Ulangan 28:15-68
Konteks28:15 “But if you ignore 1 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: 2 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 3 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. 4
28:20 “The Lord will send on you a curse, confusing you and opposing you 5 in everything you undertake 6 until you are destroyed and quickly perish because of the evil of your deeds, in that you have forsaken me. 7 28:21 The Lord will plague you with deadly diseases 8 until he has completely removed you from the land you are about to possess. 28:22 He 9 will afflict you with weakness, 10 fever, inflammation, infection, 11 sword, 12 blight, and mildew; these will attack you until you perish. 28:23 The 13 sky 14 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.
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 15 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. 16 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; 17 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 18 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. 19 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 20 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.
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. 21 28:41 You will bear sons and daughters but not keep them, because they will be taken into captivity. 28:42 Whirring locusts 22 will take over every tree and all the produce of your soil. 28:43 The foreigners 23 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 24 you. 28:46 These curses 25 will be a perpetual sign and wonder with reference to you and your descendants. 26
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 27 you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you. They 28 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 29 as the eagle flies, 30 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 31 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, 32 or lambs of your flocks 33 until they have destroyed you. 28:52 They will besiege all of your villages 34 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, 35 the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you, because of the severity of the siege 36 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 37 you in your villages. 28:56 Likewise, the most 38 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, 39 will turn against her beloved husband, her sons and daughters, 28:57 and will secretly eat her afterbirth 40 and her newborn children 41 (since she has nothing else), 42 because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict you in your villages.
28:58 “If you refuse to obey 43 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 44 that you dreaded, and they will persistently afflict you. 45 28:61 Moreover, the Lord will bring upon you every kind of sickness and plague not mentioned in this scroll of commandments, 46 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, 47 because you will have disobeyed 48 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 49 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. 50 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 29:22-28
Konteks29:22 The generation to come – your descendants who will rise up after you, as well as the foreigner who will come from distant places – will see 51 the afflictions of that land and the illnesses that the Lord has brought on it. 29:23 The whole land will be covered with brimstone, salt, and burning debris; it will not be planted nor will it sprout or produce grass. It will resemble the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord destroyed in his intense anger. 52 29:24 Then all the nations will ask, “Why has the Lord done all this to this land? What is this fierce, heated display of anger 53 all about?” 29:25 Then people will say, “Because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. 29:26 They went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods they did not know and that he did not permit them to worship. 54 29:27 That is why the Lord’s anger erupted against this land, bringing on it all the curses 55 written in this scroll. 29:28 So the Lord has uprooted them from their land in anger, wrath, and great rage and has deported them to another land, as is clear today.”
Ulangan 31:16-29
Konteks31:16 Then the Lord said to Moses, “You are about to die, 56 and then these people will begin to prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land into which they 57 are going. They 58 will reject 59 me and break my covenant that I have made with them. 60 31:17 At that time 61 my anger will erupt against them 62 and I will abandon them and hide my face from them until they are devoured. Many disasters and distresses will overcome 63 them 64 so that they 65 will say at that time, ‘Have not these disasters 66 overcome us 67 because our 68 God is not among us 69 ?’ 31:18 But I will certainly 70 hide myself at that time because of all the wickedness they 71 will have done by turning to other gods. 31:19 Now write down for yourselves the following song and teach it to the Israelites. Put it into their very mouths so that this song may serve as my witness against the Israelites! 31:20 For after I have brought them 72 to the land I promised to their 73 ancestors – one flowing with milk and honey – and they 74 eat their fill 75 and become fat, then they 76 will turn to other gods and worship them; they will reject me and break my covenant. 31:21 Then when 77 many disasters and distresses overcome them 78 this song will testify against them, 79 for their 80 descendants will not forget it. 81 I know the 82 intentions they have in mind 83 today, even before I bring them 84 to the land I have promised.” 31:22 So on that day Moses wrote down this song and taught it to the Israelites, 31:23 and the Lord 85 commissioned Joshua son of Nun, “Be strong and courageous, for you will take the Israelites to the land I have promised them, and I will be with you.” 86
31:24 When Moses finished writing on a scroll the words of this law in their entirety, 31:25 he 87 commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the Lord’s covenant, 31:26 “Take this scroll of the law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God. It will remain there as a witness against you, 31:27 for I know about your rebellion and stubbornness. 88 Indeed, even while I have been living among you to this very day, you have rebelled against the Lord; you will be even more rebellious after my death! 89 31:28 Gather to me all your tribal elders and officials so I can speak to them directly about these things and call the heavens and the earth to witness against them. 31:29 For I know that after I die you will totally 90 corrupt yourselves and turn away from the path I have commanded you to walk. Disaster will confront you in the days to come because you will act wickedly 91 before the Lord, inciting him to anger because of your actions.” 92
Ulangan 32:15-43
Konteks32:15 But Jeshurun 93 became fat and kicked,
you 94 got fat, thick, and stuffed!
