Leviticus 26:16-46

26:16 I for my part ¹  will do this to you: I will inflict horror on you, consumption and fever, which diminish eyesight and drain away the vitality of life. ²  You will sow your seed in vain because ³  your enemies will eat it. ⁴  26:17 I will set my face against you. You will be struck down before your enemies, those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when there is no one pursuing you.

26:18 “‘If, in spite of all these things, ⁵  you do not obey me, I will discipline you seven times more on account of your sins. ⁶  26:19 I will break your strong pride and make your sky like iron and your land like bronze. 26:20 Your strength will be used up in vain, your land will not give its yield, and the trees of the land ⁷  will not produce their fruit.

26:21 “‘If you walk in hostility against me ⁸  and are not willing to obey me, I will increase your affliction ⁹  seven times according to your sins. 26:22 I will send the wild animals ¹⁰  against you and they will bereave you of your children, ¹¹  annihilate your cattle, and diminish your population ¹²  so that your roads will become deserted.

26:23 “‘If in spite of these things ¹³  you do not allow yourselves to be disciplined and you walk in hostility against me, ¹⁴  26:24 I myself will also walk in hostility against you and strike you ¹⁵  seven times on account of your sins. 26:25 I will bring on you an avenging sword, a covenant vengeance. ¹⁶  Although ¹⁷  you will gather together into your cities, I will send pestilence among you and you will be given into enemy hands. ¹⁸  26:26 When I break off your supply of bread, ¹⁹  ten women will bake your bread in one oven; they will ration your bread by weight, ²⁰  and you will eat and not be satisfied.

26:27 “‘If in spite of this ²¹  you do not obey me but walk in hostility against me, ²²  26:28 I will walk in hostile rage against you ²³  and I myself will also discipline you seven times on account of your sins. 26:29 You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters. ²⁴  26:30 I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars, ²⁵  and I will stack your dead bodies on top of the lifeless bodies of your idols. ²⁶  I will abhor you. ²⁷  26:31 I will lay your cities waste ²⁸  and make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will refuse to smell your soothing aromas. 26:32 I myself will make the land desolate and your enemies who live in it will be appalled. 26:33 I will scatter you among the nations and unsheathe the sword ²⁹  after you, so your land will become desolate and your cities will become a waste.

26:34 “‘Then the land will make up for ³⁰  its Sabbaths all the days it lies desolate while you are in the land of your enemies; then the land will rest and make up its Sabbaths. 26:35 All the days of the desolation it will have the rest it did not have ³¹  on your Sabbaths when you lived on it.

26:36 “‘As for ³²  the ones who remain among you, I will bring despair into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a blowing leaf will pursue them, and they will flee as one who flees the sword and fall down even though there is no pursuer. 26:37 They will stumble over each other as those who flee before a sword, though ³³  there is no pursuer, and there will be no one to take a stand ³⁴  for you before your enemies. 26:38 You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will consume you.

Restoration through Confession and Repentance

26:39 “‘As for the ones who remain among you, they will rot away because of ³⁵  their iniquity in the lands of your enemies, and they will also rot away because of their ancestors’ ³⁶  iniquities which are with them. 26:40 However, when ³⁷  they confess their iniquity and their ancestors’ iniquity which they committed by trespassing against me, ³⁸  by which they also walked ³⁹  in hostility against me ⁴⁰  26:41 (and I myself will walk in hostility against them and bring them into the land of their enemies), and ⁴¹  then their uncircumcised hearts become humbled and they make up for ⁴²  their iniquity, 26:42 I will remember my covenant with Jacob and also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham, ⁴³  and I will remember the land. 26:43 The land will be abandoned by them ⁴⁴  in order that it may make up for ⁴⁵  its Sabbaths while it is made desolate ⁴⁶  without them, ⁴⁷  and they will make up for their iniquity because ⁴⁸  they have rejected my regulations and have abhorred ⁴⁹  my statutes. 26:44 In spite of this, however, when they are in the land of their enemies I will not reject them and abhor them to make a complete end of them, to break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God. 26:45 I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors ⁵⁰  whom I brought out from the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am the Lord.’”

