Leviticus 26

Reward for Obedience

26“ ‘Do not make idols^l or set up an image^m or a sacred stoneⁿ for yourselves, and do not place a carved stone^o in your land to bow down before it. I am the Lord your God.

²“ ‘Observe my Sabbaths^p and have reverence for my sanctuary.^q I am the Lord.

³“ ‘If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey^r my commands, ⁴I will send you rain^s in its season,^t and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit.^{u 5}Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want^v and live in safety in your land.^w

⁶“ ‘I will grant peace in the land,^x and you will lie down^y and no one will make you afraid.^z I will remove wild beasts^a from the land, and the sword will not pass through your country. ⁷You will pursue your enemies,^b and they will fall by the sword before you. ⁸Five^c of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you.^d

⁹“ ‘I will look on you with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers,^e and I will keep my covenant^f with you. ¹⁰You will still be eating last year’s harvest when you will have to move it out to make room for the new.^{g 11}I will put my dwelling place^ah among you, and I will not abhor you.^{i 12}I will walk^j among you and be your God,^k and you will be my people.^{l 13}I am the Lord your God,^m who brought you out of Egyptⁿ so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke^o and enabled you to walk with heads held high.

Punishment for Disobedience

¹⁴“ ‘But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands,^{p 15}and if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws^q and fail to carry out all my commands and so violate my covenant,^{r 16}then I will do this to you: I will bring on you sudden terror, wasting diseases and fever^s that will destroy your sight and sap your strength.^t You will plant seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it.^{u 17}I will set my face^v against you so that you will be defeated^w by your enemies;^x those who hate you will rule over you,^y and you will flee even when no one is pursuing you.^z

¹⁸“ ‘If after all this you will not listen to me,^a I will punish^b you for your sins seven times over.^{c 19}I will break down your stubborn pride^d and make the sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze.^{e 20}Your strength will be spent in vain,^f because your soil will not yield its crops, nor will the trees of your land yield their fruit.^g

²¹“ ‘If you remain hostile^h toward me and refuse to listen to me, I will multiply your afflictions seven times over,ⁱ as your sins deserve. ²²I will send wild animals^j against you, and they will rob you of your children, destroy your cattle and make you so few^k in number that your roads will be deserted.^l

²³“ ‘If in spite of these things you do not accept my correction^m but continue to be hostile toward me, ²⁴I myself will be hostileⁿ toward you and will afflict you for your sins seven times over. ²⁵And I will bring the sword^o on you to avenge^p the breaking of the covenant. When you withdraw into your cities, I will send a plague^q among you, and you will be given into enemy hands. ²⁶When I cut off your supply of bread,^r ten women will be able to bake your bread in one oven, and they will dole out the bread by weight. You will eat, but you will not be satisfied.

²⁷“ ‘If in spite of this you still do not listen to me^s but continue to be hostile toward me, ²⁸then in my anger^t I will be hostile^u toward you, and I myself will punish you for your sins seven times over.^{v 29}You will eat^w the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters.^{x 30}I will destroy your high places,^y cut down your incense altars^z and pile your dead bodies^b on the lifeless forms of your idols,^a and I will abhor^b you. ³¹I will turn your cities into ruins^c and lay waste^d your sanctuaries,^e and I will take no delight in the pleasing aroma of your offerings.^{f 32}I myself will lay waste the land,^g so that your enemies who live there will be appalled.^{h 33}I will scatterⁱ you among the nations^j and will draw out my sword^k and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste,^l and your cities will lie in ruins.^{m 34}Then the land will enjoy its sabbath years all the time that it lies desolateⁿ and you are in the country of your enemies;^o then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths. ³⁵All the time that it lies desolate, the land will have the rest^p it did not have during the sabbaths you lived in it.

³⁶“ ‘As for those of you who are left, I will make their hearts so fearful in the lands of their enemies that the sound of a windblown leaf^q will put them to flight.^r They will run as though fleeing from the sword, and they will fall, even though no one is pursuing them.^{s 37}They will stumble over one another^t as though fleeing from the sword, even though no one is pursuing them. So you will not be able to stand before your enemies.^{u 38}You will perish^v among the nations; the land of your enemies will devour you.^{w 39}Those of you who are left will waste away in the lands of their enemies because of their sins; also because of their ancestors’^x sins they will waste away.^y

⁴⁰“ ‘But if they will confess^z their sins^a and the sins of their ancestors^b—their unfaithfulness and their hostility toward me, ⁴¹which made me hostile^c toward them so that I sent them into the land of their enemies—then when their uncircumcised hearts^d are humbled^e and they pay^f for their sin, ⁴²I will remember my covenant with Jacob^g and my covenant with Isaac^h and my covenant with Abraham,ⁱ and I will remember the land. ⁴³For the land will be deserted^j by them and will enjoy its sabbaths while it lies desolate without them. They will pay for their sins because they rejected^k my laws and abhorred my decrees.^{l 44}Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies,^m I will not reject them or abhorⁿ them so as to destroy them completely,^o breaking my covenant^p with them. I am the Lord their God. ⁴⁵But for their sake I will remember^q the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out of Egypt^r in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am the Lord.’ ”

⁴⁶These are the decrees, the laws and the regulations that the Lord established at Mount Sinai^s between himself and the Israelites through Moses.^t