Leviticus 26

Lev. 26 3 If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; then I 4 will give your rains in their season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the 5 field shall yield their fruit. And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your 6 land safely. And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will cause evil beasts to cease out of the land, neither shall the sword go 7 through your land. And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the 8 sword. And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall chase ten thou- 9 sand: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. And I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you; and will establish my covenant with you. 10 And ye shall eat old store long kept, and ye shall bring forth the old because of the new. 11 And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk 12 among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people. I am the LORD your God, 13 which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bars of your yoke, and made you go upright.

De. 28 1 And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that 2 the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all the nations of the earth: and all these bless- ings shall come upon thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD 3 thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. Blessed 4 shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the 5 increase of thy kine, and the young of thy flock. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy knead- 6 ingtrough. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou 7 goest out. The LORD shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before 8 thee: they shall come out against thee one way, and shall flee before thee seven ways. The LORD shall command the blessing upon thee in thy barns, and in all that thou puttest thine 9 hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. The LORD shall establish thee for an holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee; if 10 thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, and walk in his ways. And all the peoples of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the LORD; and they shall be 11 afraid of thee. And the LORD shall make thee plenteous for good, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the LORD 12 swore unto thy fathers to give thee. The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure the heaven to give the rain of thy land in its season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and 13 thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow. And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if thou shalt hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee 14 this day, to observe and to do them; and shalt not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

The blessings of Leviticus were uttered by Moses on Sinai. They are: provision for all outward needs; increase from all products of the soil; peace in the community and home; protection from foes or victory over them; establishment of God’s covenant and his permanent abiding with the nation. Those of Deuteronomy were spoken thirty-nine years later on the plains of Moab. They may be comprised in: exaltation as a people; blessing in the city and the field, upon the herd and the flock, upon the garner, the table, and the toil. Both in the earlier statements of Leviticus and the later of Deuteronomy the blessings precede the curses; the promises go before the threatenings. And so it is ever. B.—The blessings are put before the curses, to intimate that God is slow to anger but swift to show mercy: he has said it and sworn, that he would much rather we would obey and live than sin and die. It is his delight to bless. Though both promises and threatenings are designed to bring and hold us to our duty, yet it is better that we be allured to that which is good by a hope of God’s favor than that we be frightened to it by fear of his wrath. That obedience pleases best which comes from a principle of delight in God’s goodness. H.

Promises for Obedience.

4. Rain in due season.** The periodical rains, on which the fertility of the holy land so much depends, are here spoken of. There are two wet seasons, called in Scripture the former and the latter rain. The former or autumn rain commences after the autumnal equinox and falls in heavy showers in November and December. Then generally follows a period with occasional light showers, and in March the latter or spring rain comes on, which is precarious in quantity and duration, and rarely lasts more than two days. Clark.

5. This is a nervous and beautiful promise of such entire plenty of corn and wine, that before they could have reaped and threshed out their corn, the vintage should be ready; and before they could have pressed out their wine, it would be time to sow again. The Prophet Amos (ch. 9:13) expresses the same blessing in the same manner: The ploughman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who soweth seed. Dodd.—Reaping is done in April, May, and

June, and the vintage is in September and October. Hence the harvest, according to the promise, is to be so heavy that it will take three or four months to tread out the grain. And here, again, actual experience suggested the costume of the prophecy. In very abundant seasons I have often seen the threshing actually prolonged until October. Thompson.

6. The blessings here promised, it will be noticed, are set in contrast with the main judgments which are elsewhere denounced against the Israelites (Ezek. 14:21), to wit, famine, war, and evil beasts.

7. Ye shall chase your enemies.** That is, a few, a mere handful, shall be more than a match for a great multitude, as it proved in the conquest of Canaan; insomuch that Joshua says, enlarging upon this promise (23:10), “One man of you shall chase a thousand.” This was signally fulfilled in the days of Gideon, who with three men put to flight a vast army (Judges 7:22). So also in the case of David’s worthies, of whom one lifted his spear against eight hundred, and slew three hundred at one time (2 Sam. 23:8, 18). Bush.

