Discovery BoxDeuteronomy 2:7 
Context2:7 All along the way I, the Lord your God, 1 have blessed your every effort. 2 I have 3 been attentive to 4 your travels through this great wasteland. These forty years I have 5 been with you; you have lacked for nothing.’”
Deuteronomy 8:2
Context8:2 Remember the whole way by which he 6 has brought you these forty years through the desert 7 so that he might, by humbling you, test you to see if you have it within you to keep his commandments or not.
Deuteronomy 14:28
Context14:28 At the end of every three years you must bring all the tithe of your produce, in that very year, and you must store it up in your villages.
Deuteronomy 15:12
Context15:12 If your fellow Hebrew 8 – whether male or female 9 – is sold to you and serves you for six years, then in the seventh year you must let that servant 10 go free. 11
Deuteronomy 15:18
Context15:18 You should not consider it difficult to let him go free, for he will have served you for six years, twice 12 the time of a hired worker; the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do.
Deuteronomy 17:20
Context17:20 Then he will not exalt himself above his fellow citizens or turn from the commandments to the right or left, and he and his descendants will enjoy many years ruling over his kingdom 13 in Israel.
Deuteronomy 31:2
Context31:2 He said to them, “Today I am a hundred and twenty years old. I am no longer able to get about, 14 and the Lord has said to me, ‘You will not cross the Jordan.’
1 tn The Hebrew text does not have the first person pronoun; it has been supplied for purposes of English style (the Lord is speaking here).
2 tn Heb “all the work of your hands.”
3 tn Heb “he has.” This has been converted to first person in the translation in keeping with English style.
4 tn Heb “known” (so ASV, NASB); NAB “been concerned about.”
5 tn Heb “the
6 tn Heb “the
7 tn Or “wilderness” (so KJV, NRSV, NLT); likewise in v. 15.
8 sn Elsewhere in the OT, the Israelites are called “Hebrews” (עִבְרִי, ’ivriy) by outsiders, rarely by themselves (cf. Gen 14:13; 39:14, 17; 41:12; Exod 1:15, 16, 19; 2:6, 7, 11, 13; 1 Sam 4:6; Jonah 1:9). Thus, here and in the parallel passage in Exod 21:2-6 the term עִבְרִי may designate non-Israelites, specifically a people well-known throughout the ancient Near East as ’apiru or habiru. They lived a rather vagabond lifestyle, frequently hiring themselves out as laborers or mercenary soldiers. While accounting nicely for the surprising use of the term here in an Israelite law code, the suggestion has against it the unlikelihood that a set of laws would address such a marginal people so specifically (as opposed to simply calling them aliens or the like). More likely עִבְרִי is chosen as a term to remind Israel that when they were “Hebrews,” that is, when they were in Egypt, they were slaves. Now that they are free they must not keep their fellow Israelites in economic bondage. See v. 15.
9 tn Heb “your brother, a Hebrew (male) or Hebrew (female).”
10 tn Heb “him.” The singular pronoun occurs throughout the passage.
11 tn The Hebrew text includes “from you.”
12 tn The Hebrew term מִשְׁנֶה (mishneh, “twice”) could mean “equivalent to” (cf. NRSV) or, more likely, “double” (cf. NAB, NIV, NLT). The idea is that a hired worker would put in only so many hours per day whereas a bondslave was available around the clock.
13 tc Heb “upon his kingship.” Smr supplies כִּסֵא (kise’, “throne”) so as to read “upon the throne of his kingship.” This overliteralizes what is a clearly understood figure of speech.
14 tn Or “am no longer able to lead you” (NIV, NLT); Heb “am no longer able to go out and come in.”
