Discovery BoxDeuteronomy 4:27-31 
Context4:27 Then the Lord will scatter you among the peoples and there will be very few of you 1 among the nations where the Lord will drive you. 4:28 There you will worship gods made by human hands – wood and stone that can neither see, hear, eat, nor smell. 4:29 But if you seek the Lord your God from there, you will find him, if, indeed, you seek him with all your heart and soul. 2 4:30 In your distress when all these things happen to you in the latter days, 3 if you return to the Lord your God and obey him 4 4:31 (for he 5 is a merciful God), he will not let you down 6 or destroy you, for he cannot 7 forget the covenant with your ancestors that he confirmed by oath to them.
1 tn Heb “you will be left men (i.e., few) of number.”
2 tn Or “mind and being.” See Deut 6:5.
3 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.
4 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.
5 tn Heb “the
6 tn Heb “he will not drop you,” i.e., “will not abandon you” (cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
7 tn Or “will not.” The translation understands the imperfect verbal form to have an added nuance of capability here.
