Mazmur 2:12

2:12 Give sincere homage! ¹ 

Otherwise he ²  will be angry, ³ 

and you will die because of your behavior, ⁴ 

when his anger quickly ignites. ⁵ 

How blessed ⁶  are all who take shelter in him! ⁷ 

Mazmur 32:1-2

Psalm 32 ⁸ 

By David; a well-written song. ⁹ 

32:1 How blessed ¹⁰  is the one whose rebellious acts are forgiven, ¹¹ 

whose sin is pardoned! ¹² 

32:2 How blessed is the one ¹³  whose wrongdoing the Lord does not punish, ¹⁴ 

in whose spirit there is no deceit. ¹⁵ 

Mazmur 34:8

34:8 Taste ¹⁶  and see that the Lord is good!

How blessed ¹⁷  is the one ¹⁸  who takes shelter in him! ¹⁹ 

Mazmur 84:12

84:12 O Lord who rules over all, ²⁰ 

how blessed are those who trust in you! ²¹ 

Mazmur 106:3

106:3 How blessed are those who promote justice,

and do what is right all the time!

Mazmur 112:1

Psalm 112 ²² 

112:1 Praise the Lord!

How blessed is the one ²³  who obeys ²⁴  the Lord,

who takes great delight in keeping his commands. ²⁵ 

Mazmur 115:12-15

115:12 The Lord takes notice of us, ²⁶  he will bless ²⁷  –

he will bless the family ²⁸  of Israel,

he will bless the family of Aaron.

115:13 He will bless his loyal followers, ²⁹ 

both young and old. ³⁰ 

115:14 May he increase your numbers,

yours and your children’s! ³¹ 

115:15 May you be blessed by the Lord,

the creator ³²  of heaven and earth!

Mazmur 119:1-2

Psalm 119 ³³ 

א (Alef)

119:1 How blessed are those whose actions are blameless, ³⁴ 

who obey ³⁵  the law of the Lord.

119:2 How blessed are those who observe his rules,

and seek him with all their heart,

Mazmur 144:15

144:15 How blessed are the people who experience these things! ³⁶ 

How blessed are the people whose God is the Lord!

Mazmur 146:5

146:5 How blessed is the one whose helper is the God of Jacob,

whose hope is in the Lord his God,

Ulangan 28:2-68

28:2 All these blessings will come to you in abundance ³⁷  if you obey the Lord your God: 28:3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the field. ³⁸  28:4 Your children ³⁹  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. ⁴⁰  28:7 The Lord will cause your enemies who attack ⁴¹  you to be struck down before you; they will attack you from one direction ⁴²  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 ⁴³  is giving you. 28:9 The Lord will designate you as his holy people just as he promised you, if you keep his commandments ⁴⁴  and obey him. ⁴⁵  28:10 Then all the peoples of the earth will see that you belong to the Lord, ⁴⁶  and they will respect you. 28:11 The Lord will greatly multiply your children, ⁴⁷  the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your soil in the land which he ⁴⁸  promised your ancestors ⁴⁹  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; ⁵⁰  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 ⁵¹  commandments which I am urging ⁵²  you today to be careful to do. 28:14 But you must not turn away from all the commandments I am giving ⁵³  you today, to either the right or left, nor pursue other gods and worship ⁵⁴  them.

Curses as Reversal of Blessings

28:15 “But if you ignore ⁵⁵  the Lord your God and are not careful to keep all his commandments and statutes I am giving you today, then all these curses will come upon you in full force: ⁵⁶  28:16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the field. 28:17 Your basket and your mixing bowl will be cursed. 28:18 Your children ⁵⁷  will be cursed, as well as the produce of your soil, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks. 28:19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. ⁵⁸ 

Curses by Disease and Drought

28:20 “The Lord will send on you a curse, confusing you and opposing you ⁵⁹  in everything you undertake ⁶⁰  until you are destroyed and quickly perish because of the evil of your deeds, in that you have forsaken me. ⁶¹  28:21 The Lord will plague you with deadly diseases ⁶²  until he has completely removed you from the land you are about to possess. 28:22 He ⁶³  will afflict you with weakness, ⁶⁴  fever, inflammation, infection, ⁶⁵  sword, ⁶⁶  blight, and mildew; these will attack you until you perish. 28:23 The ⁶⁷  sky ⁶⁸  above your heads will be bronze and the earth beneath you iron. 28:24 The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust; it will come down on you from the sky until you are destroyed.

