Leviticus 26:39

Translations

Modern

Those of you who survive in the lands of your enemies will waste away in their iniquity and will decay in the sins of their fathers.

Traditional

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.

Literal

And those who are left of you shall waste away in their iniquity in the lands of your enemies, and also in the iniquities of their fathers they shall waste away with them.

Latin

Quod si et de iis aliqui remanserint, tabescent in iniquitatibus suis, in terra inimicorum suorum, et propter peccata patrum suorum et sua affligentur:

Original

Hebrew

English

Those of you who survive in the lands of your enemies will waste away in their iniquity and will decay in the sins of their fathers.

Notes

Leviticus 26:36–39

Disastrous defeat and captivity later came upon both Israel and Judah (see study notes on Leviticus 18:28; 26:14–39).

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 God’s Judgment of His People Making Sense of the Exile Oppression of God’s People Promised Land Retribution The Dangers of Sin The Land True Success

Related verses

Ezekiel 4:17
So they will lack food and water; they will be appalled at the sight of one another wasting away in their iniquity.
Ezekiel 33:10
Now as for you, son of man, tell the house of Israel that this is what they have said: ‘Our transgressions and our sins are heavy upon us, and we are wasting away because of them! How can we live?’
Ezekiel 24:23
Your turbans will remain on your heads and your sandals on your feet. You will not mourn or weep, but you will waste away because of your sins, and you will groan among yourselves.
Matthew 23:35–36
And so upon you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.
Deuteronomy 28:65
Among those nations you will find no repose, not even a resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a despairing soul.
Ezekiel 6:9
Then in the nations to which they have been carried captive, your survivors will remember Me—how I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts that turned away from Me, and by their eyes that lusted after idols. So they will loathe themselves for the evil they have done and for all their abominations.
Exodus 20:5
You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,
Numbers 14:18
‘The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in loving devotion, forgiving iniquity and transgression. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon their children to the third and fourth generation.’
Jeremiah 3:25
Let us lie down in our shame; let our disgrace cover us. We have sinned against the LORD our God, both we and our fathers; from our youth even to this day we have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.”
Psalm 32:3–4
When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long.
Zechariah 10:9
Though I sow them among the nations, they will remember Me in distant lands; they and their children will live and return.
Romans 11:8–10
…as it is written: “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that could not see, and ears that could not hear, to this very day.”

Leviticus 26:39

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