LeviticusChapter 26

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Do not make idols for yourselves; do not set up a carved image or a sacred pillar, and do not place a figured stone in your land to bow down before it, for I am the LORD your God.

Keep my Sabbaths and revere my sanctuary. I am the LORD.

If you live by my statutes and keep my commandments and carry them out,

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

Your threshing will last until the grape harvest, and the grape harvest until sowing time. You will eat your bread until you are satisfied and live securely in your land.

I will grant peace in the land; you will lie down with no one to make you afraid. I will rid the land of dangerous beasts, and no sword will pass through your land.

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

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

I will turn toward you, make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will establish my covenant with you.

You will still be eating last year's harvest when you must clear it out to make room for the new.

I will set my dwelling among you, and I will not reject you.

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

I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would no longer be their slaves. I broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk upright.

But if you will not listen to me and will not carry out all these commandments,

if you reject my statutes and despise my ordinances, refusing to keep all my commandments and breaking my covenant,

then I in turn will do this to you: I will bring terror upon you—wasting disease and fever that destroy the eyes and drain away life. You will sow your seed in vain, for your enemies will eat it.

I will set my face against you, and you will be struck down before your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when no one is chasing you.

If after all this you still will not listen to me, I will go on to discipline you seven times over for your sins.

I will break your stubborn pride. I will make your sky like iron and your land like bronze.

Your strength will be spent for nothing, for your land will not yield its produce, and the trees of the land will not give their fruit.

If you continue to defy me and refuse to listen to me, I will multiply your afflictions seven times over, as your sins deserve.

I will send wild animals against you; they will rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and reduce your numbers, and your roads will lie deserted.

If even then you are not corrected by me but continue to defy me,

then I too will walk in hostility against you, and I myself will strike you seven times over for your sins.

I will bring the sword against you to avenge the covenant. When you withdraw into your cities, I will send a plague among you, and you will be handed over to the enemy.

When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will bake your bread in a single oven and dole it out to you by weight; you will eat and not be satisfied.

If after all this you still will not listen to me but continue to defy me,

then in furious defiance I will oppose you, and I myself will discipline you seven times over for your sins.

You will eat the flesh of your sons; the flesh of your daughters you will eat.

I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and pile your corpses on the lifeless forms of your idols; and I will reject you.

I will turn your cities into ruins and lay waste your sanctuaries, and I will take no delight in the pleasing aroma of your offerings.

I myself will lay the land waste, so that your enemies who settle in it will be appalled at it.

I will scatter you among the nations and unsheathe the sword after you. Your land will become a wasteland and your cities a ruin.

Then the land will enjoy its sabbaths all the days it lies desolate while you are in the land of your enemies; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths.

All the days of its desolation it will have the rest it did not have during your sabbaths when you lived on it.

As for those of you who survive, I will fill their hearts with dread in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a windblown leaf will send them running; they will flee as though from the sword and fall when no one is chasing them.

They will stumble over one another as if fleeing the sword, though no one pursues. You will have no power to stand before your enemies.

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

Those of you who are left will waste away in the lands of your enemies because of their guilt; they will waste away because of their fathers' guilt as well.

But if they confess their guilt and the guilt of their fathers—their treachery against me and their defiance of me,

I too walked against them in hostility and brought them into the land of their enemies—if then their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they make amends for their guilt,

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

But the land will be left empty by them and will enjoy its sabbaths while it lies desolate without them, and they will make amends for their guilt, because they rejected my ordinances and their soul despised my statutes.

Yet even then, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them or despise them so as to destroy them completely and break my covenant with them, for I am the LORD their God.

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

These are the statutes, ordinances, and instructions that the LORD established between himself and the Israelites on Mount Sinai through Moses.

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Summary2

Chapter 26

Main Theme: God presents the blessings of obedience and the consequences of disobedience to His covenant.

Content: The chapter opens with a prohibition against idolatry and a command to keep the Sabbath holy. Through obedience, God promises abundant blessings: rain in its season, fertility, peace, victory over enemies, and His presence among the people. Disobedience brings an escalating series of curses: disease, defeat, famine, and finally exile—during which the land will receive rest for its neglected Sabbaths. Yet God offers hope: if the people confess their sins, He will remember His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and not utterly reject them.

