Leviticus 26

Reward for Obedience

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

“ ‘Observe my Sabbaths^e and have reverence for my sanctuary.^f I am the Lord.

“ ‘If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey^g my commands, I will send you rain^h in its season,ⁱ and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit.^j Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want^k and live in safety in your land.^l

“ ‘I will grant peace in the land,^m and you will lie downⁿ and no one will make you afraid.^o I will remove wild beasts^p from the land, and the sword will not pass through your country. You will pursue your enemies,^q and they will fall by the sword before you. Five^r 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.^s

“ ‘I will look on you with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers,^t and I will keep my covenant^u with you. You will still be eating last year’s harvest when you will have to move it out to make room for the new.^v I will put my dwelling place^w among you, and I will not abhor you.^x I will walk^y among you and be your God,^z and you will be my people.^a I am the Lord your God,^b who brought you out of Egypt^c so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke^d and enabled you to walk with heads held high.

Punishment for Disobedience

“ ‘But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands,^a and if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws^b and fail to carry out all my commands and so violate my covenant,^c then I will do this to you: I will bring on you sudden terror, wasting diseases and fever^d that will destroy your sight and sap your strength.^e You will plant seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it.^f I will set my face^g against you so that you will be defeated^h by your enemies;ⁱ those who hate you will rule over you,^j and you will flee even when no one is pursuing you.^k

“ ‘If after all this you will not listen to me,^l I will punish^m you for your sins seven times over.ⁿ I will break down your stubborn pride^o and make the sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze.^p Your strength will be spent in vain,^q because your soil will not yield its crops, nor will the trees of your land yield their fruit.^r

“ ‘If you remain hostile^s toward me and refuse to listen to me, I will multiply your afflictions seven times over,^t as your sins deserve. I will send wild animals^u against you, and they will rob you of your children, destroy your cattle and make you so few^v in number that your roads will be deserted.^w

“ ‘If in spite of these things you do not accept my correction^x but continue to be hostile toward me, I myself will be hostile^y toward you and will afflict you for your sins seven times over. And I will bring the sword^z on you to avenge^a the breaking of the covenant. When you withdraw into your cities, I will send a plague^b among you, and you will be given into enemy hands. When I cut off your supply of bread,^c 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.

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

“ ‘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^b will put them to flight.^c They will run as though fleeing from the sword, and they will fall, even though no one is pursuing them.^d They will stumble over one another^e as though fleeing from the sword, even though no one is pursuing them. So you will not be able to stand before your enemies.^f You will perish^g among the nations; the land of your enemies will devour you.^h Those of you who are left will waste away in the lands of their enemies because of their sins; also because of their ancestors’ⁱ sins they will waste away.^j

“ ‘But if they will confess^k their sins^l and the sins of their ancestors^m—their unfaithfulness and their hostility toward me, which made me hostileⁿ toward them so that I sent them into the land of their enemies—then when their uncircumcised hearts^o are humbled^p and they pay^q for their sin, I will remember my covenant with Jacob^r and my covenant with Isaac^s and my covenant with Abraham,^t and I will remember the land. For the land will be deserted^u by them and will enjoy its sabbaths while it lies desolate without them. They will pay for their sins because they rejected^v my laws and abhorred my decrees.^w Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies,^x I will not reject them or abhor^y them so as to destroy them completely,^z breaking my covenant^a with them. I am the Lord their God. But for their sake I will remember^b the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out of Egypt^c in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am the Lord.’ ”

These are the decrees, the laws and the regulations that the Lord established on Mount Sinai^d between himself and the Israelites through Moses.^e