five · cardinal number, both genders singular absolute
chase
וְרָדְפ֨וּve.rad.Fu
H7291
to run after (usually with hostile intent · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person common plural
hundred
מֵאָ֔הme.'Ah
H3967
a hundred · cardinal number, feminine singular absolute
hundred
וּמֵאָ֥הu.me.'Ah
H3967
a hundred · conjunction + cardinal number, feminine singular absolute
thousand
רְבָבָ֣הre.va.Vah
H7233
abundance (in number) · noun, common feminine singular absolute
flight
יִרְדֹּ֑פוּyir.Do.fu
H7291
to run after (usually with hostile intent · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
enemies
אֹיְבֵיכֶ֛ם'o.ye.vei.Khem
H341
hating · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
fall
וְנָפְל֧וּve.naf.Lu
H5307
to fall · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person common plural
before
לִפְנֵיכֶ֖םlif.nei.Khem
H6440
the face (as the part that turns) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
sword
לֶחָֽרֶבle.Cha.rev
H2719
drought · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
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
Joshua 23:10 One man of you shall chase a thousand: for the LORD your God, he it is that fighteth for you, as he hath promised you.
Deuteronomy 28:7 The LORD shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and fl…
Deuteronomy 32:30 How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up?
Numbers 14:9 Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them,…
Judges 7:19-21 So Gideon, and the hundred men that were with him, came unto the outside of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch; and they had but…
1 Chronicles 11:20 And Abishai the brother of Joab, he was chief of the three: for lifting up his spear against three hundred, he slew them, and had a name amo…
1 Samuel 14:6-16 And Jonathan said to the young man that bare his armour, Come, and let us go over unto the garrison of these uncircumcised: it may be that t…
1 Chronicles 11:11 And this is the number of the mighty men whom David had; Jashobeam, an Hachmonite, the chief of the captains: he lifted up his spear against…
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…
"Five of you will put a hundred to flight." Who are those five who can pursue a hundred? The number five is applied to both the praiseworthy and the culpable, for there were five wise virgins and five foolish; so also the number one hundred can be accepted in either way. Therefore if we belong to the five laudable ones, that is, the five wise virgins, we pursue one hundred of the foolish. If we fight wisely in matters of God's Word, if we discuss the law of the Lord prudently, we convince and put to flight a multitude of unbelievers. Similarly the number one hundred indicates both the faithful and the unfaithful. Under that number of years Abraham is recorded to have believed in God and been justified, while "the sinner of a hundred years shall be thought accursed." Now here a hundred unfaithful souls are put to flight by five wise men. Again, a hundred just men, who are so designated because of their perfection rather than their number, pursue many thousands of unbelievers. Indeed, devout teachers drive away countless demons, so they will not deceive the souls of believers with their old deceits.
"Your foes will be cut down by your sword." Who they are we mentioned above, but let us find out by what sword they are said to fall. The apostle Paul teaches us what this sword is when he says, "For the Word of God is living and efficient and keener than every two-edged sword and extending even to the joints of soul and spirit, of the members also and the marrow, and a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart." This is the sword at whose edge our enemies will fall. For it is the Word of God which casts down all enemies and puts them under its feet, so that the whole world becomes subject to God. Do you wish to learn from still another epistle of Paul that the sword with which spiritual enemies are overcome is the Word of God? Listen to him as he provides arms for the soldiers of Christ: "Take unto you the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, that is, the Word of God. With all prayer and supplication pray." By these words he declares very clearly that by the Word of God which is a two-edged sword our enemies will fall in our sight.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
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…
Armies Of Israel, The · With the aid of God all-powerful — With the aid of God all-powerful
Blessing · CONTINGENT UPON OBEDIENCE — CONTINGENT UPON OBEDIENCE
Contingencies · IN DIVINE GOVERNMENT OF MAN — IN DIVINE GOVERNMENT OF MAN
Courage · The Israelites — The Israelites
Jews, The · Strengthened by God in war — Strengthened by God in war
Obedience · ENJOINED — ENJOINED
Reward · A MOTIVE TO FAITHFULNESS — A MOTIVE TO FAITHFULNESS
Sciences · Arithmetic — Arithmetic
War · God: Strengthens His people for — God: Strengthens His people for
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 26:8
And five of you shall chase an hundred,.... One man chase twenty:
and an hundred of you put ten thousand to flight; which, had it been in proportion to the other number, should have been two thousand, as in Deuteronomy 32:30; where there is a proportion observed; and Abendana observes, there are some that give the sense of it thus, an hundred of you, an hundred times five, that is, five hundred, and so it comes up to a right computation; but here it seems to be a certain number for an uncertain, and only a proverbial expression, signifying that a very few, under the blessing of divine Providence, should get the advantage over a large number, and oblige them to retire, and pursue them closel…
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 (…
Success in warfare would result from obedience to God (cp. 26:17, 36-37; Deut 28:6, 19).
Rashi on Leviticus 26:8
ורדפו מכם [AND FIVE] OF YOU SHALL PURSUE [A HUNDRED] — five of the weakest among you — and not alone of the most robust among you (Sifra, Bechukotai, Chapter 2 4).
חמישה מאה ומאה מכם רבבה FIVE [OF YOU SHALL PURSUE] A HUNDRED AND A HUNDRED… TEN THOUSAND — But is this the right proportion? Surely it should have stated only “and a hundred of you shall pursue two thousand (and not ten thousand)!? But the explanation is: a few who fulfill the commandments of the Torah cannot compare with the many who fulfill the commandments of the Torah (i. e. the greater the group of those loyal to the Torah, the greater is the morale and, under God’s blessing, the physical strength of each individual belongi…
