Leviticus 26

1You must not make idols from stones and worship them. You must not draw things on stones and bend down in front of them. I am the LORD your God.

2You must rest on Sabbath days and you must keep them holy. You must respect God’s house. I am the LORD.

3The people must carefully obey the rules. 4If they do, I will send rain at the proper time. Plants for food will grow in the ground. Fruit will grow on your trees. 5The people will harvest grain until the grapes are ready to eat. They will harvest the grapes until it is the time to plant seeds. They will have all the food to eat that they need. I will keep them safe in their country.

6I will stop war in Israel. When the people sleep, they will not be afraid. I will take the wild animals away. Other people will not hurt my people. 7Israel’s enemies will run away from them. They will kill their enemies. 8Five (5) of you will run after 100 of them. And 100 of you will run after 1000 enemies. You will kill all your enemies.

9I will do good things for your people and I will give many children to them. Their number will grow. I will do everything that I have promised to do for them. 10They will have so much food that some will remain after the next harvest. 11I will live among the people. I will never turn away from them. 12I will walk among the people. They will belong to me. 13I am the LORD your God. I brought you out of Egypt. You will not be the slaves of people in Egypt. I saved you so that you need not be ashamed.

People who do not obey the rules will not give any pleasure to the LORD

14God will be angry if the people do not listen to him. He will be angry if they do not obey his rules. 15The people may not respect or obey God’s rules. So they will not be doing what they promised to him. 16So God will send illnesses to the people. They will be afraid. The people will have illnesses in their eyes. They will get thin and they will die. They will plant their seed and their enemies will eat the fruit. 17God will fight against you. Your enemies will win the war. They will become your rulers. Your soldiers will run away even when nobody is running after them.

18The people may not obey God even after this. If they do not, God will punish them 7 (seven) times more strongly. 19He will make them ashamed. He will not send any rain and the land will be hard and dry. 20Even if they do a lot of work, no grain will grow. No fruit will grow on the trees.

21The people may still not listen to God. If they do not, he will be 7 (seven) times more angry. If they do not obey him, he will cause their lives to be 7 (seven) times more difficult. 22He will send wild animals to kill their children and their animals. The country will be almost empty.

23The people may still not listen to God. If they do not, he will be angry. 24He will become their enemy. If they do not obey him, he will punish them 7 (seven) times more strongly. 25He will send enemy soldiers to kill the people. They have not done what they promised to do. So he will punish them for that. If they go back to their cities, he will send them illnesses. The enemy will win the war. 26The people will not have any food. A woman will bake one loaf for ten families. They will weigh it to give one part to each family. When a person eats his piece of bread, he will still be hungry.

27If the people still turn away from God, he will be even more angry. They will not turn away from their sin. 28So he will turn away from them. He will punish them 7 (seven) times more again. 29They will be so hungry that they will eat their own children. 30The Lord will destroy the places where they worship false gods. He will destroy their very bad incense altars. He will put their dead bodies round their idols. He will hate them. 31He will destroy the cities. He will destroy the places for wrong worship. Nobody will burn incense to give the Lord pleasure. 32God will destroy the land. He will cause the enemies who live in your country to hate it. 33God will push you out. He will send your people away to other countries. He will destroy your cities. And he will make your land a desert. 34The land will have a Sabbath rest while there are no people in it. 35All the time that it is empty, the land will have rest. It will have the Sabbath rest that it did not have. It did not have it when you lived in it.

36Some of Israel’s people will remain in other countries. They will be frightened. A leaf that is blowing in the wind will cause them to run away. It will be like when an enemy is running after them. They will fall even if no enemy is running after them. 37They will fall over each other when nobody is running after them. They will not be strong enough to fight their enemies. 38They will die in the countries where they are living. Those countries will cause their deaths. 39Those who remain here will die because of their sins. They will die because their fathers and grandfathers did not obey God.

40Your sons and your grandsons must tell me, the Lord, that they are sorry. They must be sorry because they did not obey my rules. They must be sorry that they turned away from me. 41They must remember that they made me angry. They caused me to turn away from them. I am the Lord, and I sent them into their enemies’ country. They will be sorry until I have punished them enough. 42Then I will remember my covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I will remember that I gave their land to them. 43Before this, the country will be empty and it will have a rest. My people will pay for the bad things that they did. 44But I, the Lord, will not kill all of them. The people will be living in their enemies’ country. Then I will remember them. I will not leave them alone. I will remember my covenant with their fathers. I am the LORD, their God. 45God will remember his covenant with the people that he brought out of Egypt. The people in every country saw him do this. He is the LORD.’

46These are the rules that the LORD gave to Moses on the mountain called Sinai. They are his covenant with Israel’s people. ▼

▼26:46 See Exodus chapter 20 and Deuteronomy chapter 6.