Bible Strands
Leviticus 26:32
And I will lay waste the land, so that your enemies who dwell in it will be appalled.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — YHWH speaks to the Israelites through Moses during the Sinai covenant stipulations. The declaration follows warnings about agricultural and cultic failure and immediately precedes the promise of exile and eventual restoration.
The words — The root שׁמם (shamem) appears in וַ/הֲשִׁמֹּתִ֥י (ha.shi.mo.Ti) meaning "I will devastate" and וְ/שָׁמְמ֤וּ (ve./sha.Mu) meaning "they will be appalled." Both terms share a single lexical base that denotes utter ruin and the resulting shock of those who witness it.
The thread — The pattern of desolation provoking awe or scorn in hostile observers recurs in Jeremiah 9:11, Jeremiah 18:16, and Jeremiah 19:8. These passages apply the same judgment motif to Judah and Jerusalem, extending the Levitical warning into prophetic history.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to acknowledge that covenant breach produces concrete historical consequences for both the people and their conquerors. It demands acceptance that divine judgment operates through tangible geopolitical shifts rather than isolated spiritual penalties.
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 bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 9:11 “And I will make Jerusalem a heap of rubble, a haunt for jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”
- Jeremiah 18:16 They have made their land a desolation, a perpetual object of scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and shake their heads.
- Jeremiah 19:8 I will make this city a desolation and an object of scorn. All who pass by will be appalled and will scoff at all her wounds.
- Jeremiah 25:11 And this whole land will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years.
- Deuteronomy 28:37 You will become an object of horror, scorn, and ridicule among all the nations to which the LORD will drive you.
- 1 Kings 9:8 And when this temple has become a heap of rubble, all who pass by it will be appalled and will hiss and say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’
- Jeremiah 25:18 to make them a ruin, an object of horror and contempt and cursing, as they are to this day—Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its kings and officials;
- Ezekiel 5:15 So you will be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror to the nations around you, when I execute judgments against you in anger, wrath, and raging fury. I, the LORD, have spoken.
- Deuteronomy 29:23 All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown and unproductive, with no plant growing on it, just like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in His fierce anger.
- Isaiah 1:7 Your land is desolate; your cities are burned with fire. Foreigners devour your fields before you—a desolation demolished by strangers.