15:7 If a fellow Israelite 6 from one of your villages 7 in the land that the Lord your God is giving you should be poor, you must not harden your heart or be insensitive 8 to his impoverished condition. 9
21:15 Suppose a man has two wives, one whom he loves more than the other, 20 and they both 21 bear him sons, with the firstborn being the child of the less loved wife.
24:14 You must not oppress a lowly and poor servant, whether one from among your fellow Israelites 22 or from the resident foreigners who are living in your land and villages. 23
25:11 If two men 24 get into a hand-to-hand fight, and the wife of one of them gets involved to help her husband against his attacker, and she reaches out her hand and grabs his genitals, 25
28:25 “The Lord will allow you to be struck down before your enemies; you will attack them from one direction but flee from them in seven directions and will become an object of terror 32 to all the kingdoms of the earth.
32:36 The Lord will judge his people,
and will change his plans concerning 39 his servants;
when he sees that their power has disappeared,
and that no one is left, whether confined or set free.
33:8 Of Levi he said:
Your Thummim and Urim 40 belong to your godly one, 41
whose authority you challenged at Massah, 42
and with whom you argued at the waters of Meribah. 43
1 tn Or “you.” A number of English versions treat the remainder of this verse and v. 17 as direct discourse rather than indirect discourse (cf. KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
2 tn Heb “brothers.” The term “brothers” could, in English, be understood to refer to siblings, so “fellow citizens” has been used in the translation.
3 tn The Hebrew word צֶדֶק (tsedeq, “fairly”) carries the basic idea of conformity to a norm of expected behavior or character, one established by God himself. Fair judgment adheres strictly to that norm or standard (see D. Reimer, NIDOTTE 3:750).
4 tn Heb “between a man and his brother.”
5 tn Heb “his stranger” or “his sojourner”; NAB, NIV “an alien”; NRSV “resident alien.” The Hebrew word גֵּר (ger) commonly means “foreigner.”
6 tn Heb “one of your brothers” (so NASB); NAB “one of your kinsmen”; NRSV “a member of your community.” See the note at v. 2.
7 tn Heb “gates.”
8 tn Heb “withdraw your hand.” Cf. NIV “hardhearted or tightfisted” (NRSV and NLT similar).
9 tn Heb “from your needy brother.”
10 tn Heb “gates.”
11 tn Heb “does the evil in the eyes of the
12 tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, indicated in the translation by the words “without fail.”
13 tn Heb “your brothers,” but not referring to siblings (cf. NIV “your brother Israelites”; NLT “a fellow Israelite”). The same phrase also occurs in v. 20.
14 tn Heb “your brothers.” See the preceding note on “fellow citizens.”
15 tn Heb “according to all the desire of his soul.”
16 tn Or “sojourning.” The verb used here refers to living temporarily in a place, not settling down.
17 tn Heb “and this is the word pertaining to the one who kills who flees there and lives.”
18 tn Heb “who strikes his neighbor without knowledge.”
19 tn Heb “yesterday and a third (day)” (likewise in v. 6). The point is that there was no animosity between the two parties at the time of the accident and therefore no motive for the killing. Cf. NAB “had previously borne no malice”; NRSV “had not been at enmity before.”
20 tn Heb “one whom he loves and one whom he hates.” For the idea of שָׂנֵא (sane’, “hate”) meaning to be rejected or loved less (cf. NRSV “disliked”), see Gen 29:31, 33; Mal 1:2-3. Cf. A. Konkel, NIDOTTE 3:1256-60.
21 tn Heb “both the one whom he loves and the one whom he hates.” On the meaning of the phrase “one whom he loves and one whom he hates” see the note on the word “other” earlier in this verse. The translation has been simplified for stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy.
22 tn Heb “your brothers,” but not limited only to actual siblings; cf. NASB “your (+ own NAB) countrymen.”
23 tn Heb “who are in your land in your gates.” The word “living” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
24 tn Heb “a man and his brother.”
25 tn Heb “shameful parts.” Besides the inherent indelicacy of what she has done, the woman has also threatened the progenitive capacity of the injured man. The level of specificity given this term in modern translations varies: “private parts” (NAB, NIV, CEV); “genitals” (NASB, NRSV, TEV); “sex organs” (NCV); “testicles” (NLT).
26 tn Heb “man,” but in a generic sense here.
27 tn The Hebrew term translated here “abhorrent” (תּוֹעֵבָה, to’evah) speaks of attitudes and/or behaviors so vile as to be reprehensible to a holy God. See note on the word “abhorrent” in Deut 7:25.
28 tn Heb “craftsman’s hands.”
29 tn Or “So be it!” The term is an affirmation expressing agreement with the words of the Levites.
30 tn Heb “who rise up against” (so NIV).
31 tn Heb “way” (also later in this verse and in v. 25).
32 tc The meaningless MT reading זַעֲוָה (za’avah) is clearly a transposition of the more commonly attested Hebrew noun זְוָעָה (zÿva’ah, “terror”).
33 tn Heb “you will not cause your ways to prosper.”
34 tn Heb “from the end of the earth.”
35 tn Some translations understand this to mean “like an eagle swoops down” (e.g., NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT), comparing the swift attack of an eagle to the attack of the Israelites’ enemies.
36 tn Or “heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.
37 tn Heb “have not listened to the voice of.”
38 tn Heb “you will not be confident in your life.” The phrase “from one day to the next” is implied by the following verse.
39 tn The translation understands the verb in the sense of “be grieved, relent” (cf. HALOT 689 s.v. נחם hitp 2); cf. KJV, ASV “repent himself”; NLT “will change his mind.” Another option is to translate “will show compassion to” (see BDB 637 s.v. נחם); cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV.
40 sn Thummim and Urim. These terms, whose meaning is uncertain, refer to sacred stones carried in a pouch on the breastplate of the high priest and examined on occasion as a means of ascertaining God’s will or direction. See Exod 28:30; Lev 8:8; Num 27:21; 1 Sam 28:6. See also C. Van Dam, NIDOTTE 1:329-31.
41 tn Heb “godly man.” The reference is probably to Moses as representative of the whole tribe of Levi.
42 sn Massah means “testing” in Hebrew; the name is a wordplay on what took place there. Cf. Exod 17:7; Deut 6:16; 9:22; Ps 95:8-9.
43 sn Meribah means “contention, argument” in Hebrew; this is another wordplay on the incident that took place there. Cf. Num 20:13, 24; Ps 106:32.