14 ' But if you do not obey Me and do not carry out all these commandments , 15 if , instead, you reject My statutes , and if your soul abhors My ordinances so as not to carry out all My commandments , and so break My covenant , 16 I, in turn , will do this to you: I will appoint over you a sudden terror , consumption and fever that will waste away the eyes and cause the soul to pine away ; also, you will sow your seed uselessly , for your enemies will eat it up. 17 'I will set My face against you so that you will be struck down before your enemies ; and those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when no one is pursuing you. 18 'If also after these things you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins . 19 'I will also break down your pride of power ; I will also make your sky like iron and your earth like bronze . 20 ' Your strength will be spent uselessly , for your land will not yield its produce and the trees of the land will not yield their fruit . 21 'If then, you act with hostility against Me and are unwilling e to obey Me, I will increase the plague on you seven times according to your sins . 22 ' I will let loose among you the beasts of the field , which will bereave you of your children and destroy your cattle and reduce your number so that your roads lie deserted . 23 ' And if by these things you are not turned to Me, but act with hostility against Me, 24 then I will act with hostility against you; and I, even I, will strike you seven times for your sins . 25 'I will also bring upon you a sword which will execute vengeance for the covenant ; and when you gather together into your cities , I will send pestilence among you, so that you shall be delivered into enemy hands . 26 ' When I break your staff of bread , ten women will bake your bread in one oven , and they will bring back your bread in rationed amounts , so that you will eat and not be satisfied . 27 'Yet if in spite of this you do not obey Me, but act with hostility against Me, 28 then I will act with wrathful hostility against you, and I, even I, will punish you seven times for your sins . 29 'Further, you will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters you will eat . 30 'I then will destroy your high places , and cut down your incense altars , and heap your remains on the remains of your idols , for My soul shall abhor you. 31 'I will lay waste your cities as well and will make your sanctuaries desolate , and I will not smell your soothing aromas . 32 'I will make the land desolate so that your enemies who settle in it will be appalled over it. 33 'You, however, I will scatter among the nations and will draw out a sword after you, as your land becomes desolate and your cities become waste . 34 ' Then the land will enjoy its sabbaths all the days of the desolation , while you are in your enemies' land ; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths . 35 'All the days of its desolation it will observe the rest which it did not observe on your sabbaths , while you were living on it. 36 'As for those of you who may be left , I will also bring weakness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies . And the sound of a driven leaf will chase them, and even when no one is pursuing they will flee as though from the sword , and they will fall . 37 ' They will therefore stumble over each other as if running from the sword , although no one is pursuing ; and you will have no strength to stand up before your enemies . 38 'But you will perish among the nations , and your enemies' land will consume you. 39 ' So those of you who may be left will rot away because of their iniquity in the lands of your enemies ; and also because of the iniquities of their forefathers they will rot away with them.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Leviticus 26:14-39
Commentary on Leviticus 26:14-39
(Read Leviticus 26:14-39)
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 parted from them by judgments. Those wedded to their lusts, will have enough of them. SPIRITUAL judgments are threatened, which should seize the mind. They should find no acceptance with God. A guilty conscience would be their continual terror. It is righteous with God to leave those to despair of pardon, who presume to sin; and it is owing to free grace, if we are not left to pine away in the iniquity we were born in, and have lived in.