(21) And if ye walk contrary unto me.--That is, continue the defiance of the Divine law, and rebel against God's authority. The third warning, contained in Leviticus 26:21-22, threatens them with destruction by wild beasts.
Seven times more plagues.--That is, a still greater number. (See Leviticus 26:18.)
According to your sins.--This increased number of scourges will be in proportion to their sins, since their defiance, in spite of the two preceding classes of punishments, aggravates and enhances their guilt.
Verses 21, 22. - Punishment in its third degree. I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number. So in the case of the Assyrians transported to Palestine, "At the beginning of their dwelling there, they feared not the Lord: therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which slew some of them" (2 Kings 17:25) - and your high ways shall be desolate. Cf. Judges 5:6, "In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, and the travelers walked through byways."
26:14-39 After God has set the blessing before them which would make them a happy people if they would be obedient, he here sets the curse before them, the evils which would make them miserable, if they were disobedient. Two things would bring ruin. 1. A contempt of God's commandments. They that reject the precept, will come at last to renounce the covenant. 2. A contempt of his corrections. If they will not learn obedience by the things they suffer, God himself would be against them; and this is the root and cause of all their misery. And also, The whole creation would be at war with them. All God's sore judgments would be sent against them. The threatenings here are very particular, they were prophecies, and He that foresaw all their rebellions, knew they would prove so. TEMPORAL judgments are threatened. Those who will not be parted from their sins by the commands of God, shall be parted from them by judgments. Those wedded to their lusts, will have enough of them. SPIRITUAL judgments are threatened, which should seize the mind. They should find no acceptance with God. A guilty conscience would be their continual terror. It is righteous with God to leave those to despair of pardon, who presume to sin; and it is owing to free grace, if we are not left to pine away in the iniquity we were born in, and have lived in.
And if ye walk contrary unto me,.... To his mind and will, to his laws, commands, and ordinances, showing no regard unto them by a walk and conversation agreeably to them, but neglecting and breaking them continually; or by chance, as the Targum of Jonathan, not with any intention and design to obey the Lord, and to honour and glorify him, but in a careless and indifferent manner, having no regard to the law of God, only now and then, as it happens, act according to it, but having no concern for the honour and glory of God:
and will not hearken unto me; to his voice in his laws and his precepts, or by his prophets, exhorting them to obedience to them:
I will bring seven times more plagues upon you, according to your sins; greater and sorer punishments still, and these more frequently repeated, and in proportion to their transgressions of his righteous laws.
Seven times more plagues.--That is, a still greater number. (See Leviticus 26:18.)
According to your sins.--This increased number of scourges will be in proportion to their sins, since their defiance, in spite of the two preceding classes of punishments, aggravates and enhances their guilt.
and will not hearken unto me; to his voice in his laws and his precepts, or by his prophets, exhorting them to obedience to them:
I will bring seven times more plagues upon you, according to your sins; greater and sorer punishments still, and these more frequently repeated, and in proportion to their transgressions of his righteous laws.