De. 28:1-14. The blessing. As in the closing words of the exposition of the Law (De. 26:19), so here, exaltation is promised to Israel on condition of obedience. The condition is very emphatically stated at the beginning (verses 1, 2), middle (verse 9), and close (verses 13, 14) of this portion of the discourse; and the several blessings enumerated appear as directly consequent on its performance. The six repetitions of the word “blessed” introduce the particular forms which the blessing would take in the various relations of life. Espin.

1. Hearken and do.** The condition of all enjoyment of the Divine bounty was obedience on the part of the people to the Word and Law of Jehovah their God. This rendered, the blessing would come on them rich and full, and abide with them (cf. verses 2, 9, 13, 14). W. L. A.

Blessings are promised upon condition that they diligently hearken to the voice of God, speaking to them by his word; that they observe and do all his commandments, and that they keep the commandments of God, and walk in his ways. Not only do them for once, but keep them forever; not only set out in his ways, but walk in them to the end. Let them take care to keep up religion, both the form and power of it, in their families and nation, and God would not fail to bless them. H.

Set thee high above the nations. If a nation has in it a preponderance of wise, true-hearted, upright men, such as fear God, love righteousness, and hate iniquity, nothing can prevent such a nation rising in the scale. Its prosperity will be manifest in its inward peace, in the readiness of other nations to deal with it by opening up commercial relations, and in the good will of other nations which it will certainly share. It will have the armor of light. Its virtue will be a wall of defence. “Its land will yield her increase; and God, even its own God, will bless it.” “Happy is the nation that is in such a case; yea, happy is that people whose God is the Lord.” To such a nation it may well be said, “Blessed is he that blesseth thee, and cursed is he that curseth thee” (Nu. 24 : 5-9). C. C.

3-7. The fulness of the blessing in all the relations of life, external and internal, is presented in six particulars, each introduced by the word “blessed.” Israel should be blessed in the house and in the field, in the fruit of the body, in the productions of the soil and the increase of herd and flock, in the store and in the use of what nature provided—in all their undertakings, whether in peace or in war, at home or abroad. Basket and kneading-trough; “the basket” representing the store in which the fruits of the earth were laid up, the “kneading-trough” the use of these for the supply of daily needs. W. L. A.

The blessings of God’s providence are covenanted blessings to those who trust in him. God has said that they shall be provided for. In their basket and in their store they shall be blessed; and whether the basket be full or empty, the blessing is equally sure; the Providence is a good one, whether its shape be that of trial or of mercy; it is equally a providence of love—a part of God’s covenant of love; so that sorrow and poverty itself, to those who put their trust in him, is better, when God sends it, than thousands of gold and silver. Whatever God sends is best for those who trust God. Cheever.

8. The effect of the blessing should be seen not only in the supremacy of Israel over all opposition, but in the abundance of their possessions, in the success of their undertakings, and in the respect in which they should be held by all nations. W. L. A.—They should have success in all their employments; “The Lord shall command the blessing (and it is he only that can command it) upon thee, not only in all thou hast, but in all thou doest, all that thou setest thine hand unto.” This intimated that when they were rich they must not be idle, but must find some good employment to set their hand to, and God would own their industry and bless the work of their hand, for that which makes rich and keeps so, is the blessing of the Lord upon the hand of the diligent. From the whole we learn (it were well if men would believe it) that religion and piety are the best friends to outward prosperity. Though temporal blessings do not take up so much room in the promises of the New Testament as they do in those of the Old, yet it is enough that our Lord Jesus has given us his word (and sure we may take his word) that if we seek first the kingdom of God, and the righteousness thereof, all other things shall be added to us, as far as infinite wisdom sees good, and who can desire it further? (Matt. 6 : 33). H.

Behind all forms of blessing a personal God may be seen. The material food does not sustain bodily life; it is God acting through the food. Neither fertile land, nor good husbandry, nor auspicious weather, nor all combined, will in themselves secure a copious harvest; it is God acting through natural forces. “The Lord shall command the blessing.” However riches may increase, if God smile not, there will be no joy. The house may be full of children; yet instead of ruddy health there may be wasting sickness—instead of intellectual vigor, imbecility—instead of laughter, weeping: the blessing of God is wanting. We may possess substantial homes, yet no security. True prosperity is a Divine Father’s benediction. D. D.

