Leviticus 26:21

_AND YOUR STRENGTH SHALL BE SPENT IN VAIN: FOR YOUR LAND SHALL NOT YIELD HER INCREASE, NEITHER SHALL THE TREES OF THE LAND YIELD THEIR FRUITS._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

21._And if ye walk_. Translators give various renderings of the word קרי, (226) _keri_. The Chaldee takes it to mean _with hardness_, as if it were their purpose to contend against God. Jerome renders it _ex adverso mihi_, (in opposition to me;) but, since the word signifies an accidental occurrence, or contingency, this sense has seemed to me much the most appropriate. To “walk at adventures” ( _fortuito_) with God, therefore, is equivalent to passing by His judgments with their eyes shut; and even so to stupify themselves as to ascribe their adversities to fortune, and thus not to be humbled beneath His mighty hand; for hence arises unconquerable obstinacy, when the sinner imagines that whatever he suffers happens by chance. Therefore Jeremiah inveighs against the Jews in a severe reproof, because they supposed that evil and good did not proceed from th

14-39 After God has set the blessing before them which would make them a happy people if they would be obedient, he here sets the curse before them, the evils which would make them miserable, if they were disobedient. Two things would bring ruin. 1. A contempt of God's commandments. They that reject the precept, will come at last to renounce the covenant. 2. A contempt of his corrections. If they will not learn obedience by the things they suffer, God himself would be against them; and this is the root and cause of all their misery. And also, The whole creation would be at war with them. All God's sore judgments would be sent against them. The threatenings here are very particular, they were prophecies, and He that foresaw all their rebellions, knew they would prove so. TEMPORAL judgments are threatened. Those who will not be parted from their sins by the commands of God, shall be parte...

As “the book of the covenant” Exodus 20:22 concludes with promises and warnings Exodus 23:20, so does this collection of laws contained in the Book of Leviticus. But the former passage relates to the conquest of the land of promise, this one to the subsequent history of the nation. The longer similar passage in Deuteronomy Deut. 27–30 is marked by broader and deeper promises and denunciations having immediate reference not only to outward consequences, but to the spiritual death incurred by transgressing the divine will. Leviticus 26:4 RAIN IN DUE SEASON - The periodical rains, on which the fertility of the holy land so much depends, are here s

PART V. CONCLUDING EXHORTATION. EXPOSITION THE first two verses of this chapter contain a prohibition of idolatry, and a command to observe the sabbath and to reverence God's sanctuary; that is, they repeat in summary the substance of the Israelites, religious duty, negative and positive, as comprised in the first table of the Decalogue. They form, therefore, a prologue to the remainder of the chapter, which solemnly announces: 1. The blessings. which should result from obedience (Leviticus 26:3). 2. The curses which should follow disobedience (Leviticus 26:14-3). 3. The gracious treatment which would ensue on repentance ...

AND IF YE WALK CONTRARY UNTO ME,.... To his mind and will, to his laws, commands, and ordinances, showing no regard unto them by a walk and conversation agreeably to them, but neglecting and breaking them continually; or by chance, as the Targum of Jonathan, not with any intention and design to obey the Lord, and to honour and glorify him, but in a careless and indifferent manner, having no regard to the law of God, only now and then, as it happens, act according to it, but having no concern for the honour and glory of God: AND WILL NOT HEARKEN UNTO ME; to his voice in his laws and his precepts, or by his prophets, exhorting them to obedience to them: I WILL BRING SEVEN TIMES MORE PLAGUES UPON YOU, ACCORDING TO YOUR SINS; greater and sorer punishments still, and these more frequently repeated, and in proportion to their transgressions of his righteous laws....

5. THE BLESSING, THE CURSE AND ISRAEL'S HISTORY CHAPTER 26 _ 1. Obedience and the blessings (Leviticus 26:1)_ 2. Disobedience and the curse (Leviticus 26:14) 3. The restoration (Leviticus 26:40) This great chapter is very fitting for the close of this book. We have no types here, but direct utterances of Jehovah. Israel's history and their future restoration is here predicted. He reminds them that He brought them out of the land of Egypt; they are His people. Therefore He wants obedience. If this is yielded blessings would be the results. These promised blessings consisted in abundance of rain, great fruitfulness of their land, peace in the land, deliverance from wi

The punishments of disobedience: plague and defeat, to be followed, after neglect of this warning, by infertility and wild animals and, if repentance is still withheld, by the threefold penalty of sword, pestilence, and famine. Sin is to be paid for seven times over (contrast Isaiah 40:2). This is the great prophetic commonplace from Am. (Leviticus 4:4) onwards. In the famine what would have been the portion of one family has to be eked out among ten....

CONTRARY. First occurrence, and only in this chapter (seven times)....

_The penalties that shall ensue, if Israel prove disobedient_(Cp. Deuteronomy 28:15 ff.) They are arranged in five groups, viz. (_a_) Leviticus 26:16-18, (_b_) Leviticus 26:19-20, (_c_) Leviticus 26:21; Leviticus 26:32, (_d_) Leviticus 26:23-26, (_e_) Leviticus 26:27-39, overthrow a