Ulangan 1:41

Unsuccessful Conquest of Canaan

1:41 Then you responded to me and admitted, “We have sinned against the Lord. We will now go up and fight as the Lord our God has told us to do.” So you each put on your battle gear and prepared to go up to the hill country.

Ulangan 4:6

4:6 So be sure to do them, because this will testify of your wise understanding ¹  to the people who will learn of all these statutes and say, “Indeed, this great nation is a very wise ²  people.”

Ulangan 5:9

5:9 You must not worship or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. I punish ³  the sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons for the sin of the fathers who reject ⁴  me, ⁵ 

Ulangan 7:25

7:25 You must burn the images of their gods, but do not covet the silver and gold that covers them so much that you take it for yourself and thus become ensnared by it; for it is abhorrent ⁶  to the Lord your God.

Ulangan 8:2

8:2 Remember the whole way by which he ⁷  has brought you these forty years through the desert ⁸  so that he might, by humbling you, test you to see if you have it within you to keep his commandments or not.

Ulangan 9:5

9:5 It is not because of your righteousness, or even your inner uprightness, ⁹  that you have come here to possess their land. Instead, because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out ahead of you in order to confirm the promise he ¹⁰  made on oath to your ancestors, ¹¹  to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Ulangan 9:21

9:21 As for your sinful thing ¹²  that you had made, the calf, I took it, melted it down, ¹³  ground it up until it was as fine as dust, and tossed the dust into the stream that flows down the mountain.

Ulangan 10:1

The Opportunity to Begin Again

10:1 At that same time the Lord said to me, “Carve out for yourself two stone tablets like the first ones and come up the mountain to me; also make for yourself a wooden ark. ¹⁴ 

Ulangan 10:8

10:8 At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi ¹⁵  to carry the ark of the Lord’s covenant, to stand before the Lord to serve him, and to formulate blessings ¹⁶  in his name, as they do to this very day.

Ulangan 13:17

13:17 You must not take for yourself anything that has been placed under judgment. ¹⁷  Then the Lord will relent from his intense anger, show you compassion, have mercy on you, and multiply you as he promised your ancestors.

Ulangan 14:21

14:21 You may not eat any corpse, though you may give it to the resident foreigner who is living in your villages ¹⁸  and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. You are a people holy to the Lord your God. Do not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk. ¹⁹ 

Ulangan 16:15

16:15 You are to celebrate the festival seven days before the Lord your God in the place he ²⁰  chooses, for he ²¹  will bless you in all your productivity and in whatever you do; ²²  so you will indeed rejoice!

Ulangan 17:12

17:12 The person who pays no attention ²³  to the priest currently serving the Lord your God there, or to the verdict – that person must die, so that you may purge evil from Israel.

Ulangan 18:16

18:16 This accords with what happened at Horeb in the day of the assembly. You asked the Lord your God: “Please do not make us hear the voice of the Lord our ²⁴  God any more or see this great fire any more lest we die.”

Ulangan 20:1

Laws Concerning War with Distant Enemies

20:1 When you go to war against your enemies and see chariotry ²⁵  and troops ²⁶  who outnumber you, do not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, is with you.

Ulangan 21:5

21:5 Then the Levitical priests ²⁷  will approach (for the Lord your God has chosen them to serve him and to pronounce blessings in his name, ²⁸  and to decide ²⁹  every judicial verdict ³⁰ )

Ulangan 24:1

24:1 If a man marries a woman and she does not please him because he has found something offensive ³¹  in her, then he may draw up a divorce document, give it to her, and evict her from his house.

Ulangan 28:15

Curses as Reversal of Blessings

28:15 “But if you ignore ³²  the Lord your God and are not careful to keep all his commandments and statutes I am giving you today, then all these curses will come upon you in full force: ³³ 

Ulangan 28:63

28:63 This is what will happen: Just as the Lord delighted to do good for you and make you numerous, he ³⁴  will take delight in destroying and decimating you. You will be uprooted from the land you are about to possess.

Ulangan 33:2

33:2 He said:

A Historical Review

The Lord came from Sinai

and revealed himself ³⁵  to Israel ³⁶  from Seir.

