Deuteronomy 17:19

17:19 It must be with him constantly and he must read it as long as he lives, so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and observe all the words of this law and these statutes and carry them out.

Joshua 1:8

1:8 This law scroll must not leave your lips! ¹  You must memorize it ²  day and night so you can carefully obey ³  all that is written in it. Then you will prosper ⁴  and be successful. ⁵ 

Psalms 119:46

119:46 I will speak ⁶  about your regulations before kings

and not be ashamed.

Psalms 119:97-99

מ (Mem)

119:97 O how I love your law!

All day long I meditate on it.

119:98 Your commandments ⁷  make me wiser than my enemies,

for I am always aware of them.

119:99 I have more insight than all my teachers,

for I meditate on your rules.

Jeremiah 36:20-21

36:20 The officials put the scroll in the room of Elishama, the royal secretary, for safekeeping. ⁸  Then they went to the court and reported everything ⁹  to the king. ¹⁰  36:21 The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll. He went and got it from the room of Elishama, the royal secretary. Then he himself ¹¹  read it to the king and all the officials who were standing around him.

¹ tn Heb “mouth.”

² tn Heb “read it in undertones,” or “recite it quietly” (see HALOT 1:237).

³ tn Heb “be careful to do.”

⁴ tn Heb “you will make your way prosperous.”

⁵ tn Heb “and be wise,” but the word can mean “be successful” by metonymy.

⁶ tn The series of four cohortatives with prefixed vav (ו) conjunctive in vv. 46-48 list further consequences of the anticipated positive divine response to the request made in v. 43.

⁷ tn The plural form needs to be revocalized as a singular in order to agree with the preceding singular verb and the singular pronoun in the next line. The Lord’s “command” refers here to the law (see Ps 19:8).

⁸ tn Heb “they deposited.” For the usage of the verb here see BDB 824 s.v. פָּקַד Hiph.2.b and compare the usage in Jer 37:21 where it is used for “confining” Jeremiah in the courtyard of the guardhouse.

⁹ tn Heb “all the matters.” Compare the translator’s note on v. 16.

¹⁰ tn Both here and in the next verse the Hebrew has “in the ears of” before “the king” (and also before “all the officials”). As in v. 15 these words are not represented in the translation due to the awkwardness of the idiom in contemporary English (see the translator’s note on v. 15).

¹¹ tn Heb “and Jehudi read it.” However, Jehudi has been the subject of the preceding; so it would be awkward in English to use the personal subject. The translation has chosen to bring out the idea that Jehudi himself read it by using the reflexive.