Full storehouses, without God’s blessing, are not riches. God does not count a man rich further than the good things he has are of real and lasting benefit to him. Wealth unblessed of God is not to be desired. Unblessed good is ill (Eccl. 5 : 10-15). It turns to ill—is not enduring (Prov. 13 : 22), takes wings and leaves, is a curse to offspring (Eccl. 5 : 14, 15; 6 : 2; Jas. 5 : 1, 2). God’s blessing, without full storehouses, makes rich. It enriches the little we have. It makes adversity a means of spiritual enrichment. It is itself the best of all riches. Orr.

9. The reward of goodness is its own permanence. “The Lord shall establish thee an holy people.” “And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee.” In the life of obedience “God helps those who help themselves.” Separate acts become easier by repetition. They evolve into habits. Habits tend to permanence and constitute character and foreshadow destiny. All proceeds by virtue of an eternal law: “God helps those who help themselves.” It is easier for a good man to resist temptation now than it was in the first stages of his Christian life. Devotion has become the natural outflow of his soul, the fruitage of his new life. D. D.

10. Thou art called by the name of the Lord;** rather, the name of Jehovah is called upon thee. The name of God is God himself as revealed; and this name is called or named upon men when they are adopted by him, made wholly his, and transformed into his likeness. This blessing Israel enjoyed as a nation.

14. Moses ends as he began, by reminding them that the condition of enjoying the blessing was obedience to the Divine Law, and steadfast adherence to the course in which they were called to walk. W. L. A.—The blessing is viewed as pervading every department of the earthly life. It mingles itself with all the good man is, with all he does, with the circumstances of his lot, with the powers of the natural world which constitute his environment. It rests on his person, on his household, on his possessions. It attends him in city and field, in his coming in and going out, so that whatever he does prospers (Ps. 1:3). These promises demonstrate: (1) That the providence of God, in the sphere of the outward life, is free, sovereign, all-embracing. (2) That there is under this providence a connection between outward events and circumstances and spiritual conditions. (3) That, subordinately to higher ends, piety and virtue, under this providence, will be rewarded by prosperity. Orr.

The signs of God’s blessing which God’s faithful ones enjoy, even in this life. They have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. They have a clear conscience; they know that the aim of pleasing God is right, whatever difficulties it may involve. They enjoy what they have as from God, and as the loving gifts of a Father’s hand. If much be given, they delight to use it for God. If little be theirs, they know that a little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked. And, above all, the supreme proof of God’s blessing is that gains and losses, joys and cares, health and sickness, do “all work together for good” to them; they minister to the growth of character, and help to make them better, wiser, and holier men. C. C.

God’s promises never fail but through man’s fault. So considered, all the Scripture promises are full of instruction, alike when fulfilled or not fulfilled. Every Scripture promise not fulfilled speaks a solemn lesson. God cannot lie; but his promises always imply that we do not set ourselves against their accomplishment; he will do his part, the means of grace shall be given, the blessing is ready to fall upon the use of them; but still he will not overrule man’s will so that he shall of necessity use them. And if man will not use the means of grace, then he cannot see the fulfilment of the promised blessing. And thus whenever the promised blessing is wanting, it is the visible sign of something left undone, or done ill on our parts, which, so long as it continues, must forever, as now, keep the blessing from us. T. Arnold.

It is a current popular notion that God’s threatenings are more or less serious, and may carry with them grave consequences; but as to his promises—who should concern himself as to any danger from neglecting them? If one does not choose to receive the promised favor, it is only to excuse himself or let it go by default; and it simply amounts to nothing; it will be all the same as if no promise had ever reached his ear. Not so, but far otherwise is God’s thought of this! In his view the Gospel promise lays bare the very heart of man. Beyond possible mistake it shows whether that sinful heart has any, even the least respect for God left; whether it can be touched by the presence and pressure of God’s infinite love; whether upon after and second thought it will entertain at all the spirit of repentance and will consent to consider its ways and think of returning to obedience. Every renewal of God’s promise is his motion put to the sinner for reconsideration; and every such refusal of the sinner to entertain this motion is a fresh insult offered to his loving Father! Oh, how does it lay bare his proud, unbelieving heart! H. C.

