16 will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant: I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror," consumption, and the burning ague [wasting away, and the burning fever'2] that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart [the soul to pine away]: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your 17 enemies shall eat it. And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee 18 when none pursueth you. And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then 19 I will punish you seven times more for your sins. And I will break the pride of 20 your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass and your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, 21 neither shall the trees of the land" yield their fruits. And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues 22 upon you according to your sins. I will also send wild beasts [animals] among you, which shall rob you of your children [make you childless'], and destroy your 23 cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate. And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me; 24 then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for 25 your sins. And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of 29 Lomit the quarrel of] my covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send a pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the 26 hand of the enemy. [:] And [omit 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 27 again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied. And if ye will not for all 28 this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me; then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat. 30 And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images," and cast your 31 carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you. And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries1 unto desolation, and I will 32 not smell the savour of your sweet odours. And I will bring the land into desola33 tion: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. 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 18 Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in 35 your enemies' land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths. As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because [all the days of its desolation it shall TT'. TT. 11 Ver. 16. For a -terror the Sam. reads sickness as a general term including the specifications that follow. The word is rendered in the A. V. of Jer. xv. 8 as here, and in Ps. 1xxviii. 33; Isa. lxv. 23, trouble. It does not occur elsewhere. The idea is that of "mens' hearts failing them for fear," Luke xxi. 26. ever, 12 Ver. 16. — wasting away is well expressed by the consumption of the A. V. in its etymological sense, but is in danger of being misunderstood of the specific disease of that name which is rare in Palestine and Syria. The LXX., howLXX. #ʊρeτós, according to all authorities should be burning fever. Fevers are the most common of all diseases in Syria and the neighboring countries. These words occur only in the parallel, Deut. xxviii. 22. 13 Ver. 16. . The literal translation is more expressive than the paraphrase of the A. V. נקס 14 Ver. 20. For 8 21 MSS. and the LXX. read 777. 16 Ver. 22. D. The literal rendering is sufficient. 16 Ver. 25. 2-opp lit. "avenging the covenant vengeance." As this cannot be expressed in English the is better left untranslated than rendered by quarrel, which it does not mean. - ז" . 17 Ver. 30. Dn. In most other places where the word occurs (2 Chr. xiv. 5 (4); xxxiv. 4; Isa. xvii. 8; Ezek. vi. 4) the marg, of the A. V. has sun-images. Such was undoubtedly the original meaning of the word; but Gesenius (Thes.) shows that the word was applied to images of Bal and Astarte as the deities of the sun and moon. The word indicates "idols of the Canaanitish nature-worship." Keil. 18 Ver. 30. something to be rolled about, a contemptuous expression for idols. The Heb. had three different words which are rendered idol in the A. V., and seven which are rendered image. 19 Ver. 31. More than 50 MSS., the Sam. and the Syr., have the sing. The plural refers to the holy things of the wor ship of Jehovah, the tabernacle and temple, with their altars, and the rest of their holy furniture, as in Ps. lxviii. 36; lxxiv. 6," Keil; and not to the sanctuaries of false gods (Rosen, and others). 20 Ver. 35. Here also it is better to keep to the literal rendering of the Heb. ẽ nhơn nhưn pi-bɔ; The land should rest not merely because, but it should actually rest the time which it had not rested. 36 rest that which] it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it. And upon them that 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 37 shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth. And they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursueth: 38 and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies. And ye shall perish 39 among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity22 in your23 enemies' lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them. 40 If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary 41 unto me; and that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and 42 they then accept" of the punishment of their iniquity: then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land. 43 The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept" of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes. 44 And yet for all that, when they be 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 45 covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God. But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the LORD. These are the statutes and judgments and laws, which the LORD made between him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses. 46 2 Ver. 36. år. Aey. LXX. detdía, Vulg. pavor. It "signifies that inward anguish, fear, and despair, which rend the heart and destroy the life." Keil. Comp. Deut. xxviii. 