AMAREL - It means "The Message or Word of God"

While this chapter from Leviticus
was originally written to the Yisra’elites
it expresses a principle that applies to anyone who believes in
and seeks to follow YAHWEH, The Only True God,
at any time or place.
It expresses the idea
that there are consequences to our actions or inactions,
and that YAHWEH will respond
according to what we say and do.
IF…….THEN. 
IF - you do this, THEN - this is what will happen.

This theme is found over and over in Scripture.
There is a cause and an effect
in virtually everything we think, believe, say, and do.
Perhaps you’ll recognize it in the familiar saying,
“What you sow is what you reap.”

As you read this passage
consider carefully where you stand
in relation to your own faithfulness to YAHWEH. 

The following passage
is a duplication of Leviticus 26:1-46,
                                                                                         with a bit of emphasis added for clarity.
Please keep in mind that this was originally written to the nation of Yisra’el.
It's a vital part of His “Covenant” (contract) with them.
That covenant relationship carried with it specific obligations.
It's not legitimate to apply all those covenant relationships to just “anyone”.
Yisra’el is the focus,
and any “sojourners” (strangers, foreigners) who live in Yisra’el
and/or who choose to serve YAHWEH.

Now, this passage expresses the pure desires and intentions of YAHWEH
in His relationship with those who are called out (set apart) to follow Him.
It has many portions that can conceivably be applied to every person
who chooses to believe in and follow the ways of YAHWEH.
While there are exceptions to this,
it’s important to see what He required of Yisra'el
and what He promised to do in response to their faithfulness or unfaithfulness
in doing what He instructed them to do.

The text provided is taken from The Aleph-Tav Bible.
It’s from the new translation of the Book of Leviticus/Vayyiqra.
It provides the usage of the aleph-tav combination
that is normally left untranslated in English texts.
New notes are provided to help clarify certain items in the text.
The new format is designed to be read out loud.
Try reading it that way.
You’ll be surprised at the benefits it provides.
The text has also been designed
to cause you to THINK about what you’re reading.

From Leviticus 26:

26:1 You are not to make for yourselves idols.
And a carved image or a standing column
you are not to raise up for yourselves. 
A stone statue you are not to place in your land,
to prostrate yourselves toward it, 
because I Myself am YAHWEH, your Elohim!

There are four different terms used here,
each of which represents an idol of some sort. 
'eliyl - good for nothing, vain; specifically an idol.
(An idol is any image used to represent a 'god', a deity of some sort.
pecel - an idol.
matstsebah - something stationed, a column or memorial stone;
by analogy, an idol. From a root word meaning to carve. Hence, a carved image.
maskiyth - a figure (carved on stone, the wall, or any object).
This term is used with 'stone', so represents a stone figure.
Statue has been used since it seems to represent the concept.
But the most important issue is that of 'prostrating oneself
before such an "image-reproduction".
The concept is that of paying homage to it as if it were your 'god'.
This is not to be done.

26:2 My Sabbaths themselves  את you are to protect!
And My Set Apart Place you are to revere! 

I Myself am YAHWEH! 

26:3 If according to My rules you will walk
and My directives themselves את you will protect,
and you will do they themselves את,
26:4 then I will give your rains in their seasons. 
And the land will give its yield. 
And the trees of the field will give their fruit. 
26:5 And threshing will reach for you to the vintage itself את. 
And vintage will reach to seeding itself את. 
And you will eat your food to satisfaction. 
And  you will be settled in security in your land. 
26:6 And I will grant shalom in the land. 
And you will lie down with nothing will make you tremble. 
And I will cause to cease harmful animals from the land. 
And a sword will not pass over into your land.

shalom - safe, i.e. (figuratively) well, happy, friendly; also (abstractly) welfare, i.e. health, prosperity, peace.
To the Hebrew mind shalom means far more than merely 'peace'.
It means total well-being in every aspect of one's life.
Thus, the concept of safety spreads to every area of one's existence.