Curses by Defeat and Deportation

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 ⁶⁹  to all the kingdoms of the earth. 28:26 Your carcasses will be food for every bird of the sky and wild animal of the earth, and there will be no one to chase them off. 28:27 The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, eczema, and scabies, all of which cannot be healed. 28:28 The Lord will also subject you to madness, blindness, and confusion of mind. ⁷⁰  28:29 You will feel your way along at noon like the blind person does in darkness and you will not succeed in anything you do; ⁷¹  you will be constantly oppressed and continually robbed, with no one to save you. 28:30 You will be engaged to a woman and another man will rape ⁷²  her. You will build a house but not live in it. You will plant a vineyard but not even begin to use it. 28:31 Your ox will be slaughtered before your very eyes but you will not eat of it. Your donkey will be stolen from you as you watch and will not be returned to you. Your flock of sheep will be given to your enemies and there will be no one to save you. 28:32 Your sons and daughters will be given to another people while you look on in vain all day, and you will be powerless to do anything about it. ⁷³  28:33 As for the produce of your land and all your labor, a people you do not know will consume it, and you will be nothing but oppressed and crushed for the rest of your lives. 28:34 You will go insane from seeing all this. 28:35 The Lord will afflict you in your knees and on your legs with painful, incurable boils – from the soles of your feet to the top of your head. 28:36 The Lord will force you and your king ⁷⁴  whom you will appoint over you to go away to a people whom you and your ancestors have not known, and you will serve other gods of wood and stone there. 28:37 You will become an occasion of horror, a proverb, and an object of ridicule to all the peoples to whom the Lord will drive you.

The Curse of Reversed Status

28:38 “You will take much seed to the field but gather little harvest, because locusts will consume it. 28:39 You will plant vineyards and cultivate them, but you will not drink wine or gather in grapes, because worms will eat them. 28:40 You will have olive trees throughout your territory but you will not anoint yourself with olive oil, because the olives will drop off the trees while still unripe. ⁷⁵  28:41 You will bear sons and daughters but not keep them, because they will be taken into captivity. 28:42 Whirring locusts ⁷⁶  will take over every tree and all the produce of your soil. 28:43 The foreigners ⁷⁷  who reside among you will become higher and higher over you and you will become lower and lower. 28:44 They will lend to you but you will not lend to them; they will become the head and you will become the tail!

28:45 All these curses will fall on you, pursuing and overtaking you until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the Lord your God by keeping his commandments and statutes that he has given ⁷⁸  you. 28:46 These curses ⁷⁹  will be a perpetual sign and wonder with reference to you and your descendants. ⁸⁰ 

The Curse of Military Siege

28:47 “Because you have not served the Lord your God joyfully and wholeheartedly with the abundance of everything you have, 28:48 instead in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and poverty ⁸¹  you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you. They ⁸²  will place an iron yoke on your neck until they have destroyed you. 28:49 The Lord will raise up a distant nation against you, one from the other side of the earth ⁸³  as the eagle flies, ⁸⁴  a nation whose language you will not understand, 28:50 a nation of stern appearance that will have no regard for the elderly or pity for the young. 28:51 They ⁸⁵  will devour the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your soil until you are destroyed. They will not leave you with any grain, new wine, olive oil, calves of your herds, ⁸⁶  or lambs of your flocks ⁸⁷  until they have destroyed you. 28:52 They will besiege all of your villages ⁸⁸  until all of your high and fortified walls collapse – those in which you put your confidence throughout the land. They will besiege all your villages throughout the land the Lord your God has given you. 28:53 You will then eat your own offspring, ⁸⁹  the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you, because of the severity of the siege ⁹⁰  by which your enemies will constrict you. 28:54 The man among you who is by nature tender and sensitive will turn against his brother, his beloved wife, and his remaining children. 28:55 He will withhold from all of them his children’s flesh that he is eating (since there is nothing else left), because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict ⁹¹  you in your villages. 28:56 Likewise, the most ⁹²  tender and delicate of your women, who would never think of putting even the sole of her foot on the ground because of her daintiness, ⁹³  will turn against her beloved husband, her sons and daughters, 28:57 and will secretly eat her afterbirth ⁹⁴  and her newborn children ⁹⁵  (since she has nothing else), ⁹⁶  because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict you in your villages.