Summary Colophon

26:46 These are the statutes, regulations, and instructions which the Lord established ⁵¹  between himself and the Israelites at Mount Sinai through ⁵²  Moses.

Deuteronomy 28:15-68

Curses as Reversal of Blessings

28:15 “But if you ignore ⁵³  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: ⁵⁴  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 ⁵⁵  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. ⁵⁶ 

Curses by Disease and Drought

28:20 “The Lord will send on you a curse, confusing you and opposing you ⁵⁷  in everything you undertake ⁵⁸  until you are destroyed and quickly perish because of the evil of your deeds, in that you have forsaken me. ⁵⁹  28:21 The Lord will plague you with deadly diseases ⁶⁰  until he has completely removed you from the land you are about to possess. 28:22 He ⁶¹  will afflict you with weakness, ⁶²  fever, inflammation, infection, ⁶³  sword, ⁶⁴  blight, and mildew; these will attack you until you perish. 28:23 The ⁶⁵  sky ⁶⁶  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 ⁶⁷  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. ⁶⁸  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; ⁶⁹  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 ⁷⁰  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. ⁷¹  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 ⁷²  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. ⁷³  28:41 You will bear sons and daughters but not keep them, because they will be taken into captivity. 28:42 Whirring locusts ⁷⁴  will take over every tree and all the produce of your soil. 28:43 The foreigners ⁷⁵  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 ⁷⁶  you. 28:46 These curses ⁷⁷  will be a perpetual sign and wonder with reference to you and your descendants. ⁷⁸ 

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 ⁷⁹  you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you. They ⁸⁰  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 ⁸¹  as the eagle flies, ⁸²  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 ⁸³  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, ⁸⁴  or lambs of your flocks ⁸⁵  until they have destroyed you. 28:52 They will besiege all of your villages ⁸⁶  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, ⁸⁷  the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you, because of the severity of the siege ⁸⁸  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 ⁸⁹  you in your villages. 28:56 Likewise, the most ⁹⁰  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, ⁹¹  will turn against her beloved husband, her sons and daughters, 28:57 and will secretly eat her afterbirth ⁹²  and her newborn children ⁹³  (since she has nothing else), ⁹⁴  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 ⁹⁵  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 ⁹⁶  that you dreaded, and they will persistently afflict you. ⁹⁷  28:61 Moreover, the Lord will bring upon you every kind of sickness and plague not mentioned in this scroll of commandments, ⁹⁸  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, ⁹⁹  because you will have disobeyed ¹⁰⁰  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 ¹⁰¹  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. ¹⁰²  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.”

Deuteronomy 29:21-24

29:21 The Lord will single him out ¹⁰³  for judgment ¹⁰⁴  from all the tribes of Israel according to all the curses of the covenant written in this scroll of the law. 29:22 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 ¹⁰⁵  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. ¹⁰⁶  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 ¹⁰⁷  all about?”

Deuteronomy 30:17-19

30:17 However, if you ¹⁰⁸  turn aside and do not obey, but are lured away to worship and serve other gods, 30:18 I declare to you this very day that you will certainly ¹⁰⁹  perish! You will not extend your time in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess. ¹¹⁰  30:19 Today I invoke heaven and earth as a witness against you that I have set life and death, blessing and curse, before you. Therefore choose life so that you and your descendants may live!

Deuteronomy 31:17-18

31:17 At that time ¹¹¹  my anger will erupt against them ¹¹²  and I will abandon them and hide my face from them until they are devoured. Many disasters and distresses will overcome ¹¹³  them ¹¹⁴  so that they ¹¹⁵  will say at that time, ‘Have not these disasters ¹¹⁶  overcome us ¹¹⁷  because our ¹¹⁸  God is not among us ¹¹⁹ ?’ 31:18 But I will certainly ¹²⁰  hide myself at that time because of all the wickedness they ¹²¹  will have done by turning to other gods.