PROPHETIC CURSES; AS UTTERED FIRST AT SINAI; AS REPEATED AND AMPLI- FIED ON THE PLAINS OF MOAB. PROMISES OF RESTORED FAVOR UPON REPENTANCE AND RETURN UNTO JEHOVAH.

Lev. 26 14 But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments; 15 and if ye shall reject my statutes, and if your soul abhor my judgements, so that ye will not 16 do all my commandments, but break my covenant; I also will do this unto you; I will ap- point terror over you, even consumption and fever, that shall consume the eyes, and make the 17 soul to pine away: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be smitten before your enemies: they that hate you 18 shall rule over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you. And if ye will not yet for 19 these things hearken unto me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins. And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as 20 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 fruit. And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your 22 sins. And I will send the beast of the field among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your ways shall become desolate. 23 And if by these things ye will not be reformed unto me, but will walk contrary unto me; then 24 will I also walk contrary unto you; and I will smite you, even I, seven times for your sins. 25 And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall execute the vengeance of the covenant; and ye shall be gathered together within your cities; and I will send the pestilence among you; and 26 ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. When I break your staff of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied. 27 And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me; then I will 28 walk contrary unto you in fury; and I also will chastise you seven times for your sins. And 29 ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat. And I will 30 destroy your high places, and cut down your sun-images, and cast your carcasses upon the 31 carcasses of your idols; and my soul shall abhor you. And I will make your cities a waste, and will bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet 32 odours. And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein 33 shall be astonished at it. And you will I scatter among the nations, and I will draw out the 34 sword after you: and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste. Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies’ land; 35 even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths. As long as it lieth desolate it shall 36 have rest; even the rest which it had not in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it. And as for them that are left of you, I will send a faintness into their heart in the lands of their enemies: and the sound of a driven leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as one fleeth 37 from the sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth. And they shall stumble one upon another, as it were before the sword, when none pursueth: and ye shall have no power to 38 stand before your enemies. And ye shall perish among the nations, and the land of your 39 enemies shall eat you up. And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.

De. 28 15 But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this 16 day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee. Cursed shalt thou be in 17 the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field. Cursed shall be thy basket and thy kneading- 18 trough. Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, the increase of 19 thy kine, and the young of thy flock. Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed 20 shalt thou be when thou goest out. The LORD shall send upon thee cursing, discomfiture, and rebuke, in all that thou puttest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the evil of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me. 21 The LORD shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off 22 the land, whither thou goest in to possess it. The LORD shall smite thee with consumption, and with fever, and with inflammation, and with fiery heat, and with the sword, and with 23 blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish. And thy heaven 24 that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron. The LORD shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, 25 until thou be destroyed. The LORD shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies: thou shalt go out one way against them, and shalt flee seven ways before them: and thou shalt be 26 tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth. And thy carcase shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and there shall be none to fray them 27 away. The LORD shall smite thee with the boil of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the 28 scurvy, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed. The LORD shall smite thee 29 with madness, and with blindness, and with astonishment of heart: and thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou 30 shalt be only oppressed and spoiled alway, and there shall be none to save thee. Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: thou shalt build an house, and thou shalt 31 not dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not use the fruit thereof. Thine ox shall be slain before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof: thine ass shall be violently taken away from before thy face, and shall not be restored to thee: thy sheep shall be given 32 unto thine enemies, and thou shalt have none to save thee. Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the 33 day: and there shall be nought in the power of thine hand. The fruit of thy ground, and all thy labours, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed 34 and crushed alway: so that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see. 35 The LORD shall smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore boil, whereof thou canst 36 not be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the crown of thy head. The LORD shall bring thee, and thy king which thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation which thou hast not known, 37 thou nor thy fathers; and there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone. And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word, among all the peoples whither the LORD 38 shall lead thee away. Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather little 39 in; for the locust shall consume it. Thou shalt plant vineyards and dress them, but thou 40 shalt neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes; for the worm shall eat them. Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all thy borders, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the 41 oil; for thine olive shall cast its fruit. Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but they shall 42 not be thine; for they shall go into captivity. All thy trees and the fruit of thy ground shall 43 the locust possess. The stranger that is in the midst of thee shall mount up above thee 44 higher and higher; and thou shalt come down lower and lower. He shall lend to thee, and 45 thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail. And all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments 46 and his statutes which he commanded thee: and they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a 47 wonder, and upon thy seed for ever: because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joy- 48 fulness, and with gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things: therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, 49 until he have destroyed thee. The LORD shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the 50 end of the earth, as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand; a nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favour to 51 the young: and he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy ground, until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee corn, wine, or oil, the increase of thy kine, or the 52 young of thy flock, until he have caused thee to perish. And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the LORD thy 53 God hath given thee. And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters which the LORD thy God hath given thee; in the siege and in the strait-

