Leviticus 26:6 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Leviticus 26:6
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 sword go through your land.
to give · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 1st person common singular
peace
שָׁלוֹם֙sha.lOm
H7965
safe · noun, common masculine singular absolute
land
בָּאָ֔רֶץba.'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
down
וּשְׁכַבְתֶּ֖םu.she.khav.Tem
H7901
to lie down (for rest · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine plural
afraid
מַחֲרִ֑ידma.cha.Rid
H2729
to shudder with terror · verb, hiphil active participle, masculine singular absolute
rid
וְהִשְׁבַּתִּ֞יve.hish.ba.Ti
H7673
to repose · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential perfect, 1st person common singular
evil
רָעָה֙ra.'Ah
H7451
bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral) · adjective, feminine singular absolute
beasts
חַיָּ֤הchai.Yah
H2416
alive · noun, common feminine singular absolute
land
הָאָ֔רֶץha.'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
sword
וְחֶ֖רֶבve.Che.rev
H2719
drought · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular absolute
go
תַעֲבֹ֥רta.'a.Vor
H5674
to cross over · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
land
בְּאַרְצְכֶֽםbe.'ar.tze.Khem
H776
the earth (at large · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Isaiah 35:9 No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there:
Zephaniah 3:13 The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth: for they shall feed a…
Psalms 147:14 He maketh peace in thy borders, and filleth thee with the finest of the wheat.
Jeremiah 30:10 Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the LORD; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy see…
Hosea 2:18 And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of…
Psalms 29:11 The LORD will give strength unto his people; the LORD will bless his people with peace.
Ezekiel 34:25 And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the w…
Haggai 2:9 The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Leviticus 26:1-13
Here is, I. The inculcating of those precepts of the law which were of the greatest consequence, and by which were of the greatest consequence, and by which especially their obedience would be tried, Lev 26:1, Lev 26:2. They are the abstract of the second and fourth commandments, which, as they are by much the largest in the decalogue, so they are most frequently insisted on in other parts of the law. As, when a master has given many things in charge to his servant, he concludes with the repetition of those things which were of the greatest importance, and which the servant was most in danger of neglecting, bidding him, whatever he did, be sure to remember those, so here God by Moses, after…
your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time, &c.--The barley harvest in Judea was about the middle of April; the wheat harvest about six weeks after, or in the beginning of June. After the harvest came the vintage, and fruit gathering towards the latter end of July. Moses led the Hebrews to believe that, provided they were faithful to God, there would be no idle time between the harvest and vintage, so great would be the increase. (See Amo 9:13). This promise would be very animating to a people who had come from a country where, for three months, they were pent up without being able to walk abroad because the fields were under water.
Adam Clarke on Leviticus 26:5
Your threshing shall reach unto the vintage - According to Pliny, Hist. Nat., l. xviii., c. 18, the Egyptians reaped their barley six months, and their oats seven months, after seed time; for they sowed all their grain about the end of summer, when the overflowings of the Nile had ceased. It was nearly the same in Judaea: they sowed their corn and barley towards the end of autumn, and about the month of October; and they began their barley-harvest after the passover, about the middle of March; and in one month or six weeks after, about pentecost, they began that of their wheat. After their wheat-harvest their vintage commenced. Moses here leads the Hebrews to hope, if they continued faithful…
Then follow the words "and I will establish peace in your lands." What peace does God give? The peace which the world possesses? Christ says he does not give that kind of peace, for he declares, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you; not as this world gives peace do I give to you." Therefore he denies that he will give the peace of the world to his disciples. Do you want to see then what peace God gives in our land? If the land is good so that it produces fruit a hundredfold, sixtyfold or thirtyfold, it will receive from God that peace which the apostle describes: "May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts."
"You may lie down to rest without anxiety." Moreover, Solomon says in the book of Proverbs, "When you sit down, you need not be afraid. When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet and you will not be afraid of sudden terror or of the attack of the wicked when it comes." These words he spoke concerning the just and wise man. Furthermore it is said in blessing, "You may lie down to rest without anxiety." If you are just, no one can frighten you. If you fear God, you will fear nothing else. "The just man, like a lion, feels sure of himself";19 and in the words of David, "I shall not fear the terror of the night," and so forth. He adds still further: "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom should I fear? The Lord is my life's refuge; of whom should I be afraid?" and again, "Though an army encamp against me, my heart will not fear." Do you see the courage and constancy of the soul that observes the commandments of God?
