Leviticus 26

1 “You must not make idols for yourselves or set up a carved image or sacred pillar; you must not place a sculpted stone in your land to bow down to it. For I am the LORD your God.

“Don't make yourselves idols anywhere in your land and bow down to worship them, whether they are images or sacred pillars or stone sculptures. For I am the Lord your God.

2 You must keep My Sabbaths and have reverence for My sanctuary. I am the LORD.

Keep my Sabbaths and show respect for my sanctuary. I am the Lord.

3 If you follow My statutes and carefully keep My commandments,

If you follow my rules and keep my regulations,

4 I will give you rains in their season, and the land will yield its produce, and the trees of the field will bear their fruit.

I will make sure it rains at the right time so that the ground will grow good crops and the fruit trees will be productive.

5 Your threshing will continue until the grape harvest, and the grape harvest will continue until sowing time; you will have your fill of food to eat and will dwell securely in your land.

Your time of threshing will last right up to the grape harvest, and the grape harvest until the time you have to sow again. You will have more than enough to eat and you will live in safety in your land.

6 And I will give peace to the land, and you will lie down with nothing to fear. I will rid the land of dangerous animals, and no sword will pass through your land.

I will make sure your land is at peace. You will be able to sleep without being afraid of anything. I will get rid of dangerous animals from the land, and you will not suffer from any violent enemy attacks.

7 You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you.

You will chase your enemies, and kill them with the sword.

8 Five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you.

Five of you will kill one hundred, and one hundred of you will kill ten thousand. You will destroy your enemies.

9 I will turn toward you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will establish My covenant with you.

I will come to help you, so you will reproduce and increase in numbers, and I will confirm my agreement with you.

10 You will still be eating the old supply of grain when you need to clear it out to make room for the new.

You'll still be eating your old stock of grain when you need to get rid of it so you can store the new grain.

11 And I will make My dwelling place among you, and My soul will not despise you.

I will come and live with you—I certainly won't reject you.

12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be My people.

I shall always be right there with you. I will be your God, and you will be my people.

13 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians. I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk in uprightness.

I am the Lord your God, who led you out of Egypt so you wouldn't have to be slaves to the Egyptians any longer. I smashed the yoke that kept you bent down and helped you to stand up straight.

14 If, however, you fail to obey Me and to carry out all these commandments,

But if you don't pay attention to me and do what I tell you;

15 and if you reject My statutes, despise My ordinances, and neglect to carry out all My commandments, and so break My covenant,

if you reject my laws, hate my regulations, and refuse to follow my commandments, and consequently break my agreement,

16 then this is what I will do to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting disease, and fever that will destroy your sight and drain your life. You will sow your seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it.

then this is what I am going to do to you: I will make you panic, and suffer from diseases like tuberculosis and fever that make you blind and drain your life away. It will be pointless for you to sow seed in your fields because your enemies will eat the harvest.

17 And I will set My face against you, so that you will be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when no one pursues you.

I will turn against you, and you'll be defeated by your enemies. People who hate you will rule over you, and you'll run away even when there's no one chasing you!

18 And if after all this you will not obey Me, I will proceed to punish you sevenfold for your sins.

If after all this you still refuse to obey me, I will move to punishing you seven times over for your sins.

19 I will break down your stubborn pride and make your sky like iron and your land like bronze,

I will break your self-reliant strength you're so proud of, and make your sky hard as iron and your land hard as bronze.

20 and your strength will be spent in vain. For your land will not yield its produce, and the trees of the land will not bear their fruit.

Your strength will be completely wasted because your land won't produce crops, and your trees won't produce fruit.

21 If you walk in hostility toward Me and refuse to obey Me, I will multiply your plagues seven times, according to your sins.

If you go on opposing me and refusing to do what I tell you, I will make your punishments seven times worse, based on your sins.

22 I will send wild animals against you to rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and reduce your numbers, until your roads lie desolate.

I will send wild animals to kill your children, wipe out your livestock, and make you so few in number that there won't be anyone on your roads.

23 And if in spite of these things you do not accept My discipline, but continue to walk in hostility toward Me,

However, if in spite of all this correction you still don't change but go on opposing me,

24 then I will act with hostility toward you, and I will strike you sevenfold for your sins.

then I will take action against you. I will punish you seven times over for your sins.

25 And I will bring a sword against you to execute the vengeance of the covenant. Though you withdraw into your cities, I will send a plague among you, and you will be delivered into the hand of the enemy.