He appeared in splendor ³⁷  from Mount Paran,

and came forth with ten thousand holy ones. ³⁸ 

With his right hand he gave a fiery law ³⁹  to them.

[4:6]  ¹ tn Heb “it is wisdom and understanding.”

[4:6]  ² tn Heb “wise and understanding.”

[5:9]  ³ tn In the Hebrew text the form is a participle, which is subordinated to what precedes. For the sake of English style, the translation divides this lengthy verse into two sentences.

[5:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “who hate” (so NAB, NIV, NLT). Just as “to love” (אָהַב, ’ahav) means in a covenant context “to choose, obey,” so “to hate” (שָׂנֵא, sane’) means “to reject, disobey” (cf. the note on the word “loved” in Deut 4:37; see also 5:10).

[5:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “visiting the sin of fathers upon sons and upon a third (generation) and upon a fourth (generation) of those who hate me.” God sometimes punishes children for the sins of a father (cf. Num 16:27, 32; Josh 7:24-25; 2 Sam 21:1-9). On the principle of corporate solidarity and responsibility in OT thought see J. Kaminsky, Corporate Responsibility in the Hebrew Bible (JSOTSup). In the idiom of the text, the father is the first generation and the “sons” the second generation, making grandsons the third and great-grandsons the fourth. The reference to a third and fourth generation is a way of emphasizing that the sinner’s punishment would last throughout his lifetime. In this culture, where men married and fathered children at a relatively young age, it would not be unusual for one to see his great-grandsons. In an Aramaic tomb inscription from Nerab dating to the seventh century b.c., Agbar observes that he was surrounded by “children of the fourth generation” as he lay on his death bed (see ANET 661). The language of the text differs from Exod 34:7, the sons are the first generation, the grandsons (literally, “sons of the sons”) the second, great-grandsons the third, and great-great-grandsons the fourth. One could argue that formulation in Deut 5:9 (see also Exod 20:50) is elliptical/abbreviated or that it suffers from textual corruption (the repetition of the words “sons” would invite accidental omission).

[7:25]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew word תּוֹעֵבָה (to’evah, “abhorrent; detestable”) describes anything detestable to the Lord because of its innate evil or inconsistency with his own nature and character. Frequently such things (or even persons) must be condemned to annihilation (חֵרֶם, kherem) lest they become a means of polluting or contaminating others (cf. Deut 13:17; 20:17-18). See M. Grisanti, NIDOTTE 4:315.

[8:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[8:2]  ⁸ tn Or “wilderness” (so KJV, NRSV, NLT); likewise in v. 15.

[9:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “uprightness of your heart” (so NASB, NRSV). The Hebrew word צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah, “righteousness”), though essentially synonymous here with יֹשֶׁר (yosher, “uprightness”), carries the idea of conformity to an objective standard. The term יֹשֶׁר has more to do with an inner, moral quality (cf. NAB, NIV “integrity”). Neither, however, was grounds for the Lord’s favor. As he states in both vv. 4-5, the main reason he allowed Israel to take this land was the sinfulness of the Canaanites who lived there (cf. Gen 15:16).

[9:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 9:3.

[9:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “fathers.”

[9:21]  ¹² tn Heb “your sin.” This is a metonymy in which the effect (sin) stands for the cause (the metal calf).

[9:21]  ¹³ tn Heb “burned it with fire.”

[10:1]  ¹⁴ tn Or “chest” (so NIV, CEV); NLT “sacred chest”; TEV “wooden box.” This chest was made of acacia wood; it is later known as the ark of the covenant.

[10:8]  ¹⁵ sn The Lord set apart the tribe of Levi. This was not the initial commissioning of the tribe of Levi to this ministry (cf. Num 3:11-13; 8:12-26), but with Aaron’s death it seemed appropriate to Moses to reiterate Levi’s responsibilities. There is no reference in the Book of Numbers to this having been done, but the account of Eleazar’s succession to the priesthood there (Num 20:25-28) would provide a setting for this to have occurred.