The Curse of Covenant Termination

28:58 “If you refuse to obey ⁹⁷  all the words of this law, the things written in this scroll, and refuse to fear this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God, 28:59 then the Lord will increase your punishments and those of your descendants – great and long-lasting afflictions and severe, enduring illnesses. 28:60 He will infect you with all the diseases of Egypt ⁹⁸  that you dreaded, and they will persistently afflict you. ⁹⁹  28:61 Moreover, the Lord will bring upon you every kind of sickness and plague not mentioned in this scroll of commandments, ¹⁰⁰  until you have perished. 28:62 There will be very few of you left, though at one time you were as numerous as the stars in the sky, ¹⁰¹  because you will have disobeyed ¹⁰²  the Lord your God. 28:63 This is what will happen: Just as the Lord delighted to do good for you and make you numerous, he ¹⁰³  will take delight in destroying and decimating you. You will be uprooted from the land you are about to possess. 28:64 The Lord will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods of wood and stone. 28:65 Among those nations you will have no rest nor will there be a place of peaceful rest for the soles of your feet, for there the Lord will give you an anxious heart, failing eyesight, and a spirit of despair. 28:66 Your life will hang in doubt before you; you will be terrified by night and day and will have no certainty of surviving from one day to the next. ¹⁰⁴  28:67 In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ And in the evening you will say, ‘I wish it were morning!’ because of the things you will fear and the things you will see. 28:68 Then the Lord will make you return to Egypt by ship, over a route I said to you that you would never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”

Ulangan 33:29

33:29 You have joy, Israel! Who is like you?

You are a people delivered by the Lord,

your protective shield

and your exalted sword.

May your enemies cringe before you;

may you trample on their backs.

Yeremia 17:7

17:7 My blessing is on those people who trust in me,

who put their confidence in me. ¹⁰⁵ 

Matius 16:17

16:17 And Jesus answered him, ¹⁰⁶  “You are blessed, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood ¹⁰⁷  did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven!

Lukas 11:28

11:28 But he replied, ¹⁰⁸  “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey ¹⁰⁹  it!”

Yohanes 13:17

13:17 If you understand ¹¹⁰  these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

Yohanes 20:29

20:29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are the people ¹¹¹  who have not seen and yet have believed.” ¹¹² 

Wahyu 22:14

22:14 Blessed are those who wash their robes so they can have access ¹¹³  to the tree of life and can enter into the city by the gates.

[2:12]  ¹ tn Traditionally, “kiss the son” (KJV). But בַּר (bar) is the Aramaic word for “son,” not the Hebrew. For this reason many regard the reading as suspect. Some propose emendations of vv. 11b-12a. One of the more popular proposals is to read בִּרְעָדָה נַשְּׁקוּ לְרַגְלָיו (bir’adah nashÿqu lÿraslayv, “in trembling kiss his feet”). It makes better sense to understand בַּר (bar) as an adjective meaning “pure” (see Pss 24:4; 73:1 and BDB 141 s.v. בַּר 3) functioning here in an adverbial sense. If read this way, then the syntactical structure of exhortation (imperative followed by adverbial modifier) corresponds to the two preceding lines (see v. 11). The verb נָשַׁק (nashaq, “kiss”) refers metonymically to showing homage (see 1 Sam 10:1; Hos 13:2). The exhortation in v. 12a advocates a genuine expression of allegiance and warns against insincerity. When swearing allegiance, vassal kings would sometimes do so insincerely, with the intent of rebelling when the time was right. The so-called “Vassal Treaties of Esarhaddon” also warn against such an attitude. In this treaty the vassal is told: “If you, as you stand on the soil where this oath [is sworn], swear the oath with your words and lips [only], do not swear with your entire heart, do not transmit it to your sons who will live after this treaty, if you take this curse upon yourselves but do not plan to keep the treaty of Esarhaddon…may your sons and grandsons because of this fear in the future” (see J. B. Pritchard, ed., The Ancient Near East, 2:62).