Then he deserted the God who made him,
and treated the Rock who saved him with contempt.
32:16 They made him jealous with other gods, 95
they enraged him with abhorrent idols. 96
32:17 They sacrificed to demons, not God,
to gods they had not known;
to new gods who had recently come along,
gods your ancestors 97 had not known about.
32:18 You have forgotten 98 the Rock who fathered you,
and put out of mind the God who gave you birth.
32:19 But the Lord took note and despised them
because his sons and daughters enraged him.
32:20 He said, “I will reject them, 99
I will see what will happen to them;
for they are a perverse generation,
children 100 who show no loyalty.
32:21 They have made me jealous 101 with false gods, 102
enraging me with their worthless gods; 103
so I will make them jealous with a people they do not recognize, 104
with a nation slow to learn 105 I will enrage them.
32:22 For a fire has been kindled by my anger,
and it burns to lowest Sheol; 106
it consumes the earth and its produce,
and ignites the foundations of the mountains.
32:23 I will increase their 107 disasters,
I will use up my arrows on them.
32:24 They will be starved by famine,
eaten by plague, and bitterly stung; 108
I will send the teeth of wild animals against them,
along with the poison of creatures that crawl in the dust.
32:25 The sword will make people childless outside,
and terror will do so inside;
they will destroy 109 both the young man and the virgin,
the infant and the gray-haired man.
32:26 “I said, ‘I want to cut them in pieces. 110
I want to make people forget they ever existed.
32:27 But I fear the reaction 111 of their enemies,
for 112 their adversaries would misunderstand
and say, “Our power is great, 113
and the Lord has not done all this!”’
32:28 They are a nation devoid of wisdom,
and there is no understanding among them.
32:29 I wish that they were wise and could understand this,
and that they could comprehend what will happen to them.”
32:30 How can one man chase a thousand of them, 114
and two pursue ten thousand;
unless their Rock had delivered them up, 115
and the Lord had handed them over?
32:31 For our enemies’ 116 rock is not like our Rock,
as even our enemies concede.
32:32 For their vine is from the stock 117 of Sodom,
and from the fields of Gomorrah. 118
Their grapes contain venom,
their clusters of grapes are bitter.
32:33 Their wine is snakes’ poison,
the deadly venom of cobras.
32:34 “Is this not stored up with me?” says the Lord, 119
“Is it not sealed up in my storehouses?
32:35 I will get revenge and pay them back
at the time their foot slips;
for the day of their disaster is near,
and the impending judgment 120 is rushing upon them!”
32:36 The Lord will judge his people,
and will change his plans concerning 121 his servants;
when he sees that their power has disappeared,
and that no one is left, whether confined or set free.
32:37 He will say, “Where are their gods,
the rock in whom they sought security,
32:38 who ate the best of their sacrifices,
and drank the wine of their drink offerings?
Let them rise and help you;
let them be your refuge!
32:39 “See now that I, indeed I, am he!” says the Lord, 122
“and there is no other god besides me.
I kill and give life,
I smash and I heal,
and none can resist 123 my power.
