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| RF LEV 26:1 | Prohibition of Idol Making.
"You shall not make idols for yourselves; nor shall you set up columns for yourselves; nor shall you erect stone images in your country, for objects of worship,—for I am your EVER-LIVING GOD. |
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| RF LEV 26:2 | "You shall keep My Sabbaths, and you shall reverence My Sanctuary. I am the EVER-LIVING. |
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| RF LEV 26:3 | THE SONG OF BLESSINGS.
Blessings secured by Obedience and Punishment by Revolt.
"If you are guided by My Institutions,
And guard My Commandments, and do them, |
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| RF LEV 26:4 | I will then give My rain upon you,
And the earth will give her produce,
And the trees of the field their, fruit. |
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| RF LEV 26:5 | And your thrashing shall last till vintage,
And vintage shall overtake seed-time,
And you shall eat to fulness,
And live securely in your land. |
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| RF LEV 26:6 | And I will give the land peace;
And drive savage beasts from the land,
And the sword shall not govern your country, |
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| RF LEV 26:7 | And you shall subdue your foes,
They shall fall before your sword. |
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| RF LEV 26:8 | Five of you shall conquer a hundred,
And a hundred defeat ten thousand,
And your foes fall to your sword, |
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| RF LEV 26:9 | And My Presence shall be with you,
And you shall increase and grow,
I will fix My covenant with you, |
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| RF LEV 26:10 | And feed till your rest in quiet,
And sleep and rise refreshed.1 |
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| RF LEV 26:11 | I will fix My Home among you,
And turn not away My soul, |
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| RF LEV 26:12 | But march with you, and be your GOD,
And My PEOPLE you shall be: |
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| RF LEV 26:13 | For I am your LIVING GOD,
Who brought from the Mitzerites' land,
To whom you had been enslaved,
And from off you broke their rod,
And in triumph marched you out. |
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| RF LEV 26:14 | But if you refuse to hear Me,
And obey not all My Commandments; |
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| RF LEV 26:15 | And if you despise My Statutes;
And turn your souls from My Laws,
To neglect to do My Commandments,
And break away from My Bonds; |
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| RF LEV 26:16 | Then I will do this to you;—
Will send you consumption, and fever,
And wasting of eyes, and a fainting soul;
And scatter your race to the wind;
And your foes shall devour yourselves. |
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| RF LEV 26:17 | I will set my face against you,
And strike you before your foes;
And those who hate you shall drive,
And you fly from instead of pursue, |
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| RF LEV 26:18 | And if for this you will hear Me not,
I will sevenfold punish your sins, |
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| RF LEV 26:19 | And break the pride of your strength;
And turn your skies into iron,
And make your ground like brass; |
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| RF LEV 26:20 | And send you a choking wind,
And your land not give her growth,
Nor the trees of the land their fruit. |
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| RF LEV 26:21 | And if you load Me perversely,
And will not listen to Me,
I will sevenfold punish your sins, |
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| RF LEV 26:22 | And wild beasts shall destroy your sons,
And cut off your herds, and reduce,
And haunt you upon your roads. |
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| RF LEV 26:23 | If for these you turn not to Me,
But perversely load Me still; |
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| RF LEV 26:24 | Then I will load you with grief,
And heavily strike your sins; |
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| RF LEV 26:25 | And bring cruel slaughter upon you,
To avenge the broken Law,
And crowd you into your cities,
And there send the plague to you,
And give to the hand of your foe-men. |
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| RF LEV 26:26 | I will then break the staff of bread;
And in one oven ten shall bake,
And your bread shall be given by weighing,
You shall eat, but shall not be filled. |
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| RF LEV 26:27 | If for this you will not hearken,
But still recoil upon Me, fiercely, |
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| RF LEV 26:28 | I then will advance on you fiercely,
And charge on you in My wrath,—
I, Myself, for your sevenfold sins. |
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| RF LEV 26:29 | You shall then eat the flesh of your sons
And the flesh of your daughters consume. |
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| RF LEV 26:30 | And I will destroy your High Towers,
And cut off your Sin-GODs from you,
Your carrion fling to your carrion Idols,
And from you My soul turn away. |
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| RF LEV 26:31 | I will turn your cities to deserts,
And your sanctifications reject,
And smell not the smell of your sweets. |
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| RF LEV 26:32 | Your land shall be turned to a waste,
And o'er it your enemies rule,
And there shall dwell for themselves; |
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| RF LEV 26:33 | While I fling you out to the heathen,
And after you blow scorching wind,
And by it your land shall be wasted,
And your skins shall be burnt by its breath,— |
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| RF LEV 26:34 | Till the ground has enjoyed all its Sabbaths
By the time that it lies as a waste,
And your haters shall be in the land,
Whilst it rests, and delights in its rest. |
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| RF LEV 26:35 | It shall rest in its desolate time,—
For you gave it not rest in your rests,
While upon it you rested yourselves. |
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| RF LEV 26:36 | Your fragments shall have coward hearts,
As you crouch in the lands of your foes;—
Who shall drive you by threatening voice;
And you fly as men fly from hot blasts,
And fall down when no one pursues. |
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| RF LEV 26:37 | You shall stagger the one on the other,
As though from the face of such blasts,
Though no one pursues,
And never stand up to your foes. |
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| RF LEV 26:38 | You shall wander among every nation,
And tramp in the lands of your foes, |
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| RF LEV 26:39 | And your remnants shall waste in your sins
In the land of your foes as they watch,
For the sins of your fathers and selves,— |
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| RF LEV 26:40 | Till confessing the faults of yourselves,
And the faults that your fathers have done;
And your treacherous revolt against Me,
And the fury with which you assailed! |
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| RF LEV 26:41 | I, therefore, dealt fiercely with you,
And brought to the land of your foes.
If your hard hearts, however, there bow,
And you purify them from their sins, |
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| RF LEV 26:42 | I will think of My Bond made with Jacob,
And also with Isaac My Bond,
And with Abraham remember My Covenant,—
And also remember the Land. |
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| RF LEV 26:43 | Thus the Land rid of their load,
And freed, shall in quietude rest.
But they shall be gorged with their sins,
And gorged by My Judgments despised,
And My Statutes their souls had abhorred. |
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| RF LEV 26:44 | But tho' thus, in the land of their foes,—
I will not reject them, nor loathe,
So far as My Treaty to break,
For I am their STILL-LIVING GOD! |
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| RF LEV 26:45 | I therefore will bring to their minds My old treaty contracted with them In the sight of the Heathen around,
To be their GOD,—for I am THE LIFE!" |
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| RF LEV 26:46 | These are the Institutions and Judgments and the Laws which the EVER-LIVING appointed between Himself and between the children of Israel at Mount Sinai, by the hand of Moses.
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1. v10. Alternative reading, "And you shall eat the old (or sleeping) store; and bring out the old from the face of the new" But this rendering does not carry the Oriental idea of sleep as the highest blessing, and to my view to translate the word as "old" is a violation of the Hebrew verb "Yashen," "to sleep," although A.V. and R.V. adopt it—F.F. |
