Leviticus 26:16

this also will I do to you: I will draw out against you the smiting pestilence, the flame and the fever, to consume your eyes, and to exhaust life; and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for it shall not spring up, and that which groweth of itself shall your enemies devour.

I shall command upon you like a man in command of another, who can have his will with him.

confusion, the shaḥefet, and the qaddaḥat These are known illnesses. The connecting preposition here has the sense of “with”.

Confusion means, you will be confused and will not know what to do (although some say that confusion means “suddenly”). Many people have drawn the conclusion, without cause, that shaḥefet and qaddaḥat are both plant diseases (similar to “blasting” and “mildew” [Deuteronomy 28:22], which are known from Scriptural context [Amos 4:9] to be plant diseases), on account of the phrase you will sow in vain . The actual meaning is that they will contract illnesses; then, when enemies come to their villages and eat their grain, no one will be able to go out against them and drive them away.

destroying the eyes… These illnesses will darken the eyes and distress the soul. The phrase distress the soul , like the phrase “a liar gives ear…” [Proverbs 17:4], is missing an ’alef . Some people say that the word eyes represents the entire body, because it is followed by the contrasting phrase which distress the soul; but this interpretation is groundless.

APH ANI E’ESEH ZOTH LACHEM’ (ALSO I WILL DO THIS UNTO YOU). By way of the Truth, the meaning [of this verse is] as if it were inverted: ‘aph ani zoth e’eseh lachem’ [meaning: “also ani — the term for the Divine attribute called zoth, which signifies judgment — will do unto you”]. This is why He always mentions in this section the word ani (I): then will ‘ani’ (I) also walk; And ‘ani’ (I) also will smite you; and ‘ani’ (I) also will chastise you; and ‘ani (I) will bring the Land into desolation; ‘ani’ (I) also will walk contrary unto them. And in the Midrash of Rabbi Nechunya ben Hakanah [we find it interpreted]: “It will not suffice for Me [merely] to pronounce judgment [and have it executed by a messenger], but even I also will chastise [you], etc.”
The principle [of this section] is that it is the Holy One, blessed be He, Who makes this covenant, and this is the meaning of the expressions: seven for your sins; seven according to your sins. And the oaths are [thus] the oaths of the covenant, for the expressions are from the mouth of the Almighty, [speaking] in the language of the first person: ‘I’ will do; and ‘I’ will chastise; and ‘I’ will smite. Therefore Scripture states [concerning this covenant], which the Eternal made between Him and the children of Israel, for He by His Great Name made this covenant. But in the Book of Deuteronomy [Scripture] states, If thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Eternal thy G-d, to observe to do all His commandments, and it continually mentions there an expression of cursing, thus it starts them [the words of the covenant] with: cursed shalt thou be,, Verse 16. since the blessing is absent from them, and it further states, the Eternal will make., Verse 24. It is this which is the [intention of the] saying of our Rabbis: “The imprecations of the Book of Leviticus were [prounounced] in plural terms [if ‘ye’ will not hearken … if ‘ye’ shall reject …], and Moses, in saying them, said them from the mouth of the Almighty [stating: “Thus did the Holy One blessed be He, say unto me, ‘If ye will not hearken unto Me’ “], but those [imprecations mentioned] in the Book of Deuteronomy were [pronounced] in the singular [if ‘thou’ wilt not hearken … which I command ‘thee'…] and Moses in saying them said them [as though they …

אף אני אעשה זאת לכם; I will do what you had meant to do when you broke the covenant, so that I on My part will also free from the obligations it imposed on Me. My undertaking had been to be your G’d as a direct protector instead of protecting them through intermediaries.

והפקדתי עליכם בהלה, I will appoint over you “officials” of alarm, something along the line of Ezekiel 9,5 “then to these He said in my hearing: ‘follow him through the city and strike. Let your eyes neither spare nor show mercy.’”

ואכלוהו איביכם. We have evidence of this prediction coming true repeatedly in the period of the Judges when such nations as Amalek, Midian, Aram, and others invaded the Land of Israel. (Judges 6,3)