised hearts become humbled and they make up for⁶⁶ their iniquity, ^26:42I will remember my covenant with Jacob and also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham,⁶⁷ and I will remember the land. ^26:43The land will be abandoned by them⁶⁸ in order that it may make up for⁶⁹ its Sabbaths while it is made desolate⁷⁰ without them,⁷¹ and they will make up for their iniquity because⁷² they have rejected my regulations and have abhorred⁷³ my statutes. ^26:44In spite of this, however, when they are in the land of their enemies I will not reject them and abhor them to make a complete end of them, to break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God. ^26:45I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors⁷⁴ whom I brought out from the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am the Lord.’ ”

Summary Colophon

^26:46These are the statutes, regulations, and instructions which the Lord established⁷⁵ between himself and the Israelites at Mount Sinai through⁷⁶ Moses.

Redemption of Vowed People

^27:1The Lord spoke to Moses: ^27:2“Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘When a man makes a special votive offering¹ based on the conversion value of persons to the Lord,²^27:3the conversion value of the male³ from twenty years old up to sixty years old⁴ is fifty shekels by the standard of the sanctuary shekel.⁵^27:4If the person is a female, the conversion value is thirty shekels. ^27:5If the person is from five years old up to twenty years old, the conversion value of the male is twenty shekels, and for the female ten shekels. ^27:6If the person is one month old up to five years old, the conversion value of the male is five shekels of silver,⁶ and for the female the conversion value is three shekels of silver. ^27:7If the person is from sixty years old and older, if he is a male the conversion value is fifteen shekels, and for the female ten shekels. ^27:8If he is too poor to pay the conversion value, he must stand the person before the priest and the priest will establish his conversion value;⁷ according to what the man who made the vow can afford,⁸ the priest will establish his conversion value.

Redemption of Vowed Animals

^27:9“ ‘If what is vowed is a kind of animal from which an offering may be presented⁹ to the Lord, anything which he gives to the Lord from this kind of animal¹⁰ will be holy. ^27:10He must not replace or exchange it, good for bad or bad for good, and if he does indeed exchange one animal for another animal, then both the original animal¹¹ and its substitute will be holy. ^27:11If what is vowed is an unclean animal from which an offering must not be presented to the Lord, then he must stand the animal before the priest, ^27:12and the priest will establish its conversion value,¹² whether good or bad. According to the assessed conversion value of the priest, thus it will be. ^27:13If, however, the person who made the vow redeems the animal,¹³ he must add one fifth to¹⁴ its conversion value.

Redemption of Vowed Houses

^27:14“ ‘If a man consecrates his house as holy to the Lord, the priest will establish its conversion value, whether good or bad. Just as the priest establishes its conversion value, thus it will stand.¹⁵^27:15If the one who consecrates it redeems his house, he must add to it one fifth of its conversion value in silver, and it will belong to him.¹⁶

Redemption of Vowed Fields

^27:16“ ‘If a man consecrates to the Lord some of his own landed property, the conversion value must be calculated in accordance with the amount of seed needed to sow it,¹⁷ a homer of barley seed being priced at fifty shekels of silver.¹⁸^27:17If he consecrates his field in the jubilee year,¹⁹ the conversion value will stand, ^27:18but if²⁰ he consecrates his field after the jubilee, the priest will calculate the price²¹ for him according to the years that are left until the next jubilee year, and it will be deducted from the conversion value. ^27:19If, however, the one who consecrated the field redeems it,²² he must add to it one fifth of the…

