18 "'If you in spite of these things will not listen to me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
And if ye will not yet for all this hearken. The gradation of punishments, which is here mentioned, shews that they are so tempered by God's kindness, that He only lightly chastises those whose stupidity or hardness of heart he has not yet proved; but when obstinacy in sin is superadded, the severity of the punishments is likewise increased; and justly so, because those who, being admonished, care not to repent, wage open war with God. Hence the more moderately He deals with us, the more attentive we ought to be to His corrections, in order that even the gentle strokes, which He in His kindness softens and tempers, may be enough. Paul says that hypocrites heap up to themselves a treasure of greater vengeance, if they take occasion from His forbearance to continue unmoved, (Romans 2:4, 5;) for those who do not repent, when admonished by light chastisements, are the less excusable. Wherefore let us give heed to that exhortation of David, that we "be not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding, whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle;" because "many sorrows shall be to the wicked." (Psalm 32:9, 10.) In sum, as soon as God has begun to put forth His hand to smite us, there is one remedy whereby He may be appeased, i e., teachableness. It would be more prudent of us to anticipate Him, and to return to Him of our own accord, though He should withhold punishment; but when we are smitten without profit, it is a sin of obstinate wickedness. He threatens, therefore, that unless they repent when smitten with the ferule, He will use the rod to correct them. When He says, "I will punish you seven times more," He does not mean to define the number, but, according to the common phrase of Scripture, uses the number seven, by way of amplification. In the next verse He shews that there is a just cause for His becoming more severe, because they cannot be subdued except by violent means; for although the word g'vn, [1] geon, is not always used in a bad sense, still, in this passage, it signifies that they are disobedient, being puffed up to be proud by their power; for, as Moses says elsewhere, Israel "waxed fat, and kicked" against God, just as horses grow restive by being overfed. He therefore calls their obstinacy, wherein they became more hardened, although God spared them, "the pride of their power;" for prosperity begets security, in which stubborn men try their strength against the scourges of God.
1 - "Applied to men, it signifies superior honor, virtue; excellency, lustre; or pride, arrogance, haughtiness." Taylor's Concordance, in voce, g'h
For all this - i. e. for all the afflictions in Leviticus 26:16-17.
Seven times - The sabbatical number is here proverbially used to remind the people of the covenant. Compare Genesis 4:15, Genesis 4:24; Psalm 119:164; Proverbs 24:16; Luke 17:4.
And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you (h) seven times more for your sins.
(h) That is, more extremely.
And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me,.... If such corrections by diseases of body, and by giving them up into the hands of their enemies, should be ineffectual to reform them, and bring them to obedience to the statutes and commandments of God, but should continue in their disobedience to him, and rebellion against him:
then I will punish you seven times more for your sins; that is, abundantly more, with sorer punishments, and these more frequently repeated.
if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more--that is, with far more severe and protracted calamities.
First stage of the aggravated judgments. - If they did not hearken אלּה עד, "up to these" (the punishments named in Leviticus 26:16, Leviticus 26:17), that is to say, if they persisted in their disobedience even when the judgments reached to this height, God would add a sevenfold chastisement on account of their sins, would punish them seven times more severely, and break down their strong pride by fearful drought. Seven, as the number of perfection in the works of God, denotes the strengthening of the chastisement, even to the height of its full measure (cf. Proverbs 24:16). עז גּאון, lit., the eminence or pride of strength, includes everything upon which a nation rests its might; then the pride and haughtiness which rely upon earthly might and its auxiliaries (Ezekiel 30:6, Ezekiel 30:18; Ezekiel 33:28); here it signifies the pride of a nation, puffed up by the fruitfulness and rich produce of its land. God would make their heaven (the sky of their land) like iron and their earth like brass, i.e., as hard and dry as metal, so that not a drop of rain and dew would fall from heaven to moisten the earth, and not a plant could grow out of the earth (cf. Deuteronomy 28:23); and when the land was cultivated, the people would exhaust their strength for nought. תּמם, consumi.
*More commentary available at chapter level.