Leviticus 26:1–12

Exhortation to Obedience

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. 26:2 You 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 26:4 I 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 26:5 Threshing 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. 26:6 I 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. 26:7 You will pursue your enemies and they will fall before you by the sword.14 26:8 Five 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. 26:9 I will turn to you, make you fruitful, multiply you, and maintain15 my covenant with you. 26:10 You 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 26:12 I will walk among you, and I will be your God and you will be my people.

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1	sn For the literature regarding the difficult etymology and meaning of the term for “idols” (אֱלִילִם, ’elilim), see the literature cited in the note on Lev 19:4. 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	tn Heb “on.” The “sculpted stone” appears to be some sort of stone with images carved into (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 181, and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 449).
3	tn Heb “and my sanctuary you shall fear.” Cf. NCV “respect”; CEV “honor.”
4	tn 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 GKC 386 §120.d, although שָׁמַר [shamar, “to keep”] is not cited there; cf. Lev 20:8; 25:18, etc.).
5	tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.
6	tn Heb “the tree of the field will give its fruit.” As a collective singular this has been translated as plural.
7	tn Heb “will reach for you the vintage season.”
8	tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.
9	tn Heb “to satisfaction”; KJV, ASV, NASB “to the full.”
10	tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.
11	tn Heb “and there will be no one who terrifies.” The words “to sleep” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.
12	tn Heb “harmful animal,” singular, but taken here as a collective plural (so almost all English versions).
13	tn Heb “no sword”; the words “of war” are supplied in the translation to indicate what the metaphor of the sword represents.
14	tn Heb “to the sword.”
15	tn Heb “cause to arise,” but probably used here for the Lord’s intention of confirming or maintaining the covenant commitment made at Sinai. Cf. KJV “establish”; NASB “will confirm”; NAB “carry out”; NIV “will keep.”
16	tn Heb “old [produce] growing old.”
17	tn Heb “and old from the presence of new you will bring out.”
18	tn LXX codexes Vaticanus and Alexandrinus have “my covenant” rather than “my tabernacle.” Cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV “my dwelling.”
19	tn Heb “and my soul [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh] will not abhor you.”

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