28:1 “If you indeed 6 obey the Lord your God and are careful to observe all his commandments I am giving 7 you today, the Lord your God will elevate you above all the nations of the earth.
18:1 The Levitical priests 10 – indeed, the entire tribe of Levi – will have no allotment or inheritance with Israel; they may eat the burnt offerings of the Lord and of his inheritance. 11
5:6 I will make it a wasteland;
no one will prune its vines or hoe its ground, 12
and thorns and briers will grow there.
I will order the clouds
not to drop any rain on it.
30:23 He will water the seed you plant in the ground,
and the ground will produce crops in abundance. 13
At that time 14 your cattle will graze in wide pastures.
14:22 Do any of the worthless idols 15 of the nations cause rain to fall?
Do the skies themselves send showers?
Is it not you, O Lord our God, who does this? 16
So we put our hopes in you 17
because you alone do all this.”
4:7 “I withheld rain from you three months before the harvest. 18
I gave rain to one city, but not to another.
One field 19 would get rain, but the field that received no rain dried up.
1 tn Heb “if hearing, you will hear.” The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute to emphasize the verbal idea. The translation renders this emphasis with the word “close.”
2 tn Again, the Hebrew term אָהַב (’ahav) draws attention to the reciprocation of divine love as a condition or sign of covenant loyalty (cf. Deut 6:5).
3 tn Heb “heart and soul” or “heart and being.” See note on the word “being” in Deut 6:5.
4 tc The MT reads “Your.” The LXX reads “Heaven will be to you.”
5 tn Or “heavens” (also in the following verse). The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.
7 tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “indeed.”
8 tn Heb “commanding”; NAB “which I enjoin on you today” (likewise in v. 15).
10 tn Heb “to the
11 tn The Hebrew word תּוֹעֵבָה (to’evah, “an abomination”; cf. NAB) describes persons, things, or practices offensive to ritual or moral order. See M. Grisanti, NIDOTTE 4:314-18; see also the note on the word “abhorrent” in Deut 7:25.
13 tn The MT places the terms “priests” and “Levites” in apposition, thus creating an epexegetical construction in which the second term qualifies the first, i.e., “Levitical priests.” This is a way of asserting their legitimacy as true priests. The Syriac renders “to the priest and to the Levite,” making a distinction between the two, but one that is out of place here.
14 sn Of his inheritance. This is a figurative way of speaking of the produce of the land the
16 tn Heb “it will not be pruned or hoed” (so NASB); ASV and NRSV both similar.
19 tn Heb “and he will give rain for your seed which you plant in the ground, and food [will be] the produce of the ground, and it will be rich and abundant.”
20 tn Or “in that day” (KJV).
22 tn The word הֶבֶל (hevel), often translated “vanities”, is a common pejorative epithet for idols or false gods. See already in 8:19 and 10:8.
23 tn Heb “Is it not you, O
24 tn The rhetorical negatives are balanced by a rhetorical positive.
25 sn Rain…three months before the harvest refers to the rains of late March-early April.
26 tn Heb “portion”; KJV, ASV “piece”; NASB “part.” The same word occurs a second time later in this verse.