Leviticus 26:38 (WEB)

Passage

You will perish among the nations. The land of your enemies will eat you up.

Nearby Context

Leviticus 26:36 “‘As for those of you who are left, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a driven leaf will put them to flight; and they shall flee, as one flees from the sword. They will fall when no one pursues.

Leviticus 26:37 They will stumble over one another, as it were before the sword, when no one pursues. You will have no power to stand before your enemies.

Leviticus 26:38 You will perish among the nations. The land of your enemies will eat you up.

Leviticus 26:39 Those of you who are left will pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers they shall pine away with them.

Leviticus 26:40 “‘If they confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass which they trespassed against me, and also that, because they walked contrary to me,

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "perish", "nations", "land", and "enemies". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "perish" and "nations", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 37's "They will stumble over one another as..." into verse 39's "Those of you who are left will...", so "perish" and "nations" belong inside that flow. In Leviticus context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "perish" and "nations" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.