The beginning of Bechukotai has two main parts: blessings – “If ye walk in My statutes, and keep My commandments, and do them;” (Leviticus 26:3) – and curses: “But if ye will not hearken unto Me, and will not do all these commandments;” (verse 14).
The blessings describe an idyllic state of quiet, peace, and tranquility accompanied by enormous harvests. Toward their end comes the climax: “And I will set My tabernacle among you.” Yet the remainder of the verse adds a seemingly irrelevant promise: “and My soul shall not abhor you” (Leviticus 26:11).
The root g–ʿ–l is rare in the Bible. In the Torah it occurs only in this portion, where it appears five times. “Abhorrence” means intense repulsion, aversion, disgust. After the Israelites have followed the LORD’s statutes and observed His commandments, is the great news that He will not be disgusted with them?
To understand this promise, we must compare the blessings and curses of Bechukotai with their counterpart in Ki Tavo in Deuteronomy (chapter 28).
In Deuteronomy, the scenario of curses has no happy ending. After all the punishments and blows, the LORD restores the situation that existed before He redeemed Israel from Egypt. Deuteronomy’s curses end with Israel returning to Egypt and being offered for sale there as male and female slaves, with no buyer (Deuteronomy 28:68). In Leviticus, however, there is a promise and hope for a better future: “And yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break My covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God” (Leviticus 26:44).
Deuteronomy stresses the people’s sole responsibility for maintaining the covenant. Once it is violated it is annulled, and no other foundation safeguards the continuing relationship. The punishment is therefore absolute and irreversible. Leviticus, by contrast, emphasizes an earlier covenant at the foundation of the relationship between the LORD and Israel – the covenant with the patriarchs – to which they can return: “then will I remember My covenant with Jacob, and also My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.” (Leviticus 26:42).
The message and great promise of Bechukotai, contained in “and My soul shall not abhor you,” is that an ancestral covenant binds the LORD. Whatever Israel does, therefore, whether they sin (verse 44) or follow His statutes (verse 11), the covenant with the patriarchs is not broken, and it guarantees Israel’s existence: “I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break My covenant with them.”
