Deuteronomy 20:5

20:5 Moreover, the officers are to say to the troops, ¹  “Who among you ²  has built a new house and not dedicated ³  it? He may go home, lest he die in battle and someone else ⁴  dedicate it.

Deuteronomy 20:2

20:2 As you move forward for battle, the priest ⁵  will approach and say to the soldiers, ⁶ 

Deuteronomy 5:11

5:11 You must not make use of the name of the Lord your God for worthless purposes, ⁷  for the Lord will not exonerate anyone who abuses his name that way. ⁸ 

Deuteronomy 6:20

Exhortation to Remember the Past

6:20 When your children ⁹  ask you later on, “What are the stipulations, statutes, and ordinances that the Lord our God commanded you?”

Deuteronomy 7:2

7:2 and he ¹⁰  delivers them over to you and you attack them, you must utterly annihilate ¹¹  them. Make no treaty ¹²  with them and show them no mercy!

Deuteronomy 20:3

20:3 “Listen, Israel! Today you are moving forward to do battle with your enemies. Do not be fainthearted. Do not fear and tremble or be terrified because of them,

¹ tn Heb “people” (also in vv. 8, 9).

² tn Heb “Who [is] the man” (also in vv. 6, 7, 8).

³ tn The Hebrew term חָנַךְ (khanakh) occurs elsewhere only with respect to the dedication of Solomon’s temple (1 Kgs 8:63 = 2 Chr 7:5). There it has a religious connotation which, indeed, may be the case here as well. The noun form (חָנֻכָּה, khanukah) is associated with the consecration of the great temple altar (2 Chr 7:9) and of the postexilic wall of Jerusalem (Neh 12:27). In Maccabean times the festival of Hanukkah was introduced to celebrate the rededication of the temple following its desecration by Antiochus IV Epiphanes (1 Macc 4:36-61).

⁴ tn Heb “another man.”

⁵ sn The reference to the priest suggests also the presence of the ark of the covenant, the visible sign of God’s presence. The whole setting is clearly that of “holy war” or “Yahweh war,” in which God himself takes initiative as the true commander of the forces of Israel (cf. Exod 14:14-18; 15:3-10; Deut 3:22; 7:18-24; 31:6, 8).

⁶ tn Heb “and he will say to the people.” Cf. NIV, NCV, CEV “the army”; NRSV, NLT “the troops.”

⁷ tn Heb “take up the name of the Lord your God to emptiness”; KJV “take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” The idea here is not cursing or profanity in the modern sense of these terms but rather the use of the divine Name for unholy, mundane purposes, that is, for meaningless (the Hebrew term is שָׁוְא) and empty ends. In ancient Israel this would include using the Lord’s name as a witness in vows one did not intend to keep.

⁸ tn Heb “who takes up his name to emptiness.”

⁹ tn Heb “your son.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

¹¹ tn In the Hebrew text the infinitive absolute before the finite verb emphasizes the statement. The imperfect has an obligatory nuance here. Cf. ASV “shalt (must NRSV) utterly destroy them”; CEV “must destroy them without mercy.”

¹² tn Heb “covenant” (so NASB, NRSV); TEV “alliance.”