54 ness, wherewith thine enemies shall straiten thee. The man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and 55 toward the remnant of his children which he hath remaining : so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat, because he hath nothing left him ; in the siege and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall straiten thee in all thy gates. 56 The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband 57 of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter ; and toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear ; for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly : in the siege and in the straitness, wherewith 58 thine enemy shall straiten thee in thy gates. If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, 59 THE LORD THY GOD ; then the LORD will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continu- 60 ance And he will bring upon thee again all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of ; 61 and they shall cleave unto thee. Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written 62 in the book of this law, them will the LORD bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed. And ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude ; because 63 thou didst not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God. And it shall come to pass, that as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you ; so the LORD will rejoice over you to cause you to perish, and to destroy you ; and ye shall be plucked from off the land 64 whither thou goest in to possess it. And the LORD shall scatter thee among all peoples, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth ; and there thou shalt serve 65 other gods, which thou hast not known, thou nor thy fathers, even wood and stone. And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, and there shall be no rest for the sole of thy foot : but the LORD shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and pining of 66 soul : and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee ; and thou shalt fear night and day, and 67 shalt have none assurance of thy life : in the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even ! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning ! for the fear of thine heart 68 which thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see. And the LORD shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I said unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again : and there ye shall sell yourselves unto your enemies for bondmen and for bondwomen, and no man shall buy you.

Lev. 26 40 And they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass which they trespassed against me, and also that because they have walked contrary 41 unto me, I also walked contrary unto them, and brought them into the land of their enemies : if then their uncircumcised heart be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of 42 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 be- 44 cause they rejected my judgements, and their soul abhorred my statutes. And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, 45 to destroy them utterly, and to break my 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 nations, that I might be their God : I am the LORD. 46 These are the statutes and judgements and laws, which the LORD made between him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.

Having enjoined the proclamations of the blessing and the curse on their entering into possession of Canaan, Moses, for the sake of impressing on the minds of the people both the blessing and the curse, proceeds to dilate upon both, dwelling especially upon the latter as that which the people the more needed to have brought home to them. As he proceeds, the language of terrible denunciation passes into that of no less terrible prediction, in which the calamities that should come upon the nation because of their apostasy and rebellion are clearly and pointedly foretold. W. L. A.

The blessings and the curses rise one above the other in regular gradation: on the one side, rain, abundance, peace, deliverance, victory, increase in numbers, communion with God; now, on the other side, horror, wasting, and the burning fever, hostile spoiling of the fields, defeat, and causeless flight; the heaven iron, and the earth brass, failure of crops and fruits in spite of labor spent upon them; wild beasts for the destruction of cattle, children, and men, desolation of the highways; the sword, pestilence, and famine; cannibalism, overthrow of their heathen idols and of God’s own house and worship, destruction of their cities, utter desolation of their lands, and their captivity among the heathen. And even yet the full measure of their misery is not accomplished, for while the land enjoys her Sabbaths, the captives, if unrepentant, are to fall from one misery to another, till they pine away and are consumed. Each of these grades is described as being symbolically seven times worse—that is, incomparably worse, than that which has gone before. Because these plagues would come, and in fact did come, upon them as the immediate result of physical or moral causes that could be traced, they are none the less the effect of God’s wrath upon his apostate people. F. M.—The blessing and the curse touched every interest and relationship of Jewish life—religion, home, society, government. The curse was invoked upon idolatry, undutifulness, avarice, oppression, unchastity, insubordination. It began in the inner chamber of the heart, and extended to the outermost circle of the social system. D. D.

