Leviticus 26:33
And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.
Study Note
Study Note
The covenant curse 'I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste' is the formal Sinai anticipation of the exile that the prophets would later interpret as its fulfilment. Leviticus 26 (the holiness code's blessing-curse conclusion) and Deuteronomy 28 together form the covenantal framework through which all subsequent national catastrophe was interpreted — the exilic community read their situation as covenant consequence, not divine failure. The scattering among the nations is not the final word: verse 44-45 promises that even in the land of their enemies God will not completely reject or despise his people — the covenant is not ultimately annulled. Ezekiel 36:24's 'I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries' represents the reversal of this curse as the programmatic promise of the new covenant.
Other Translations
And you will I scatter among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you: and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.
And you I scatter among nations, and have drawn out after you a sword, and your land hath been a desolation, and your cities are a waste.
And I will send you out in all directions among the nations, and my sword will be uncovered against you, and your land will be without any living thing, and your towns will be made waste.
Cross References
And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none …
And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; …
And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, …
I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send …
And I will scatter thee among the heathen, and disperse thee in the countries, and will consume thy filthiness out …
I lifted up mine hand unto them also in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the heathen, and …
But I will leave a few men of them from the sword, from the famine, and from the pestilence; that …
And I will scatter toward every wind all that are about him to help him, and all his bands; and …
But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land was desolate …
And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and …