26:7 And you will pursue your enemies themselves את. 
And they will fall before your faces by the sword. 
26:8 And five of you will pursue a hundred. 
And a hundred of you, a myriad will pursue. 
And your enemies will fall before your faces by the sword. 
26:9 And I will turn toward you. 
And I will make fruitful you yourselves את.
And I will increase you yourselves את.
And I will establish My covenant itself את with you yourselves את. 
26:10 And you will eat the old as being old. 
And the old from before the new you will send out. 

26:11 And I will put My Dwelling in the midst of you. 
And I will not detest you yourselves את. 
26:12 And I will walk in the midst of you. 
And I will be for you as The Elohim. 
And you yourselves will be for Me as a people. 

26:13 I Myself am YAHWEH, your Elohim,
who has brought out you yourselves את
from the land of Egypt, from your being slaves to them. 
I have broken the bars of your yoke. 
And I have made you yourselves את to walk erectly!

The promise if they are faithful to put YAHWEH first
 is overwhelmingly wondrous.
 We would do well to learn from this lesson.
 What follows portrays the consequences
of not following YAHWEH's ways.
Study this carefully!

26:14 But if you do not listen attentively to Me,
and you do not do all these directives themselves את,
26:15 and if according to My rules you reject living,
and if My regulations themselves  את your life detests,
thus failing to do all My directives themselves את.
thus causing your breaking of My covenant itself את,
26:16 surely I Myself will do this to you. 
I will visit upon you panic, emaciation itself את,
and the burning fever itself את, causing the eyes to fail 
and weakening the life breath. 
You will sow seed for nothing and your enemies will eat it.

26:17 And I will set My face against you! 

And you will be smitten in the face of your enemies. 
And those hating you will have dominion over you. 
And you will flee, but no one will be pursuing you yourselves את! 

26:18 And if after all that you do not listen attentively to Me
then I will add seven times more to punish you yourselves את 
according to your offenses. 

26:19 And I will break your mighty arrogance itself את! 
And I will set your skies themselves את like iron 
and your land itself את like copper. 
26:20 And your might will be used for emptiness. 
And your land will not give its produce itself את. 
And the trees of the land will not give their fruit. 

26:21 And if you walk with Me in hostility
and are not willing to listen attentively to Me
then I will add upon you seven times more blows,
according to your offenses. 

26:22 And I will send against you the wild animals themselves את. 
And they will bereave you yourselves את. 
And they will cut off your livestock themselves את. 
And they will diminish you yourselves את.
And roads will be desolate. 

26:23 And if by these things you are not corrected for Me
but you are walking with Me in hostility
26:24 then I will walk, indeed I Myself, with you in hostility! 
And I will strike you yourselves את, I Myself, 
yet seven times on account of your offenses! 

26:25 And I will bring against you an avenging sword,
taking revenge for The Covenant! 
And you will gather yourselves into your walled villages. 
And I will send pestilence in the midst of you! 
And you will be given into the hand of your enemy. 
26:26 In My breaking the “staff of bread” for you, 
then ten women will bake your bread in one oven. 
And they will return your bread by weight. 
And you will eat but you will not be filled to satisfaction. 

26:27 And if by this you will not listen attentively to Me,
but you walk with Me in hostility
26:28 then I will walk with you in the heat of hostility! 
And I will discipline you yourselves את, even I Myself, 
seven times on account of your את! 

26:29 And you will eat the flesh of your sons! 
And the flesh of your daughters you will eat! 
26:30 And I will make desolate
your high places themselves את! 
And I will cut down
your sun pillars themselves את!
And I will set your corpses themselves את
upon the corpses of your idols.!

And I will detest you yourselves את!

The "high places" were locations where idols were worshipped
and often involved sexual misconduct.
chamman - a sun-pillar - idol, image. 
The literal sense is given.
These were pillars at which the sun was worshipped.
However, tradition includes every other idol for which such things were made.
gilluwl - properly, a log.
This is translated as "idols"
since that is what was created using a log.
 If you think in terms of a "totem pole"
 you'll have the proper concept of these images.

