Deuteronomy 1:7

1:7 Get up now, ¹  resume your journey, heading for ²  the Amorite hill country, to all its areas ³  including the arid country, ⁴  the highlands, the Shephelah, ⁵  the Negev, ⁶  and the coastal plain – all of Canaan and Lebanon as far as the Great River, that is, the Euphrates.

Deuteronomy 4:19

4:19 When you look up ⁷  to the sky ⁸  and see the sun, moon, and stars – the whole heavenly creation ⁹  – you must not be seduced to worship and serve them, ¹⁰  for the Lord your God has assigned ¹¹  them to all the people ¹²  of the world. ¹³ 

Deuteronomy 9:12

9:12 And he said to me, “Get up, go down at once from here because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have sinned! They have quickly turned from the way I commanded them and have made for themselves a cast metal image.” ¹⁴ 

Deuteronomy 11:17

11:17 Then the anger of the Lord will erupt ¹⁵  against you and he will close up the sky ¹⁶  so that it does not rain. The land will not yield its produce, and you will soon be removed ¹⁷  from the good land that the Lord ¹⁸  is about to give you.

Deuteronomy 28:13

28:13 The Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always end up at the top and not at the bottom, if you obey his ¹⁹  commandments which I am urging ²⁰  you today to be careful to do.

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¹ tn Heb “turn”; NAB “Leave here”; NIV, TEV “Break camp.”

² tn Heb “go (to).”

³ tn Heb “its dwelling places.”

⁴ tn Heb “the Arabah” (so ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV).

⁵ tn Heb “lowlands” (so TEV) or “steppes”; NIV, CEV, NLT “the western foothills.”

sn The Shephelah is the geographical region between the Mediterranean coastal plain and the Judean hill country.

⁶ sn The Hebrew term Negev means literally “desert” or “south” (so KJV, ASV). It refers to the area south of Beer Sheba and generally west of the Arabah Valley between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba.

⁷ tn Heb “lest you lift up your eyes.” In the Hebrew text vv. 16-19 are subordinated to “Be careful” in v. 15, but this makes for an unduly long sentence in English.

⁸ tn Or “heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

⁹ tn Heb “all the host of heaven.”

¹⁰ tn In the Hebrew text the verbal sequence in v. 19 is “lest you look up…and see…and be seduced…and worship them…and serve them.” However, the first two actions are not prohibited in and of themselves. The prohibition pertains to the final three actions. The first two verbs describe actions that are logically subordinate to the following actions and can be treated as temporal or circumstantial: “lest, looking up…and seeing…, you are seduced.” See Joüon 2:635 §168.h.

¹¹ tn Or “allotted.”

¹² tn Or “nations.”

¹³ tn Heb “under all the heaven.”

sn The OT views the heavenly host as God’s council, which surrounds his royal throne ready to do his bidding (see 1 Kgs 22:19). God has given this group, sometimes called the “sons of God” (cf. Job 1:6; 38:7; Ps 89:6), jurisdiction over the nations. See Deut 32:8 (LXX). Some also see this assembly as the addressee in Ps 82. While God delegated his council to rule over the nations, he established a theocratic government over Israel and ruled directly over his chosen people via the Mosaic covenant. See v. 20, as well as Deut 32:9.

¹⁴ tc Heb “a casting.” The MT reads מַסֵּכָה (massekhah, “a cast thing”) but some mss and Smr add עֵגֶל (’egel, “calf”), “a molten calf” or the like (Exod 32:8). Perhaps Moses here omits reference to the calf out of contempt for it.

¹⁵ tn Heb “will become hot”; KJV, NASB, NRSV “will be kindled”; NAB “will flare up”; NIV, NLT “will burn.”

¹⁶ tn Or “heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

¹⁷ tn Or “be destroyed”; NAB, NIV “will soon perish.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 11:4.

¹⁹ tn Heb “the Lord your God’s.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

²⁰ tn Heb “commanding” (so NRSV); NASB “which I charge you today.”