32:40 For I raise up my hand to heaven,
and say, ‘As surely as I live forever,
32:41 I will sharpen my lightning-like sword,
and my hand will grasp hold of the weapon of judgment; 124
I will execute vengeance on my foes,
and repay those who hate me! 125
32:42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood,
and my sword will devour flesh –
the blood of the slaughtered and captured,
the chief 126 of the enemy’s leaders!’”
32:43 Cry out, O nations, with his people,
for he will avenge his servants’ blood;
he will take vengeance against his enemies,
and make atonement for his land and people.
[28:15] 1 tn Heb “do not hear the voice of.”
[28:15] 2 tn Heb “and overtake you” (so NIV, NRSV); NAB, NLT “and overwhelm you.”
[28:18] 3 tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).
[28:19] 4 sn See note on the similar expression in v. 6.
[28:20] 5 tn Heb “the curse, the confusion, and the rebuke” (NASB and NIV similar); NRSV “disaster, panic, and frustration.”
[28:20] 6 tn Heb “in all the stretching out of your hand.”
[28:20] 7 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] 8 tn Heb “will cause pestilence to cling to you.”
[28:22] 9 tn Heb “The
[28:22] 10 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] 11 tn Heb “hot fever”; NIV “scorching heat.”
[28:22] 12 tn Or “drought” (so NIV, NRSV, NLT).
[28:23] 13 tc The MT reads “Your.” The LXX reads “Heaven will be to you.”
[28:23] 14 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] 15 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] 16 tn Heb “heart” (so KJV, NASB).
[28:29] 17 tn Heb “you will not cause your ways to prosper.”
[28:30] 18 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] 19 tn Heb “and there will be no power in your hand”; NCV “there will be nothing you can do.”
[28:36] 20 tc The LXX reads the plural “kings.”
[28:40] 21 tn Heb “your olives will drop off” (נָשַׁל, nashal), referring to the olives dropping off before they ripen.
[28:42] 22 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] 23 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] 24 tn Heb “commanded”; NAB, NIV, TEV “he gave you.”
[28:46] 25 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the curses mentioned previously) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[28:46] 26 tn Heb “seed” (so KJV, ASV).
[28:48] 27 tn Heb “lack of everything.”
[28:48] 28 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
[28:49] 29 tn Heb “from the end of the earth.”
[28:49] 30 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] 31 tn Heb “it” (so NRSV), a collective singular referring to the invading nation (several times in this verse and v. 52).
[28:51] 32 tn Heb “increase of herds.”
[28:51] 33 tn Heb “growth of flocks.”
[28:52] 34 tn Heb “gates,” also in vv. 55, 57.
[28:53] 35 tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NRSV); NASB “the offspring of your own body.”
[28:53] 36 tn Heb “siege and stress.”
[28:55] 37 tn Heb “besiege,” redundant with the noun “siege.”
[28:56] 38 tc The LXX adds σφόδρα (sfodra, “very”) to bring the description into line with v. 54.
[28:56] 39 tn Heb “delicateness and tenderness.”
[28:57] 40 tn Heb includes “that which comes out from between her feet.”
[28:57] 41 tn Heb “her sons that she will bear.”
[28:57] 42 tn Heb includes “in her need for everything.”
[28:58] 43 tn Heb “If you are not careful to do.”
[28:60] 44 sn These are the plagues the
[28:60] 45 tn Heb “will cling to you” (so NIV); NLT “will claim you.”
[28:61] 46 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] 47 tn Or “heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.
[28:62] 48 tn Heb “have not listened to the voice of.”
[28:63] 49 tn Heb “the
[28:66] 50 tn Heb “you will not be confident in your life.” The phrase “from one day to the next” is implied by the following verse.
[29:22] 51 tn Heb “will say and see.” One expects a quotation to appear, but it seems to be omitted. To avoid confusion in the translation, the verb “will say” is omitted.
[29:23] 52 tn Heb “the anger and the wrath.” This construction is a hendiadys intended to intensify the emotion.
[29:24] 53 tn Heb “this great burning of anger”; KJV “the heat of this great anger.”
[29:26] 54 tn Heb “did not assign to them”; NASB, NRSV “had not allotted to them.”
[29:27] 55 tn Heb “the entire curse.”
