Leviticus 26:15

Lev 26:15 And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, [but] that ye break my covenant:

Ver. 15. Or if your soul abhor my judgments.] As, so it may prove; such is the vile canker of your corrupt natures.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Lev 26:15. Break my covenant — That is, your part of the covenant made between me and you, and thereby discharge me from giving you the blessings promised on my part.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Which I made with you in choosing you to be my people.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 15. If ye shall despise my statutes - abhor my judgments] As these words, and others of a similar import, which point out different properties of the revelation of God, are frequently occurring, I Judge it best to take a general view of them, once for all, in this place, and show how they differ among themselves, and what property of the Divine law each points out.

1. STATUTES. חקת chukkoth, from חק chak, to mark out, define, c. This term seems to signify the things which God has defined, marked, and traced out, that men might have a perfect copy of pure conduct always before their eyes, to teach them how they might walk so as to please him in all things, which they could not do without such instruction as God gives in his word, and the help which he affords by his Spirit.

2. JUDGMENTS. שפטים shephatim, from שפט shaphat, to distinguish, regulate, and determine meaning those things which God has determined that men shall pursue, by which their whole conduct shall be regulated, making the proper distinction between virtue and vice, good and evil, right and wrong, justice and injustice; in a word, between what is proper to be done, and what is proper to be left undone.

3. COMMANDMENTS. מצות mitsvoth, from צוה tsavah, to command, ordain, and appoint, as a legislator. This term is properly applied to those parts of the law which contain the obligation the people are under to act according to the statutes, judgments, c., already established, and which prohibit them by penal sanctions from acting contrary to the laws.

4. COVENANT. ברית berith, from בר bar, to clear, cleanse, or purify because the covenant, the whole system of revelation given to the Jews, was intended to separate them from all the people of the earth, and to make them holy. Berith also signifies the covenant-sacrifice, which prefigured the atonement made by Christ for the sin of the world, by which he purifies believers unto himself, and makes them a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Besides those four, we may add the following, from other places of Scripture.

5. TESTIMONIES. עדות edoth, from עד ad, beyond, farther, besides; because the whole ritual law referred to something farther on or beyond the Jewish dispensation, even to that sacrifice which in the fulness of time was to be offered for the sins of men. Thus all the sacrifices, c., of the Mosaic law referred to Christ, and bore testimony to him who was to come.

6. ORDINANCES. משמרות mishmaroth, from שמר shamar, to guard, keep safe, watch over those parts of Divine revelation which exhorted men to watch their ways, keep their hearts, and promised them, in consequence, the continual protection and blessing of God their Maker.

7. PRECEPTS. פקודים pikkudim, from פקד pakad, to overlook, take care or notice of, to visit; a very expressive character of the Divine testimonies, the overseers of a man's conduct, those who stand by and look on to see whether he acts according to the commands of his Master; also the visiters, because God's precepts are suited to all the circumstances of human life; some are applicable in adversity, others in prosperity; some in times of temptation and sadness, others in seasons of spiritual joy and exultation, c., c. Thus they may be said to overlook and visit man in all times, places, and circumstances.

8. TRUTH. אמת emeth, from אם am, to support, sustain, confirm because God is immutable who has promised, threatened, commanded, and therefore all his promises, threatenings, commandments, c., are unalterable and eternal. Error and falsity promise to direct and sustain, but they fail. God's word is supported by his own faithfulness, and it supports and confirms them who conscientiously believe it.

9. RIGHTEOUSNESS. צדקה tsedakah, from צדק which, though not used as a verb in the Hebrew Bible, seems to convey, from its use as a noun, the idea of giving just weight or good measure, see Le 19:36. This is one of the characters which is attributed to the revelation God makes of himself (see Ps 119:137-144) and by this the impartiality of the Divine testimonies is pointed out. God gives to all their due, and his word distributes to every man according to his state, circumstances, talents, graces, c. to none too much, to none too little, to all enough.

10. WORD of JEHOVAH. דבר יהוה debar Yehovah, from דבר, dabar, to drive, lead, bring forward, hence to bring forward, or utter one's sentiments; so the word of God is what God has brought forth to man from his own mind and counsel; it is a perfect similitude of his own righteousness, holiness, goodness, and truth. This Divine law is sometimes expressed by: -

11. אמרה imrah, speech or word, variously modified from אמר amar, to branch out, because of the interesting details into which the word of God enters in order to instruct man and make him wise unto salvation, or, as the apostle expresses it, "God, who at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake unto the fathers by the prophets," πολυμερως και πολυτροπως, in many distinct parcels, and by various tropes or figures; a curious and elegant description of Divine revelation; Heb 1:1.

12. All these collectively are termed the LAW תורה torah, or תורת יהוה torath Yehovah, the law of the Lord, from ירה yarah, to direct, set straight and true, as stones in a building, to teach and instruct, because this whole system of Divine revelation is calculated to direct men to the attainment of present and eternal felicity, to set them right in their notions concerning the supreme God, to order and adjust them in the several departments of civil and religious society, and thus to teach and instruct them in the knowledge of themselves, and in the true knowledge of God. Thus those who receive the truth become the city of the living God - the temple of the Most High, built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit. To complete this description of the word law, See Clarke on Ex 12:49, where other properties of the law of God are specified.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(15) And if ye shall despise my statutes.—From passive indifference to the Divine statutes mentioned in the preceding verse, their falling away is sure to follow. Hence what was at first mere listlessness now develops itself into a contemptuous education of God’s ordinances.

