Bible Strands
Leviticus 26:17
And I will set My face against you, so that you will be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when no one pursues you.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Yahweh addresses the nation of Israel within the escalating covenant curses of Leviticus 26, specifying the immediate consequence of their prior disobedience.
The words — פָּנַי (panai) translates literally to "My face," paired with נָתַתִּי (natati) meaning "I will set," describing a deliberate divine posture of opposition.
The thread — The phrase "set My face against" appears in Leviticus 17:10 regarding blood consumption, while the flight motif recurs in Leviticus 26:36 and Deuteronomy 28:25.
Why it lands — It demands recognition that covenant disobedience triggers direct divine opposition, resulting in military defeat and psychological terror without external cause.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you.
Cross-references
- Leviticus 17:10 If anyone from the house of Israel or a foreigner living among them eats any blood, I will set My face against that person and cut him off from among his people.
- Leviticus 26:36 As for those of you who survive, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies, so that even the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight. And they will flee as one flees the sword, and fall when no one pursues them.
- Deuteronomy 28:25 The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will march out against them in one direction but flee from them in seven. You will be an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.
- Psalms 53:5 There they are, overwhelmed with dread, where there was nothing to fear. For God has scattered the bones of those who besieged you. You put them to shame, for God has despised them.
- Proverbs 28:1 The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.
- Judges 2:14 Then the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He delivered them into the hands of those who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist.
- 1 Samuel 31:1 Now the Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled before them, and many fell slain on Mount Gilboa.
- Psalms 106:41 He delivered them into the hand of the nations, and those who hated them ruled over them.
- Jeremiah 19:7 And in this place I will ruin the plans of Judah and Jerusalem. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, by the hands of those who seek their lives, and I will give their carcasses as food to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth.
- Leviticus 20:5 then I will set My face against that man and his family and cut off from among their people both him and all who follow him in prostituting themselves with Molech.