Deuteronomy 32:20-26

32:20 He said, “I will reject them, ¹²² 

I will see what will happen to them;

for they are a perverse generation,

children ¹²³  who show no loyalty.

32:21 They have made me jealous ¹²⁴  with false gods, ¹²⁵ 

enraging me with their worthless gods; ¹²⁶ 

so I will make them jealous with a people they do not recognize, ¹²⁷ 

with a nation slow to learn ¹²⁸  I will enrage them.

32:22 For a fire has been kindled by my anger,

and it burns to lowest Sheol; ¹²⁹ 

it consumes the earth and its produce,

and ignites the foundations of the mountains.

32:23 I will increase their ¹³⁰  disasters,

I will use up my arrows on them.

32:24 They will be starved by famine,

eaten by plague, and bitterly stung; ¹³¹ 

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 ¹³²  both the young man and the virgin,

the infant and the gray-haired man.

The Weakness of Other Gods

32:26 “I said, ‘I want to cut them in pieces. ¹³³ 

I want to make people forget they ever existed.

Joshua 23:13-16

23:13 know for certain that the Lord our God will no longer drive out these nations from before you. They will trap and ensnare you; ¹³⁴  they will be a whip that tears ¹³⁵  your sides and thorns that blind ¹³⁶  your eyes until you disappear ¹³⁷  from this good land the Lord your God gave you.

23:14 “Look, today I am about to die. ¹³⁸  You know with all your heart and being ¹³⁹  that not even one of all the faithful promises the Lord your God made to you is left unfulfilled; every one was realized – not one promise is unfulfilled! ¹⁴⁰  23:15 But in the same way every faithful promise the Lord your God made to you has been realized, ¹⁴¹  it is just as certain, if you disobey, that the Lord will bring on you every judgment ¹⁴²  until he destroys you from this good land which the Lord your God gave you. 23:16 If you violate the covenantal laws of the Lord your God which he commanded you to keep, ¹⁴³  and follow, worship, and bow down to other gods, ¹⁴⁴  the Lord will be very angry with you and you will disappear ¹⁴⁵  quickly from the good land which he gave to you.”

Ezekiel 20:37-38

20:37 I will make you pass under ¹⁴⁶  the shepherd’s staff, ¹⁴⁷  and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant. 20:38 I will eliminate from among you the rebels and those who revolt ¹⁴⁸  against me. I will bring them out from the land where they have been residing, but they will not come to the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

[26:16]  ¹ tn Or “I also” (see HALOT 76 s.v. אַף 6.b).

[26:16]  ² tn Heb “soul.” These expressions may refer either to the physical effects of consumption and fever as the rendering in the text suggests (e.g., J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 452, 454, “diminishing eyesight and loss of appetite”), or perhaps the more psychological effects, “which exhausts the eyes” because of anxious hope “and causes depression” (Heb “causes soul [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh] to pine away”), e.g., B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 185.

[26:16]  ³ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have causal force here.

[26:16]  ⁴ tn That is, “your enemies will eat” the produce that grows from the sown seed.

[26:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “And if until these.”

[26:18]  ⁶ tn Heb “I will add to discipline you seven [times] on your sins.”

[26:20]  ⁷ tn Heb “the tree of the land will not give its fruit.” The collective singular has been translated as a plural. Tg. Onq., some medieval Hebrew mss, Smr, LXX, and Tg. Ps.-J. have “the field” as in v. 4, rather than “the land.”

[26:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “hostile with me,” but see the added preposition בְּ (bet) on the phrase “in hostility” in v. 24 and 27.

[26:21]  ⁹ tn Heb “your blow, stroke”; cf. TEV “punishment”; NLT “I will inflict you with seven more disasters.”

[26:22]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the animal of the field.” This collective singular has been translated as a plural. The expression “animal of the field” refers to a wild (i.e., nondomesticated) animal.

[26:22]  ¹¹ tn The words “of your children” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied.

