Imamat 26:3-13

The Benefits of Obedience

26:3 “‘If you walk in my statutes and are sure to obey my commandments, ¹  26:4 I will give you your rains in their time so that ²  the land will give its yield and the trees of the field will produce their fruit. ³  26:5 Threshing season will extend for you until the season for harvesting grapes, ⁴  and the season for harvesting grapes will extend until sowing season, so ⁵  you will eat your bread until you are satisfied, ⁶  and you will live securely in your land. 26:6 I will grant peace in the land so that ⁷  you will lie down to sleep without anyone terrifying you. ⁸  I will remove harmful animals ⁹  from the land, and no sword of war ¹⁰  will pass through your land. 26:7 You will pursue your enemies and they will fall before you by the sword. ¹¹  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 maintain ¹²  my covenant with you. 26:10 You will still be eating stored produce from the previous year ¹³  and will have to clean out what is stored from the previous year to make room for new. ¹⁴ 

26:11 “‘I will put my tabernacle ¹⁵  in your midst and I will not abhor you. ¹⁶  26:12 I will walk among you, and I will be your God and you will be my people. 26:13 I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from being their slaves, ¹⁷  and I broke the bars of your yoke and caused you to walk upright. ¹⁸ 

[26:3]  ¹ 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.).

[26:4]  ² tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.

[26:4]  ³ tn Heb “the tree of the field will give its fruit.” As a collective singular this has been translated as plural.

[26:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “will reach for you the vintage season.”

[26:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.

[26:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “to satisfaction”; KJV, ASV, NASB “to the full.”

[26:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.

[26:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “and there will be no one who terrifies.” The words “to sleep” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[26:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “harmful animal,” singular, but taken here as a collective plural (so almost all English versions).

[26:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “no sword”; the words “of war” are supplied in the translation to indicate what the metaphor of the sword represents.

[26:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “to the sword.”

[26:9]  ¹² 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.”

[26:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “old [produce] growing old.”

[26:10]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and old from the presence of new you will bring out.”

[26:11]  ¹⁵ tn LXX codexes Vaticanus and Alexandrinus have “my covenant” rather than “my tabernacle.” Cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV “my dwelling.”

[26:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and my soul [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh] will not abhor you.”

[26:13]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “from being to them slaves.”

[26:13]  ¹⁸ tn In other words, to walk as free people and not as slaves. Cf. NIV “with (+ your CEV, NLT) heads held high”; NCV “proudly.”