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Footnotes

1 For the literature regarding the difficult etymology and meaning of the term for “idols” (אֱלִילִם, ’elilim), see the literature cited in the note on . It appears to be a diminutive play on words with אֵל (’el, “god, God”) and, perhaps at the same time, recalls a common Semitic word for “worthless, weak, powerless, nothingness.” Snaith suggests a rendering of “worthless godlings.”
2 Heb “on.” The “sculpted stone” appears to be some sort of stone with images carved into (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [], , and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [], ).
3 Heb “and my sanctuary you shall fear.” Cf. “respect”; “honor.”
4 Heb “and my commandments you shall keep and do them.” This appears to be a kind of verbal hendiadys, where the first verb is a modifier of the action of the second verb (see §120.d, although שָׁמַר [shamar, “to keep”] is not cited there; cf. Lev 20:8; 25:18, etc.).
5 Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.
6 Heb “the tree of the field will give its fruit.” As a collective singular this has been translated as plural.
7 Heb “will reach for you the vintage season.”
8 Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.
9 Heb “to satisfaction”; , , “to the full.”
10 Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.
11 Heb “and there will be no one who terrifies.” The words “to sleep” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.
12 Heb “harmful animal,” singular, but taken here as a collective plural (so almost all English versions).
13 Heb “no sword”; the words “of war” are supplied in the translation to indicate what the metaphor of the sword represents.
14 Heb “to the sword.”
15 Heb “cause to arise,” but probably used here for the Lord’s intention of confirming or maintaining the covenant commitment made at Sinai. Cf. “establish”; “will confirm”; “carry out”; “will keep.”
16 Heb “old [produce] growing old.”
17 Heb “and old from the presence of new you will bring out.”
18 codexes Vaticanus and Alexandrinus have “my covenant” rather than “my tabernacle.” Cf. , , “my dwelling.”
19 Heb “and my soul [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh] will not abhor you.”
20 Heb “from being to them slaves.”
21 In other words, to walk as free people and not as slaves. Cf. “with (+ your , ) heads held high”; “proudly.”
22 Heb “And if.”
23 Heb “and do not do.”
24 Heb “to not do.”
25 Or “I also” (see אַף 6.b).
26 Heb “soul.” These expressions may refer either to the physical effects of consumption and fever as the rendering in the text suggests (e.g., J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [], , , “diminishing eyesight and loss of appetite”), or perhaps the more psychological effects, “which exhausts the eyes” because of anxious hope “and causes depression” (Heb “causes soul [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh] to pine away”), e.g., B. A. Levine, Leviticus (), .
27 Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have causal force here.
28 That is, “your enemies will eat” the produce that grows from the sown seed.
29 Heb “And if until these.”
30 Heb “I will add to discipline you seven [times] on your sins.”
31 Heb “the tree of the land will not give its fruit.” The collective singular has been translated as a plural. ., some medieval Hebrew , , , and . have “the field” as in v. 4, rather than “the land.”
32 Heb “hostile with me,” but see the added preposition בְּ (bet) on the phrase “in hostility” in v. 24 and 27.
33 Heb “your blow, stroke”; cf. “punishment”; “I will inflict you with seven more disasters.”
34 Heb “the animal of the field.” This collective singular has been translated as a plural. The expression “animal of the field” refers to a wild (i.e., nondomesticated) animal.
35 The words “of your children” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied.
36 Heb “and diminish you.”
37 Heb “And if in these.”
38 Heb “with me,” but see the added preposition בְּ (bet) on the phrase “in hostility” in vv. 24 and 27.
39 Heb “and I myself will also strike you.”
40 Heb “vengeance of covenant”; cf. “the avenger of my covenant.”
41 Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) has a concessive force in this context.
42 Heb “in hand of enemy,” but . and Neof. have “in the hands of your enemies” (J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [], ).
43 Heb “When I break to you staff of bread” (, , and all similar).
44 Heb “they will return your bread in weight.”
45 Heb “And if in this.”
46 Heb “with me.”
47 Heb “in rage of hostility with you”; “with wrathful hostility”; “I will continue hostile to you in fury”; “I’ll get really furious.”
48 Heb “and the flesh of your daughters you will eat.” The phrase “you will eat” has not been repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons.
49 Regarding these cultic installations, see the remarks in B. A. Levine, Leviticus (), , and R. E. Averbeck, 2:. The term rendered “incense altars” might better be rendered “sanctuaries [of foreign deities]” or “stelae.”
50 The translation reflects the Hebrew wordplay “your corpses … the corpses of your idols.” Since idols, being lifeless, do not really have “corpses,” the translation uses “dead bodies” for people and “lifeless bodies” for the idols.
51 Heb “and my soul will abhor you.”
52 Heb “And I will give your cities a waste”; “make your cities desolate.”
53 Heb “and I will empty sword” (see ריק 3).
54 There are two Hebrew roots רָצָה (ratsah), one meaning “to be pleased with; to take pleasure” ( רצה; cf. “enjoy” in , , , and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [], ), and the other meaning “to restore” ( II רצה; cf. “retrieve” and B. A. Levine, Leviticus [], ).