[2:12]  ² tn Throughout the translation of this verse the third person masculine pronouns refer to the Lord (cf. v. 11).

[2:12]  ³ tn The implied subject of the verb is the Lord, mentioned in v. 11. Elsewhere the subject of this verb is consistently the Lord, suggesting it may be a technical term for divine anger. Anger is here used metonymically for judgment, as the following statement makes clear. A Moabite cognate occurs in the Mesha inscription, where it is used of the Moabite god Chemosh’s anger at his people (see J. B. Pritchard, ed., The Ancient Near East, 1:209).

[2:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “and you will perish [in the] way.” The Hebrew word דֶּרֶךְ (derekh, “way”) here refers to their rebellious behavior (not to a pathway, as often understood). It functions syntactically as an adverbial accusative in relation to the verb “perish.”

[2:12]  ⁵ tn Or “burns.” The Lord’s anger is compared here to fire, the most destructive force known in ancient Israel.

[2:12]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew noun is an abstract plural. The word often refers metonymically to the happiness that God-given security and prosperity produce (see Pss 1:1; 34:9; 41:1; 65:4; 84:12; 89:15; 106:3; 112:1; 127:5; 128:1; 144:15).

[2:12]  ⁷ sn Who take shelter in him. “Taking shelter” in the Lord is an idiom for seeking his protection. Seeking his protection presupposes and even demonstrates the subject’s loyalty to the Lord. In the psalms those who “take shelter” in the Lord are contrasted with the wicked and equated with those who love, fear, and serve the Lord (Pss 5:11-12; 31:17-20; 34:21-22).

[32:1]  ⁸ sn Psalm 32. The psalmist recalls the agony he experienced prior to confessing his sins and affirms that true happiness comes when one’s sins are forgiven. He then urges others not to be stubborn, but to turn to God while forgiveness is available, for God extends his mercy to the repentant, while the wicked experience nothing but sorrow.

[32:1]  ⁹ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) is uncertain. The word is derived from a verb meaning “to be prudent; to be wise.” Various options are: “a contemplative song,” “a song imparting moral wisdom,” or “a skillful [i.e., well-written] song.” The term occurs in the superscriptions of Pss 32, 42, 44, 45, 52-55, 74, 78, 88, 89, and 142, as well as in Ps 47:7.

[32:1]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew noun is an abstract plural. The word often refers metonymically to the happiness that God-given security and prosperity produce (see Pss 1:1, 3; 2:12; 34:9; 41:1; 65:4; 84:12; 89:15; 106:3; 112:1; 127:5; 128:1; 144:15). Here it refers to the relief that one experiences when one’s sins are forgiven.

[32:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “lifted up.”

[32:1]  ¹² tn Heb “covered over.”

[32:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “man.” The word choice reflects the perspective of the psalmist, who is male. The principle of the psalm is certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender or age. To facilitate modern application, the gender and age specific “man” has been translated with the more neutral “one.”

[32:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “blessed [is] the man to whom the Lord does not impute wrongdoing.”

[32:2]  ¹⁵ sn In whose spirit there is no deceit. The point is not that the individual is sinless and pure. In this context, which focuses on confession and forgiveness of sin, the psalmist refers to one who refuses to deny or hide his sin, but instead honestly confesses it to God.

[34:8]  ¹⁶ tn This verb is normally used of tasting or savoring food. The metaphor here appears to compare the Lord to a tasty meal.

[34:8]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew noun is an abstract plural. The word often refers metonymically to the happiness that God-given security and prosperity produce (see Pss 1:1, 3; 2:12; 41:1; 65:4; 84:12; 89:15; 106:3; 112:1; 127:5; 128:1; 144:15).