Key Words/Images:

Covenant – God’s binding relationship with Israel as the foundation for both blessings and curses.
Sevenfold Punishment – A repeated expression indicating that punishment intensifies through persistent disobedience.
The Land’s Sabbath Rest – During exile, the land receives the Sabbatical years it was denied.
"I will walk among you" – The promise of God’s presence as the highest blessing of the covenant.

Historical context

Context for Leviticus 26

Events and Customs

The chapter contains what is called a "covenant ratification formula" or "conditional covenant," with blessings and curses. This literary form was widespread in the ancient Near East, especially in Hittite vassal treaties from the second millennium B.C.E. In such treaties, the overlord promised blessings if the vassal kept the covenant, while breach would bring specific curses. The structure of Leviticus 26 follows this pattern: first, blessings for obedience (vv. 3–13), then escalating curses for disobedience in several stages (vv. 14–17, 18–20, 21–22, 23–26, 27–39), and finally hope for restoration (vv. 40–45).

The curses describe a gradual intensification—sickness, famine, wild animals, war, plague, and exile—reflecting the actual reality of covenant breach in ancient societies. The sevenfold escalation is clearly marked in the text (שֶׁבַע, "seven [times]," mentioned in vv. 18, 21, 24, 28). Particularly striking is the description that ten women will bake bread in one oven (v. 26), indicating extreme food shortage during a siege. The reference to eating "the flesh of your own sons and daughters" (v. 29) has parallels in Assyrian and Babylonian curse texts and describes siege conditions that actually occurred in antiquity.

Key Terms

Berit (בְּרִית, "covenant," vv. 9, 15, 25, 42, 44, 45): The central term of the chapter that ties together the blessings and curses. The covenant with Israel is the foundation for the entire structure—blessings follow from covenant faithfulness, curses from covenant breach. In v. 42, the covenants with the patriarchs are mentioned in reverse chronological order: Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham—a literary structure that emphasizes God remembering back through the generations.

Bamot (בָּמוֹת, "high places," v. 30): These were cultic high places often located on mountain tops or artificial mounds. They were widespread in Canaanite religion and later became a problem in Israel when they were used for syncretistic worship.

Chammanim (חַמָּנִים, "sun pillars" or "incense altars," v. 30): These cult objects were likely connected to sun worship or incense offerings. Archaeological finds from Palmyra and other places have uncovered such stone altars.

Gillulim (גִּלּוּלִים, "idols," v. 30): A derogatory Hebrew word for idol images, possibly derived from a word meaning "dung" or "round stones." The term is often used by the prophet Ezekiel and emphasizes the worthlessness of idols.

Qeri (קֶרִי, vv. 21, 23–24, 27–28, 40–41): This rare word, often translated "hostility" or "opposition," describes an attitude of indifference or opposition toward God. Its meaning is debated—it may mean regarding God's actions as random rather than purposeful.

Chapter-Specific Findings

Vassal treaties from Hatti (the Hittite Empire) and later Assyrian treaties provide important background for understanding the chapter's structure and literary form. Especially relevant is Esarhaddon's vassal treaty (672 B.C.E.), which contains similar escalating curses including famine, cannibalism, and exile. Although this document is later than the traditional dating of the Pentateuch, it shows that such formulations were part of a long tradition in the region.

Archaeological excavations in Israel have uncovered numerous bamot (high places) with associated matstsevot (מַצֵּבֹת, stone pillars, cf. v. 1) and incense altars that match the descriptions in this chapter. Finds from Tel Dan, Megiddo, and Arad show that such cult sites were common in the Iron Age, confirming the text's relevance to actual religious practice in ancient Israel.

People3

Isaac1 Jacob1 Abraham1

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Key words8

Covenant — An agreement or bond between two parties, in this case between God and the people of Israel, which involves promises and obligations from both sides.
Blessings — Good things or benefits that God gives to his people as a result of their obedience to his commands and covenant.
Punishment — Negative consequences or sufferings that God brings upon his people when they break his commands and covenant, in order to correct and discipline them.
Prosper — To achieve success, growth, or progress, especially as a result of following God's way and being obedient to his commands.
Enemies — Persons or groups who are opposed to or hostile toward the people of Israel, and who may threaten their safety, peace, and well-being.
Land — The area that God has promised to give to the people of Israel, and in which they are to live and cultivate according to his will and covenant.
Sin — An action or condition that goes against God's law and will, leading to separation from him and his blessings.
Repent — To change one's mind, heart, and life so as to turn away from sin and evil, and turn to God to seek his forgiveness, grace, and help.