Keluaran 34:10

34:10 He said, “See, I am going to make ¹  a covenant before all your people. I will do wonders such as have not been done ²  in all the earth, nor in any nation. All the people among whom you live will see the work of the Lord, for it is a fearful thing that I am doing with you. ³ 

Imamat 20:24

20:24 So I have said to you: You yourselves will possess their land and I myself will give it to you for a possession, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God who has set you apart from the other peoples. ⁴ 

Imamat 20:26

20:26 You must be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the other peoples to be mine.

Bilangan 23:9

23:9 For from the top of the rocks I see them; ⁵ 

from the hills I watch them. ⁶ 

Indeed, a nation that lives alone,

and it will not be reckoned ⁷  among the nations.

Ulangan 4:7

4:7 In fact, what other great nation has a god so near to them like the Lord our God whenever we call on him?

Ulangan 4:32

The Uniqueness of Israel’s God

4:32 Indeed, ask about the distant past, starting from the day God created humankind ⁸  on the earth, and ask ⁹  from one end of heaven to the other, whether there has ever been such a great thing as this, or even a rumor of it.

Ulangan 4:34

4:34 Or has God ¹⁰  ever before tried to deliver ¹¹  a nation from the middle of another nation, accompanied by judgments, ¹²  signs, wonders, war, strength, power, ¹³  and other very terrifying things like the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

[34:10]  ¹ tn Here again is a use of the futur instans participle; the deictic particle plus the pronoun precedes the participle, showing what is about to happen.

[34:10]  ² tn The verb here is בָּרָא (bara’, “to create”). The choice of this verb is to stress that these wonders would be supernaturally performed, for the verb is used only with God as the subject.

[34:10]  ³ sn The idea is that God will be doing awesome things in dealing with them, i.e., to fulfill his program.

[20:24]  ⁴ tc Here and with the same phrase in v. 26, the LXX adds “all,” resulting in the reading “all the peoples.”

[23:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “him,” but here it refers to the Israelites (Israel).

[23:9]  ⁶ sn Balaam reports his observation of the nation of Israel spread out below him in the valley. Based on that vision, and the Lord’s word, he announces the uniqueness of Israel – they are not just like one of the other nations. He was correct, of course; they were the only people linked with the living God by covenant.

[23:9]  ⁷ tn The verb could also be taken as a reflexive – Israel does not consider itself as among the nations, meaning, they consider themselves to be unique.

[4:32]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew term אָדָם (’adam) may refer either to Adam or, more likely, to “man” in the sense of the human race (“mankind,” “humankind”). The idea here seems more universal in scope than reference to Adam alone would suggest.

[4:32]  ⁹ tn The verb is not present in the Hebrew text but has been supplied in the translation for clarification. The challenge has both temporal and geographical dimensions. The people are challenged to (1) inquire about the entire scope of past history and (2) conduct their investigation on a worldwide scale.

[4:34]  ¹⁰ tn The translation assumes the reference is to Israel’s God in which case the point is this: God’s intervention in Israel’s experience is unique in the sense that he has never intervened in such power for any other people on earth. The focus is on the uniqueness of Israel’s experience. Some understand the divine name here in a generic sense, “a god,” or “any god.” In this case God’s incomparability is the focus (cf. v. 35, where this theme is expressed).

[4:34]  ¹¹ tn Heb “tried to go to take for himself.”

[4:34]  ¹² tn Heb “by testings.” The reference here is the judgments upon Pharaoh in the form of plagues. See Deut 7:19 (cf. v. 18) and 29:3 (cf. v. 2).

[4:34]  ¹³ tn Heb “by strong hand and by outstretched arm.”