Deuteronomy 1:3

1:3 However, it was not until ¹  the first day of the eleventh month ²  of the fortieth year ³  that Moses addressed the Israelites just as ⁴  the Lord had instructed him to do.

Deuteronomy 20:5

20:5 Moreover, the officers are to say to the troops, ⁵  “Who among you ⁶  has built a new house and not dedicated ⁷  it? He may go home, lest he die in battle and someone else ⁸  dedicate it.

¹ tn Heb “in” or “on.” Here there is a contrast between the ordinary time of eleven days (v. 2) and the actual time of forty years, so “not until” brings out that vast disparity.

² sn The eleventh month is Shebat in the Hebrew calendar, January/February in the modern (Gregorian) calendar.

³ sn The fortieth year would be 1406 b.c. according to the “early” date of the exodus. See E. H. Merrill, Kingdom of Priests, 66-75.

⁴ tn Heb “according to all which.”

⁵ tn Heb “people” (also in vv. 8, 9).

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

⁷ 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).

⁸ tn Heb “another man.”