The prophecies of Moses may be considered as supplementary to those of Jacob and Balaam: furnishing a more detailed account of the fortunes of the Israelites, and afterward of the Jews. His predictions of the corruptions of his people after his death; of their subsequent calamities under the judicial and regal States; of the horrors of the Assyrian and Babylonian, and afterward of the Roman captivity; are delivered with such plainness and precision, that they seem rather to be historical narratives of past transactions than prophecies of future. In this respect they differ from all others, excepting those of our Lord himself; the predictions of the rest being generally delivered in a figurative and highly poetical style, very concise and very obscure. Dr. Hales.—It is only necessary to be acquainted with the history of the second destruction of Jerusalem, and the subsequent fortunes of the Jewish nation, to perceive how truly and correctly the eye of the prophet Moses had penetrated through thirty-three centuries of the future history of his people. For the rest, what Hosea (ch. 3) beholds in spirit, and adds at verse 4, to complete the history of the kingdom of God, must be here compared. C. G. B.

The promises of God are prophecies of good; so are his threatening prophecies of evil; they give no countenance to fatalism since made to depend upon conditions. God may, therefore, repent him of evils threatened when sinners repent of the sin that provoked him. So long as the Hebrews were faithful to their God they found him faithful in mercy; when they rebelled they found him no less faithful in judgment. What a commentary upon the verses before us is the history of the Israelites! J. A. M.

What an accumulation of penalties and curses are we presented with here—marking the intolerance of God for sin, and how much it is the object of his abomination. It reminds one of the expression, God casting the fury of his wrath and raining it upon them (Job 20:23)—also, “Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest” (Ps. 11:6). It is thus that he who hateth iniquity heapeth all sorts of calamity on the rebellious Israelites; pestilence within their borders, violence and invasion from without, diseases of all kinds both on themselves and on the fruits of the earth—fever and inflammation to the former, blasting and mildew to the latter. The very elements were made to conspire against them. Mark the strength of the expressions—the heaven brass, the earth iron. The rain of powder and dust indicates the extreme drought, in that these were blown from the highway on the fields—a most severe visitation in a hot climate; and then there were the fell discomfitures which they received at the hand of their enemies, and the appalling effect of these. How fearfully and with what graphic truth of fulfilment have these threats been all realized! The curses are so many predictions; and this whole chapter forms a most striking prophecy, delivered hundreds of years before its final accomplishment. T. C.

The sublimity of his denunciations surpasses anything in the oratory or the poetry of the whole world. Nature is exhausted in furnishing terrific images; nothing, except the real horrors of Jewish history, the miseries of their sieges, the cruelty, the contempt, the oppressions, the persecutions, which for ages this scattered and despised nation have endured, can approach the tremendous maledictions which warned them against the violation of their law. Milman.

Lev. 26:16. The language is singularly bold and striking. Terror, consumption, and the burning ague are personified, and made the keepers of the disobedient and apostate Israelites. They haunt their steps wherever they go, and keep them continually under the influence of dismay, feeling indiscribable evils, and fearing worse. 18. Then will I punish you seven times more for your sins. A definite for an indefinite number. The import is plainly that of a great increase of their plagues by reason of their continued provocations from age to age, as history proves to have been the case. Bush.

25. He constantly declares by the prophets that He was the Leader of the people’s enemies, and that the Assyrians and Chaldeans both fought under him. He calls the Assyrian his axe, and the rod of his anger which he wields in his hand and Nebuchadnezzar his hired soldier. He says that he will call the Egyptians with a hiss, and will arouse the Chaldeans by the sound of his trumpet. Calv.

26. Bread again by weight.** No language could be more expressive of the extremities to which they should be reduced. In allusion to this it is threatened again (Ezek. 4 : 16, 17), “I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care, and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment; that they may want bread and water, and be astonished one with another, and consume away for their iniquity.”

29. Ye shall eat the flesh of your sons.** This was literally fulfilled at the siege of Samaria (2 Kings 6 : 29), in the days of Jehoram, and in the siege of Jerusalem, under Titus. The fearful accomplishment of the threatened punishment is thus bewailed by Jeremiah (Lam. 4 : 10), “The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children; they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.” Bush.