[10:8]  ¹⁶ sn To formulate blessings. The most famous example of this is the priestly “blessing formula” of Num 6:24-26.

[13:17]  ¹⁷ tn Or “anything that has been put under the divine curse”; Heb “anything of the ban” (cf. NASB). See note on the phrase “divine judgment” in Deut 2:34.

[14:21]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “gates” (also in vv. 27, 28, 29).

[14:21]  ¹⁹ sn Do not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk. This strange prohibition – one whose rationale is unclear but probably related to pagan ritual – may seem out of place here but actually is not for the following reasons: (1) the passage as a whole opens with a prohibition against heathen mourning rites (i.e., death, vv. 1-2) and closes with what appear to be birth and infancy rites. (2) In the other two places where the stipulation occurs (Exod 23:19 and Exod 34:26) it similarly concludes major sections. (3) Whatever the practice signified it clearly was abhorrent to the Lord and fittingly concludes the topic of various breaches of purity and holiness as represented by the ingestion of unclean animals (vv. 3-21). See C. M. Carmichael, “On Separating Life and Death: An Explanation of Some Biblical Laws,” HTR 69 (1976): 1-7; J. Milgrom, “You Shall Not Boil a Kid In Its Mother’s Milk,” BRev 1 (1985): 48-55; R. J. Ratner and B. Zuckerman, “In Rereading the ‘Kid in Milk’ Inscriptions,” BRev 1 (1985): 56-58; and M. Haran, “Seething a Kid in its Mother’s Milk,” JJS 30 (1979): 23-35.

[16:15]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 16:1.

[16:15]  ²¹ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 16:1.

[16:15]  ²² tn Heb “in all the work of your hands” (so NASB, NIV); NAB, NRSV “in all your undertakings.”

[17:12]  ²³ tn Heb “who acts presumptuously not to listen” (cf. NASB).

[18:16]  ²⁴ tn The Hebrew text uses the collective singular in this verse: “my God…lest I die.”

[20:1]  ²⁵ tn Heb “horse and chariot.”

[20:1]  ²⁶ tn Heb “people.”

[21:5]  ²⁷ tn Heb “the priests, the sons of Levi.”

[21:5]  ²⁸ tn Heb “in the name of the Lord.” See note on Deut 10:8. The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[21:5]  ²⁹ tn Heb “by their mouth.”

[21:5]  ³⁰ tn Heb “every controversy and every blow.”

[24:1]  ³¹ tn Heb “nakedness of a thing.” The Hebrew phrase עֶרְוַת דָּבָר (’ervat davar) refers here to some gross sexual impropriety (see note on “indecent” in Deut 23:14). Though the term usually has to do only with indecent exposure of the genitals, it can also include such behavior as adultery (cf. Lev 18:6-18; 20:11, 17, 20-21; Ezek 22:10; 23:29; Hos 2:10).

[28:15]  ³² tn Heb “do not hear the voice of.”

[28:15]  ³³ tn Heb “and overtake you” (so NIV, NRSV); NAB, NLT “and overwhelm you.”

[28:63]  ³⁴ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

[33:2]  ³⁵ tn Or “rose like the sun” (NCV, TEV).

[33:2]  ³⁶ tc Heb “to him.” The LXX reads “to us” (לָנוּ [lanu] for לָמוֹ [lamo]), the reading of the MT is acceptable since it no doubt has in mind Israel as a collective singular.

[33:2]  tn Heb “him”; the referent (Israel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[33:2]  ³⁷ tn Or “he shone forth” (NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[33:2]  ³⁸ tc With slight alteration (מִמְרִבַת קָדֵשׁ [mimrivat qadesh] for the MT’s מֵרִבְבֹת קֹדֶשׁ [merivvot qodesh]) the translation would be “from Meribah Kadesh” (cf. NAB, NLT; see Deut 32:51). However, the language of holy war in the immediate context favors the reading of the MT, which views the Lord as accompanied by angelic hosts.

[33:2]  ³⁹ tc The mispointed Hebrew term אֵשְׁדָּת (’eshdat) should perhaps be construed as אֵשְׁהַת (’eshhat) with Smr.