Leviticus 26:39

26:14-39 After God has set the blessing before them which would make them a happy people if they would be obedient, he here sets the curse before them, the evils which would make them miserable, if they were disobedient. Two things would bring ruin. 1. A contempt of God's commandments. They that reject the precept, will come at last to renounce the covenant. 2. A contempt of his corrections. If they will not learn obedience by the things they suffer, God himself would be against them; and this is the root and cause of all their misery. And also, The whole creation would be at war with them. All God's sore judgments would be sent against them. The threatenings here are very particular, they were prophecies, and He that foresaw all their rebellions, knew they would prove so. TEMPORAL judgments are threatened. Those who will not be parted from their sins by the commands of God, shall be parted from them by judgments. Those wedded to their lusts, will have enough of them. SPIRITUAL judgments are threatened, which should seize the mind. They should find no acceptance with God. A guilty conscience would be their continual terror. It is righteous with God to leave those to despair of pardon, who presume to sin; and it is owing to free grace, if we are not left to pine away in the iniquity we were born in, and have lived in.

And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands,.... Such as were not taken off by any public calamity, as the sword or pestilence should gradually diminish and melt away like wax before the fire, and die in and for their iniquities in an enemy's country, see Ezekiel 24:23 , and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them; or for the iniquities of their evil fathers, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan; they treading in their steps, and doing the same evil deeds, whereby they filled up the measure of their fathers' sins, and brought upon them deserved punishment. Matthew 23:32.

Iniquity - The meaning here is, in the punishment of their iniquity, and, in the next clause, in the punishment of the iniquity (as in Leviticus 26:41 , Leviticus 26:43 ) of their fathers. In the next verse the same Hebrew word is properly represented by "iniquity." Our translators have in several places put one of the English words in the text and the other in the margin ( Genesis 4:13 ; Genesis 19:15 ; 2 Kings 7:9 ; Psalm 69:27 , etc.). The language of Scripture does not make that trenchant division between sin and punishment which we are accustomed to do. Sin is its own punishment, having in itself, from its very commencement, the germ of death. "Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death" James 1:15 ; Romans 2:5 ; Romans 5:12 .

(39) And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity. —Better, But those that remain of you shall pine away because of their iniquity, that is, those who will survive the terrible doom described under the five warnings, will pine away with grief, reflecting upon their sins which have brought upon them these tribulations. And also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.—Better, and also on account of the iniquity of their fathers with them shall they pine away, that is, they shall pine away on account of their ancestral sins, which they repeat and reproduce. Hence the ancient Chaldee Versions render it, “And also on account of the evil sins of their fathers, which they hold fast in their hands, shall they pine away.” It may, however, also be rendered, “And also on account of the iniquities of their fathers which are with them;” that is, which they must bear and expiate. (See Exodus 20:5.)

But those who still remained under this oppression would pine away in their iniquities (ימּקּוּ, lit., to rot, moulder away), and "also in the iniquities of their fathers with them." אתּם refers to עונות, "which are with them," which they carry with them and must atone for (see at Exodus 20:5 ),

[Reformed Biblical] they forced to flee away hastily from their pursuers. ## When non pursueth; your guilt and fear causing you to imagine that they do pursue you when indeed they do not. Leviticus 26:38 Leviticus 26:39 ## Shall pine away, be consumed and melt away by degrees, through diseases, oppressions, griefs, and manifold miseries. Leviticus 26:40 ## If they shall confess, Heb. And they shall confess , where our translation and many others understand the particle if , which is also wanting and understood, Exo_4:23 Mal_1:2 3:8. So here, And if they shall confess , &c. But there seems no necessity of any such supplement, but these and the following words may be taken as they lie in their plain and proper signification, to this purpose, Lev_26:40, And through the heaviness and extraordi

[Reformed Biblical] nariness of their affliction, their consciences will force them to confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they have trespassed against me, i.e. with their prevarication with me and defection from me to idolatry, which by way of eminency he calls their trespass; ## and that also they have walked contrary to me, Lev_26:41, and that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies ; i.e. that they are not come into these calamities by chance, nor by the misfortune of war, but by my just judgment upon them. All which confession is no more than Pharaoh made in his distresses, and than hypocrites in their affliction use to make. And therefore he adds, if then their uncircumcised, i.e. impure, carnal, profane, and impenitent hearts be humbled, i.e. subdued, purged, reformed; if to this confession they add sincere humiliation and reformation, I will do what follows. Levitic us 26:41 The Hebrew word avou commonly signifies iniquity , but it is oft used for ## the punishm ent of iniquity, as here and 1Sa_28:10 Psa_31:10 Isa_53:6,11. The meaning is, if they sincerely acknowledge the righteousness of God, and their own wickedness, and patiently submit to his correcting hand, and would rather be in their present suffering condition than in their former sinful, though prosperous estate; if with David they are ready to say, it is good for them