What Does Leviticus 26:23 Mean?
And if you will not be straightened by me through these things, but walk against me;
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 be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me;THE KEY
“Reformed” grows from a root for discipline and correction: the verse asks whether correction changes the path or meets a continuing walk of opposition.
THE MEANING
This verse addresses the reader in the present: correction meets the reader, and the course either changes or continues in opposition to God. “Walk” makes that opposition a sustained direction within the relationship, not a passing disagreement.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that resistance is neutral: a continuing course against correction is named as opposition within the relationship with God.
THE ROOT
תִּוָּסְרוּ
tivvasru
GROWS FROM
יסר
to discipline, correct, or instruct
“straightened” in this verse is tivvasru. The Hebrew verb carries the sense of being disciplined or corrected; “reformed” also points toward a change in course. The verse sets correction beside continued opposition, making the response to that correction the hinge.
ALSO GROWS
mûsār: discipline, instruction
מוּסָר
This noun from the same root holds correction and instruction together, as in Proverbs’ phrase “the chastening of the LORD.”
yeyasser: he disciplines or chastens
יְיַסֵּר
This verb appears in Deuteronomy’s image of a man disciplining his son, showing the root’s corrective action within a relationship.
קֶרִי
qerî
GROWS FROM
קרה
possibly to meet, encounter, or happen; the derivation and nuance are debated
“walk against” in this verse is qerî. The phrase is literally a walk “with me in qerî,” which the verse uses for opposition. The term is commonly connected with qarah, “meet” or “encounter,” so the English “contrary” can conceal how this resistance is enacted within the relationship.
ALSO GROWS
qārāh: to happen, meet, or encounter
קָרָה
This proposed source root gives “contrary” a possible echo of encounter, rather than a merely separate path.
miqreh: an event or occurrence
מִקְרֶה
This related word preserves the root’s sense of something that happens or comes upon someone; qerî here carries the distinct force of opposition.
THE PATTERN
Correction is framed as a relational force that addresses the course a person is taking.
And you shall perceive in your heart, that as a man straightens his son, so the LORD your God straightens you.My son, do not spurn the straightening of the LORD, and do not tire of his reproof.For whom the LORD loves, he trains, and he whips every son he takes to his side.THE THREAD
My son, do not spurn the straightening of the LORD, and do not tire of his reproof.Leviticus uses the verb yasar, “discipline or correct”; Proverbs names the same root as mûsār, “discipline or instruction.” The shared root lets the correction in Leviticus read as an address within the relationship, even as the verse describes a course that continues in opposition.
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