Imamat 26:3-6

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.

Imamat 26:9-12

26:9 I will turn to you, make you fruitful, multiply you, and maintain ¹¹  my covenant with you. 26:10 You will still be eating stored produce from the previous year ¹²  and will have to clean out what is stored from the previous year to make room for new. ¹³ 

26:11 “‘I will put my tabernacle ¹⁴  in your midst and I will not abhor you. ¹⁵  26:12 I will walk among you, and I will be your God and you will be my people.

Imamat 26:14-17

The Consequences of Disobedience

26:14 “‘If, however, ¹⁶  you do not obey me and keep ¹⁷  all these commandments – 26:15 if you reject my statutes and abhor my regulations so that you do not keep ¹⁸  all my commandments and you break my covenant – 26:16 I for my part ¹⁹  will do this to you: I will inflict horror on you, consumption and fever, which diminish eyesight and drain away the vitality of life. ²⁰  You will sow your seed in vain because ²¹  your enemies will eat it. ²²  26:17 I 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.

[26:3]  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.

[26:9]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² tn Heb “old [produce] growing old.”

[26:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “and old from the presence of new you will bring out.”

[26:11]  ¹⁴ tn LXX codexes Vaticanus and Alexandrinus have “my covenant” rather than “my tabernacle.” Cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV “my dwelling.”

[26:11]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and my soul [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh] will not abhor you.”

[26:14]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “And if.”

[26:14]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and do not do.”

[26:15]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “to not do.”

[26:16]  ¹⁹ tn Or “I also” (see HALOT 76 s.v. אַף 6.b).

[26:16]  ²⁰ tn 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 [WBC], 452, 454, “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 (JPSTC), 185.

[26:16]  ²¹ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have causal force here.

[26:16]  ²² tn That is, “your enemies will eat” the produce that grows from the sown seed.