2:1 Then we turned and set out toward the desert land on the way to the Red Sea 4 just as the Lord told me to do, detouring around Mount Seir for a long time.
3:12 This is the land we brought under our control at that time: The territory extending from Aroer 7 by the Wadi Arnon and half the Gilead hill country with its cities I gave to the Reubenites and Gadites. 8
10:1 At that same time the Lord said to me, “Carve out for yourself two stone tablets like the first ones and come up the mountain to me; also make for yourself a wooden ark. 11
32:22 For a fire has been kindled by my anger,
and it burns to lowest Sheol; 17
it consumes the earth and its produce,
and ignites the foundations of the mountains.
The Lord came from Sinai
and revealed himself 18 to Israel 19 from Seir.
He appeared in splendor 20 from Mount Paran,
and came forth with ten thousand holy ones. 21
With his right hand he gave a fiery law 22 to them.
33:19 They will summon peoples to the mountain,
there they will sacrifice proper 23 sacrifices;
for they will enjoy 24 the abundance of the seas,
and the hidden treasures of the shores. 25
1 tn Heb “in that hill country,” repeating the end of v. 43.
2 tn Heb “came out to meet.”
3 sn Hormah is probably Khirbet el-Meshash, 5.5 mi (9 km) west of Arad and 7.5 mi (12 km) SE of Beer Sheba. Its name is a derivative of the verb חָרָם (kharam, “to ban; to exterminate”). See Num 21:3.
4 tn Heb “Reed Sea.” See note on the term “Red Sea” in Deut 1:40.
7 sn Wadi Jabbok. Now known as the Zerqa River, this is a major tributary of the Jordan that normally served as a boundary between Ammon and Gad (Deut 3:16).
10 sn Mount Hermon. This is the famous peak at the southern end of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range known today as Jebel es-Sheik.
13 tn The words “the territory extending” are not in the Hebrew text; they are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
14 sn Reubenites and Gadites. By the time of Moses’ address the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh had already been granted permission to settle in the Transjordan, provided they helped the other tribes subdue the occupants of Canaan (cf. Num 32:28-42).
16 tn The article is retained in the translation (“the Lebanon,” cf. also NAB, NRSV) to indicate that a region (rather than the modern country of Lebanon) is referred to here. Other recent English versions accomplish this by supplying “mountains” after “Lebanon” (TEV, CEV, NLT).
19 tn Or “wadis.”
22 tn Or “chest” (so NIV, CEV); NLT “sacred chest”; TEV “wooden box.” This chest was made of acacia wood; it is later known as the ark of the covenant.
25 sn Acacia wood (Heb “shittim wood”). This is wood from the acacia, the most common timber tree of the Sinai region. Most likely it is the species Acacia raddiana because this has the largest trunk. See F. N. Hepper, Illustrated Encyclopedia of Bible Plants, 63.
28 tn Heb “which you are crossing over there to possess it.”
29 tn Heb “rain of heaven.”
31 tc Smr reads “Mount Gerizim” for the MT reading “Mount Ebal” to justify the location of the Samaritan temple there in the postexilic period. This reading is patently self-serving and does not reflect the original. In the NT when the Samaritan woman of Sychar referred to “this mountain” as the place of worship for her community she obviously had Gerizim in mind (cf. John 4:20).
34 tn The word “tribes” has been supplied here and in the following verse in the translation for clarity.
37 tn Or “to the lowest depths of the earth”; cf. NAB “to the depths of the nether world”; NIV “to the realm of death below”; NLT “to the depths of the grave.”
40 tn Or “rose like the sun” (NCV, TEV).
41 tc Heb “to him.” The LXX reads “to us” (לָנוּ [lanu] for לָמוֹ [lamo]), the reading of the MT is acceptable since it no doubt has in mind Israel as a collective singular.
42 tn Or “he shone forth” (NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
43 tc With slight alteration (מִמְרִבַת קָדֵשׁ [mimrivat qadesh] for the MT’s מֵרִבְבֹת קֹדֶשׁ [merivvot qodesh]) the translation would be “from Meribah Kadesh” (cf. NAB, NLT; see Deut 32:51). However, the language of holy war in the immediate context favors the reading of the MT, which views the Lord as accompanied by angelic hosts.
44 tc The mispointed Hebrew term אֵשְׁדָּת (’eshdat) should perhaps be construed as אֵשְׁהַת (’eshhat) with Smr.
43 tn Or “acceptable”; Heb “righteous” (so NASB).
44 tn Heb “suck.”
45 tn Heb “of the sand” (so NRSV, NLT); CEV “the sandy beach.”