Leviticus 26:6

Idolatry forbidden, Lev 26:1. The Sabbath to be sanctified, Lev 26:2-3. Promises to obedience, of fruitful fields, plentiful harvests, and vintage, Lev 26:4-5. Of peace and security, Lev 26:6. Discomfiture of their enemies, Lev 26:7-9. Of abundance, Lev 26:10. Of the divine presence, Lev 26:11-13. Threatenings against the disobedient, Lev 26:14-15. Of terror and dismay, Lev 26:16. Their enemies shall prevail against them, Lev 26:17-18. Of barrenness, Lev 26:19-20. Of desolation by wild beasts, Lev 26:21-22. And if not humbled and reformed, worse evils shall be inflicted upon them, Lev 26:23-24. Their enemies shall prevail, and they shall be wasted by the pestilence, Lev 26:25-26. If they should still continue refractory, they shall be yet more sorely punished, Lev 26:27-28. The famine shall so increase that they shall be obliged to eat their own children, Lev 26:29. Their carcasses shall be cast upon the carcasses of their idols, Lev 26:30. Their cities shall be wasted, and the sanctuary desolated, Lev 26:31; the land destroyed, Lev 26:32; themselves scattered among their enemies, and pursued with utter confusion and distress, Lev 26:33-39. If under these judgments they confess their sin and return to God, He will remember them in mercy, Lev 26:40-43; visit them even in the land of their enemies, Lev 26:44; and remember His covenant with their fathers, Lev 26:45. The conclusion, stating these to be the judgments and laws which the Lord made between himself and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai, Lev 26:46.

OF IDOLATRY. (Lev 26:1-2) Ye shall make you no idols--Idolatry had been previously forbidden (Exo 20:4-5), but the law was repeated here with reference to some particular forms of it that were very prevalent among the neighboring nations. a standing image--that is, "upright pillar." image of stone--that is, an obelisk, inscribed with hieroglyphical and superstitious characters; the former denoting the common and smaller pillars of the Syrians or Canaanites; the latter, pointing to the large and elaborate obelisks which the Egyptians worshipped as guardian divinities, or used as stones of adoration to stimulate religious worship. The Israelites were enjoined to beware of them.

And ye shall chase your enemies,.... Who being overcome in battle, and put to the flight, should be pursued: and they shall fall before you by the sword; not by the sword of one another, as the Midianites did, Jdg 7:21, so Jarchi; but rather by the sword of the Israelites, for oftentimes multitudes of the enemy are killed in a pursuit.

The Lord would give peace in the land, and cause the beasts of prey which endanger life to vanish out of the land, and suffer no war to come over it, but would put to flight before the Israelites the enemies who attacked them, and cause them to fall into their sword. שׁכב, to lie without being frightened up by any one, is a figure used to denote the quiet and peaceable enjoyment of life, and taken from the resting of a flock in good pasture-ground (Isa 14:30) exposed to no attacks from either wild beasts or men. מחריד is generally applied to the frightening of men by a hostile attack (Mic 4:4; Jer 30:10; Eze 39:26; Job 11:19); but it is also applied to the frightening of flocks and animals (Isa 17:2; Deu 28:26; Jer 7:33, etc.). רעה חיּה: an evil animal, for a beast of prey, as in Gen 37:20. "Sword," as the principal weapon applied, is used for war. The pursuing of the enemy relates to neighbouring tribes, who would make war upon the Israelites. לחרב נפל does not mean to be felled by the sword (Knobel), but to fall into the sword. The words, "five of you shall put a hundred to flight, and a hundred ten thousand," are a proverbial expression for the most victorious superiority of Israel over their enemies. It is repeated in the opposite sense and in an intensified form in Deu 32:30 and Isa 30:17.

This chapter is a solemn conclusion of the main body of the levitical law. The precepts that follow in this and the following book either relate to some particular matters or are repetitions and explications of the foregoing institutions. Now this chapter contains a general enforcement of all those laws by promises of reward in case of obedience on the one hand, and threatenings of punishment for disobedience on the other hand, the former to work upon hope, the latter on fear, those two handles of the soul, by which it is taken hold of and managed. Here is, I. A repetition of two or three of the principal of the commandments (Lev 26:1, Lev 26:2). II. An inviting promise of all good things, if they would but keep God's commandments (Lev 26:3-13). III. A terrible threatening of ruining judgments which would be brought upon them if they were refractory and disobedient (v. 14-39). IV. A gracious promise of the return of mercy to those of them that would repent and reform (Lev 26:40, etc.). Deu. 28 is parallel to this.