Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Leviticus 26:21 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 21. 21And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse introduces a second sevenfold escalation for continued opposition.
Read It With
- Leviticus 26:14-26
Start with 26:14-26 rather than Leviticus 26:21 alone. In that complete movement, this verse introduces a second sevenfold escalation for continued opposition. The unit's controlling claim is: The warning moves from disease and failed sowing through defeat, wild animals, sword, pestilence, and bread scarcity in repeated sevenfold escalations.
Why This Verse Appears Here
This verse introduces a second sevenfold escalation for continued opposition. Its place in Leviticus 26:14-26 matters because this unit follows at this point to define refusal brings escalating terror, crop loss, defeat, and hunger before the book turns to the next offering, priestly act, status distinction, social command, calendar movement, land case, covenant warning, or vow rule.
Follow the Context
- The unit opens the case or movement named “Refusal brings escalating terror, crop loss, defeat, and hunger.”
- The warning moves from disease and failed sowing through defeat, wild animals, sword, pestilence, and bread scarcity in repeated sevenfold escalations.
- The rhetoric does not identify the cause of any modern illness, disability, invasion, famine, or personal loss. That boundary keeps ritual status, moral guilt, ancient description, enduring truth, and modern application from being collapsed.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
Leviticus 26:21 does not stand apart from Leviticus 26:14-26; the rhetoric does not identify the cause of any modern illness, disability, invasion, famine, or personal loss.
What Remains True
Introduces a second sevenfold escalation for continued opposition. Within Leviticus 26:14-26, this contributes to the larger claim that the warning moves from disease and failed sowing through defeat, wild animals, sword, pestilence, and bread scarcity in repeated sevenfold escalations.
How It Can Shape Life
- When teaching Leviticus 26:21, keep the verse inside Leviticus 26:14-26. Hold this boundary: The rhetoric does not identify the cause of any modern illness, disability, invasion, famine, or personal loss. Apply only the noncoercive truth the complete unit supports.
Teach It Back
Explain Leviticus 26:21's contribution to Leviticus 26:14-26. Name the category involved, what the surrounding verses add, any material uncertainty, and what the verse does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Leviticus 26:14-26 — Refusal brings escalating terror, crop loss, defeat, and hungerSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
Interpreters disagree over treaty parallels, compositional setting, the difficult term qeri, historical referents, the relation of individual and corporate responsibility, and how later Jewish and Christian communities receive covenant sanctions. Confidence is highest in the chapter's escalating rhetoric and final remembered-covenant turn.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: Leviticus 26:14-26, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Leviticus
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, ritual and legal vocabulary, names, clause relationships, KJV language controls, and translation limits.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Lev.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 26:14-26
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Leviticus with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
eBible.org distribution of the NET Bible, PDF generated 2025-12-31
Supports: Unit-bounded translator notes on Hebrew, syntax, ritual vocabulary, measures, textual questions, and older-English wording; silence is not treated as evidence.
Exact location: NET Bible Leviticus PDF, complete PDF pp. 1-99, translation and translator notes for 26:14-26
Open source ↗