32. The land wonderfully fulfilled two conditions: first, as a place of training and discipline, a land where they might be hidden away till prepared to take their proper place among the nations; second, as a land where they could bear their witness to Jehovah, when his time had come. As midway between Egypt and Chaldea, and adjacent to Asia Minor, the name of Jehovah might be made known through them to the peoples of the East and of the West. Of this land Jehovah gave to his people possession, but not ownership. “The land is mine, for ye are pilgrims and sojourners with me.” He was the sole owner, and they only tenants at will, whose possession was conditioned upon the fulfilment of their covenant obligations. If faithful to him, he would defend them from the invasion of enemies; their land should not be visited by drought nor by devastating insects; there should not be pestilence or famine, but the rain should fall in its season and the land be filled with plenty. But if unfaithful, he would visit them with judgments until he had brought the land to desolation, and scattered the people among the heathen. . . . This relation of the Jews to their land, through Jehovah, was a most important element in their history. To be thrust out of it and scattered among the nations, was the heaviest punishment that could be inflicted upon them, since it was inflicted by their King, and was the proof to all the world of their rebellion. Andrews.

34. Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths as long as it lieth desolate.** This is shown by Houbigant to be a historical fact. From Saul to the Babylonish captivity are numbered about four hundred and ninety years, during which period there were of course seventy Sabbaths of years. Now the Babylonish captivity lasted seventy years, and during that time the land of Israel rested. Therefore the land rested just as many years in the Babylonish captivity as it should have rested Sabbaths, if the Jews had observed the law relative to the Sabbatic years. Bush.

38,39. This is the concluding threat. It is conditional in its nature, and the condition having been fulfilled, it has been accomplished. Those of the ten tribes who did not find their way to Babylon, and so became absorbed in the body which returned to Jerusalem, have been eaten up by the land of their enemies, and have pined away in their enemies’ lands. Neither they nor their descendants are to be found in any part of the globe, however much investigation may employ itself in searching for them. They have been absorbed by the populations among which they were scattered. F. M.

Confession of sin, recognition of God’s providence in all that had happened to them, humility, and acquiescence in their punishment, would restore them to their forfeited covenant relation. Then God would “not abhor them to destroy them utterly,” but would “remember the covenant of their fathers.” Thus it was that God brought them back after the Babylonish captivity. F. M.—The history of the nation confirms the truth of these promises no less clearly than it does of the threatenings recorded above. Never did Israel repent and seek the face of their God in vain. Whenever they returned to him in penitence and prayer, putting away their idols and renewing their obedience, he returned also to them in the various tokens of his mercy, delivering them from their enemies, restoring to them the years which the canker-worm had eaten, and blessing them with peace and plenty. A most striking specimen of the humble confession and fervent prayer here alluded to is to be found in the ninth chapters respectively of Daniel, of Ezra, and in the first of Nehemiah. We there see which kind of humiliation is acceptable before God, and what gracious expressions of kindness it meets with. Bush.

40. The forgiveness of God is dependent on the fulfilment of declared conditions. “If they shall confess;” “if their uncircumcised heart be humbled.” Spirituality of religion was maintained from the beginning. The purpose and end of all Divine chastisements is to produce an acceptable state of heart. The true penitence was the true circumcision, in other words, it was a renewal of the covenant, therefore included faith and acceptance of the Divine revelation and ordinances. Repentance and faith are one in the higher light of the Gospel, for they are both “toward” the covenant in Christ Jesus. R. A. R.

43. Because, even because they despised my judgments.** The particle is here doubled, to give intensity to the alleged reason of their calamities, and to intimate that it was nothing else than their deliberate rejection of the Divine laws which had procured them. Bush.

44. It shows that the relation of the Lord to his people is one which does not cease even through that people’s apostasy. Even in his punishment, which never entirely destroys the hope of the people being received back again, the Lord shows himself as the covenant God of Israel. Gerl.—I will not cast them away. Here the restoration of the Jews to their own country is predicted at the destined end of their captivity; which prediction is more fully expressed at De. 30:1. Hales.—Though God has literally fulfilled all his threatenings upon this people, in dispossessing them of their land, destroying their polity, overturning their city, demolishing their temple, and scattering themselves over the face of the whole earth; yet he has in his providence strangely preserved them as a distinct people and in very considerable numbers also! He still remembers the covenant of their ancestors, and in his providence and grace he has some very important design in their favor. All Israel shall yet be saved: and with the Gentiles they shall all be restored to his favor, and under Christ Jesus, the great Shepherd, become with them one grand everlasting fold! A. C.

