Ulangan 13:5

13:5 As for that prophet or dreamer, ¹  he must be executed because he encouraged rebellion against the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt, redeeming you from that place of slavery, and because he has tried to entice you from the way the Lord your God has commanded you to go. In this way you must purge out evil from within. ² 

Ulangan 16:15

16:15 You are to celebrate the festival seven days before the Lord your God in the place he ³  chooses, for he ⁴  will bless you in all your productivity and in whatever you do; ⁵  so you will indeed rejoice!

Ulangan 21:4

21:4 and bring the heifer down to a wadi with flowing water, ⁶  to a valley that is neither plowed nor sown. ⁷  There at the wadi they are to break the heifer’s neck.

Ulangan 21:17

21:17 Rather, he must acknowledge the son of the less loved ⁸  wife as firstborn and give him the double portion ⁹  of all he has, for that son is the beginning of his father’s procreative power ¹⁰  – to him should go the right of the firstborn.

Ulangan 21:21

21:21 Then all the men of his city must stone him to death. In this way you will purge out ¹¹  wickedness from among you, and all Israel ¹²  will hear about it and be afraid.

[13:5]  ¹ tn Heb “or dreamer of dreams.” See note on this expression in v. 1.

[13:5]  ² tn Heb “your midst” (so NAB, NRSV). The severity of the judgment here (i.e., capital punishment) is because of the severity of the sin, namely, high treason against the Great King. Idolatry is a violation of the first two commandments (Deut 5:6-10) as well as the spirit and intent of the Shema (Deut 6:4-5).

[16:15]  ³ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 16:1.

[16:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 16:1.

[16:15]  ⁵ tn Heb “in all the work of your hands” (so NASB, NIV); NAB, NRSV “in all your undertakings.”

[21:4]  ⁶ tn The combination “a wadi with flowing water” is necessary because a wadi (נַחַל, nakhal) was ordinarily a dry stream or riverbed. For this ritual, however, a perennial stream must be chosen so that there would be fresh, rushing water.

[21:4]  ⁷ sn The unworked heifer, fresh stream, and uncultivated valley speak of ritual purity – of freedom from human contamination.

[21:17]  ⁸ tn See note on the word “other” in v. 15.

[21:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “measure of two.” The Hebrew expression פִּי שְׁנַיִם (piy shÿnayim) suggests a two-thirds split; that is, the elder gets two parts and the younger one part. Cf. 2 Kgs 2:9; Zech 13:8. The practice is implicit in Isaac’s blessing of Jacob (Gen 25:31-34) and Jacob’s blessing of Ephraim (Gen 48:8-22).

[21:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “his generative power” (אוֹן, ’on; cf. HALOT 22 s.v.). Cf. NAB “the first fruits of his manhood”; NRSV “the first issue of his virility.”

[21:21]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew term בִּעַרְתָּה (bi’artah), here and elsewhere in such contexts (cf. Deut 13:5; 17:7, 12; 19:19; 21:9), suggests God’s anger which consumes like fire (thus בָעַר, ba’ar, “to burn”). See H. Ringgren, TDOT 2:203-4.

[21:21]  ¹² tc Some LXX traditions read הַנִּשְׁאָרִים (hannish’arim, “those who remain”) for the MT’s יִשְׂרָאֵל (yisra’el, “Israel”), understandable in light of Deut 19:20. However, the more difficult reading found in the MT is more likely original.