65. 22 Ver. 39. j is either iniquity (as here twice and in the next verse twice), or the punishment of iniquity (as in ver. 41). The phrase "perish in one's iniquity" is however sufficiently common, and there is no occasion to change the translation with them at the close of the verse refers to the iniquities. here. The DN יז 23 Ver. 39. For your the text in ver. 41. more than 80 MSS. read their D, so also the Sam., LXX., Sym., Theod., Vulg. and Syr. as 24 Vers. 41, 43. 187. The same word as is used in vers. 34, 43, the land shall enjoy her sabbaths. The literal rendering is perhaps too bold for our version; but the meaning is really this. "The land being desolate shall have the blessing of rest, and they having repented shall have the blessing of chastisement. So the LXX. and Syriac." Clark. Comp. Isa. xl. 2. A EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. Lange here again insists that vers. 1 and 2 are properly the close of the foregoing section. It was already too late to adopt his division when his work appeared; but independently of this the connection with the present chap. is preferred. The verses reiterate the most fundamental requirements of the law, and thus form an appropriate introduction to these concluding promises and threats. sequent history of the nation is had in view. The chapter contains: first, promises upon their obedience (3-13); it then describes the consequences of disobedience (14-39), which are put hypothetically, but evidently contemplated as likely to occur; and finally, looks forward to the restoration of the covenant on the repentance of the people (40-44), which is also put hypothetically, but is evidently prophetic. Ver. 46 forms the conclusion of this whole series of legislation. Objection has been made to the Mosaic origin of this chap, by rationalistic critics on account of its prophetic character. Certainly it is prophetic, and if this be objected to any portion of Scripture, the objector must be met on other than merely exegetical grounds, but here the rationalistic argument may be fully met in a different way. It is impossible to conceive that the author of the remarkable legislation contained in this book, possessed of as intimate knowledge as he must have been of the people under his charge, should not have foreseen that they would fail to maintain the standard of holisub-ness here required, and that consequently God, The whole precepts and prohibitions of the Book of Leviticus have now been given, and here the people are incited to their faithful observance by promises of blessings on their obedience and curses upon their disobedience. This arrangement is both natural in itself, and is in accord ance with the analogy of the warnings and promises (Ex. xxiii. 20-33) at the close of the "Book of the Covenant," (Ex. xx. 22-xxiii. 19) and in the parting exhortations of Moses (Deut. xxix., xxx.). The passage in Exodus, however, relates to the conquest of the land, while here the | vine government or word blamelessly if the section before us is invested with a less mysterious aspect, we overlook the fact that the course of things immanent in life remains the same although the prophetic character of the word be set aside; that the chapters of calamity remain the same although one seek to erase the superscription from the punishment and from the judgment. Strange that one should think the world will thereupon cheer up when he traces back the dark destiny of a people to a gloomy fate, instead of to the justice of the living God. It is the very nobility of apostate Israel that its Jehovah is, and has been, jealous with such burning jealousy over its fall; and it would even seem worthy of contempt if it were considered as the football of a gloomy destiny-its sorrows without reason, without proportion, and without purpose. Certainly also the continuing motive for the rejection of Israel itself is its ill-will-against Jehovah, or indeed against the Gentiles, in return for which it must acknowledge in its history its well deserved visitation. whose holiness and majesty it has been his object to set forth, would visit them for their transgressions. It is but a step beyond this to look forward to the effect of chastisement and humiliation in producing repentance, and when this had been effected, his knowledge of the mercy and loving-kindness of God assured him of the restoration of the people to His favor. See this point admirably treated by Keil in a note on p. 468. Lange: "The germ of this whole setting forth of blessing and curse already lies in the decalogue itself (Ex. xx. 5, 12), but especially as a conditional promise of blessing in the section Ex. xxiii. 