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Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Leviticus 26:14-39

After God had set the blessing before them (the life and good which would make them a happy people if they would be obedient), he here sets the curse before them, the death and evil which would make them as miserable if they were disobedient. Let them not think themselves so deeply rooted as that God's power could not ruin them, nor so highly favoured as that his justice would not ruin them if they revolted from him and rebelled against him; no You only have I known, therefore I will punish... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Leviticus 26:26

And when I have broken the staff of your bread ,.... Brought a famine, at least a scarcity of provisions upon them, deprived them of bread, the staff of life, by which it is supported; or however made it very scarce among them, so that they had hardly a sufficiency to sustain nature, and perhaps the blessing of nourishment withheld from that; see Isaiah 3:1 , ten women shall bake your bread in one oven ; for want of wood, according to Jarchi; or rather through scarcity of bread corn,... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Leviticus 26:26

Ten women shall bake your bread in one oven - Though in general every family in the East bakes its own bread, yet there are some public bakehouses where the bread of several families is baked at a certain price. Moses here foretells that the desolation should be so great and the want so pressing that there should be many idle hands to be employed, many mouths to be fed, and very little for each: Ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, etc. read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Leviticus 26:26

Verse 26 26.And when I have broken the staff of your bread. By these words God implies, that although He should not punish them by the sterility of the land, still He was prepared with other means for destroying them by famine. We shall indeed see hereafter that, when God was wroth, the earth in a manner shut up her bowels so as to produce no food; and that the heaven also grew hard so as not to fertilize it with dew or rain. In a word, all unseasonableness of weather and infertility of soil is... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Leviticus 26:1-46

PART V. CONCLUDING EXHORTATION . 1 . The blessings. which should result from obedience ( Leviticus 26:3-13 ). 2 . The curses which should follow disobedience ( Leviticus 26:14-39 ). 3 . The gracious treatment which would ensue on repentance ( Leviticus 26:40-45 ). Hitherto the Book of Leviticus has consisted of ceremonial and moral injunctions, with two historical passages interposed. In the present chapter it rises in its subject and its diction from legal... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Leviticus 26:1-46

Temporal rewards and punishments. cf. Ecclesiastes 8:11 ; Isaiah 48:18 ; Matthew 5:44 , Matthew 5:45 ; and 1 Timothy 4:8 . There is in this chapter a distinct assertion of moral government exercised over Israel. If they obeyed God's Law, he would grant them great temporal blessing; if they disobeyed, he would send them sore chastisement; but if after disobedience they became penitent, he would remember their fathers and his covenant with them, and receive their penitent seed into... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Leviticus 26:3-39

Promises and threatenings. Leviticus 26:12 , "And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people." I. The true law of human life. 1 . Religion the upholding support of individual, social, national well-being. Natural laws subservient to higher ends. Ascending scale in the universe, the physical the basis of the psychical, the psychical of the moral, the moral of the spiritual. 2 . The covenant relationship of God and man the only true form in which the... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Leviticus 26:3-46

Promises and threatenings. In this chapter 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 Chronicles 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. The promises and the threatenings are to the nation, not to individuals; and the prophetical assurance is that national obedience to God shall bring about... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Leviticus 26:14-39

Prophetic maledictions. The promises of God are prophecies of good; so are his threatening prophecies of evil. Prophecy, therefore, gives no countenance to fatalism, since it is made to depend upon conditions. God may, therefore, repent him of evils threatened, viz. 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... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Leviticus 26:14-39

Divine retribution. The Divine Legislator of Israel knew well that he must contemplate disobedience as well as obedience to his laws. When he had intimated the fullness of the reward he would bestow on the faithful, he was compelled to pass on to "But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do," etc. It is sad to think that it did not need Divine prescience to foretell this issue. Human disobedience is too constantly occurring a factor in human history to require that: it may always... read more

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