Ulangan 11:12

11:12 a land the Lord your God looks after. ¹  He is constantly attentive to it ²  from the beginning to the end of the year. ³ 

Ulangan 12:11

12:11 Then you must come to the place the Lord your God chooses for his name to reside, bringing ⁴  everything I am commanding you – your burnt offerings, sacrifices, tithes, the personal offerings you have prepared, ⁵  and all your choice votive offerings which you devote to him. ⁶ 

Ulangan 12:2

12:2 You must by all means destroy ⁷  all the places where the nations you are about to dispossess worship their gods – on the high mountains and hills and under every leafy tree. ⁸ 

1 Samuel 7:13

7:13 So the Philistines were defeated; they did not invade Israel again. The hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.

[11:12]  ¹ tn Heb “seeks.” The statement reflects the ancient belief that God (Baal in Canaanite thinking) directly controlled storms and rainfall.

[11:12]  ² tn Heb “the eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it” (so NIV); NASB, NRSV “always on it.”

[11:12]  sn Constantly attentive to it. This attention to the land by the Lord is understandable in light of the centrality of the land in the Abrahamic covenant (cf. Gen 12:1, 7; 13:15; 15:7, 16, 18; 17:8; 26:3).

[11:12]  ³ sn From the beginning to the end of the year. This refers to the agricultural year that was marked by the onset of the heavy rains, thus the autumn. See note on the phrase “the former and the latter rains” in v. 14.

[12:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “and it will be (to) the place where the Lord your God chooses to cause his name to dwell you will bring.”

[12:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “heave offerings of your hand.”

[12:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 12:5.

[12:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “destroying you must destroy”; KJV “Ye shall utterly (surely ASV) destroy”; NRSV “must demolish completely.” The Hebrew infinitive absolute precedes the verb for emphasis, which is reflected in the translation by the words “by all means.”

[12:2]  ⁸ sn Every leafy tree. This expression refers to evergreens which, because they keep their foliage throughout the year, provided apt symbolism for nature cults such as those practiced in Canaan. The deity particularly in view is Asherah, wife of the great god El, who was considered the goddess of fertility and whose worship frequently took place at shrines near or among clusters (groves) of such trees (see also Deut 7:5). See J. Hadley, NIDOTTE 1:569-70; J. DeMoor, TDOT 1:438-44.