Of idolatry, 1. Religiousness, 2. A blessing to those who keep the commandments, 3-13. A curse to those who break them, 14-39. God promises to remember those who repent, 40-46.
1 "'You shall make for yourselves no idols nor engraved image, neither rear up for yourselves a standing image, neither shall you set up any image of stone in your land to bow down to it. For I am the LORD your God. 2 You shall keep my sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary. I am the LORD. 3 If you walk in my statutes, keep my commandments, and do them, 4 Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, 5 And your threshing shall reach to the vintage and the vintage shall reach to the sowing time, and you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land safely. 6 And I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down and no one shall make you afraid. And I will rid the land of evil beasts, neither shall the sword go through your land. 7 And you shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. 8 And five of you shall chase one hundred, and one hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight. And your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. 9 For I will have respect to you, make you fruitful, multiply you, and establish my covenant with you. 10 And you shall eat old store and bring forth the old because of the new. 11 And I will set my tabernacle among you and my soul shall not abhor you. 12 And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people. 13 I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you should not be their slaves, and I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you go upright.
14 'But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, 15 And if you despise my statutes or if your soul abhors my judgments so that you will not do all my commandments, but that you break my covenant, 16 I also will do this to you: I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the fever that shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 17 And I will set my face against you, and you shall be slain before your enemies. Those who hate you shall reign over you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you. 18 And if you will not yet for all this listen to me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. 19 And I will break the pride of your power. And I will make your heaven as iron and your earth as brass. 20 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.
21 'And if you walk contrary to me and will not listen to me, I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins. 22 I will also send wild beasts among you which shall rob you of your children, destroy your cattle, and make you few in number. And your high-ways shall be desolate.
23 'And if you will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary to me, 24 Then I will also walk contrary to you and I will punish you yet seven times for your sins. 25 And I will bring a sword upon you that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant. And when you are gathered within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. 26 And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied.
27 'And if you will not for all this listen to me, but walk contrary to me, 28 Then I will walk contrary to you also in fury, and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. 29 And you shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters you shall eat. 30 And I will destroy your high places, cut down your images, and cast your carcasses upon the carcasses of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you. 31 And I will make your cities waste and bring your sanctuaries to desolation, and I will not smell the savor of your sweet odors. 32 And I will bring the land into desolation, and your enemies who dwell in it shall be astonished at it. 33 And I will scatter you among the heathen and will draw out a sword after you, and your land shall be desolate and your cities waste.
34 'Then the land shall enjoy its sabbaths as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies' land. Even then the land shall rest and enjoy its sabbaths. 35 As long as it lies desolate, it shall rest, because it did not rest in your sabbaths when you dwelt upon it. 36 And upon those who are left alive of you, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. And the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them, and they shall flee as fleeing from a sword, and they shall fall when no one pursues. 37 And they shall fall one upon another, as before a sword, when no one pursues. And you shall have no power to stand before your enemies. 38 And you shall perish among the heathen and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. 39 And those who are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands, and also in the iniquities of their fathers they shall pine away with them.
40 'If they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that they also have walked contrary to me, 41 And that I also have walked contrary to them and have brought them into the land of their enemies, if then their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they then accept the punishment of their iniquity, 42 Then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham I will remember, and I will remember the land. 43 The land shall also be left by them and shall enjoy her sabbaths while she lies desolate without them. And they shall accept the punishment of their iniquity because they despised my judgments and their soul abhorred my statutes. 44 And yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly and to break my covenant with them, for I am the LORD their God. 45 But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, to be their God. I am the LORD.'"
46 These are the statutes, judgments, and laws which the LORD made between him and the children of Israel on mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.
Matthew Henry Commentary - Leviticus, Chapter 26[➚]
[v.12] - Reference, Exodus 29:45; Ezekiel 37:27; 2nd Corinthians 6:16.