Ulangan 4:9

Reminder of the Horeb Covenant

4:9 Again, however, pay very careful attention, ¹  lest you forget the things you have seen and disregard them for the rest of your life; instead teach them to your children and grandchildren.

Ulangan 4:25

Threat and Blessing following Covenant Disobedience

4:25 After you have produced children and grandchildren and have been in the land a long time, ²  if you become corrupt and make an image of any kind ³  and do other evil things before the Lord your God that enrage him, ⁴ 

Ulangan 5:31

5:31 But as for you, remain here with me so I can declare to you all the commandments, ⁵  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.” ⁶ 

Ulangan 8:18

8:18 You must remember the Lord your God, for he is the one who gives ability to get wealth; if you do this he will confirm his covenant that he made by oath to your ancestors, ⁷  even as he has to this day.

Ulangan 10:8

10:8 At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi ⁸  to carry the ark of the Lord’s covenant, to stand before the Lord to serve him, and to formulate blessings ⁹  in his name, as they do to this very day.

Ulangan 25:5

Respect for the Sanctity of Others

25:5 If brothers live together and one of them dies without having a son, the dead man’s wife must not remarry someone outside the family. Instead, her late husband’s brother must go to her, marry her, ¹⁰  and perform the duty of a brother-in-law. ¹¹ 

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. ¹²  She will then respond, “Thus may it be done to any man who does not maintain his brother’s family line!” ¹³ 

Ulangan 26:14

26:14 I have not eaten anything when I was in mourning, or removed any of it while ceremonially unclean, or offered any of it to the dead; ¹⁴  I have obeyed you ¹⁵  and have done everything you have commanded me.

Ulangan 30:1

The Results of Covenant Reaffirmation

30:1 “When you have experienced all these things, both the blessings and the curses ¹⁶  I have set before you, you will reflect upon them ¹⁷  in all the nations where the Lord your God has banished you.

Ulangan 30:16

30:16 What ¹⁸  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. ¹⁹ 

[4:9]  ¹ tn Heb “watch yourself and watch your soul carefully.”

[4:25]  ² tn Heb “have grown old in the land,” i.e., been there for a long time.

[4:25]  ³ tn Heb “a form of anything.” Cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV, TEV “an idol.”

[4:25]  ⁴ tn The infinitive construct is understood here as indicating the result, not the intention, of their actions.

[5:31]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “to possess it” (so KJV, ASV); NLT “as their inheritance.”

[8:18]  ⁷ tc Smr and Lucian add “Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” the standard way of rendering this almost stereotypical formula (cf. Deut 1:8; 6:10; 9:5, 27; 29:13; 30:20; 34:4). The MT’s harder reading presumptively argues for its originality, however.

[10:8]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ sn To formulate blessings. The most famous example of this is the priestly “blessing formula” of Num 6:24-26.

[25:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “take her as wife”; NRSV “taking her in marriage.”

[25:5]  ¹¹ sn This is the so-called “levirate” custom (from the Latin term levir, “brother-in-law”), an ancient provision whereby a man who died without male descendants to carry on his name could have a son by proxy, that is, through a surviving brother who would marry his widow and whose first son would then be attributed to the brother who had died. This is the only reference to this practice in an OT legal text but it is illustrated in the story of Judah and his sons (Gen 38) and possibly in the account of Ruth and Boaz (Ruth 2:8; 3:12; 4:6).

[25:9]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ 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.”

[26:14]  ¹⁴ sn These practices suggest overtones of pagan ritual, all of which the confessor denies having undertaken. In Canaan they were connected with fertility practices associated with harvest time. See E. H. Merrill, Deuteronomy (NAC), 335-36.

[26:14]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the Lord my God.” See note on “he” in 26:2.

[30:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the blessing and the curse.”

[30:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and you bring (them) back to your heart.”

[30:16]  ¹⁸ 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]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “which you are going there to possess it.” This has been simplified in the translation for stylistic reasons.