What Does Leviticus 26:18 Mean?
And if even after all this you will not hear and respond to me, then I will add to your straightening seven times over, for your shortcomings.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.THE KEY
The verse makes response consequential: continued refusal to hear is followed by sevenfold discipline.
THE MEANING
This is a live warning: when you continue not to respond after what has already been set before you, the consequence intensifies. The verse names that consequence as sevenfold chastening for your misses.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that refusing a warning leaves things unchanged: the verse describes added consequence, not a neutral pause.
THE ROOT
חַטֹּאתֵיכֶם
ḥaṭṭōʾtêḵem
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥ-ṭ-ʾ
To miss or go wrong; to sin.
“shortcomings” in this verse is ḥaṭṭōʾtêḵem. The Hebrew rendered “sins” grows from a root that can also mean missing a mark. The word leaves room to see wrongdoing as a course that has gone off, rather than a fixed identity.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēṭ: A miss, missing, or sin.
חֵטְא
This related noun makes visible the sense of “missing” that the English word “sins” can conceal.
ḥaṭṭāʾt: A sin or missing; in sacrificial usage, an offering for the missing.
חַטָּאת
The same root names the failure and, elsewhere, an offering associated with it; here the verse names the misses as the reason for added discipline.
תִּשְׁמְעוּ
tishmeʾu
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
To hear, listen, heed, and respond.
“hear and respond” in this verse is tishmeʾu. The root holds hearing and response together. The condition is not merely that sound reaches the ear, but that you do not answer what you hear.
ALSO GROWS
shāmaʿ: To hear, listen, or heed.
שָׁמַע
Its range shows why “hearken” carries the sense of a response, not passive hearing.
shemuʿāh: A report or message heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The root also names what is received as a report, linking the act of hearing to what has reached you.
לְיַסְּרָה
leyassĕrāh
GROWS FROM
יסר
y-s-r
To discipline, chastise, or correct.
“straightening” in this verse is leyassĕrāh. The verb translated “punish” comes from a root also used for instruction and discipline. That corrective shade sits beneath the force of the warning: the text still says the chastening is added and severe.
ALSO GROWS
mūsār: Instruction, discipline, or correction.
מוּסָר
This branch carries the root’s instructional sense beneath the verse’s severe consequence.
yissūrīm: Chastisements or afflictions.
יִסּוּרִים
This branch keeps the painful force of the discipline in view; the root does not reduce punishment to gentle advice.
THE PATTERN
When people repeatedly refuse correction they have received, Scripture portrays the consequences as intensifying.
And if you walk against me, and will not hear and respond to me; I will add seven times over strikes upon you, according to your shortcomings.A man often reproved who stiffens his neck is broken suddenly, and there is no healing.But that servant, who knew his lord's desire, and did not ready himself nor do it, will be beaten with many blows.THE THREAD
Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men left-handed; every one could sling stones to the width of a hair, and never miss the mark.The Hebrew verb translated “miss” in Judges comes from the same חטא root rendered “sins” here. The shared root makes the connection concrete: the word can name a miss, and it can describe a sling stone that does not miss its target.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us