7:12 If you obey these ordinances and are careful to do them, the Lord your God will faithfully keep covenant with you 9 as he promised 10 your ancestors.
13:12 Suppose you should hear in one of your cities, which the Lord your God is giving you as a place to live, that
14:1 You are children 12 of the Lord your God. Do not cut yourselves or shave your forehead bald 13 for the sake of the dead.
18:15 The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you – from your fellow Israelites; 17 you must listen to him.
21:10 When you go out to do battle with your enemies and the Lord your God allows you to prevail 21 and you take prisoners,
22:1 When you see 22 your neighbor’s 23 ox or sheep going astray, do not ignore it; 24 you must return it without fail 25 to your neighbor.
26:16 Today the Lord your God is commanding you to keep these statutes and ordinances, something you must do with all your heart and soul. 29
32:6 Is this how you repay 34 the Lord,
you foolish, unwise people?
Is he not your father, your creator?
He has made you and established you.
32:7 Remember the ancient days;
bear in mind 35 the years of past generations. 36
Ask your father and he will inform you,
your elders, and they will tell you.
1 tn Heb “multiplied you.”
2 tn Or “heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.
3 tn Heb “Lord
4 tn Heb “your servant.” The pronoun is used in the translation to clarify that Moses is speaking of himself, since in contemporary English one does not usually refer to oneself in third person.
5 tn Heb “your strong hand” (so NIV), a symbol of God’s activity.
6 tn Or “mind and being.” See Deut 6:5.
7 sn The phrase is not used here in a technical sense for the eschaton, but rather refers to a future time when Israel will be punished for its sin and experience exile. See Deut 31:29.
8 tn Heb “hear his voice.” The expression is an idiom meaning “obey,” occurring in Deut 8:20; 9:23; 13:18; 21:18, 20; 26:14, 17; 27:10; 28:1-2, 15, 45, 62; 30:2, 8, 10, 20.
9 tn Heb “will keep with you the covenant and loyalty.” On the construction used here, see v. 9.
10 tn Heb “which he swore on oath.” The relative pronoun modifies “covenant,” so one could translate “will keep faithfully the covenant (or promise) he made on oath to your ancestors.”
11 tn Or “heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.
12 tn Heb “sons” (so NASB); TEV, NLT “people.”
13 sn Do not cut yourselves or shave your forehead bald. These were pagan practices associated with mourning the dead; they were not be imitated by God’s people (though they frequently were; cf. 1 Kgs 18:28; Jer 16:6; 41:5; 47:5; Hos 7:14 [LXX]; Mic 5:1). For other warnings against such practices see Lev 21:5; Jer 16:5.
14 tn The rules that governed the Passover meal are found in Exod 12:1-51, and Deut 16:1-8. The word translated “cook” (בָּשַׁל, bashal) here is translated “boil” in other places (e.g. Exod 23:19, 1 Sam 2:13-15). This would seem to contradict Exod 12:9 where the Israelites are told not to eat the Passover sacrifice raw or boiled. However, 2 Chr 35:13 recounts the celebration of a Passover feast during the reign of Josiah, and explains that the people “cooked (בָּשַׁל, bashal) the Passover sacrifices over the open fire.” The use of בָּשַׁל (bashal) with “fire” (אֵשׁ, ’esh) suggests that the word could be used to speak of boiling or roasting.
15 tc Smr and some Greek texts add “before the
16 tn Heb “the name of the
17 tc The MT expands here on the usual formula by adding “from among you” (cf. Deut 17:15; 18:18; Smr; a number of Greek texts). The expansion seems to be for the purpose of emphasis, i.e., the prophet to come must be not just from Israel but an Israelite by blood.
tn “from your brothers,” but not referring to actual siblings. Cf. NAB “from among your own kinsmen”; NASB “from your countrymen”; NRSV “from among your own people.” A similar phrase occurs in v. 17.
18 sn These three cities, later designated by Joshua, were Kedesh of Galilee, Shechem, and Hebron (Josh 20:7-9).
19 tn Heb “innocent blood must not be shed.” The Hebrew phrase דָּם נָקִי (dam naqiy) means the blood of a person to whom no culpability or responsibility adheres because what he did was without malice aforethought (HALOT 224 s.v דָּם 4.b).
20 tn Heb “and blood will be upon you” (cf. KJV, ASV); NRSV “thereby bringing bloodguilt upon you.”
21 tn Heb “gives him into your hands.”
22 tn Heb “you must not see,” but, if translated literally into English, the statement is misleading.
23 tn Heb “brother’s” (also later in this verse). In this context it is not limited to one’s siblings, however; cf. NAB “your kinsman’s.”
24 tn Heb “hide yourself.”
25 tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with the words “without fail.”
26 tn Heb “the
27 tn The verb אָהַב (’ahav, “love”) here and commonly elsewhere in the Book of Deuteronomy speaks of God’s elective grace toward Israel. See note on the word “loved” in Deut 4:37.
28 tn Or “household” (so NASB, NIV, NLT); Heb “house” (so KJV, NRSV).
29 tn Or “mind and being”; cf. NCV “with your whole being”; TEV “obey them faithfully with all your heart.”
30 tn The Hebrew text includes “on you.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.
31 tn The Hebrew text includes “from on your feet.”
32 tn Heb “are at the farthest edge of the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.
33 tn Heb “heart.”
34 tn Or “treat” (TEV).
35 tc The Syriac, Targum, and Vulgate read 2nd person masculine singular whereas the MT has 2nd person masculine plural. The former is preferred, the latter perhaps being a misreading (בִּינוּ [binu] for בִּינָה [binah]). Both the preceding (“remember”) and following (“ask”) imperatives are singular forms in the Hebrew text.
36 tn Heb “generation and generation.” The repetition of the singular noun here singles out each of the successive past generations. See IBHS 116 §7.2.3b.
37 tn In the Hebrew text the forms translated “you will die…and join” are imperatives, but the actions in view cannot really be commanded. The imperative is used here in a rhetorical, emphatic manner to indicate the certainty of Moses’ death on the mountain. On the rhetorical use of the imperative see IBHS 572 §34.4c.
38 tn Heb “be gathered to your people.” The same phrase occurs again later in this verse.
39 sn Mount Hor. See note on the name “Moserah” in Deut 10:6.