Question
I have a question regarding something I heard in your Psalm series. In Leviticus 26 you mentioned five chastisements against Israel, but Scofield lists six. What’s the difference?
Response
It is only in the New Scofield Reference Bible that the editors decided to list six “chastisements” instead of five. This was not C. I. Scofield’s own understanding, as is evidenced from his original 1909 and 1917 Reference Bible where he lists five “chastisements.” When the New Scofield Reference Bible came out in 1967 the editors of it made numerous changes to Scofield’s original notes, including removing and/or adjusting his original remarks about Paul’s special apostleship and message. Obviously they did not like what he said, so they revised his notes to soften what he originally said, or eliminate it if need be.
The editors also made changes to many of Scofield’s original notes regarding God’s program and dealings with Israel, including the Leviticus 26 passage. Scofield’s original notes correctly state that there are five “chastisements” in Leviticus 26, with the “dispersion” of verses 32ff being a part of the “fifth chastisement.” For as Scofield recognized, (as can also be readily recognized by anyone reading the passage), God does not begin Lev 26:32 with the indication that another Course of Punishment is being introduced or described. In other words, God does not preface verse 32ff with anything similar to the previous expressions like “And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me,…” These are the expressions God uses throughout the passage to introduce and describe the Courses of Punishment, but He does not say any such thing at the beginning of verse 32, or at any other time following Lev 26:27. Hence, God Himself does not indicate that He is describing a sixth chastisement beginning in verse 32.
Therefore, as Scofield’s original notes state, so I agree; there are only five Courses of Punishment in Leviticus 26. I very much disagree with the editors’ notes in the New Scofield Reference Bible, and I am persuaded that they are in error when they say that verses 32ff introduce a sixth chastisement.
Keith Blades
Enjoy The Bible Ministries
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