What Does Leviticus 26:28 Mean?
Then I will walk against you also in burning heat; and I, even I, will straighten you seven times 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
Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.THE KEY
The rare Hebrew word behind “contrary” is often linked to encounter, so the verse depicts not merely opposing paths but a meeting that has turned hostile.
THE MEANING
When you persist in resistance, the encounter turns to fury: the speaker declares, “I, even I,” will chastise you sevenfold for your missing. The verse ties that punishment to your acts and leaves its severity exposed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that this opposition is random: it identifies the people’s missing as its cause and emphasizes that the speaker himself brings the chastisement.
THE ROOT
קֶרִי
qerî
GROWS FROM
קרה
To meet, encounter, or happen; this is a possible derivation of the rare word.
“walk against” in this verse is qerî. The rare noun translated “contrary” is often connected to a root meaning encounter or happen, though the derivation is uncertain. That possibility makes the image more than opposing directions: the meeting itself has become hostile.
ALSO GROWS
qārâ: To meet or happen.
קָרָה
This possible root link gives “contrary” the added sense of an encounter taking a hostile turn.
miqreh: An event or occurrence.
מִקְרֶה
This related word keeps the sense of something that happens or is encountered, sharpening the passage’s image of a charged meeting.
וְיִסַּרְתִּי
ve-yissartî
GROWS FROM
יסר
To discipline, correct, or chastise.
“straighten” in this verse is ve-yissartî. The verb for chastising shares its root with words for discipline and instruction. That connection reveals correction inside the word, while the verse’s sevenfold punishment keeps the force severe.
ALSO GROWS
mūsār: Discipline or instruction.
מוּסָר
This branch shows that the root can name correction that teaches, even as this verse describes it as punitive.
yissûrîm: Chastisements or afflictions.
יִסּוּרִים
This branch makes the painful force of the verse’s discipline explicit.
חַטֹּאתֵיכֶם
ḥaṭṭōtêkhem
GROWS FROM
חטא
To miss or go wrong.
“shortcomings” in this verse is ḥaṭṭōtêkhem. The root retains the sense of missing or going wrong beneath the English “sins.” This does not shrink the charge: the verse directly names these acts as the cause of the chastisement.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēṭʾ: A miss, offense, or sin.
חֵטְא
It preserves the root’s image of going wrong beneath the verse’s more familiar moral term.
ḥaṭṭāʾt: Sin; in ritual contexts, a sin offering.
חַטָּאת
The same root connects the act of missing with the term for an offering associated with that missing.
THE PATTERN
The path repeatedly chosen becomes the source and shape of its consequence.
And if you will not be straightened by me through these things, but walk against me;Hear and respond, O earth. Behold, I am bringing harm upon this people, the fruit of their plan, because they did not bend their ears to my words, and have spurned my instruction.Do not be led astray. God is not sneered at. For whatever a person sows, that also he reaps.THE THREAD
And I also will walk against you, and will strike you seven times for your shortcomings.This verse uses the same rare word translated “contrary,” so 26:28 deepens an already announced image of a reciprocal walk. It adds fury and “I, even I,” making the escalation explicit.
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