[31:16] 56 tn Heb “lie down with your fathers” (so NASB); NRSV “ancestors.”
[31:16] 57 tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they,” which is necessary in any case in the translation because of contemporary English style. The third person singular also occurs in the Hebrew text twice more in this verse, three times in v. 17, once in v. 18, five times in v. 20, and four times in v. 21. Each time it is translated as third person plural for stylistic reasons.
[31:16] 58 tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.
[31:16] 59 tn Or “abandon” (TEV, NLT).
[31:16] 60 tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.
[31:17] 61 tn Heb “on that day.” This same expression also appears later in the verse and in v. 18.
[31:17] 62 tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.
[31:17] 63 tn Heb “find,” “encounter.”
[31:17] 64 tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.
[31:17] 65 tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.
[31:17] 67 tn Heb “me.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “us,” which is necessary in any case in the translation because of contemporary English style.
[31:17] 69 tn Heb “me.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “us,” which is necessary in any case in the translation because of contemporary English style.
[31:18] 70 tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “certainly.”
[31:18] 71 tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.
[31:20] 72 tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.
[31:20] 73 tn Heb “his.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “their.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.
[31:20] 74 tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.
[31:20] 75 tn Heb “and are satisfied.”
[31:20] 76 tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.
[31:21] 77 tn Heb “Then it will come to pass that.”
[31:21] 78 tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.
[31:21] 79 tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.
[31:21] 80 tn Heb “his.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “their.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.
[31:21] 81 tn Heb “it will not be forgotten from the mouth of his seed.”
[31:21] 82 tn Heb “his.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “their.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.
[31:21] 83 tn Heb “which he is doing.”
[31:21] 84 tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.
[31:23] 85 tn Heb “he.” Since the pronoun could be taken to refer to Moses, the referent has been specified as “the
[31:23] 86 tc The LXX reads, “as the
[31:25] 87 tn Heb “Moses.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.
[31:27] 88 tn Heb “stiffness of neck” (cf. KJV, NAB, NIV). See note on the word “stubborn” in Deut 9:6.
[31:27] 89 tn Heb “How much more after my death?” The Hebrew text has a sarcastic rhetorical question here; the translation seeks to bring out the force of the question.
[31:29] 90 tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “totally.”
[31:29] 91 tn Heb “do the evil.”
[31:29] 92 tn Heb “the work of your hands.”
[32:15] 93 tn To make the continuity of the referent clear, some English versions substitute “Jacob” here (NAB, NRSV) while others replace “Jeshurun” with “Israel” (NCV, CEV, NLT) or “the Lord’s people” (TEV).
[32:15] sn Jeshurun is a term of affection derived from the Hebrew verb יָשַׁר (yashar, “be upright”). Here it speaks of Israel “in an ideal situation, with its ‘uprightness’ due more to God’s help than his own efforts” (M. Mulder, TDOT 6:475).
[32:15] 94 tc The LXX reads the third person masculine singular (“he”) for the MT second person masculine singular (“you”), but such alterations are unnecessary in Hebrew poetic texts where subjects fluctuate frequently and without warning.
[32:16] 95 tc Heb “with strange (things).” The Vulgate actually supplies diis (“gods”).
[32:16] 96 tn Heb “abhorrent (things)” (cf. NRSV). A number of English versions understand this as referring to “idols” (NAB, NIV, NCV, CEV), while NLT supplies “acts.”
[32:17] 97 tn Heb “your fathers.”
[32:18] 98 tc The Hebrew text is corrupt here; the translation follows the suggestion offered in HALOT 1477 s.v. שׁיה. Cf. NASB, NLT “You neglected”; NIV “You deserted”; NRSV “You were unmindful of.”
[32:20] 99 tn Heb “I will hide my face from them.”
[32:20] 100 tn Heb “sons” (so NAB, NASB); TEV “unfaithful people.”
[32:21] 101 sn They have made me jealous. The “jealousy” of God is not a spirit of pettiness prompted by his insecurity, but righteous indignation caused by the disloyalty of his people to his covenant grace (see note on the word “God” in Deut 4:24). The jealousy of Israel, however (see next line), will be envy because of God’s lavish attention to another nation. This is an ironic wordplay. See H. Peels, NIDOTTE 3:938-39.