"I will rid your country of ravenous beasts and keep war from sweeping across your land." There are many fights which pass over our land, if we do not observe the law of God and keep his commands. Let each one return to his own soul or conscience and examine himself with interior recollection. Let him see how our land, that is, our body, is oppressed at one time by the spirit of fornication, at another by anger or fury. Again it is disturbed by the darts of avarice or struck by the javelins of envy; then it is darkened by the vice of pride. In whatever way the flesh lusts against the spirit or the spirit against the flesh, our land is agitated by exceedingly dangerous battles. Therefore, if a man observes the divine commands, by the Holy Ghost brings his body into subjection, keeps God's precepts and fulfills them, he suffers this fight and war less or endures them in such a way that he is victorious. Indeed, God takes them away from his land and does not allow them to pass over the land, that is, the soul of the just.
Dictionary and topics
Alms — Not found in the Old Testament, but repeatedly in the New. The Mosaic legislation (Lev. 25:35; Deut. 15:7) tended to promote a spirit of charity, and to prevent the occurrence of destitution among…
Priest — The Heb. kohen, Gr. hierus, Lat. sacerdos, always denote one who offers sacrifices. At first every man was his own priest, and presented his own sacrifices before God. Afterwards that office devolved…
B · Many kinds of, noisome and destructive — Many kinds of, noisome and destructive
Blessing · CONTINGENT UPON OBEDIENCE — CONTINGENT UPON OBEDIENCE
Contingencies · IN DIVINE GOVERNMENT OF MAN — IN DIVINE GOVERNMENT OF MAN
Courage · The Israelites — The Israelites
Gifts From God · .Peace — .Peace
Gifts Of God, The · Temporal: Peace — Temporal: Peace
Nation · Promises of peace to — Promises of peace to
Obedience · ENJOINED — ENJOINED
Peace · General references — General references
Reward · A MOTIVE TO FAITHFULNESS — A MOTIVE TO FAITHFULNESS
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
John Gill on Leviticus 26:6
And I will give peace in the land,.... Among yourselves, as Aben Ezra; that as safety from enemies is promised before, here it is assured they should be free from insurrections and from riots, broils, contentions, and civil wars among themselves:
and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid; that is, lie down upon their beds, and sleep quietly and comfortably, and not be in any fear of thieves and robbers breaking in upon them, Psalm 3:5,
and I will rid evil beasts out of the land: out of the land of Israel, as the Targum of Jonathan, not out of the world, such as lions, bears, wolves, &c. which were sometimes troublesome and mischievous in the land:
neither shall the sword go th…
Leviticus 26:3-13
3. If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;
3. Si in decretis meis ambulaveritis, et praecepta mea servaveritis, et feceritis ea:
4. Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
4. Dabo pluvias vestras tempore suo, dabitque terra fructum suum, et arbores agrorum dabunt fructum suum.
5. And your thrashing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing-time; and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.
5. Apprehendetque vobis tritura vindemiam, et vindemia apprehendet sementem: comedetisque panem vestrum a…
The Lord would give peace in the land, and cause the beasts of prey which endanger life to vanish out of the land, and suffer no war to come over it, but would put to flight before the Israelites the enemies who attacked them, and cause them to fall into their sword. שׁכב, to lie without being frightened up by any one, is a figure used to denote the quiet and peaceable enjoyment of life, and taken from the resting of a flock in good pasture-ground (Isa 14:30) exposed to no attacks from either wild beasts or men. מחריד is generally applied to the frightening of men by a hostile attack (Mic 4:4; Jer 30:10; Eze 39:26; Job 11:19); but it is also applied to the frightening of flocks and animals (…
Israel’s restoration following captivity also promised a harvest so plentiful that it would run over into the time of planting (see Amos 9:13; Joel 3:18).
Rashi on Leviticus 26:6
ונתתי שלום AND I WILL GIVE PEACE [IN THE [LAND— Perhaps you will say, “Well, there is food and there is drink; but if there is no peace, then all this is nothing!” Scripture therefore states after all these promises “I will give peace in the land”. Hence we may learn that peace counterbalances everything. In a similar sense it states: “Who makest peace and createst all things" (Sifra, Bechukotai, Chapter 1 8).
וחרב לא תעבור בארצכם NEITHER SHALL THE SWORD PASS THROUGH YOUR LAND — Surely it is unnecessary to say that they (enemies) will not enter your land to wage war (since this is implied in בארץ ונתתי שלום). But this means that they will not enter even to pass by way of your land [o…