Or if your soul abhor my judgments.—Better, and if your soul, &c, as the picture of their Apostasy goes on developing itself.

But that ye break my covenant.—Better, that ye break, &c, without the “but,” which is not in the original, and obscures the sense of the passage, since it is the fact of their abhorrence of God’s law which breaks the Divine covenant with them. (See Gen_17:14.) The sense is more correctly given by rendering this clause “Thus breaking my covenant,” or “Thereby breaking my covenant.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I also will do this unto you,.... Henceforward follow threatenings of dreadful evils to the transgressors and despisers of the commandments of God, which thus begin:

I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart; some, as Aben Ezra observes, take these to design what may affect the seed sown and the increase of it, such as blasting and mildew, because it follows: "ye shall sow in vain"; but no doubt diseases of the body are intended; for what we translate "terror" does not signify terror of mind, but some sudden, hasty, terrible distemper; perhaps the pestilence, as the Targum of Jonathan; some have thought of the falling sickness, as Bishop Patrick, because the word has the signification of haste and precipitance; and the second is a disease well known among us, and so called from its wasting and consuming nature; Jarchi interprets it of a disease which swells the flesh, either fills it with tumours and pustules, the Septuagint calls it the itch; or with wind or water, which has led some to think of the dropsy; and the last of them seems to be rightly rendered a burning ague or fever, though the Septuagint takes it for the jaundice, but that seems not to be so threatening, terrible, and dangerous, as what may be here supposed: now these diseases and all others are by the appointment of God, they come and go by his order, and while they continue have the power over persons, nor can they rid themselves of them at pleasure; and these have such an effect on persons seized by them, as to cause dimness of sight, a hollowness of their eyes, which sink into the head, as well as fill the heart with grief and sorrow; either through present pains and agonies, or in a view of future judgment and wrath to come:

and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it; either eat it up for forage before it is ripe, or, if ripe and gathered in the barn, should come and besiege their cities and plunder their granaries.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

i.e. Break your part or conditions of that covenant made between me and you, and thereby discharge me from the blessings promised on my part.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

15. Despise my statutes — In all deliberate rejection of God’s law, there is the offensive element of pride lifting itself above the divine wisdom and majesty. All wilful sin contemns Jehovah. Herein is the very essence of its turpitude. The following judgments are not for single transgressions, but for an inward contempt of all the divine commandments, breaking out in presumptuous and incorrigible rebellion against Jehovah, who had openly set his name in Israel.

Break my covenant — The successive clauses of this verse are in the form of a climax, rising step by step till the culminating sin is reached — a violation of that solemn compact whose seal was upon the person of every male, and which was pregnant with blessings, to the seed of Abraham. This would be national suicide. “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself.”

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Break my covenant - Break your part of that covenant made between me and you, and thereby discharge me from the blessings promised on my part.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

ואם בחקתי תמאסו AND IF YE WILL SCORN MY ORDINANCES — scorn those who practise them.

משפטי תגעל נפשם [IF] YOUR SOUL LOTH MY JUDGMENTS — This implies hating the Sages.

לבלתי עשות (lit., that my commandments should not be done) — this therefore implies that one prevents others from practising them. (That they themselves do not do them has already been stated in v. 14).

את כל מצותי ALL MY COMMANDMENTS — This refers to him who denies the Divine origin of the commandments, asserting that I have not commanded them. It is for this reason that Scripture states, “all My commands” and does not state, as in v. 14, "all these commands”.

להפרכם את בריתי TO MAKE VOID MY COVENANT — denying the great principle of the existence of God (Sifra, Bechukotai, Section 2 3). — Thus you have here seven sins the first of which brings the second in its train and so on to the seventh. And these are: he has not studied and therefore has not practised the commandments; consequently he scorns others who do practise them, hates the Sages, prevents others from practising, denies the Divine origin of the commandments, and finally denies the existence of God.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

AND IF YE SHALL REJECT MY STATUTES. Because “statutes” are commandments the reasons for which have not been revealed to the majority of the people, therefore fools reject them, saying: “Why does G-d desire that I should not wear this garment which is woven with threads of linen and of blue wool? And how do we benefit by burning the [Red] Heifer, and sprinkling upon us the ashes thereof?” The “ordinances,” however, everyone desires and everyone needs, for there can be no civilized life for any people or country without ordinances. No one will reject the ordinances of: he that smiteth a man so that he dieth; and if men strive together;, Verse 22. and the laws of the ox and the pit, Verses 28-37. and the [four] guardians, 22:6-14. and so on. However, the judgment that we execute upon those who transgress the commandments, such as one who has forbidden sexual intercourse, or profanes the Sabbath, or does [the sorcery of] the ov or yid’oni they will despise, because of [the necessity of keeping these] commandments, which constitute a heavy yoke upon the wicked. Therefore He said, and if your soul abhor Mine ordinances so that ye will not do all My commandments, for their abhorrence of the “ordinances” is in order that they should not keep the commandments.

THAT YE MAKE VOID MY COVENANT. [This means that they desire] that the covenant be completely voided so that they will thus be without Torah, in order to permit themselves openly forbidden sexual intercourse, and every desire which is sweet to their soul. By way of the Truth, [the mystic teachings of the Cabala], the verse means that this covenant will be made void and annulled, [this being] the opposite of [the Divine assurance], and I will give peace in the Land. It is with reference to this that He said, forasmuch as they voided My covenant, although I ruled over them, [meaning that] “because they annulled My covenant of peace, I Myself ruled over them.”

Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Tanakh — English translation: “Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.