Bible Commentaries

Then I will give you ^a rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.

(a) By promising abundance of earthly things, he stirs the mind to consider the rich treasures of the spiritual blessings.

And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make [you] afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the ^b sword go through your land.

(b) You shall have no war.

For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and ^c establish my covenant with you.

(c) Perform that which I have promised.

And I will set my ^d tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you.

(d) I will be daily present with you.

I [am] the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the ^e bands of your yoke, and made you go upright.

(e) I have set you at full liberty, while before you were as beasts tied in bands.

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 ^f covenant:

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

And I will set ^g my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you.

(g) Read (Leviticus 17:10).

And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you ^h seven times more for your sins.

(h) That is, more extremely.

And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as ⁱ iron, and your earth as brass:

(i) You shall have drought and barrenness.

And if ye walk ^k contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins.

(k) Or as some read, by fortune, imputing my plagues to chance and fortune.

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

(l) Read (2 Kings 17:25).

(m) Because no one dares to pass by it for fear of the beasts.

[And] when I have broken the ⁿ staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one ^o oven, and they shall deliver [you] your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied.

(n) That is, the strength by which life is sustained, (Ezekiel 4:16) , (Ezekiel 5:16).

(o) One oven will be sufficient for ten families.

And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I ^p will not smell the savour of your sweet odours.

(p) I will not accept your sacrifices.

As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your ^r sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.

(r) Which I commanded you to keep.

And upon them that are left [alive] of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall ^s flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth.

(s) As if their enemies chased them.

And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with ^t them.

(t) In that, as they are blameworthy of their fathers faults, they shall be punished as well as their fathers.

^u The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes.

(u) While they are captives, and without repentance.

But I will for their sakes remember the ^x covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I [am] the LORD.

(x) Made to their forefathers.

These [are] the statutes and judgments and laws, which the LORD made between him and the children of Israel in mount ^y Sinai by the hand of Moses.

(y) Fifty days after they came out of Egypt.