[34:8]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “man.” The principle of the psalm is certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender or age. To facilitate modern application, we translate the gender and age specific “man” with the more neutral “one.”

[34:8]  ¹⁹ tn “Taking shelter” in the Lord is an idiom for seeking his protection. Seeking his protection presupposes and even demonstrates the subject’s loyalty to the Lord. In the psalms those who “take shelter” in the Lord are contrasted with the wicked and equated with those who love, fear, and serve the Lord (Pss 2:12; 5:11-12; 31:17-20; 34:21-22).

[84:12]  ²⁰ tn Traditionally “Lord of hosts.”

[84:12]  ²¹ tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness [of] the man [who] trusts in you.” Hebrew literature often assumes and reflects the male-oriented perspective of ancient Israelite society. The principle stated here is certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender or age. To facilitate modern application, we translate the gender and age specific “man” with the plural “those.” The individual referred to here is representative of all followers of God, as the use of the plural form in v. 12b indicates.

[112:1]  ²² sn Psalm 112. This wisdom psalm lists some of the benefits of living a godly life. The psalm is an acrostic. After the introductory call to praise, every poetic line (twenty-two in all) begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

[112:1]  ²³ tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness [of] the man.” Hebrew wisdom literature often assumes and reflects the male-oriented perspective of ancient Israelite society. The individual is representative of a larger group, called the “godly” in vv. 3-4. The principle of the psalm is certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender. To facilitate modern application, we translate the gender specific “man” with the more neutral “one.” The generic masculine pronoun is used in the following verses.

[112:1]  ²⁴ tn Heb “fears.”

[112:1]  ²⁵ tn Heb “in his commands he delights very much.” The words “in keeping” are supplied in the translation for clarification. Taking delight in the law is metonymic here for obeying God’s moral will. See Ps 1:2.

[115:12]  ²⁶ tn Or “remembers us.”

[115:12]  ²⁷ tn Another option is to translate the prefixed form of the verb “bless” in vv. 12-13 as a jussive, “may he bless” (see v. 14).

[115:12]  ²⁸ tn Heb “house.”

[115:13]  ²⁹ tn Heb “the fearers of the Lord.”

[115:13]  ³⁰ tn Heb “the small along with the great.” The translation assumes that “small” and “great” here refer to age (see 2 Chr 15:13). Another option is to translate “both the insignificant and the prominent” (see Job 3:19; cf. NEB “high and low alike”).

[115:14]  ³¹ tn Heb “may he add to you, to you and your sons.” The prefixed verbal form is jussive, indicating this is a prayer.

[115:15]  ³² tn Or “maker.”

[119:1]  ³³ sn Psalm 119. The psalmist celebrates God’s law and the guidance it provides his people. He expresses his desire to know God’s law thoroughly so that he might experience the blessings that come to those who obey it. This lengthy psalm exhibits an elaborate acrostic pattern. The psalm is divided into twenty-two sections (corresponding to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet), each of which is comprised of eight verses. Each of the verses in the first section (vv. 1-8) begins with the letter alef (א), the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. This pattern continues throughout the psalm as each new section highlights a successive letter of the alphabet. Each verse in section two (vv. 9-16) begins with the second letter of the alphabet, each verse in section three (vv. 17-24) with the third letter, etc. This rigid pattern creates a sense of order and completeness and may have facilitated memorization.

[119:1]  ³⁴ tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness of those who are blameless of way.”

[119:1]  ³⁵ tn Heb “walk in.”

[144:15]  ³⁶ tn Heb “[O] the happiness of the people who [it is] such to them.”

[28:2]  ³⁷ tn Heb “come upon you and overtake you” (so NASB, NRSV); NIV “come upon you and accompany you.”

[28:3]  ³⁸ tn Or “in the country” (so NAB, NIV, NLT). This expression also occurs in v. 15.

[28:4]  ³⁹ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[28:6]  ⁴⁰ 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]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “who rise up against” (so NIV).

[28:7]  ⁴² tn Heb “way” (also later in this verse and in v. 25).