[32:21] 102 tn Heb “what is not a god,” or a “nondeity.”
[32:21] 103 tn Heb “their empty (things).” The Hebrew term used here to refer pejoratively to the false gods is הֶבֶל (hevel, “futile” or “futility”), used frequently in Ecclesiastes (e.g., Eccl 1:1, “Futile! Futile!” laments the Teacher, “Absolutely futile! Everything is futile!”).
[32:21] 104 tn Heb “what is not a people,” or a “nonpeople.” The “nonpeople” (לֹא־עָם, lo’-’am) referred to here are Gentiles who someday would become God’s people in the fullest sense (cf. Hos 1:9; 2:23).
[32:21] 105 tn Heb “a foolish nation” (so KJV, NAB, NRSV); NIV “a nation that has no understanding”; NLT “I will provoke their fury by blessing the foolish Gentiles.”
[32:22] 106 tn Or “to the lowest depths of the earth”; cf. NAB “to the depths of the nether world”; NIV “to the realm of death below”; NLT “to the depths of the grave.”
[32:22] sn Sheol refers here not to hell and hell-fire – a much later concept – but to the innermost parts of the earth, as low down as one could get. The parallel with “the foundations of the mountains” makes this clear (cf. Pss 9:17; 16:10; 139:8; Isa 14:9, 15; Amos 9:2).
[32:23] 107 tn Heb “upon them.”
[32:24] 108 tn The Hebrew term קֶטֶב (qetev) is probably metaphorical here for the sting of a disease (HALOT 1091-92 s.v.).
[32:25] 109 tn A verb is omitted here in the Hebrew text; for purposes of English style one suitable to the context is supplied.
[32:26] 110 tc The LXX reads “I said I would scatter them.” This reading is followed by a number of English versions (e.g., KJV, ASV, NIV, NCV, NRSV, NLT, CEV).
[32:27] 113 tn Heb “Our hand is high.” Cf. NAB “Our own hand won the victory.”
[32:30] 114 tn The words “man” and “of them” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarity.
[32:30] 115 tn Heb “sold them” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
[32:31] 116 tn Heb “their,” but the referent (enemies) is specified in the translation for the sake of clarity.
[32:32] 118 sn Sodom…Gomorrah. The term “vine” is a reference to the pagan deities which, the passage says, find their ultimate source in Sodom and Gomorrah, that is, in the soil of perversion exemplified by these places (cf. Gen 18:20; 19:4-28; Isa 1:10; 3:9; Jer 23:14; Lam 4:6; Ezek 16:44-52; Matt 10:15; 11:23-24).
[32:34] 119 tn Verses 34-35 appear to be a quotation of the
[32:35] 120 tn Heb “prepared things,” “impending things.” See BDB 800 s.v. עָתִיד.
[32:36] 121 tn The translation understands the verb in the sense of “be grieved, relent” (cf. HALOT 689 s.v. נחם hitp 2); cf. KJV, ASV “repent himself”; NLT “will change his mind.” Another option is to translate “will show compassion to” (see BDB 637 s.v. נחם); cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV.
[32:39] 122 tn Verses 39-42 appear to be a quotation of the
[32:39] 123 tn Heb “deliver from” (so NRSV, NLT).
[32:41] 124 tn Heb “judgment.” This is a metonymy, a figure of speech in which the effect (judgment) is employed as an instrument (sword, spear, or the like), the means, by which it is brought about.
[32:41] 125 tn The Hebrew term שָׂנֵא (sane’, “hate”) in this covenant context speaks of those who reject Yahweh’s covenant overtures, that is, who disobey its stipulations (see note on the word “rejecting” in Deut 5:9; also see Deut 7:10; 2 Chr 19:2; Ps 81:15; 139:20-21).
[32:42] 126 tn Or “head” (the same Hebrew word can mean “head” in the sense of “leader, chieftain” or “head” in the sense of body part).
