Ulangan 7:1

The Dispossession of Nonvassals

7:1 When the Lord your God brings you to the land that you are going to occupy and forces out many nations before you – Hittites, ¹  Girgashites, ²  Amorites, ³  Canaanites, ⁴  Perizzites, ⁵  Hivites, ⁶  and Jebusites, ⁷  seven ⁸  nations more numerous and powerful than you –

Ulangan 7:8

7:8 Rather it is because of his ⁹  love ¹⁰  for you and his faithfulness to the promise ¹¹  he solemnly vowed ¹²  to your ancestors ¹³  that the Lord brought you out with great power, ¹⁴  redeeming ¹⁵  you from the place of slavery, from the power ¹⁶  of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

Ulangan 9:3

9:3 Understand today that the Lord your God who goes before you is a devouring fire; he will defeat and subdue them before you. You will dispossess and destroy them quickly just as he ¹⁷  has told you.

Ulangan 9:5

9:5 It is not because of your righteousness, or even your inner uprightness, ¹⁸  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 ¹⁹  made on oath to your ancestors, ²⁰  to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Ulangan 9:18

9:18 Then I again fell down before the Lord for forty days and nights; I ate and drank nothing because of all the sin you had committed, doing such evil before the Lord as to enrage him.

Ulangan 11:6

11:6 or what he did to Dathan and Abiram, ²¹  sons of Eliab the Reubenite, ²²  when the earth opened its mouth in the middle of the Israelite camp ²³  and swallowed them, their families, ²⁴  their tents, and all the property they brought with them. ²⁵ 

Ulangan 16:15

16:15 You are to celebrate the festival seven days before the Lord your God in the place he ²⁶  chooses, for he ²⁷  will bless you in all your productivity and in whatever you do; ²⁸  so you will indeed rejoice!

Ulangan 22:21

22:21 the men of her city must bring the young woman to the door of her father’s house and stone her to death, for she has done a disgraceful thing ²⁹  in Israel by behaving like a prostitute while living in her father’s house. In this way you will purge ³⁰  evil from among you.

Ulangan 25:9

25:9 then his sister-in-law must approach him in view of the elders, remove his sandal from his foot, and spit in his face. ³¹  She will then respond, “Thus may it be done to any man who does not maintain his brother’s family line!” ³² 

Ulangan 30:19

30:19 Today I invoke heaven and earth as a witness against you that I have set life and death, blessing and curse, before you. Therefore choose life so that you and your descendants may live!

Ulangan 31:29

31:29 For I know that after I die you will totally ³³  corrupt yourselves and turn away from the path I have commanded you to walk. Disaster will confront you in the days to come because you will act wickedly ³⁴  before the Lord, inciting him to anger because of your actions.” ³⁵ 

[7:1]  ¹ sn Hittites. The center of Hittite power was in Anatolia (central modern Turkey). In the Late Bronze Age (1550-1200 b.c.) they were at their zenith, establishing outposts and colonies near and far. Some elements were obviously in Canaan at the time of the Conquest (1400-1350 b.c.).

[7:1]  ² sn Girgashites. These cannot be ethnically identified and are unknown outside the OT. They usually appear in such lists only when the intention is to have seven groups in all (see also the note on the word “seven” later in this verse).

[7:1]  ³ sn Amorites. Originally from the upper Euphrates region (Amurru), the Amorites appear to have migrated into Canaan beginning in 2200 b.c. or thereabouts.

[7:1]  ⁴ sn Canaanites. These were the indigenous peoples of the land, going back to the beginning of recorded history (ca. 3000 b.c.). The OT identifies them as descendants of Ham (Gen 10:6), the only Hamites to have settled north and east of Egypt.

[7:1]  ⁵ sn Perizzites. This is probably a subgroup of Canaanites (Gen 13:7; 34:30).

[7:1]  ⁶ sn Hivites. These are usually thought to be the same as the Hurrians, a people well-known in ancient Near Eastern texts. They are likely identical to the Horites (see note on the term “Horites” in Deut 2:12).

[7:1]  ⁷ sn Jebusites. These inhabited the hill country, particularly in and about Jerusalem (cf. Num 13:29; Josh 15:8; 2 Sam 5:6; 24:16).

