2:24 Get up, make your way across Wadi Arnon. Look! I have already delivered over to you Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, 3 and his land. Go ahead! Take it! Engage him in war!
3:18 At that time I instructed you as follows: “The Lord your God has given you this land for your possession. You warriors are to cross over before your fellow Israelites 9 equipped for battle.
7:16 You must destroy 10 all the people whom the Lord your God is about to deliver over to you; you must not pity them or worship 11 their gods, for that will be a snare to you.
17:14 When you come to the land the Lord your God is giving you and take it over and live in it and then say, “I will select a king like all the nations surrounding me,”
32:11 Like an eagle that stirs up 14 its nest,
that hovers over its young,
so the Lord 15 spread out his wings and took him, 16
he lifted him up on his pinions.
32:13 He enabled him 17 to travel over the high terrain of the land,
and he ate of the produce of the fields.
He provided honey for him from the cliffs, 18
and olive oil 19 from the hardest of 20 rocks, 21
1 tn Or “selected”; Heb “took.”
2 tn Heb “in your tents,” that is, privately.
3 sn Heshbon is the name of a prominent site (now Tell Hesba„n, about 7.5 mi [12 km] south southwest of Amman, Jordan). Sihon made it his capital after having driven Moab from the area and forced them south to the Arnon (Num 21:26-30). Heshbon is also mentioned in Deut 1:4.
4 tc The translation follows the LXX in reading the first person pronoun. The MT, followed by many English versions, has a second person masculine singular pronoun, “your.”
5 tn Heb “hardened his spirit” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); NIV “made his spirit stubborn.”
6 tn Heb “made his heart obstinate” (so KJV, NASB); NRSV “made his heart defiant.”
7 tn Heb “into your hand.”
8 tn Heb “was left to him.” The final phrase “to him” is redundant in English and has been left untranslated.
9 tn Heb “your brothers, the sons of Israel.”
10 tn Heb “devour” (so NRSV); KJV, NAB, NASB “consume.” The verbal form (a perfect with vav consecutive) is understood here as having an imperatival or obligatory nuance (cf. the instructions and commands that follow). Another option is to take the statement as a continuation of the preceding conditional promises and translate “and you will destroy.”
11 tn Or “serve” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV).
12 tc Heb “upon his kingship.” Smr supplies כִּסֵא (kise’, “throne”) so as to read “upon the throne of his kingship.” This overliteralizes what is a clearly understood figure of speech.
13 tc The LXX reads the plural “kings.”
14 tn The prefixed verbal form is an imperfect, indicating habitual or typical behavior. The parallel verb (cf. “hovers” in the next line) is used in the same manner.
15 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the
16 tn The form of the suffix on this and the following verb forms (cf. “lifted him up”) indicates that the verbs are preterites, not imperfects. As such they simply state the action factually. The use of the preterite here suggests that the preceding verb (cf. “spread out”) is preterite as well.
17 tn The form of the suffix on this verbal form indicates that the verb is a preterite, not an imperfect. As such it simply states the action factually. Note as well the preterites with vav (ו) consecutive that follow in the verse.
18 tn Heb “he made him suck honey from the rock.”
19 tn Heb “oil,” but this probably refers to olive oil; see note on the word “rock” at the end of this verse.
20 tn Heb “flinty.”
21 sn Olive oil from rock probably suggests olive trees growing on rocky ledges and yet doing so productively. See E. H. Merrill, Deuteronomy (NAC), 415; cf. TEV “their olive trees flourished in stony ground.”
22 tn Heb “seed” (so KJV, ASV).
23 tn The Hebrew text includes “with your eyes,” but this is redundant in English and is left untranslated.