Leviticus 26:36-39 - Exposition

The final punishment.

Upon them that are left, that is, the surviving captives and exiles, I will send a faintness into their hearts,—so Ezekiel 21:7 , "And every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water"—… and the sound of a shaken (or driven ) leaf shall chase them;… and they shall fall,… and ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands. This is the concluding threat. It is conditional in its nature, and the condition having been fulfilled, we may say with reverence that it has been accomplished. Those of the ten tribes who did not find their way to Babylon, and so became absorbed in the body which returned to Jerusalem, have been eaten up by the land of their enemies, and have pined away in their enemies' lands. Neither they nor their descendants are to be found in any part of the globe, however much investigation may employ itself in searching for them. They have been absorbed by the populations among which they were scattered.