[7:1]  ⁸ sn Seven. This is an ideal number in the OT, one symbolizing fullness or completeness. Therefore, the intent of the text here is not to be precise and list all of Israel’s enemies but simply to state that Israel will have a full complement of foes to deal with. For other lists of Canaanites, some with fewer than seven peoples, see Exod 3:8; 13:5; 23:23, 28; 33:2; 34:11; Deut 20:17; Josh 3:10; 9:1; 24:11. Moreover, the “Table of Nations” (Gen 10:15-19) suggests that all of these (possibly excepting the Perizzites) were offspring of Canaan and therefore Canaanites.

[7:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “the Lord’s.” See note on “He” in 7:6.

[7:8]  ¹⁰ tn For the verb אָהַב (’ahav, “to love”) as a term of choice or election, see note on the word “loved” in Deut 4:37.

[7:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “oath.” This is a reference to the promises of the so-called “Abrahamic Covenant” (cf. Gen 15:13-16).

[7:8]  ¹² tn Heb “swore on oath.”

[7:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 12, 13).

[7:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “by a strong hand” (NAB similar); NLT “with such amazing power.”

[7:8]  ¹⁵ sn Redeeming you from the place of slavery. The Hebrew verb translated “redeeming” (from the root פָּדָה, padah) has the idea of redemption by the payment of a ransom. The initial symbol of this was the Passover lamb, offered by Israel to the Lord as ransom in exchange for deliverance from bondage and death (Exod 12:1-14). Later, the firstborn sons of Israel, represented by the Levites, became the ransom (Num 3:11-13). These were all types of the redemption effected by the death of Christ who described his atoning work as “a ransom for many” (Matt 20:28; cf. 1 Pet 1:18).

[7:8]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “hand” (so KJV, NRSV), a metaphor for power or domination.

[9:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the Lord.” The pronoun has been used in the translation in keeping with contemporary English style to avoid redundancy.

[9:5]  ¹⁸ 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]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 9:3.

[9:5]  ²⁰ tn Heb “fathers.”

[11:6]  ²¹ sn Dathan and Abiram. These two (along with others) had challenged Moses’ leadership in the desert with the result that the earth beneath them opened up and they and their families disappeared (Num 16:1-3, 31-35).

[11:6]  ²² tn Or “the descendant of Reuben”; Heb “son of Reuben.”

[11:6]  ²³ tn Heb “in the midst of all Israel” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV); NASB “among all Israel.” In the Hebrew text these words appear at the end of the verse, but they are logically connected with the verbs. To make this clear the translation places the phrase after the first verb.

[11:6]  ²⁴ tn Heb “their houses,” referring to all who lived in their household. Cf. KJV, ASV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT “households.”

[11:6]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and all the substance which was at their feet.”

[16:15]  ²⁶ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 16:1.

[16:15]  ²⁷ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 16:1.

[16:15]  ²⁸ tn Heb “in all the work of your hands” (so NASB, NIV); NAB, NRSV “in all your undertakings.”

[22:21]  ²⁹ tn The Hebrew term נְבָלָה (nÿvalah) means more than just something stupid. It refers to a moral lapse so serious as to jeopardize the whole covenant community (cf. Gen 34:7; Judg 19:23; 20:6, 10; Jer 29:23). See C. Pan, NIDOTTE 3:11-13. Cf. NAB “she committed a crime against Israel.”

[22:21]  ³⁰ tn Heb “burn.” See note on Deut 21:21.

[25:9]  ³¹ sn The removal of the sandal was likely symbolic of the relinquishment by the man of any claim to his dead brother’s estate since the sandal was associated with the soil or land (cf. Ruth 4:7-8). Spitting in the face was a sign of utmost disgust or disdain, an emotion the rejected widow would feel toward her uncooperative brother-in-law (cf. Num 12:14; Lev 15:8). See W. Bailey, NIDOTTE 2:544.

[25:9]  ³² tn Heb “build the house of his brother”; TEV “refuses to give his brother a descendant”; NLT “refuses to raise up a son for his brother.”

[31:29]  ³³ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “totally.”

[31:29]  ³⁴ tn Heb “do the evil.”

[31:29]  ³⁵ tn Heb “the work of your hands.”