[28:8]  ⁴³ 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]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “the commandments of the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in the previous verse.

[28:9]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “and walk in his ways” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[28:10]  ⁴⁶ 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]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); CEV “will give you a lot of children.”

[28:11]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

[28:11]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 36, 64).

[28:12]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “all the work of your hands.”

[28:13]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “the Lord your God’s.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

[28:13]  ⁵² tn Heb “commanding” (so NRSV); NASB “which I charge you today.”

[28:14]  ⁵³ tn Heb “from all the words which I am commanding.”

[28:14]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “in order to serve.”

[28:15]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “do not hear the voice of.”

[28:15]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “and overtake you” (so NIV, NRSV); NAB, NLT “and overwhelm you.”

[28:18]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[28:19]  ⁵⁸ sn See note on the similar expression in v. 6.

[28:20]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “the curse, the confusion, and the rebuke” (NASB and NIV similar); NRSV “disaster, panic, and frustration.”

[28:20]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “in all the stretching out of your hand.”

[28:20]  ⁶¹ tc For the MT first person common singular suffix (“me”), the LXX reads either “Lord” (Lucian) or third person masculine singular suffix (“him”; various codices). The MT’s more difficult reading probably represents the original text.

[28:20]  tn Heb “the evil of your doings wherein you have forsaken me”; CEV “all because you rejected the Lord.”

[28:21]  ⁶² tn Heb “will cause pestilence to cling to you.”

[28:22]  ⁶³ tn Heb “The Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

[28:22]  ⁶⁴ tn Or perhaps “consumption” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV). The term is from a verbal root that indicates a weakening of one’s physical strength (cf. NAB “wasting”; NIV, NLT “wasting disease”).

[28:22]  ⁶⁵ tn Heb “hot fever”; NIV “scorching heat.”

[28:22]  ⁶⁶ tn Or “drought” (so NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[28:23]  ⁶⁷ tc The MT reads “Your.” The LXX reads “Heaven will be to you.”

[28:23]  ⁶⁸ tn Or “heavens” (also in the following verse). The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[28:25]  ⁶⁹ tc The meaningless MT reading זַעֲוָה (za’avah) is clearly a transposition of the more commonly attested Hebrew noun זְוָעָה (zÿva’ah, “terror”).

[28:28]  ⁷⁰ tn Heb “heart” (so KJV, NASB).

[28:29]  ⁷¹ tn Heb “you will not cause your ways to prosper.”

[28:30]  ⁷² tc For MT reading שָׁגַל (shagal, “ravish; violate”), the Syriac, Targum, and Vulgate presume the less violent שָׁכַב (shakhav, “lie with”). The unexpected counterpart to betrothal here favors the originality of the MT.

[28:32]  ⁷³ tn Heb “and there will be no power in your hand”; NCV “there will be nothing you can do.”

[28:36]  ⁷⁴ tc The LXX reads the plural “kings.”

[28:40]  ⁷⁵ tn Heb “your olives will drop off” (נָשַׁל, nashal), referring to the olives dropping off before they ripen.

[28:42]  ⁷⁶ tn The Hebrew term denotes some sort of buzzing or whirring insect; some have understood this to be a type of locust (KJV, NIV, CEV), but other insects have also been suggested: “buzzing insects” (NAB); “the cricket” (NASB); “the cicada” (NRSV).

[28:43]  ⁷⁷ tn Heb “the foreigner.” This is a collective singular and has therefore been translated as plural; this includes the pronouns in the following verse, which are also singular in the Hebrew text.

[28:45]  ⁷⁸ tn Heb “commanded”; NAB, NIV, TEV “he gave you.”

[28:46]  ⁷⁹ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the curses mentioned previously) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[28:46]  ⁸⁰ tn Heb “seed” (so KJV, ASV).

[28:48]  ⁸¹ tn Heb “lack of everything.”

[28:48]  ⁸² tn Heb “he” (also later in this verse). The pronoun is a collective singular referring to the enemies (cf. CEV, NLT). Many translations understand the singular pronoun to refer to the Lord (cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NCV, NRSV, TEV).

[28:49]  ⁸³ tn Heb “from the end of the earth.”