I will send enemies with swords to attack you in retaliation for breaking the agreement. Even though you retreat into your towns for defense, I will plague you with disease, and you will be handed over to your enemies.

26 When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will bake your bread in a single oven and dole out your bread by weight, so that you will eat but not be satisfied.

I will send a famine so bread is in short supply. One oven will serve the needs of ten women baking bread. It will be distributed by weight so that you'll eat but won't have enough.

27 But if in spite of all this you do not obey Me, but continue to walk in hostility toward Me,

However, if in spite of all this you don't obey me, but go on opposing me,

28 then I will walk in fury against you, and I, even I, will punish you sevenfold for your sins.

then I will take action against you in a rage of fury, and I will punish you myself seven times over for your sins.

29 You will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters.

You will eat the bodies of your own sons and daughters.

30 I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and heap your lifeless bodies on the lifeless remains of your idols; and My soul will despise you.

I will destroy your high places of worship, smash your altars of incense, and pile up your dead bodies on what remains of your idols, which also have no life at all. I will really despise you.

31 I will reduce your cities to rubble and lay waste your sanctuaries, and I will refuse to smell the pleasing aroma of your sacrifices.

I will demolish your towns and destroy your pagan sanctuaries, and I will refuse to accept your sacrifices.

32 And I will lay waste the land, so that your enemies who dwell in it will be appalled.

I will devastate your land myself, so that your enemies who come and live in it will be horrified at what has happened.

33 But I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out a sword after you as your land becomes desolate and your cities are laid waste.

I'm going to scatter you among the nations. You will be chased out by armies with swords as your land is ruined and your towns are destroyed.

34 Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths all the days it lies desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies. At that time the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths.

At least then the land will be able to enjoy its Sabbaths all the time it's abandoned while you are in exile in the land of your enemies. The land will finally be able to rest and enjoy its Sabbaths.

35 As long as it lies desolate, the land will have the rest it did not receive during the Sabbaths when you lived in it.

The whole time it's abandoned the land will observe the Sabbaths of rest that it wasn't able to do while you were living there.

36 As for those of you who survive, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies, so that even the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight. And they will flee as one flees the sword, and fall when no one pursues them.

I will make those of you who survive so discouraged that as you live in the lands of your enemies even the sound of a leaf blowing in the wind will scare you into running away! You'll run away like you're being chased by someone with a sword, and fall down even though no one is after you.

37 They will stumble over one another as before the sword, though no one is behind them. So you will not be able to stand against your enemies.

You'll trip over each other as you run away from the attack, then though no one's there. You'll have no power to resist your enemies.

38 You will perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies will consume you.

You'll die in exile and you'll be buried in a foreign country.

39 Those of you who survive in the lands of your enemies will waste away in their iniquity and will decay in the sins of their fathers.

Those of you who do manage to survive in the countries of your enemies will wither away because of their guilt, decaying as they share the sins of their fathers.

40 But if they will confess their iniquity and that of their fathers in the unfaithfulness that they practiced against Me, by which they have also walked in hostility toward Me—

They need to confess their sins and those of their fathers, acting in such an unfaithful way towards me, opposing me.

41 and I acted with hostility toward them and brought them into the land of their enemies—and if their uncircumcised hearts will be humbled and they will make amends for their iniquity,

Because of this I took action against them and exiled them in the countries of their enemies. However, if they humbly give up their stubborn attitude and accept their punishment for their sins,

42 then I will remember My covenant with Jacob and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.

then I will fulfill the agreement I made with Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham, and I will not forget my promise about the land.

43 For the land will be abandoned by them, and it will enjoy its Sabbaths by lying desolate without them. And they will pay the penalty for their iniquity, because they rejected My ordinances and abhorred My statutes.

For the land will be left empty by them, and it will enjoy its Sabbaths being abandoned. They will pay for their sins, because they rejected my rules and regulations.

44 Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject or despise them so as to destroy them and break My covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God.

But despite all this, even while they are living in land of their enemies, I will not reject or hate them so much as to destroy them and break my agreement with them, because I am the Lord their God.

45 But for their sake I will remember the covenant with their fathers, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the LORD.”

Because of them I will renew the agreement I made with their fathers, those I led out of Egypt as the other nations watched, in order that I might be their God. I am the Lord.”

46 These are the statutes, ordinances, and laws that the LORD established between Himself and the Israelites through Moses on Mount Sinai.

These are the rules, regulations, and laws that the Lord set up between himself and the Israelites through Moses on Mount Sinai.