[26:22]  ¹² tn Heb “and diminish you.”

[26:23]  ¹³ tn Heb “And if in these.”

[26:23]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “with me,” but see the added preposition בְּ (bet) on the phrase “in hostility” in vv. 24 and 27.

[26:24]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and I myself will also strike you.”

[26:25]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “vengeance of covenant”; cf. NAB “the avenger of my covenant.”

[26:25]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) has a concessive force in this context.

[26:25]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “in hand of enemy,” but Tg. Ps.-J. and Tg. Neof. have “in the hands of your enemies” (J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 454).

[26:26]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “When I break to you staff of bread” (KJV, ASV, and NASB all similar).

[26:26]  ²⁰ tn Heb “they will return your bread in weight.”

[26:27]  ²¹ tn Heb “And if in this.”

[26:27]  ²² tn Heb “with me.”

[26:28]  ²³ tn Heb “in rage of hostility with you”; NASB “with wrathful hostility”; NRSV “I will continue hostile to you in fury”; CEV “I’ll get really furious.”

[26:29]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and the flesh of your daughters you will eat.” The phrase “you will eat” has not been repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[26:30]  ²⁵ sn Regarding these cultic installations, see the remarks in B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 188, and R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:903. The term rendered “incense altars” might better be rendered “sanctuaries [of foreign deities]” or “stelae.”

[26:30]  ²⁶ tn The translation reflects the Hebrew wordplay “your corpses…the corpses of your idols.” Since idols, being lifeless, do not really have “corpses,” the translation uses “dead bodies” for people and “lifeless bodies” for the idols.

[26:30]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and my soul will abhor you.”

[26:31]  ²⁸ tn Heb “And I will give your cities a waste”; NLT “make your cities desolate.”

[26:33]  ²⁹ tn Heb “and I will empty sword” (see HALOT 1228 s.v. ריק 3).

[26:34]  ³⁰ tn There are two Hebrew roots רָצָה (ratsah), one meaning “to be pleased with; to take pleasure” (HALOT 1280-81 s.v. רצה; cf. “enjoy” in NASB, NIV, NRSV, and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 452), and the other meaning “to restore” (HALOT 1281-82 s.v. II רצה; cf. NAB “retrieve” and B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 189).

[26:35]  ³¹ tn Heb “it shall rest which it did not rest.”

[26:36]  ³² tn Heb “And.”

[26:37]  ³³ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) is used in a concessive sense here.

[26:37]  ³⁴ tn The term rendered “to stand up” is a noun, not an infinitive. It occurs only here and appears to designate someone who would take a powerful stand for them against their enemies.

[26:39]  ³⁵ tn Heb “in” (so KJV, ASV; also later in this verse).

[26:39]  ³⁶ tn Heb “fathers’” (also in the following verse).

[26:40]  ³⁷ tn Heb “And.” Many English versions take this to be a conditional clause (“if…”) though there is no conditional particle (see, e.g., NASB, NIV, NRSV; but see the very different rendering in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 190). The temporal translation offered here (“when”) takes into account the particle אָז (’az, “then”), which occurs twice in v. 41. The obvious contextual contrast between vv. 39 and 40 is expressed by “however” in the translation.

[26:40]  ³⁸ tn Heb “in their trespassing which they trespassed in me.” See the note on Lev 5:15, although the term is used in a more technical sense there in relation to the “guilt offering.”

[26:40]  ³⁹ tn Heb “and also which they walked.”

[26:40]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “with me.”

[26:41]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “or then,” although the LXX has “then” and the Syriac “and then.”

[26:41]  ⁴² tn Heb “and then they make up for.” On the verb “make up for” see the note on v. 34 above.

[26:42]  ⁴³ tn Heb “my covenant with Abraham I will remember.” The phrase “I will remember” has not been repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[26:43]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “from them.” The preposition “from” refers here to the agent of the action (J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 455).

