5:22 The Lord said these things to your entire assembly at the mountain from the middle of the fire, the cloud, and the darkness with a loud voice, and that was all he said. 11 Then he inscribed the words 12 on two stone tablets and gave them to me.
22:6 If you happen to notice a bird’s nest along the road, whether in a tree or on the ground, and there are chicks or eggs with the mother bird sitting on them, 21 you must not take the mother from the young. 22
25:5 If brothers live together and one of them dies without having a son, the dead man’s wife must not remarry someone outside the family. Instead, her late husband’s brother must go to her, marry her, 25 and perform the duty of a brother-in-law. 26
The Lord came from Sinai
and revealed himself 35 to Israel 36 from Seir.
He appeared in splendor 37 from Mount Paran,
and came forth with ten thousand holy ones. 38
With his right hand he gave a fiery law 39 to them.
33:17 May the firstborn of his bull bring him honor,
and may his horns be those of a wild ox;
with them may he gore all peoples,
all the far reaches of the earth.
They are the ten thousands of Ephraim, 40
and they are the thousands of Manasseh.
1 tn Heb “you,” and throughout the verse (cf. NASB, NRSV).
2 tn Heb “the small,” but referring to social status, not physical stature.
3 sn Ar was a Moabite city on the Arnon River east of the Dead Sea. It is mentioned elsewhere in the “Book of the Wars of Yahweh” (Num 21:15; cf. 21:28; Isa 15:1). Here it is synonymous with the whole land of Moab.
4 sn The descendants of Lot. Following the destruction of the cities of the plain, Sodom and Gomorrah, as God’s judgment, Lot fathered two sons by his two daughters, namely, Moab and Ammon (Gen 19:30-38). Thus, these descendants of Lot in and around Ar were the Moabites.
5 sn Lot’s descendants. See note on this phrase in Deut 2:9.
6 tn The words “you must fight” are not present in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarity.
7 tn Heb “gives your brothers rest.”
8 tn The text begins with “(the) day (in) which.” In the Hebrew text v. 10 is subordinate to v. 11, but for stylistic reasons the translation treats v. 10 as an independent clause, necessitating the omission of the subordinating temporal phrase at the beginning of the verse.
9 tn Heb “the
10 tn Heb “my words.” See v. 13; in Hebrew the “ten commandments” are the “ten words.”
11 tn Heb “and he added no more” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); NLT “This was all he said at that time.”
12 tn Heb “them”; the referent (the words spoken by the
13 tn The Hebrew word תּוֹעֵבָה (to’evah, “abhorrent; detestable”) describes anything detestable to the
14 tn Heb “uprightness of your heart” (so NASB, NRSV). The Hebrew word צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah, “righteousness”), though essentially synonymous here with יֹשֶׁר (yosher, “uprightness”), carries the idea of conformity to an objective standard. The term יֹשֶׁר has more to do with an inner, moral quality (cf. NAB, NIV “integrity”). Neither, however, was grounds for the
15 tn Heb “the
16 tn Heb “fathers.”
17 tc Heb “a casting.” The MT reads מַסֵּכָה (massekhah, “a cast thing”) but some
18 tn Heb “the
19 tn Heb “the
20 tn Heb “gates” (so KJV, NASB); NAB “in your own community.”
21 tn Heb “and the mother sitting upon the chicks or the eggs.”
22 tn Heb “sons,” used here in a generic sense for offspring.
23 tn Heb “for he”; the referent (the man who made the accusation) has been specified in the translation to avoid confusion with the young woman’s father, the last-mentioned male.
24 tn Heb “brought forth a bad name.”
25 tn Heb “take her as wife”; NRSV “taking her in marriage.”
26 sn This is the so-called “levirate” custom (from the Latin term levir, “brother-in-law”), an ancient provision whereby a man who died without male descendants to carry on his name could have a son by proxy, that is, through a surviving brother who would marry his widow and whose first son would then be attributed to the brother who had died. This is the only reference to this practice in an OT legal text but it is illustrated in the story of Judah and his sons (Gen 38) and possibly in the account of Ruth and Boaz (Ruth 2:8; 3:12; 4:6).
27 tn Heb “fathers.”
28 tn The Hebrew text includes “and said to him.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.
29 tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 20).
30 tn Heb “lie down with your fathers” (so NASB); NRSV “ancestors.”
31 tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they,” which is necessary in any case in the translation because of contemporary English style. The third person singular also occurs in the Hebrew text twice more in this verse, three times in v. 17, once in v. 18, five times in v. 20, and four times in v. 21. Each time it is translated as third person plural for stylistic reasons.
32 tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.
33 tn Or “abandon” (TEV, NLT).
34 tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.
35 tn Or “rose like the sun” (NCV, TEV).
36 tc Heb “to him.” The LXX reads “to us” (לָנוּ [lanu] for לָמוֹ [lamo]), the reading of the MT is acceptable since it no doubt has in mind Israel as a collective singular.
tn Heb “him”; the referent (Israel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
37 tn Or “he shone forth” (NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
38 tc With slight alteration (מִמְרִבַת קָדֵשׁ [mimrivat qadesh] for the MT’s מֵרִבְבֹת קֹדֶשׁ [merivvot qodesh]) the translation would be “from Meribah Kadesh” (cf. NAB, NLT; see Deut 32:51). However, the language of holy war in the immediate context favors the reading of the MT, which views the Lord as accompanied by angelic hosts.
39 tc The mispointed Hebrew term אֵשְׁדָּת (’eshdat) should perhaps be construed as אֵשְׁהַת (’eshhat) with Smr.
40 sn Ephraim and Manasseh were the sons of Joseph who became founders of the two tribes into which Joseph’s descendants were split (Gen 48:19-20). Jacob’s blessing granted favored status to Ephraim; this is probably why Ephraim is viewed here as more numerous than Manasseh.