[28:49]  ⁸⁴ tn Some translations understand this to mean “like an eagle swoops down” (e.g., NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT), comparing the swift attack of an eagle to the attack of the Israelites’ enemies.

[28:51]  ⁸⁵ tn Heb “it” (so NRSV), a collective singular referring to the invading nation (several times in this verse and v. 52).

[28:51]  ⁸⁶ tn Heb “increase of herds.”

[28:51]  ⁸⁷ tn Heb “growth of flocks.”

[28:52]  ⁸⁸ tn Heb “gates,” also in vv. 55, 57.

[28:53]  ⁸⁹ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NRSV); NASB “the offspring of your own body.”

[28:53]  ⁹⁰ tn Heb “siege and stress.”

[28:55]  ⁹¹ tn Heb “besiege,” redundant with the noun “siege.”

[28:56]  ⁹² tc The LXX adds σφόδρα (sfodra, “very”) to bring the description into line with v. 54.

[28:56]  ⁹³ tn Heb “delicateness and tenderness.”

[28:57]  ⁹⁴ tn Heb includes “that which comes out from between her feet.”

[28:57]  ⁹⁵ tn Heb “her sons that she will bear.”

[28:57]  ⁹⁶ tn Heb includes “in her need for everything.”

[28:58]  ⁹⁷ tn Heb “If you are not careful to do.”

[28:60]  ⁹⁸ sn These are the plagues the Lord inflicted on the Egyptians prior to the exodus which, though they did not fall upon the Israelites, must have caused great terror (cf. Exod 15:26).

[28:60]  ⁹⁹ tn Heb “will cling to you” (so NIV); NLT “will claim you.”

[28:61]  ¹⁰⁰ tn The Hebrew term תּוֹרָה (torah) can refer either (1) to the whole Pentateuch or, more likely, (2) to the book of Deuteronomy or even (3) only to this curse section of the covenant text. “Scroll” better reflects the actual document, since “book” conveys the notion of a bound book with pages to the modern English reader. Cf. KJV, NASB, NRSV “the book of this law”; NIV, NLT “this Book of the Law”; TEV “this book of God’s laws and teachings.”

[28:62]  ¹⁰¹ tn Or “heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[28:62]  ¹⁰² tn Heb “have not listened to the voice of.”

[28:63]  ¹⁰³ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

[28:66]  ¹⁰⁴ tn Heb “you will not be confident in your life.” The phrase “from one day to the next” is implied by the following verse.

[17:7]  ¹⁰⁵ tn Heb “Blessed is the person who trusts in the Lord, and whose confidence is in the Lord.” However, because this is a statement of the Lord and the translation chooses to show that the blessing comes from him, the first person is substituted for the divine name.

[16:17]  ¹⁰⁶ tn Grk “answering, Jesus said to him.” The participle ἀποκριθείς (apokriqeis) is redundant, but the syntax of this phrase has been modified for clarity.

[16:17]  ¹⁰⁷ tn The expression “flesh and blood” could refer to “any human being” (so TEV, NLT; cf. NIV “man”), but it could also refer to Peter himself (i.e., his own intuition; cf. CEV “You didn’t discover this on your own”). Because of the ambiguity of the referent, the phrase “flesh and blood” has been retained in the translation.

[11:28]  ¹⁰⁸ tn Grk “said.”

[11:28]  ¹⁰⁹ sn This is another reference to hearing and doing the word of God, which here describes Jesus’ teaching; see Luke 8:21.

[13:17]  ¹¹⁰ tn Grk “If you know.”

[20:29]  ¹¹¹ tn Grk “are those.”

[20:29]  ¹¹² tn Some translations treat πιστεύσαντες (pisteusante") as a gnomic aorist (timeless statement) and thus equivalent to an English present tense: “and yet believe” (RSV). This may create an effective application of the passage to the modern reader, but the author is probably thinking of those people who had already believed without the benefit of seeing the risen Jesus, on the basis of reports by others or because of circumstantial evidence (see John 20:8).

[22:14]  ¹¹³ tn Grk “so that there will be to them authority over the tree of life.”