28:25 “The Lord will allow you to be struck down before your enemies; you will attack them from one direction but flee from them in seven directions and will become an object of terror 1 to all the kingdoms of the earth.
28:1 “If you indeed 2 obey the Lord your God and are careful to observe all his commandments I am giving 3 you today, the Lord your God will elevate you above all the nations of the earth.
1 tc The meaningless MT reading זַעֲוָה (za’avah) is clearly a transposition of the more commonly attested Hebrew noun זְוָעָה (zÿva’ah, “terror”).
2 tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “indeed.”
3 tn Heb “commanding”; NAB “which I enjoin on you today” (likewise in v. 15).
4 tn Heb “I will cut off Israel from upon the surface of the land.”
5 tn Heb “and the temple which I consecrated for my name I will send away from before my face.”
sn Instead of “I will send away,” the parallel text in 2 Chr 7:20 has “I will throw away.” The two verbs sound very similar in Hebrew, so the discrepancy is likely due to an oral transmissional error.
6 tn Heb “will become a proverb and a taunt,” that is, a proverbial example of destruction and an object of reproach.