Imamat 20:1-13

Prohibitions against Illegitimate Family Worship

20:1 The Lord spoke to Moses: 20:2 “You are to say to the Israelites, ‘Any man from the Israelites or from the foreigners who reside in Israel ¹  who gives any of his children ²  to Molech ³  must be put to death; the people of the land must pelt him with stones. ⁴  20:3 I myself will set my face ⁵  against that man and cut him off from the midst of his people, ⁶  because he has given some of his children to Molech and thereby defiled my sanctuary and profaned my holy name. ⁷  20:4 If, however, the people of the land shut their eyes ⁸  to that man ⁹  when he gives some of his children to Molech so that they do not put him to death, 20:5 I myself will set my face against that man and his clan. I will cut off from the midst of their people both him and all who follow after him in spiritual prostitution, ¹⁰  to commit prostitution by worshiping Molech. ¹¹ 

Prohibition against Spiritists and Mediums ¹² 

20:6 “‘The person who turns to the spirits of the dead and familiar spirits ¹³  to commit prostitution by going after them, I will set my face ¹⁴  against that person and cut him off from the midst of his people.

Exhortation to Holiness and Obedience

20:7 “‘You must sanctify yourselves and be holy, because I am the Lord your God. 20:8 You must be sure to obey my statutes. ¹⁵  I am the Lord who sanctifies you.

Family Life and Sexual Prohibitions ¹⁶ 

20:9 “‘If anyone ¹⁷  curses his father and mother ¹⁸  he must be put to death. He has cursed his father and mother; his blood guilt is on himself. ¹⁹  20:10 If a man ²⁰  commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, ²¹  both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death. 20:11 If a man has sexual intercourse with his father’s wife, he has exposed his father’s nakedness. ²²  Both of them must be put to death; their blood guilt is on themselves. ²³  20:12 If a man has sexual intercourse with his daughter-in-law, both of them must be put to death. They have committed perversion; ²⁴  their blood guilt is on themselves. 20:13 If a man has sexual intercourse with a male as one has sexual intercourse with a woman, ²⁵  the two of them have committed an abomination. They must be put to death; their blood guilt is on themselves.

Ulangan 28:1-14

The Covenant Blessings

28:1 “If you indeed ²⁶  obey the Lord your God and are careful to observe all his commandments I am giving ²⁷  you today, the Lord your God will elevate you above all the nations of the earth. 28:2 All these blessings will come to you in abundance ²⁸  if you obey the Lord your God: 28:3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the field. ²⁹  28:4 Your children ³⁰  will be blessed, as well as the produce of your soil, the offspring of your livestock, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks. 28:5 Your basket and your mixing bowl will be blessed. 28:6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out. ³¹  28:7 The Lord will cause your enemies who attack ³²  you to be struck down before you; they will attack you from one direction ³³  but flee from you in seven different directions. 28:8 The Lord will decree blessing for you with respect to your barns and in everything you do – yes, he will bless you in the land he ³⁴  is giving you. 28:9 The Lord will designate you as his holy people just as he promised you, if you keep his commandments ³⁵  and obey him. ³⁶  28:10 Then all the peoples of the earth will see that you belong to the Lord, ³⁷  and they will respect you. 28:11 The Lord will greatly multiply your children, ³⁸  the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your soil in the land which he ³⁹  promised your ancestors ⁴⁰  he would give you. 28:12 The Lord will open for you his good treasure house, the heavens, to give you rain for the land in its season and to bless all you do; ⁴¹  you will lend to many nations but you will not borrow from any. 28:13 The Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always end up at the top and not at the bottom, if you obey his ⁴²  commandments which I am urging ⁴³  you today to be careful to do. 28:14 But you must not turn away from all the commandments I am giving ⁴⁴  you today, to either the right or left, nor pursue other gods and worship ⁴⁵  them.

Yosua 24:14

24:14 Now ⁴⁶  obey ⁴⁷  the Lord and worship ⁴⁸  him with integrity and loyalty. Put aside the gods your ancestors ⁴⁹  worshiped ⁵⁰  beyond the Euphrates ⁵¹  and in Egypt and worship ⁵²  the Lord.

Yosua 24:20

24:20 If ⁵³  you abandon the Lord and worship ⁵⁴  foreign gods, he will turn against you; ⁵⁵  he will bring disaster on you and destroy you, ⁵⁶  though he once treated you well.” ⁵⁷ 

Mazmur 81:12-15

81:12 I gave them over to their stubborn desires; ⁵⁸ 

they did what seemed right to them. ⁵⁹ 

81:13 If only my people would obey me! ⁶⁰ 

If only Israel would keep my commands! ⁶¹ 

81:14 Then I would quickly subdue their enemies,

and attack ⁶²  their adversaries.”

