Leviticus 26:22

Lev 26:22 I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your [high] ways shall be desolate.

Ver. 22. I will also send wild beasts.] As he did. {Num 21:6,2Ki 17:25; 2Ki 2:24 Isa 13:21 Jer 5:6}

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.

Because none dare pass thereby for fear of beasts.

Of your children, 2 Kings 17:25.

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

I will also send wild beasts among you--This was one of the four judgments threatened (Eze 14:21; see also Kg2 2:4).

your highways shall be desolate--Trade and commerce will be destroyed--freedom and safety will be gone--neither stranger nor native will be found on the roads (Isa 33:8). This is an exact picture of the present state of the Holy Land, which has long lain in a state of desolation, brought on by the sins of the ancient Jews.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 22. I will also send wild beasts among you] God fulfilled these threatenings at different times. He sent fiery SERPENTS among them, Nu 21:6; LIONS, 2Kg 17:25; BEARS, 2Kg 2:24, and threatened them with total desolation, so that their land should be overrun with wild beasts, c., see Eze 5:17. "Spiritually," says Mr. Ainsworth, "these are wicked rulers and tyrants that kill and spoil, Pr 28:15; Da 7:3-6; Ps 80:13; and false prophets that devour souls, Mt 7:15; Re 13:1, c. So the prophet, speaking of their punishment by tyrants, says: A LION out of the forest shall slay them a WOLF of the evening shall spoil them; a LEOPARD shall watch over their cities; every one that goeth out thence shall be torn to pieces, because their transgressions be many. And of their prophets it is said: O Israel, thy prophets are like FOXES in the deserts, Eze 13:4; Jer 8:17; Jer 15:3."

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

(22) I will also send wild beasts.—Better, and I will send wild beasts. Wild beasts, which abounded in Palestine (Exo_23:29), are used as a punishment for sin (Deu_32:24; 2Ki_17:25; Isa_13:21-22; Eze_14:15, &c.).

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

22. the beast of the field] savage animals. Cp. 2Ki_17:25.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And if ye will not be reformed by these things,.... Corrected and amended by these punishments, be prevailed upon to return from their evil ways to the Lord, and walk in his commandments, and keep his judgments, and do them:

but will walk contrary unto me; See Gill on Lev 26:21.

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

Desolate, none being left to frequent them; or the few who remain, shall keep within doors, lest the wild beasts should meet and devour them, Isaias xxxiii. 8.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

By reason of the fewness of travellers and people, and the terror of wild beasts growing more numerous thereby.

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

22. Wild beasts — As the promise includes the extinction of destructive beasts out of the land, so the threatening includes their multiplication and their importation from surrounding countries, as the following words imply.

I will send — Before the invention of fire arms wild beasts frequently became a great scourge by their enormous increase.

Rob you of your children — So frequently are children destroyed by wild beasts in India that the English government in their mortality reports in the census tables have a column for the enumeration of the “wolf-eaten” children. A disturbance of “the balance of the power,” by a diminution of men and an increase of wolves, would become a calamity of gigantic dimensions.

Your highways shall be desolate — There can be no more impressive description of national decay than the disuse and desolation of the thoroughfares through which commerce and social intercourse have ceased to move their busy feet, by reason of the decrease of population, the decline of business, the perils of travel, (see Jdg_5:6, note,) and the absence of worshippers going up to the place of worship. Lam_1:4.

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

והשלחתי is an expression for “inciting”.

ושכלה אתכם [I WILL INCITE THE WILD ANIMALS AGAINST YOU] WHICH WILL ROB YOU OF YOUR CHILDREN — I find here mention only of wild animals robbing them of their children, i. e. of animals whose nature consists in this (to attack human beings); whence do we know that cattle whose nature is not thus will also rob them of their children? Because it states in a similar series of threats (Deuteronomy 32:24) “I will also incite (אשלח) the teeth of cattle (בהמות) against them”. — Thus you have two of the seven calamities mentioned above (the attacks of wild beasts and of cattle). And whence do we know that it (the cattle) will kill by its bite? Because Scripture states immediately afterwards, “with the poison of serpents of the dust". How is it in the case of these (the serpents)? They bite and kill by their bite! So, too, will those (the cattle) bite and thus kill. There were indeed such years in the Land of Israel when both a tame ass bit someone and caused his death and the wild ass bit and caused death (Sifra, Bechukotai, Chapter 5 6).

ושכלה אתכם AND THEY WILL ROB YOU OF YOUR CHILDREN — This means your little children.

והכריתה את בהמתכם AND THEY WILL DESTROY YOUR CATTLE — those being outside in the fields (and so unable to escape the attacks of wild beasts),

והמעיטה אתכם AND REDUCE YOUR NUMBERS — you being inside in the houses (reduce your numbers and not destroy entirely, for some of you will be able to escape).

ונשמו דרכיכם AND YOUR ROADS SHALL BE DESOLATE — both the highways and the by-paths (דרכיכם plural!) (Sifra, Bechukotai, Chapter 5 7). — Here again you have seven punishments: 1) the teeth of domestic animals, 2) the teeth of wild animals, 3) the venom of the crawling things of the dust, 4) and they will bereave, 5) utterly destroy, 6) and diminish, 7) and [your roads] will become desolate.

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.