Deuteronomy 1:11

1:11 Indeed, may the Lord, the God of your ancestors, make you a thousand times more numerous than you are now, blessing you ¹  just as he said he would!

Deuteronomy 1:35

1:35 “Not a single person ²  of this evil generation will see the good land that I promised to give to your ancestors!

Deuteronomy 4:37

4:37 Moreover, because he loved ³  your ancestors, he chose their ⁴  descendants who followed them and personally brought you out of Egypt with his great power

Deuteronomy 5:3

5:3 He ⁵  did not make this covenant with our ancestors ⁶  but with us, we who are here today, all of us living now.

Deuteronomy 7:12

Promises of Good for Covenant Obedience

7:12 If you obey these ordinances and are careful to do them, the Lord your God will faithfully keep covenant with you ⁷  as he promised ⁸  your ancestors.

Deuteronomy 10:15

10:15 However, only to your ancestors did he ⁹  show his loving favor, ¹⁰  and he chose you, their descendants, ¹¹  from all peoples – as is apparent today.

Deuteronomy 10:22

10:22 When your ancestors went down to Egypt, they numbered only seventy, but now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of the sky. ¹² 

Deuteronomy 11:9

11:9 and that you may enjoy long life in the land the Lord promised to give to your ancestors ¹³  and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.

Deuteronomy 19:8

19:8 If the Lord your God enlarges your borders as he promised your ancestors ¹⁴  and gives you all the land he pledged to them, ¹⁵ 

Deuteronomy 26:7

26:7 So we cried out to the Lord, the God of our ancestors, and he ¹⁶  heard us and saw our humiliation, toil, and oppression.

Deuteronomy 32:17

32:17 They sacrificed to demons, not God,

to gods they had not known;

to new gods who had recently come along,

gods your ancestors ¹⁷  had not known about.

---

¹ tn Heb “may he bless you.”

² tn Heb “Not a man among these men.”

³ tn The concept of love here is not primarily that of emotional affection but of commitment or devotion. This verse suggests that God chose Israel to be his special people because he loved the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob) and had promised to bless their descendants. See as well Deut 7:7-9.

⁴ tc The LXX, Smr, Syriac, Targum, and Vulgate read a third person masculine plural suffix for the MT’s 3rd person masculine singular, “his descendants.” Cf. Deut 10:15. Quite likely the MT should be emended in this instance.

⁵ tn Heb “the Lord.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

⁶ tn Heb “fathers.”

⁷ tn Heb “will keep with you the covenant and loyalty.” On the construction used here, see v. 9.

⁸ 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.”

⁹ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 10:4.

¹⁰ tn Heb “take delight to love.” Here again the verb אָהַב (’ahav, “love”), juxtaposed with בָחַר (bakhar, “choose”), is a term in covenant contexts that describes the Lord’s initiative in calling the patriarchal ancestors to be the founders of a people special to him (cf. the note on the word “loved” in Deut 4:37).

¹¹ tn The Hebrew text includes “after them,” but it is redundant in English style and has not been included in the translation.

¹² tn Or “heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

¹³ tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 21).

¹⁴ tn Heb “fathers.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “he said to give to your ancestors.” The pronoun has been used in the translation instead for stylistic reasons.

¹⁶ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 26:2.

¹⁷ tn Heb “your fathers.”