81:15 (May those who hate the Lord ⁶³  cower in fear ⁶⁴  before him!

May they be permanently humiliated!) ⁶⁵ 

Yesaya 3:10

3:10 Tell the innocent ⁶⁶  it will go well with them, ⁶⁷ 

for they will be rewarded for what they have done. ⁶⁸ 

Roma 2:7

2:7 eternal life to those who by perseverance in good works seek glory and honor and immortality,

[20:2]  ¹ tn Heb “or from the sojourner who sojourns”; NAB “an alien residing in Israel.”

[20:2]  ² tn Heb “his seed” (so KJV, ASV); likewise in vv. 3-4.

[20:2]  ³ tn Regarding Molech and Molech worship see the note on Lev 18:21.

[20:2]  ⁴ tn This is not the most frequently-used Hebrew verb for stoning (see instead סָקַל, saqal), but a word that refers to the action of throwing, slinging, or pelting someone with stones (רָגָם, ragam; see HALOT 1187 s.v. רגם qal.a, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 136).

[20:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “And I, I shall give my faces.”

[20:3]  ⁶ sn On the “cut off” penalty see the notes on Lev 7:20 and 17:4.

[20:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “for the sake of defiling my sanctuary and to profane my holy name.”

[20:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “And if shutting [infinitive absolute] they shut [finite verb].” For the infinitive absolute used to highlight contrast rather than emphasis see GKC 343 §113.p.

[20:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “from that man” (so ASV); NASB “disregard that man.”

[20:5]  ¹⁰ tn The adjective “spiritual” has been supplied in the translation to clarify that this is not a reference to literal prostitution, but figuratively compares idolatry to prostitution.

[20:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “to commit harlotry after Molech.” The translation employs “worshiping” here for clarity (cf. NAB, NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT). On the “cut off” penalty see the note on Lev 7:20.

[20:6]  ¹² sn For structure and coherence in Lev 20:6-27 see the note on v. 27 below.

[20:6]  ¹³ tn See the note on the phrase “familiar spirits” in Lev 19:31 above.

[20:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “I will give my faces.”

[20:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “And you shall keep my statutes and you shall do them.” This appears to be a kind of verbal hendiadys, where the first verb is a modifier of the action of the second verb (see GKC 386 §120.d, although שָׁמַר [shamar, “to keep”] is not cited there; cf. Lev 22:31, etc.).

[20:9]  ¹⁶ sn Compare the regulations in Lev 18:6-23.

[20:9]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “If a man a man who.”

[20:9]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “makes light of his father and his mother.” Almost all English versions render this as some variation of “curses his father or mother.”

[20:9]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “his blood [plural] is in him.” Cf. NAB “he has forfeited his life”; TEV “is responsible for his own death.”

[20:9]  sn The rendering “blood guilt” refers to the fact that the shedding of blood brings guilt on those who shed it illegitimately (even the blood of animals shed illegitimately, Lev 17:4; cf. the background of Gen 4:10-11). If the community performs a legitimate execution, however, the blood guilt rests on the person who has been legitimately executed (see the remarks and literature cited in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 328).

[20:10]  ²⁰ tn Heb “And a man who.” The syntax here and at the beginning of the following verses elliptically mirrors that of v. 9, which justifies the rendering as a conditional clause.

[20:10]  ²¹ tc The reading of the LXX minuscule mss has been followed here (see the BHS footnote a-a). The MT has a dittography, repeating “a man who commits adultery with the wife of” (see the explanation in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 328). The duplication found in the MT is reflected in some English versions, e.g., KJV, ASV, NASB, NIV.

[20:11]  ²² sn See the note on Lev 18:7 above.

[20:11]  ²³ tn See the note on v. 9 above.

[20:12]  ²⁴ tn The Hebrew term תֶּבֶל (tevel, “perversion”) derives from the verb “to mix; to confuse” (cf. KJV, ASV “they have wrought confusion”).

[20:13]  ²⁵ tn Heb “[as the] lyings of a woman.” The specific reference here is to homosexual intercourse between males.

[28:1]  ²⁶ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “indeed.”

[28:1]  ²⁷ tn Heb “commanding”; NAB “which I enjoin on you today” (likewise in v. 15).

[28:2]  ²⁸ tn Heb “come upon you and overtake you” (so NASB, NRSV); NIV “come upon you and accompany you.”

