(18) And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me.—Better, and if up to these ye will not hearken unto me, that is, if they should persist in their disobedience to the very end of those punishments mentioned in Leviticus 26:16-17. This verse, therefore, introduces the second degree of punishments, which ends with Leviticus 26:20.

I will punish you seven times more.—That is, indefinitely or unceasingly; many more times. Seven being a complete number is often used to denote thoroughness (see Note on Leviticus 4:6), a large or indefinite number. Hence the declaration “He shall deliver thee in six troubles; yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee” (Job 5:19), and “if he trespass against thee seven times in a day” (Luke 17:4), that is, an indefinite number of times. (Comp. also Psalm 119:164; Proverbs 24:16, &c.)

26:14-39 After God has set the blessing before them which would make them a happy people if they would be obedient, he here sets the curse before them, the evils which would make them miserable, if they were disobedient. Two things would bring ruin. 1. A contempt of God's commandments. They that reject the precept, will come at last to renounce the covenant. 2. A contempt of his corrections. If they will not learn obedience by the things they suffer, God himself would be against them; and this is the root and cause of all their misery. And also, The whole creation would be at war with them. All God's sore judgments would be sent against them. The threatenings here are very particular, they were prophecies, and He that foresaw all their rebellions, knew they would prove so. TEMPORAL judgments are threatened. Those who will not be parted from their sins by the commands of God, shall be parted from them by judgments. Those wedded to their lusts, will have enough of them. SPIRITUAL judgments are threatened, which should seize the mind. They should find no acceptance with God. A guilty conscience would be their continual terror. It is righteous with God to leave those to despair of pardon, who presume to sin; and it is owing to free grace, if we are not left to pine away in the iniquity we were born in, and have lived in.For all this - i. e. for all the afflictions in Leviticus 26:16-17.

Seven times - The sabbatical number is here proverbially used to remind the people of the covenant. Compare Genesis 4:15, Genesis 4:24; Psalm 119:164; Proverbs 24:16; Luke 17:4.

18. if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more—that is, with far more severe and protracted calamities. No text from Poole on this verse.

And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me,.... If such corrections by diseases of body, and by giving them up into the hands of their enemies, should be ineffectual to reform them, and bring them to obedience to the statutes and commandments of God, but should continue in their disobedience to him, and rebellion against him:

then I will punish you seven times more for your sins; that is, abundantly more, with sorer punishments, and these more frequently repeated.

And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you {h} seven times more for your sins.

(h) That is, more extremely.