Deuteronomy 4:30

4:30 In your distress when all these things happen to you in the latter days, ¹  if you return to the Lord your God and obey him ² 

Deuteronomy 7:7

The Basis of Israel’s Election

7:7 It is not because you were more numerous than all the other peoples that the Lord favored and chose you – for in fact you were the least numerous of all peoples.

Deuteronomy 10:15

10:15 However, only to your ancestors did he ³  show his loving favor, ⁴  and he chose you, their descendants, ⁵  from all peoples – as is apparent today.

Deuteronomy 11:23

11:23 then he ⁶  will drive out all these nations ahead of you, and you will dispossess nations greater and stronger than you.

Deuteronomy 13:15

13:15 you must by all means ⁷  slaughter the inhabitants of that city with the sword; annihilate ⁸  with the sword everyone in it, as well as the livestock.

Deuteronomy 16:18

Provision for Justice

16:18 You must appoint judges and civil servants ⁹  for each tribe in all your villages ¹⁰  that the Lord your God is giving you, and they must judge the people fairly. ¹¹ 

Deuteronomy 20:11

20:11 If it accepts your terms ¹²  and submits to you, all the people found in it will become your slaves. ¹³ 

Deuteronomy 21:6

21:6 and all the elders of that city nearest the corpse ¹⁴  must wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. ¹⁵ 

Deuteronomy 32:27

32:27 But I fear the reaction ¹⁶  of their enemies,

for ¹⁷  their adversaries would misunderstand

and say, “Our power is great, ¹⁸ 

and the Lord has not done all this!”’

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¹ sn The phrase is not used here in a technical sense for the eschaton, but rather refers to a future time when Israel will be punished for its sin and experience exile. See Deut 31:29.

² tn Heb “hear his voice.” The expression is an idiom meaning “obey,” occurring in Deut 8:20; 9:23; 13:18; 21:18, 20; 26:14, 17; 27:10; 28:1-2, 15, 45, 62; 30:2, 8, 10, 20.

³ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 10:4.

⁴ tn Heb “take delight to love.” Here again the verb אָהַב (’ahav, “love”), juxtaposed with בָחַר (bakhar, “choose”), is a term in covenant contexts that describes the Lord’s initiative in calling the patriarchal ancestors to be the founders of a people special to him (cf. the note on the word “loved” in Deut 4:37).

⁵ tn The Hebrew text includes “after them,” but it is redundant in English style and has not been included in the translation.

⁶ tn Heb “the Lord.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

⁷ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, indicated in the translation by the words “by all means.” Cf. KJV, NASB “surely”; NIV “certainly.”

⁸ tn Or “put under divine judgment. The Hebrew word (חֵרֶם, kherem) refers to placing persons or things under God’s judgment, usually to the extent of their complete destruction.Though primarily applied against the heathen, this severe judgment could also fall upon unrepentant Israelites (cf. the story of Achan in Josh 7). See also the note on the phrase “divine judgment” in Deut 2:34.

⁹ tn The Hebrew term וְשֹׁטְרִים (vÿshoterim), usually translated “officers” (KJV, NCV) or “officials” (NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT), derives from the verb שֹׁטֵר (shoter, “to write”). The noun became generic for all types of public officials. Here, however, it may be appositionally epexegetical to “judges,” thus resulting in the phrase, “judges, that is, civil officers,” etc. Whoever the שֹׁטְרִים are, their task here consists of rendering judgments and administering justice.

¹⁰ tn Heb “gates.”

¹¹ tn Heb “with judgment of righteousness”; ASV, NASB “with righteous judgment.”

¹² tn Heb “if it answers you peace.”

¹³ tn Heb “become as a vassal and will serve you.” The Hebrew term translated slaves (מַס, mas) refers either to Israelites who were pressed into civil service, especially under Solomon (1 Kgs 5:27; 9:15, 21; 12:18), or (as here) to foreigners forced as prisoners of war to become slaves to Israel. The Gibeonites exemplify this type of servitude (Josh 9:3-27; cf. Josh 16:10; 17:13; Judg 1:28, 30-35; Isa 31:8; Lam 1:1).

¹⁴ tn Heb “slain [one].”

¹⁵ tn Heb “wadi,” a seasonal watercourse through a valley.

¹⁶ tn Heb “anger.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “lest.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “Our hand is high.” Cf. NAB “Our own hand won the victory.”