[26:43]  ⁴⁵ tn The jussive form of the verb with the simple vav (ו) here calls for a translation that expresses purpose.

[26:43]  ⁴⁶ tn The verb is the Hophal infinitive construct with the third feminine singular suffix (GKC 182 §67.y; cf. v. 34).

[26:43]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “from them.”

[26:43]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “because and in because,” a double expression, which is used only here and in Ezek 13:10 (without the vav) for emphasis (GKC 492 §158.b).

[26:43]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “and their soul has abhorred.”

[26:45]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “covenant of former ones.”

[26:46]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “gave” (so NLT); KJV, ASV, NCV “made.”

[26:46]  ⁵² tn Heb “by the hand of” (so KJV).

[28:15]  ⁵³ tn Heb “do not hear the voice of.”

[28:15]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “and overtake you” (so NIV, NRSV); NAB, NLT “and overwhelm you.”

[28:18]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[28:19]  ⁵⁶ sn See note on the similar expression in v. 6.

[28:20]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “the curse, the confusion, and the rebuke” (NASB and NIV similar); NRSV “disaster, panic, and frustration.”

[28:20]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “in all the stretching out of your hand.”

[28:20]  ⁵⁹ 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.

[28:21]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “will cause pestilence to cling to you.”

[28:22]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “The Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

[28:22]  ⁶² 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]  ⁶³ tn Heb “hot fever”; NIV “scorching heat.”

[28:22]  ⁶⁴ tn Or “drought” (so NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[28:23]  ⁶⁵ tc The MT reads “Your.” The LXX reads “Heaven will be to you.”

[28:23]  ⁶⁶ 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]  ⁶⁷ 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]  ⁶⁸ tn Heb “heart” (so KJV, NASB).

[28:29]  ⁶⁹ tn Heb “you will not cause your ways to prosper.”

[28:30]  ⁷⁰ 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]  ⁷¹ tn Heb “and there will be no power in your hand”; NCV “there will be nothing you can do.”

[28:36]  ⁷² tc The LXX reads the plural “kings.”

[28:40]  ⁷³ tn Heb “your olives will drop off” (נָשַׁל, nashal), referring to the olives dropping off before they ripen.

[28:42]  ⁷⁴ 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]  ⁷⁵ 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]  ⁷⁶ tn Heb “commanded”; NAB, NIV, TEV “he gave you.”

[28:46]  ⁷⁷ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the curses mentioned previously) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[28:46]  ⁷⁸ tn Heb “seed” (so KJV, ASV).

[28:48]  ⁷⁹ tn Heb “lack of everything.”

[28:48]  ⁸⁰ 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]  ⁸¹ tn Heb “from the end of the earth.”

[28:49]  ⁸² 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]  ⁸³ tn Heb “it” (so NRSV), a collective singular referring to the invading nation (several times in this verse and v. 52).

[28:51]  ⁸⁴ tn Heb “increase of herds.”

[28:51]  ⁸⁵ tn Heb “growth of flocks.”

[28:52]  ⁸⁶ tn Heb “gates,” also in vv. 55, 57.

[28:53]  ⁸⁷ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NRSV); NASB “the offspring of your own body.”

[28:53]  ⁸⁸ tn Heb “siege and stress.”

[28:55]  ⁸⁹ tn Heb “besiege,” redundant with the noun “siege.”

[28:56]  ⁹⁰ tc The LXX adds σφόδρα (sfodra, “very”) to bring the description into line with v. 54.

[28:56]  ⁹¹ tn Heb “delicateness and tenderness.”

[28:57]  ⁹² tn Heb includes “that which comes out from between her feet.”

[28:57]  ⁹³ tn Heb “her sons that she will bear.”

[28:57]  ⁹⁴ tn Heb includes “in her need for everything.”

[28:58]  ⁹⁵ tn Heb “If you are not careful to do.”

[28:60]  ⁹⁶ 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]  ⁹⁷ tn Heb “will cling to you” (so NIV); NLT “will claim you.”

