Leviticus 26:22

Translations

Modern

I will send wild animals against you to rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and reduce your numbers, until your roads lie desolate.

Traditional

I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate.

Literal

And I will send among you the wild beast, and it shall rob you of your children and destroy your livestock and make you few in number, and your highways shall be desolate.

Latin

…immittamque in vos bestias agri, quæ consumant vos, et pecora vestra, et ad paucitatem cuncta redigant, desertæque fiant viæ vestræ.

Original

Hebrew

English

I will send wild animals against you to rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and reduce your numbers, until your roads lie desolate.

Notes

Leviticus 26:14–39

God punishes his people to change their behavior and restore their relationship with him. He acts like a perfectly righteous and loving parent would with a disobedient child. The punishments, meant to stop rebellious behavior, gradually increase. This gives Israel a chance to repent at any time (Leviticus 26:18–28). Even when Israel faced exile from the land in 722 and 586 BC, God was working to restore them (see, for example, Isaiah 40–66; Jeremiah 29:10; Amos 9:11–15).

Leviticus 26:3–39

These blessings and curses are similar to a key part of ancient Near Eastern treaties between a suzerain (a powerful king) and a vassal (a lesser king). In these treaties, the suzerain king promised to protect the vassal king and his land. In return, the vassal swore loyalty to the suzerain.

Blessings and curses followed, with curses usually being longer (compare Leviticus 26:3–13 with 26:14–39; see also Deuteronomy 27:15–28:68). These treaties often called upon gods as witnesses and enforcers. Yet, in God's covenant with Israel, God was one of the treaty parties, with Israel as the other. Since God could not swear by anyone greater, he swore by himself (see Hebrews 6:13; Genesis 22:16).

Theme notes and profiles

Ancient Law Codes Blessing Counsel from Others Curses and Blessings God’s Covenants Oppression of God’s People Promised Land Retribution The Dangers of Sin The Land True Success

Related verses

Ezekiel 14:15
Or if I send wild beasts through the land to leave it childless and desolate, with no man passing through it for fear of the beasts,
Deuteronomy 32:24
They will be wasted from hunger and ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague; I will send the fangs of wild beasts against them, with the venom of vipers that slither in the dust.
Judges 5:6
In the days of Shamgar son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were deserted and the travelers took the byways.
Zechariah 7:14
But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known, and the land was left desolate behind them so that no one could come or go. Thus they turned the pleasant land into a desolation.”
Ezekiel 5:17
I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring a sword against you. I, the LORD, have spoken.”
2 Chronicles 15:5
In those days there was no safety for travelers, because the residents of the lands had many conflicts.
Lamentations 1:4
The roads to Zion mourn, because no one comes to her appointed feasts. All her gates are deserted; her priests groan, her maidens grieve, and she herself is bitter with anguish.
2 Kings 17:25
Now when the settlers first lived there, they did not worship the LORD, so He sent lions among them, which killed some of them.
Leviticus 26:6
And I will give peace to the land, and you will lie down with nothing to fear. I will rid the land of dangerous animals, and no sword will pass through your land.
Isaiah 33:8
The highways are deserted; travel has ceased. The treaty has been broken, the witnesses are despised, and human life is disregarded.
Micah 3:12
Therefore, because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, and the temple mount a wooded ridge.
Ezekiel 14:21
For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘How much worse will it be when I send against Jerusalem My four dire judgments—sword, famine, wild beasts, and plague—in order to cut off from it both man and beast?

Leviticus 26:22

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