55 Heb “it shall rest which it did not rest.”
56 Heb “And.”
57 Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) is used in a concessive sense here.
58 The term rendered “to stand up” is a noun, not an infinitive. It occurs only here and appears to designate someone who would take a powerful stand for them against their enemies.
59 Heb “in” (so , ; also later in this verse).
60 Heb “fathers’ ” (also in the following verse).
61 Heb “And.” Many English versions take this to be a conditional clause (“if …”) though there is no conditional particle (see, e.g., , , ; but see the very different rendering in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [], ). The temporal translation offered here (“when”) takes into account the particle אָז (’az, “then”), which occurs twice in v. 41. The obvious contextual contrast between vv. 39 and 40 is expressed by “however” in the translation.
62 Heb “in their trespassing which they trespassed in me.” See the note on , although the term is used in a more technical sense there in relation to the “guilt offering.”
63 Heb “and also which they walked.”
64 Heb “with me.”
65 Heb “or then,” although the has “then” and the “and then.”
66 Heb “and then they make up for.” On the verb “make up for” see the note on v. above.
67 Heb “my covenant with Abraham I will remember.” The phrase “I will remember” has not been repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons.
68 Heb “from them.” The preposition “from” refers here to the agent of the action (J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [], ).
69 The jussive form of the verb with the simple vav (ו) here calls for a translation that expresses purpose.
70 The verb is the Hophal infinitive construct with the third feminine singular suffix ( §67.y; cf. v. 34).
71 Heb “from them.”
72 Heb “because and in because,” a double expression, which is used only here and in Ezek 13:10 (without the vav) for emphasis ( §158.b).
73 Heb “and their soul has abhorred.”
74 Heb “covenant of former ones.” For similar expressions referring back to the ancestors who refused to follow the stipulations of the Mosaic covenant see, for example, Deut 19:14, Jer 11:10, and Ps 79:8 (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [], , and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [], ).
75 Heb “gave” (so ); , , “made.”
76 Heb “by the hand of” (so ).
1 Cf. the note on . Some take this as an expression for fulfilling a vow, “to fulfill a vow” (e.g., פלא piel and ; cf. “in fulfillment of a vow”) or, alternatively, “to make a vow” or “for making a vow” ( פלא piel [II פלא]). Perhaps it refers to the making a special vow, from the verb פָלָא (pala’, “to be wonderful; to be remarkable”), cf. Milgrom, Numbers [], . B. A. Levine, Leviticus (), and , suggests that this is a special term for “setting aside a votive offering” (related to פָלָה, palah, “to set aside”). In general, the point of the expression seems to be that this sacrifice is a special gift to God that arose out of special circumstances in the life of the worshiper.
2 Heb “in your valuation, persons to the Lord,” but “in your valuation” is a frozen form and, therefore, the person (“your”) does not figure into the translation (see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [], ). Instead of offering a person to the Lord one could redeem that person with the appropriate amount of money delineated in the following verses (see the note on above and the explanation in Hartley, ).
3 Heb “your conversion value shall be [for] the male.”
4 Heb “from a son of twenty years and until a son of sixty years.”
5 See the note on .
6 Heb “five shekels silver.”
7 Heb “and the priest shall cause him to be valued.”
8 Heb “on the mouth which the hand of the one who vowed reaches.”
9 Heb “which they may present from it an offering.” The plural active verb is sometimes best rendered in the passive ( §144.f, g). Some medieval Hebrew , , a of the , and the all have the singular verb instead (cf. similarly v. 11).
10 Heb “from it.” The masculine suffix “it” here is used for the feminine in the , but one medieval Hebrew , some of , the , and the have the feminine. The referent (this kind of animal) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
11 Heb “it and its substitute.” The referent (the original animal offered) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
12 Heb “and the priest shall cause it to be valued.” See the note on v. above.
13 Heb “And if redeeming [infinitive absolute] he redeems it [finite verb].” For the infinitive absolute used to highlight contrast rather than emphasis see §113.p. The referent of “he” (the person who made the vow) and “it” (the animal) have both been specified in the translation for clarity.
14 Heb “on,” meaning “on top of, in addition to” (likewise in v. 15).
15 The expression “it shall stand” may be a technical term for “it shall be legally valid”; cf. “assessment will be final.”
16 Heb “and it shall be to him.”
17 Heb “a conversion value shall be to the mouth of its seed.”
18 Heb “seed of a homer of barley in fifty shekels of silver.”
19 Heb “from the year of the jubilee.” For the meaning of “jubilee,” see the note on above.
20 Heb “And if.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have adversative force here.
21 Heb “the silver.”
22 Heb “And if redeeming [infinitive absolute] he redeems [finite verb] the field, the one who consecrated it.” For the infinitive absolute used to highlight contrast rather than emphasis see §113.p.