26:31 And I will give to your walled villages themselves את desolation! 
And I will devastate your consecrated places themselves את!
And I will not smell your soothing aromas! 
26:32 And I will devastate, I Myself, the land itself את! 
And your enemies who settle in it will be astonished on account of it! 
26:33 And you yourselves את I will scatter among the nations! 
And I will unsheath the sword after you! 
And your land will be a devastation! 
And your walled villages will be a desolation. 
26:34 Then the land will enjoy its Sabbaths themselves את
all the days of its devastation. 

And you yourselves את will be in the land of your enemies. 
Then the land will rest and it will enjoy its Sabbaths themselves את.
26:35 All the days of its devastation it will rest, 
which itself את did not rest on your Sabbaths in your being settled upon it. 

26:36 And those remain among you, 
I will bring faintness into their hearts 
in the lands of their enemies.
And they themselves את will be put to flight 
by the sound of a leaf being blown about. 
And they will flee as retreating from a sword. 
And they will fall, but there is no pursuer! 

26:37 And they will stumble,
a man against his brother, as before the sword.
But no one is pursuing. 
And you will not be able to stand before your enemies. 
26:38 And you will perish among the nations. 
And the land of your enemies will devour you yourselves את. 

26:39 And those remaining among you will rot away
on account of their perversion in the lands of their enemies. 
And because of the perversions of their fathers 
they themselves את will rot away. 

26:40 But if they acknowledge their perversion itself את
and the perversion itself את of their fathers,
according to their unfaithfulness
by which they acted unfaithfully against Me
and also in which they have walked with Me in hostility,
26:41 for which reason I said,
"Surely I Myself will walk with them in hostility!”
And I have brought they themselves את
into the land of their enemies,
then if they humble their uncircumcised heart
and if they accept their perversion itself את.

The text gives evidence of something being left out.
It shifts the tone of the statement causing some ambiguity.
The first line has been added in italics to suggest a possible correction.

26:42 then I will take note of My covenant itself את with Ya’akov.
And also My covenant itself את with Yitzhak,
and also My covenant itself את with Abraham I will take note of.
And I will take note of the land. 
26:43 And the land will be left by them. 
And it will enjoy its Sabbaths themselves את
by being desolate of them. 
And they will accept responsibility for their perversity itself את,
because, even because My regulations they rejected
and My rules themselves את their lives detested! 

26:44 And even for all this,
in their being in the land of their enemies,
I will not reject them. 
I will not detestl them to finish them off, 
to break My covenant with they themselves את
because I Myself am YAHWEH, their Elohim! 

26:45 And I will take note of for their sake
the covenant of the former ones whom I brought out,
they themselves את, from the land of Egypt
in the eyes of the nations, to be for them The Elohim!. 

I Myself am YAHWEH! 

26:46 These are the rules, and the regulations,
and the instructions that YAHWEH gave
between Himself and the Children of Yisra’el
at Mount Sinai by the hand of Moshe.

Note: These words were originally written to Yisra’el.
They still pertain to Yisra’el today!
However, The New Covenant believer
is 'grafted in' to the vine of Yisra’el
- we are part of them!
It is the same YAHWEH, with the same principles,
Who watches over us.

IF we are faithful THEN YAHWEH will bless us!
But, IF we are unfaithful,
we reject YAHWEH and choose to do things our own way,
THEN we also can expect punishment and trouble on every side
because of our sin of rebellion against Him.

These same IF...THEN parameters occur throughout the Word of YAHWEH.
As you read His Word,
pay close attention to those circumstances in which they are presented.
There's an important message associated with this construct.

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION:
Are the many troubles of recent years,
the numerous “natural” calamities,
the economic realities,
the social disintegration, etc.
a meting out of of our punishment in America for OUR sins?
Think about this - in the light of Leviticus 26!

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