23-33. It is appropriate to the purpose of Leviticus that this germ now comes here to its development, that by the side of the promise of blessing on the keeping of the covenant comes out very explicitly the threatening of curse on the breach of the covenant; for the contrast of blessing and curse goes forth from the religious behaviour or misbehaviour towards the law of God as a whole, as all particular commands are summed up therein. . . . . It must not be overlooked that the subject is here always Israel "That the bearing of God towards Israel was in its totality, the nation as a whole. The date an impartial bearing, which could only be obof this section is thereby shown to be very an- scured through the idea of a national God, is cient; for it would have been otherwise from the proved even by our section with its threatenings days of Messianic prophecy. Then the contrast in presence of the development of the history of Iscomes forward very strongly: the apostate Israel itself: they have been brought out of Egypt, rael, and the Israel reforming itself; also the and Canaan must become their land; but when contrast the Israel of the mass, and the Israel they apostatize, they must lose Canaan and must be of the poor, of the humble, of the purified rem- scattered among the heathen (Keil, p. 169 [Trans. nant. For this reason it would be a false infer- p. 468]). Not only the impartiality indeed, but ence to consider the conditional prediction of our the jealousy of Jehovah must be made manifest section as apodictical, or indeed to suppose that in this. The idea or key of the whole history the curse would fall upon every individual of the and destiny of Israel is: vengeance of the covenation of Israel. The apostasy of Israel has nant. The people could fall so low because they often been treated as if the flower of its elect had stood so high, because they were the first-fruits, fallen under the curse, although history declares the first-born son, the favorite of God (Jeshuthat the Gentile church was grafted upon the run). But for this reason especially the prostock of the Jewish, and Paul can designate the mise of their restoration is bound up with the unbelieving portion of the Jews as "some," not- prophecy of their curse (Isa., Jer., Ezek., Hos., withstanding its numerical majority, in contrast etc., Rom. xi). Knobel gives prominence to the to the dynamical majority whose central point is peculiarly elevated language of this section; it Christ Himself. The national curse has then cannot be explained by the ordinary mechanicism been fulfilled only in a conditional degree in of Elohistic and Jehovistic documents.'" contrast to the dynamical blessing overmastering all curse; but nevertheless in a degree which has shown in fearful majesty the reality of the threatening of the curse. It is a vain attempt when one seeks to intimate, like Knobel, that our prophecy looks back upon that which has already occurred in isolated particulars; at all events, this creates no prejudice against its Mosaic origin, for its fulfilment has been progressing even to the present day, and is not yet fully accomplished. Yet even at the present day the emphasis falls upon the fearful realization of the curse upon the nation; upon individuals, however, as such, only in proportion as they transmit the fanatical or unbelieving spirit of the community. "Our section, moreover, is characterized as a prophetic word in that it brings into view in grand outlines a future which it cannot and will not describe with verbal definiteness. Yet a progress consonant to nature is to be observed in the gradations of the curse, which one might enjoy as a physiological picture of development. "If we suppose that one may speak of the Di This chapter forms a part of the same Divine communication with the preceding one. Vers. 1, 2. These verses include substantially the first table of the decalogue, and by this short summary the whole duty of the Israelites toward God is called to mind and made the basis of the following promises and warnings. On ver. 1 see the Textual Notes. Ver. 2 is a repetition verbatim of xix. 30. Here, at least, it must be understood to include the whole of the "appointed seasons as well as the weekly Sabbaths. A. The Blessing. Vers. 3-13. With ver. 3 a new Parashah of the law begins, extending to the close of Leviticus. The parallel proper lesson from the prophets is Jer. xvi. 19-xvii. 14. "The subject here is not the isolated good conduct of individuals, but the keeping of the Covenant of the people as a whole and its general tendency to blessing; the contrast to which, the breach of the Covenant, is moulded into the tendency to curse." Lange. Ver. 4. Lange: "Rain in its season appears here as the first gift of Jehovah. When He gives B. The Curse. Vers. 14-33. the rain from heaven, the earth gives its produce | dynamically understood, Jehovah, the personal Vers. 14, 15. Lange: "The breach of the Vers. 16, 17, contain what Lange describes as "Vers. 6-8. The second yet higher gift of Vers. 9, 10. Lange: "The third blessing is Vers. 11-13. Lange: "The fifth blessing is choice of David after his sin in numbering the Vers. 18-20. According to Lange, "the pun- Vers. 21, 22. Lange: "The punishment in 66 2 Chron. xxxvi. 21 expressly fixes the length of C. The Restoration of the Covenant. gressive; they walk inimically towards Jehovah, I desolate. In regard to the kingdom of Judah, Vers. 27-33. Lange: "The punishment in the Effects of these Visitations. Vers. 34-39. Lange: "The first thing is the acknowledg "Ver. 41. In a religious sense the divine par- when they should repent and turn to the Lord, |