Leviticus 26:18

Summary

Leviticus 26:18 continues a conditional warning: if the people still do not listen after the preceding punishments ("up to these things"), YHWH declares he will intensify the disciplinary action, multiplying it "sevenfold" in proportion to their sins.

Key words

• 'im ("if", H0518A) — conditional particle opening the protasis, linked to 'ad 'elleh ("up to these [things]"), marking a cumulative threshold after prior warnings already mentioned in the chapter.
• tishme'u ("you will listen", H8085G) — qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural, expressing an ongoing/future potential action; combined with lo' ("not", H3808) it forms the negative condition "you will not listen."
• ya.saf.ti ("I will repeat/add", H3254G) — qal sequential perfect, 1st person singular, continuing the narrative chain from the conditional clause; it signals that the subject (YHWH) will "add to" or "increase" the following action.
• ya.se.rah ("to discipline", H3256) — piel infinitive, an intensive verbal stem denoting corrective or disciplinary action, governed by the preposition le ("to"), forming the purpose clause "to discipline you."
• sheva' ("sevenfold", H7651) — cardinal number, common gender singular, quantifying the intensity of the disciplinary action described by ya.se.rah.
• chatotei-khem ("your sins", H2403B + H9026) — feminine plural noun in construct form with pronominal suffix, indicating the cause ("on account of your sins") for the increased discipline.

What the text says

The verse is structured as a conditional sentence: the protasis (ve'im 'ad 'elleh lo' tishme'u li, "and if up to these you will not listen to me") sets the condition, referring back to prior stipulations or punishments implied by 'ad 'elleh ("up to these things"). The apodosis begins with the sequential perfect ya.saf.ti ("I will repeat/add"), a verb form that continues a narrative or logical sequence begun earlier in the chapter, here marking the next stage of divine response.

The infinitive construction le-ya.se.rah 'etkhem ("to discipline you") uses the piel stem of ya.se.rah (H3256), an intensive verbal form that denotes deliberate corrective action, distinct from a simple causative sense. The numeral sheva' ("sevenfold", H7651) quantifies this intensification without specifying a literal multiplication factor beyond the idiomatic sense of "repeated intensity." The final clause, 'al chatotei-khem ("on account of your sins"), uses the construct plural noun chatotei ("sins", H2403B) with a 2nd person plural suffix, tying the increased discipline directly to the addressees' own transgressions.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders ya.se.rah ("to discipline") with the Greek paideusai ("to instruct/correct"), a term with a pedagogical connotation, while the Vulgate uses correptiones ("corrections/rebukes"), a noun rather than a verb, shifting the sentence structure slightly. The Hebrew ya.saf.ti le-ya.se.rah ("I will repeat to discipline") is thus expressed in Latin as "I will add your corrections," nominalizing the action where the Hebrew uses a verb + infinitive construction.