Leviticus 26:14-20

What changes when the people reject the covenant?

Berean Standard Bible

14 If, however, you fail to obey Me and to carry out all these commandments, 15 and if you reject My statutes, despise My ordinances, and neglect to carry out all My commandments, and so break My covenant, 16 then this is what I will do to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting disease, and fever that will destroy your sight and drain your life. You will sow your seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it. 17 And I will set My face against you, so that 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 And if after all this you will not obey Me, I will proceed to punish you sevenfold for your sins. 19 I will break down your stubborn pride and make your sky like iron and your land like bronze, 20 and your strength will be spent in vain. For your land will not yield its produce, and the trees of the land will not bear their fruit.

What is the context?

The warning concerns refusing obedience, despising the Lord’s statutes, and breaking the covenant. Disease, enemy rule, fear, and wasted labor reverse the blessings just described.

The next warning follows if the people still refuse to listen. The sky and land are pictured as iron and bronze, with work producing no crop. The escalating judgment confronts stubborn pride rather than treating outward prosperity as something Israel can secure while rejecting God.

How is this passage commonly understood?

The USCCB notes describe successive waves of punishment, each following continued refusal to obey. Wesley reads the iron sky and bronze earth in relation to withheld rain and fruitfulness. The covenant warning does not provide a diagnosis of why any particular modern person is ill.

What is our position?

We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.

Where can I study this further?

No deeper study linked yet.

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