[28:61]  ⁹⁸ 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]  ⁹⁹ tn Or “heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[28:62]  ¹⁰⁰ tn Heb “have not listened to the voice of.”

[28:63]  ¹⁰¹ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

[28:66]  ¹⁰² tn Heb “you will not be confident in your life.” The phrase “from one day to the next” is implied by the following verse.

[29:21]  ¹⁰³ tn Heb “set him apart.”

[29:21]  ¹⁰⁴ tn Heb “for evil”; NAB “for doom”; NASB “for adversity”; NIV “for disaster”; NRSV “for calamity.”

[29:22]  ¹⁰⁵ 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]  ¹⁰⁶ tn Heb “the anger and the wrath.” This construction is a hendiadys intended to intensify the emotion.

[29:24]  ¹⁰⁷ tn Heb “this great burning of anger”; KJV “the heat of this great anger.”

[30:17]  ¹⁰⁸ tn Heb “your heart,” as a metonymy for the person.

[30:18]  ¹⁰⁹ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “certainly.”

[30:18]  ¹¹⁰ tn Heb “to go there to possess it.”

[31:17]  ¹¹¹ tn Heb “on that day.” This same expression also appears later in the verse and in v. 18.

[31:17]  ¹¹² 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]  ¹¹³ tn Heb “find,” “encounter.”

[31:17]  ¹¹⁴ 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]  ¹¹⁵ 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]  ¹¹⁶ tn Heb “evils.”

[31:17]  ¹¹⁷ 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]  ¹¹⁸ tn Heb “my.”

[31:17]  ¹¹⁹ 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]  ¹²⁰ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “certainly.”

[31:18]  ¹²¹ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[32:20]  ¹²² tn Heb “I will hide my face from them.”

[32:20]  ¹²³ tn Heb “sons” (so NAB, NASB); TEV “unfaithful people.”

[32:21]  ¹²⁴ 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]  ¹²⁵ tn Heb “what is not a god,” or a “nondeity.”

[32:21]  ¹²⁶ 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]  ¹²⁷ 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]  ¹²⁸ 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]  ¹²⁹ 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.”

[32:23]  ¹³⁰ tn Heb “upon them.”

[32:24]  ¹³¹ tn The Hebrew term קֶטֶב (qetev) is probably metaphorical here for the sting of a disease (HALOT 1091-92 s.v.).

[32:25]  ¹³² tn A verb is omitted here in the Hebrew text; for purposes of English style one suitable to the context is supplied.

[32:26]  ¹³³ 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).

[23:13]  ¹³⁴ tn Heb “be a trap and a snare to you.”

[23:13]  ¹³⁵ tn Heb “in.”

[23:13]  ¹³⁶ tn Heb “thorns in your eyes.”

[23:13]  ¹³⁷ tn Or “perish.”

[23:14]  ¹³⁸ tn Heb “go the way of all the earth.”

[23:14]  ¹³⁹ tn Or “soul.”

[23:14]  ¹⁴⁰ tn Heb “one word from all these words which the Lord your God spoke to you has not fallen, the whole has come to pass for you, one word from it has not fallen.”

[23:15]  ¹⁴¹ tn Heb “and it will be as every good word which the Lord your God spoke to you has come to pass.”

[23:15]  ¹⁴² tn Heb “so the Lord will bring every injurious [or “evil”] word [or “thing”] upon you.”

[23:16]  ¹⁴³ tn Heb “when you violate the covenant of the Lord your God which he commanded you.”

[23:16]  ¹⁴⁴ tn Heb “and you walk and serve other gods and bow down to them.”

[23:16]  ¹⁴⁵ tn Or “perish.”

[20:37]  ¹⁴⁶ tn This is the same Hebrew verb used to describe the passing of the children through the fire.

[20:37]  ¹⁴⁷ sn The metaphor may be based in Lev 27:32 (see also Jer 33:13; Matt 25:32-33). A shepherd would count his sheep as they passed beneath his staff.

[20:38]  ¹⁴⁸ tn See the note at 2:3.