Leviticus [26]

Leviticus 26

1 The Lord said to Moses,

2 "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'When you enter the land I am going to give you,

3 if you keep my commands and obey my decrees and follow my laws,

4 I will give you rain in its season, and the land will yield its crops and the trees of the field will produce their fruit.

5 Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until sowing time. You will eat plenty and live securely in your land.

6 I will give you peace in the land, and you will lie down without fear. I will rid the land of wild beasts, and no sword will pass through your country.

7 You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall before you by the sword.

8 Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword.

9 I will turn my attention to you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers, and I will keep my covenant with you.

10 You will eat old grain from the storehouse, and you will clear out the old to make way for the new.

11 I will set my dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor you.

12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.

13 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, so that you would not be slaves to the Egyptians. I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high.

14 "'But if you do not obey me and do not keep all these commands,

15 and if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws and do not obey all my commands, breaking my covenant,

16 I will do this to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting diseases and fever that will consume your eyes and sap your strength. You will sow your seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it.

17 I will set my face against you, and you will be defeated by your enemies; those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when no one pursues you.

18 If after all this you still do not obey me, but continue to rebel against me,

19 then in anger I will punish you seven times more for your sins.

20 I will bring the sword on you to avenge the breaking of my covenant. When you gather in your cities, I will send a plague among you, and you will be given over to the enemy.

21 When I break off your supply of bread, ten women will bake your bread in one oven, and they will ration out your bread by weight. You will eat, but you will not be satisfied.

22 If after all this you still do not obey me, but continue to rebel against me,

23 then I will act in anger against you. I will punish you seven times more for your sins.

24 I will send wild animals against you, which will rob you of your children and destroy your livestock.

25 I will reduce your numbers so that your roads will be deserted.

26 If in spite of this you do not accept correction from me, but continue to rebel against me,

27 then I will act in anger against you. I will punish you with the sword, and your wives will be widowed and your children will be fatherless.

28 I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars. I will pile your dead bodies on top of your idols, and I will abhor you.

29 I will make your cities desolate and lay waste your sanctuaries. I will not smell the pleasing aroma of your offerings.

30 I will make the land desolate, so that your enemies who live there will be appalled.

31 I will scatter you among the nations and will draw my sword against you. Your land will be desolate, and your cities will be in ruins.

32 Then the land will enjoy its Sabbath years while it lies desolate, and you will be in the land of your enemies. Then the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths.

33 As long as it lies desolate, it will have the rest it did not have during the Sabbaths you lived in it.

34 "'And as for those of you who are left, I will make their hearts so fearful in the lands of their enemies that the sound of a rustling leaf will put them to flight. They will run as though fleeing from the sword, and they will fall even though no one pursues them.

35 They will stumble over one another as though fleeing from the sword, even though no one pursues them. So you will not be able to stand your ground before your enemies.

36 You will perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies will devour you.

37 Those of you who are left will waste away in the lands of their enemies because of their sins; also because of the sins of their ancestors they will waste away.

38 "'But if in spite of this they confess their sin and the sin of their ancestors—their unfaithfulness and their rebellion against me—

39 and if they turn to me with all their hearts and with all their souls in the land of their enemies, then I will hear them.

40 I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.

41 The land will be left to enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate, while they are in the land of their enemies; it will rest, and they will experience the consequences of their sins.

42 But even then, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them or abhor them, so as to destroy them completely and break my covenant with them, because I am the Lord their God.

43 For their sake I will remember the covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of Egypt in the sight of the nations, to be their God. I am the Lord.'"

44 These are the decrees and laws the Lord gave Moses on Mount Sinai for the Israelites.