Discovery BoxDeuteronomy 29:9-13 
Context29:9 “Therefore, keep the terms 1 of this covenant and obey them so that you may be successful in everything you do. 29:10 You are standing today, all of you, before the Lord your God – the heads of your tribes, 2 your elders, your officials, every Israelite man, 29:11 your infants, your wives, and the 3 foreigners living in your encampment, those who chop wood and those who carry water – 29:12 so that you may enter by oath into the covenant the Lord your God is making with you today. 4 29:13 Today he will affirm that you are his people and that he is your God, 5 just as he promised you and as he swore by oath to your ancestors 6 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
1 tn Heb “words.”
2 tc Heb “your heads, your tribes.” The Syriac presupposes either “heads of your tribes” or “your heads, your judges,” etc. (reading שֹׁפְטֵכֶם [shofÿtekhem] for שִׁבְטֵיכֶם [shivtekhem]). Its comparative difficulty favors the originality of the MT reading. Cf. KJV “your captains of your tribes”; NRSV “the leaders of your tribes”; NLT “your tribal leaders.”
3 tn Heb “your.”
4 tn Heb “for you to pass on into the covenant of the Lord your God and into his oath, which the Lord your God is cutting with you today.”
5 tn Heb “in order to establish you today to him for a people and he will be to you for God.” Verses 10-13 are one long sentence in Hebrew. The translation divides this into two sentences for stylistic reasons.