In these chapters the prophet looks forward and declares how God would deal with his people; which should be according to the way in which they should act. In 2 Ch. 36:14-21, the chronicler looks back, and shows how God had dealt with them; which had been according to the way in which they had acted. In spite of the rough, wild times of the judges, and of the apostasy of Saul, the heart of the nation was on the whole loyal to Jehovah till the end of the days of Solomon. And till that time there was an upward growth in the flourishing estate of the people—their wealth, their power, their prosperity, their happiness. In the latter days of Solomon, outwardly glorious as they were, decay and corruption began. King and people were alike affected by the splendid despotism which one wielded and under which the other flourished in material prosperity. In that prosperity they forgot the source of it. The king himself pushed his tolerance for foreign habits into idolatry, “His wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel” (1 Kings 11:4-9). Like prince, like people; a general relaxation of moral fibre and religious zeal ensued throughout the kingdom. Its culminating point had been reached, and now there followed the rapid descent and fall which resulted from disobedience. The first step to ruin was the great schism, from the effects of which neither the northern nor the southern kingdom ever recovered. Then followed the various apostasies and punishments. The transgressions of the northern kingdom were greater than those of the southern kingdom, and their final punishment, therefore, fell upon them earlier. “For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, and walked in the statutes of the heathen, for they served idols, whereof the Lord had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing. And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers. Therefore the Lord was very angry, and removed them out of his sight” (2 Kings 17:7-18). This occurred in the reign of Hosea, and in the case of the ten tribes we find no symptoms of repentance under suffering. The two tribes produced a Daniel; and his prayer for the forgiveness of his people (9:3-19) illustrates the feelings of the better of his fellow-captives; and therefore, according to the promise of Lev. 26:40-42, God remembered his covenant and raised up Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah to effect the restoration; while the ten tribes pined away in the land of their captivity. Thus Moses’s prediction was fulfilled. F. M.

The Hebrews are the only people in Europe whose present history and existing character are influenced by an origin which does not enter into the annals of mankind, and by causes recorded in the most primeval period of society. To comprehend what is passing, even in the scope of our own experience, we must consult a code of legislation and a ritual which governed them in a very different state of society, and in an Oriental climate. Their code, their creed, and themselves as a people are now existing as they always existed. With the Israelite everything is ancient, but nothing is obsolete.

The Hebrew, a vagrant or a captive amid the famed cities of Greece or Rome, could hardly, even in the luxuriant hope of the Israelitish faith, have imagined that, when their pomp and glories should be covered with sand and grass, the laws of Moses should govern races unborn, and in climates unknown. And now two thousand years have passed away, yet the lone house of Jacob endureth, as the kindled bush where God lay, “burning with fire, but not consumed.” D’Israeli.

The Jew in his entirety, ancient and modern, past and present, shows such characteristics, largely the result of greatness in moral conceptions, as to challenge attention. Natural selection does not seem to have made him, and in spite of his dispersion and the harshest antagonism of surrounding conditions, it has not yet unmade him. Though sometimes a “hissing and a reproach,” he is often “an astonishment,” not less by the solidity of his qualities than by the splendor of his success. In politics, in business, in music, in philosophy, in scholarship, in literature, the Hebrew race can point to many of the foremost men of modern times. Disraeli, Lasker, Crémieux, Lasalle, Rothschild, Mendelssohn, Neander, Oppert, Heine, Spinoza, are a sample of the names of which the modern Jew can boast. Carter.

FOURTH ADDRESS, IN CONNECTION WITH SOLEMN RENEWAL OF THE COVENANT ON THE PLAINS OF MOAB: APPEAL TO PAST MERCIES; SUMMONS TO ENTER ANEW INTO JEHOVAH’S PROFFERED COVENANT; RENEWED WARNING OF TERRIBLE PUNISHMENT IN CASE OF APOSTASY.