[28:3]  ²⁹ tn Or “in the country” (so NAB, NIV, NLT). This expression also occurs in v. 15.

[28:4]  ³⁰ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[28:6]  ³¹ sn Come in…go out. To “come in” and “go out” is a figure of speech (merism) indicating all of life and its activities.

[28:7]  ³² tn Heb “who rise up against” (so NIV).

[28:7]  ³³ tn Heb “way” (also later in this verse and in v. 25).

[28:8]  ³⁴ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” Because English would not typically reintroduce the proper name following a relative pronoun (“he will bless…the Lord your God is giving”), the pronoun (“he”) has been employed here in the translation.

[28:9]  ³⁵ tn Heb “the commandments of the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in the previous verse.

[28:9]  ³⁶ tn Heb “and walk in his ways” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[28:10]  ³⁷ tn Heb “the name of the Lord is called over you.” The Hebrew idiom indicates ownership; see 2 Sam 12:28; Isa 4:1, as well as BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph. 2.d.(4).

[28:11]  ³⁸ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); CEV “will give you a lot of children.”

[28:11]  ³⁹ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

[28:11]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 36, 64).

[28:12]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “all the work of your hands.”

[28:13]  ⁴² tn Heb “the Lord your God’s.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

[28:13]  ⁴³ tn Heb “commanding” (so NRSV); NASB “which I charge you today.”

[28:14]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “from all the words which I am commanding.”

[28:14]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “in order to serve.”

[24:14]  ⁴⁶ sn Joshua quotes the Lord’s words in vv. 2b-13 (note that the Lord speaks in the first person in these verses); in vv. 14-15 Joshua himself exhorts the people (note the third person references to the Lord).

[24:14]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “fear.”

[24:14]  ⁴⁸ tn Or “and serve.”

[24:14]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “your fathers.”

[24:14]  ⁵⁰ tn Or “served.”

[24:14]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “the river,” referring to the Euphrates. This has been specified in the translation for clarity; see v. 3.

[24:14]  ⁵² tn Or “and serve.”

[24:20]  ⁵³ tn Or “when.”

[24:20]  ⁵⁴ tn Or “and serve.”

[24:20]  ⁵⁵ tn The words “against you” are added for clarification.

[24:20]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “bring you to an end.”

[24:20]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “after he did good for you.”

[81:12]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “and I sent him away in the stubbornness of their heart.”

[81:12]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “they walked in their counsel.” The prefixed verbal form is either preterite (“walked”) or a customary imperfect (“were walking”).

[81:13]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “if only my people were listening to me.” The Hebrew particle לוּ (lu, “if not”) introduces a purely hypothetical or contrary to fact condition (see 2 Sam 18:12).

[81:13]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “[and if only] Israel would walk in my ways.”

[81:14]  ⁶² tn Heb “turn my hand against.” The idiom “turn the hand against” has the nuance of “strike with the hand, attack” (see Isa 1:25; Ezek 38:12; Amos 1:8; Zech 13:7).

[81:15]  ⁶³ tn “Those who hate the Lord” are also mentioned in 2 Chr 19:2 and Ps 139:21.

[81:15]  ⁶⁴ tn See Deut 33:29; Ps 66:3 for other uses of the verb כָּחַשׁ (kakhash) in the sense “cower in fear.” In Ps 18:44 the verb seems to carry the nuance “to be weak; to be powerless” (see also Ps 109:24). The prefixed verbal form is taken as a jussive, parallel to the jussive form in the next line.

[81:15]  ⁶⁵ tc Heb “and may their time be forever.” The Hebrew term עִתָּם (’ittam, “their time”) must refer here to the “time” of the demise and humiliation of those who hate the Lord. Some propose an emendation to בַּעֲתָתָם (ba’atatam) or בִּעֻתָם (bi’utam; “their terror”; i.e., “may their terror last forever”), but the omission of bet (ב) in the present Hebrew text is difficult to explain, making the proposed emendation unlikely.

[81:15]  tn The verb form at the beginning of the line is jussive, indicating that this is a prayer. The translation assumes that v. 15 is a parenthetical “curse” offered by the psalmist. Having heard the reference to Israel’s enemies (v. 14), the psalmist inserts this prayer, reminding the Lord that they are God’s enemies as well.

[3:10]  ⁶⁶ tn Or “the righteous” (KJV, NASB, NIV, TEV); NLT “those who are godly.”

[3:10]  ⁶⁷ tn Heb “that it is good.”

[3:10]  ⁶⁸ tn Heb “for the fruit of their deeds they will eat.”