Ulangan 4:1

The Privileges of the Covenant

4:1 Now, Israel, pay attention to the statutes and ordinances ¹  I am about to teach you, so that you might live and go on to enter and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, ²  is giving you.

Ulangan 5:1

The Opening Exhortation

5:1 Then Moses called all the people of Israel together and said to them: ³  “Listen, Israel, to the statutes and ordinances that I am about to deliver to you today; learn them and be careful to keep them!

Ulangan 5:31

5:31 But as for you, remain here with me so I can declare to you all the commandments, ⁴  statutes, and ordinances that you are to teach them, so that they can carry them out in the land I am about to give them.” ⁵ 

Ulangan 7:12

Promises of Good for Covenant Obedience

7:12 If you obey these ordinances and are careful to do them, the Lord your God will faithfully keep covenant with you ⁶  as he promised ⁷  your ancestors.

Ulangan 12:1

The Central Sanctuary

12:1 These are the statutes and ordinances you must be careful to obey as long as you live in the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, ⁸  has given you to possess. ⁹ 

Ulangan 17:8

Appeal to a Higher Court

17:8 If a matter is too difficult for you to judge – bloodshed, ¹⁰  legal claim, ¹¹  or assault ¹²  – matters of controversy in your villages ¹³  – you must leave there and go up to the place the Lord your God chooses. ¹⁴ 

Ulangan 17:11

17:11 You must do what you are instructed, and the verdict they pronounce to you, without fail. Do not deviate right or left from what they tell you.

Ulangan 19:6

19:6 Otherwise the blood avenger will chase after the killer in the heat of his anger, eventually overtake him, ¹⁵  and kill him, ¹⁶  though this is not a capital case ¹⁷  since he did not hate him at the time of the accident.

Ulangan 21:17

21:17 Rather, he must acknowledge the son of the less loved ¹⁸  wife as firstborn and give him the double portion ¹⁹  of all he has, for that son is the beginning of his father’s procreative power ²⁰  – to him should go the right of the firstborn.

Ulangan 30:16

30:16 What ²¹  I am commanding you today is to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to obey his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances. Then you will live and become numerous and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you are about to possess. ²² 

[4:1]  ¹ tn These technical Hebrew terms (חֻקִּים [khuqqim] and מִשְׁפָּטִים [mishpatim]) occur repeatedly throughout the Book of Deuteronomy to describe the covenant stipulations to which Israel had been called to subscribe (see, in this chapter alone, vv. 1, 5, 6, 8). The word חֻקִּים derives from the verb חֹק (khoq, “to inscribe; to carve”) and מִשְׁפָּטִים (mishpatim) from שָׁפַט (shafat, “to judge”). They are virtually synonymous and are used interchangeably in Deuteronomy.

[4:1]  ² tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 31, 37).

[5:1]  ³ tn Heb “and Moses called to all Israel and he said to them”; NAB, NASB, NIV “Moses summoned (convened NRSV) all Israel.”

[5:31]  ⁴ tn Heb “commandment.” The MT actually has the singular (הַמִּצְוָה, hammitsvah), suggesting perhaps that the following terms (חֻקִּים [khuqqim] and מִשְׁפָּטִים [mishpatim]) are in epexegetical apposition to “commandment.” That is, the phrase could be translated “the entire command, namely, the statutes and ordinances.” This would essentially make מִצְוָה (mitsvah) synonymous with תּוֹרָה (torah), the usual term for the whole collection of law.

[5:31]  ⁵ tn Heb “to possess it” (so KJV, ASV); NLT “as their inheritance.”

[7:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “will keep with you the covenant and loyalty.” On the construction used here, see v. 9.

[7:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “which he swore on oath.” The relative pronoun modifies “covenant,” so one could translate “will keep faithfully the covenant (or promise) he made on oath to your ancestors.”

[12:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “fathers.”

[12:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “you must be careful to obey in the land the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess all the days which you live in the land.” This adverbial statement modifies “to obey,” not “to possess,” so the order in the translation has been rearranged to make this clear.

[17:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “between blood and blood.”

[17:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “between claim and claim.”

[17:8]  ¹² tn Heb “between blow and blow.”

[17:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “gates.”

[17:8]  ¹⁴ tc Several Greek recensions add “to place his name there,” thus completing the usual formula to describe the central sanctuary (cf. Deut 12:5, 11, 14, 18; 16:6). However, the context suggests that the local Levitical towns, and not the central sanctuary, are in mind.

[19:6]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and overtake him, for the road is long.”

[19:6]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “smite with respect to life,” that is, fatally.

[19:6]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “no judgment of death.”

[21:17]  ¹⁸ tn See note on the word “other” in v. 15.

[21:17]  ¹⁹ 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]  ²⁰ 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.”

[30:16]  ²¹ tc A number of LXX mss insert before this verse, “if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God,” thus translating אֲשֶׁר (’asher) as “which” and the rest as “I am commanding you today, to love,” etc., “then you will live,” etc.

[30:16]  ²² tn Heb “which you are going there to possess it.” This has been simplified in the translation for stylistic reasons.