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.
LEVITICUS 26:43KJVWhat does Leviticus 26:43 mean?
Leviticus 26:43 says that after the Israelites are removed from their land because of their wrongdoing, the land itself will finally have rest and enjoy the sabbath years it missed while they lived there. The people will come to accept the consequences of their actions, recognizing that their suffering came because they rejected God’s commands and deeply disliked His laws.
In this verse, God is speaking to the Israelites through Moses, warning them about what will happen if they ignore God’s instructions. The context is a list of blessings for obedience and warnings of hardship for disobedience. Here, the focus is on the land getting its rest while the people are gone, and the people coming to terms with their guilt because they treated God’s rules with contempt.
The Hebrew behind Leviticus 26:43
- "enjoy" — רָצָה (ratsah): This word can mean "to be pleased with" or "to enjoy." Here, it describes the land finally receiving the sabbath rests it was denied, almost as if the land itself benefits from the absence of the people.
- "sabbaths" — שַׁבָּת (shabbat): This refers to the special rest years the land was supposed to have every seventh year. The verse highlights that these sabbath years were ignored, and now the land will get them while lying unused.
- "despised" — מָאַס (ma'as): This word means "to reject" or "to treat as worthless." It shows the strong attitude the people had toward God’s judgments—they didn’t just forget them, they actively rejected them.
- "abhorred" — גָּעַל (ga'al): This means "to loathe" or "to feel disgust." The verse uses it to show how deeply the people disliked God’s statutes, not just in action but in their hearts.
Why Leviticus 26:43 matters
- Leviticus 26:43 clarifies that the land itself is important in God’s covenant with Israel, not just the people; the land’s rest is a consequence of the people’s actions.
- The verse emphasizes that the punishment is not random but directly tied to the people’s attitude toward God’s commands—they despised and abhorred them.
- This verse connects to the broader theme of Leviticus 26, where both blessings and curses are presented as natural results of the people’s relationship with God and His laws.