Deuteronomy 1:28

1:28 What is going to happen to us? Our brothers have drained away our courage ¹  by describing people who are more numerous ²  and taller than we are, and great cities whose defenses appear to be as high as heaven ³  itself! Moreover, they said they saw ⁴  Anakites ⁵  there.”

Deuteronomy 31:16

31:16 Then the Lord said to Moses, “You are about to die, ⁶  and then these people will begin to prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land into which they ⁷  are going. They ⁸  will reject ⁹  me and break my covenant that I have made with them. ¹⁰ 

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¹ tn Heb “have caused our hearts to melt.”

² tn Heb “greater.” Many English versions understand this to refer to physical size or strength rather than numbers (cf. “stronger,” NAB, NIV, NRSV; “bigger,” NASB).

³ tn Or “as the sky.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

⁴ tn Heb “we have seen.”

⁵ tn Heb “the sons of the Anakim.”

sn Anakites were giant people (Num 13:33; Deut 2:10, 21; 9:2) descended from a certain Anak whose own forefather Arba founded the city of Kiriath Arba, i.e., Hebron (Josh 21:11).

⁶ tn Heb “lie down with your fathers” (so NASB); NRSV “ancestors.”

⁷ 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.

⁸ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

⁹ tn Or “abandon” (TEV, NLT).

¹⁰ tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.