12:1 These are the statutes and ordinances you must be careful to obey as long as you live in the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, 9 has given you to possess. 10
8:1 You must keep carefully all these commandments 14 I am giving 15 you today so that you may live, increase in number, 16 and go in and occupy the land that the Lord promised to your ancestors. 17
1 tn Heb “the
2 tc Some scholars, on the basis of v. 11, emend the MT reading שִׁכְנוֹ (shikhno, “his residence”) to the infinitive construct לְשָׁכֵן (lÿshakhen, “to make [his name] to dwell”), perhaps with the 3rd person masculine singular sf לְשַׁכְּנוֹ (lÿshakÿno, “to cause it to dwell”). Though the presupposed nounשֵׁכֶן (shekhen) is nowhere else attested, the parallel here with שַׁמָּה (shammah, “there”) favors retaining the MT as it stands.
3 tn Heb “and it will be (to) the place where the Lord your God chooses to cause his name to dwell you will bring.”
4 tn Heb “heave offerings of your hand.”
5 tn Heb “the
6 tn Heb “the
7 tn Heb “the
8 tn Heb “gates” (so KJV, NASB); NAB “in your own community.”
9 tn Heb “fathers.”
10 tn Heb “you must be careful to obey in the land the
11 tn Heb “in order to humble you and in order to test you.” See 8:2.
12 tn Heb “so you will perish.”
13 tn Heb “listen to the voice of the
14 tn The singular term (מִצְוָה, mitsvah) includes the whole corpus of covenant stipulations, certainly the book of Deuteronomy at least (cf. Deut 5:28; 6:1, 25; 7:11; 11:8, 22; 15:5; 17:20; 19:9; 27:1; 30:11; 31:5). The plural (מִצְוֹת, mitsot) refers to individual stipulations (as in vv. 2, 6).
15 tn Heb “commanding” (so NASB). For stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy, “giving” has been used in the translation (likewise in v. 11).
16 tn Heb “multiply” (so KJV, NASB, NLT); NIV, NRSV “increase.”
17 tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 16, 18).
18 tn Heb “the
19 sn Anakites. See note on this term in Deut 1:28.
20 tn Heb “great and tall.” Many English versions understand this to refer to physical size or strength rather than numbers (cf. “strong,” NIV, NCV, NRSV, NLT).
21 tn Heb “command” (so KJV, NASB); NRSV “charge the people as follows.”
22 tn Heb “brothers”; NAB “your kinsmen.”
23 sn The descendants of Esau (Heb “sons of Esau”; the phrase also occurs in 2:8, 12, 22, 29). These are the inhabitants of the land otherwise known as Edom, south and east of the Dead Sea. Jacob’s brother Esau had settled there after his bitter strife with Jacob (Gen 36:1-8). “Edom” means “reddish,” probably because of the red sandstone of the region, but also by popular etymology because Esau, at birth, was reddish (Gen 25:25).
24 tn Aram “people.”
25 tn Aram “who sends forth his hand.”