What Does Leviticus 26:8 Mean?
Five of you shall pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you shall pursue ten thousand, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.
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 five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.THE KEY
Both “chase” and “put to flight” translate the same Hebrew pursuit verb, while the reach widens from twenty-to-one to one hundred-to-one.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks of victory as force multiplying beyond headcount: five of you pursue a hundred, and a hundred pursue ten thousand, until your enemies fall before the sword. The pursuit ends in death, so the promise holds its violence plainly.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that the larger force must control the outcome; here, the ratio widens as the pursuing group grows.
THE ROOT
רָדַף
radaph
GROWS FROM
ר־ד־ף
r-d-p
To pursue, chase after.
Both “chase” and “put to flight” render forms of רָדַף (radaph, to pursue), so Hebrew repeats one pursuit verb where English gives two different actions. Psalm 34:14 uses the same root for pursuing peace; the root’s force stays the same while its object shifts from enemies to peace.
ALSO GROWS
rodef: Pursuer; one who pursues.
רֹדֵף
This form names the one carrying out the pursuit described in the verse.
redifah: Pursuit; persecution.
רְדִיפָה
The same root can describe sustained pursuit, including hostile pursuit, showing how its direction depends on what is being pursued.
veradfehu: And pursue it.
וְרָדְפֵהוּ
In Psalm 34:14, this form directs the same pursuit toward peace rather than enemies.
THE PATTERN
A smaller force can pursue a far larger one, with its reach multiplying rather than merely keeping pace with its numbers.
How should one pursue a thousand, and two make ten thousand run, unless their rock has sold them, and the LORD has handed them over?One man of you shall pursue a thousand, for the LORD your God is the one who fights for you, as he has spoken to you.And Jonathan said to the young man who carried his gear, Go, and let us cross over to the standing post of these uncircumcised. Perhaps the LORD will work for us, for there is no holding back for the LORD to deliver by many or by few.THE THREAD
Turn aside from evil and do good; seek wholeness and pursue it.Psalm 34:14 uses the same root רָדַף (radaph, to pursue) for pursuing peace. In Leviticus it names a military chase; here the same action aims at peace, so the root holds the pursuit constant while its object changes.
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