Deuteronomy 2:12

2:12 Previously the Horites ¹  lived in Seir but the descendants of Esau dispossessed and destroyed them and settled in their place, just as Israel did to the land it came to possess, the land the Lord gave them.) ² 

Deuteronomy 4:19

4:19 When you look up ³  to the sky ⁴  and see the sun, moon, and stars – the whole heavenly creation ⁵  – you must not be seduced to worship and serve them, ⁶  for the Lord your God has assigned ⁷  them to all the people ⁸  of the world. ⁹ 

Deuteronomy 12:2

12:2 You must by all means destroy ¹⁰  all the places where the nations you are about to dispossess worship their gods – on the high mountains and hills and under every leafy tree. ¹¹ 

Deuteronomy 22:29

22:29 The man who has raped her must pay her father fifty shekels of silver and she must become his wife because he has violated her; he may never divorce her as long as he lives.

Deuteronomy 25:19

25:19 So when the Lord your God gives you relief from all the enemies who surround you in the land he ¹²  is giving you as an inheritance, ¹³  you must wipe out the memory of the Amalekites from under heaven ¹⁴  – do not forget! ¹⁵ 

Deuteronomy 29:20

29:20 The Lord will be unwilling to forgive him, and his intense anger ¹⁶  will rage ¹⁷  against that man; all the curses ¹⁸  written in this scroll will fall upon him ¹⁹  and the Lord will obliterate his name from memory. ²⁰ 

¹ sn Horites. Most likely these are the same as the well-known people of ancient Near Eastern texts described as Hurrians. They were geographically widespread and probably non-Semitic. Genesis speaks of them as the indigenous peoples of Edom that Esau expelled (Gen 36:8-19, 31-43) and also as among those who confronted the kings of the east (Gen 14:6).

² tn Most modern English versions, beginning with the ASV (1901), regard vv. 10-12 as parenthetical to the narrative.

³ tn Heb “lest you lift up your eyes.” In the Hebrew text vv. 16-19 are subordinated to “Be careful” in v. 15, but this makes for an unduly long sentence in English.

⁴ tn Or “heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

⁵ tn Heb “all the host of heaven.”

⁶ tn In the Hebrew text the verbal sequence in v. 19 is “lest you look up…and see…and be seduced…and worship them…and serve them.” However, the first two actions are not prohibited in and of themselves. The prohibition pertains to the final three actions. The first two verbs describe actions that are logically subordinate to the following actions and can be treated as temporal or circumstantial: “lest, looking up…and seeing…, you are seduced.” See Joüon 2:635 §168.h.

⁷ tn Or “allotted.”

⁸ tn Or “nations.”

⁹ tn Heb “under all the heaven.”

⁵ tn Heb “destroying you must destroy”; KJV “Ye shall utterly (surely ASV) destroy”; NRSV “must demolish completely.” The Hebrew infinitive absolute precedes the verb for emphasis, which is reflected in the translation by the words “by all means.”

⁶ sn Every leafy tree. This expression refers to evergreens which, because they keep their foliage throughout the year, provided apt symbolism for nature cults such as those practiced in Canaan. The deity particularly in view is Asherah, wife of the great god El, who was considered the goddess of fertility and whose worship frequently took place at shrines near or among clusters (groves) of such trees (see also Deut 7:5). See J. Hadley, NIDOTTE 1:569-70; J. DeMoor, TDOT 1:438-44.

⁷ tn Heb “ the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

⁸ tn The Hebrew text includes “to possess it.”

⁹ tn Or “from beneath the sky.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

¹⁰ sn This command is fulfilled in 1 Sam 15:1-33.

⁹ tn Heb “the wrath of the Lord and his zeal.” The expression is a hendiadys, a figure in which the second noun becomes adjectival to the first.

¹⁰ tn Heb “smoke,” or “smolder.”

¹¹ tn Heb “the entire oath.”

¹² tn Or “will lie in wait against him.”

¹³ tn Heb “blot out his name from under the sky.”