Deuteronomy 33:15

33:15 with the best ¹  of the ancient mountains

and the harvest produced by the age-old hills;

Deuteronomy 28:46

28:46 These curses ²  will be a perpetual sign and wonder with reference to you and your descendants. ³ 

Deuteronomy 23:6

23:6 You must not seek peace and prosperity for them through all the ages to come.

Deuteronomy 32:40

32:40 For I raise up my hand to heaven,

and say, ‘As surely as I live forever,

Deuteronomy 33:27

33:27 The everlasting God is a refuge,

and underneath you are his eternal arms; ⁴ 

he has driven out enemies before you,

and has said, “Destroy!”

Deuteronomy 15:17

15:17 you shall take an awl and pierce a hole through his ear to the door. ⁵  Then he will become your servant permanently (this applies to your female servant as well).

Deuteronomy 23:3

23:3 An Ammonite or Moabite ⁶  may not enter the assembly of the Lord; to the tenth generation none of their descendants shall ever ⁷  do so, ⁸ 

Deuteronomy 29:29

29:29 Secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those that are revealed belong to us and our descendants ⁹  forever, so that we might obey all the words of this law.

Deuteronomy 32:7

32:7 Remember the ancient days;

bear in mind ¹⁰  the years of past generations. ¹¹ 

Ask your father and he will inform you,

your elders, and they will tell you.

Deuteronomy 5:29

5:29 If only it would really be their desire to fear me and obey ¹²  all my commandments in the future, so that it may go well with them and their descendants forever.

Deuteronomy 12:28

12:28 Pay careful attention to all these things I am commanding you so that it may always go well with you and your children after you when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.

Deuteronomy 13:16

13:16 You must gather all of its plunder into the middle of the plaza ¹³  and burn the city and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. It will be an abandoned ruin ¹⁴  forever – it must never be rebuilt again.

¹ tn Heb “head” or “top.”

² tn Heb “they”; the referent (the curses mentioned previously) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³ tn Heb “seed” (so KJV, ASV).

³ tn Heb “and from under, arms of perpetuity.” The words “you” and “his” are supplied in the translation for clarification. Some have perceived this line to be problematic and have offered alternative translations that differ significantly from the present translation: “He spread out the primeval tent; he extended the ancient canopy” (NAB); “He subdues the ancient gods, shatters the forces of old” (NRSV). These are based on alternate meanings or conjectural emendations rather than textual variants in the mss and versions.

⁴ sn When the bondslave’s ear was drilled through to the door, the door in question was that of the master’s house. In effect, the bondslave is declaring his undying and lifelong loyalty to his creditor. The scar (or even hole) in the earlobe would testify to the community that the slave had surrendered independence and personal rights. This may be what Paul had in mind when he said “I bear on my body the marks of Jesus” (Gal 6:17).

⁵ sn An Ammonite or Moabite. These descendants of Lot by his two daughters (cf. Gen 19:30-38) were thereby the products of incest and therefore excluded from the worshiping community. However, these two nations also failed to show proper hospitality to Israel on their way to Canaan (v. 4).

⁶ tn The Hebrew term translated “ever” (עַד־עוֹלָם, ’ad-’olam) suggests that “tenth generation” (vv. 2, 3) also means “forever.” However, in the OT sense “forever” means not “for eternity” but for an indeterminate future time. See A. Tomasino, NIDOTTE 3:346.

⁷ tn Heb “enter the assembly of the Lord.” The phrase “do so” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

⁶ tn Heb “sons” (so NASB); KJV, ASV, NIV, NRSV “children.”

⁷ tc The Syriac, Targum, and Vulgate read 2nd person masculine singular whereas the MT has 2nd person masculine plural. The former is preferred, the latter perhaps being a misreading (בִּינוּ [binu] for בִּינָה [binah]). Both the preceding (“remember”) and following (“ask”) imperatives are singular forms in the Hebrew text.

⁸ tn Heb “generation and generation.” The repetition of the singular noun here singles out each of the successive past generations. See IBHS 116 §7.2.3b.

⁸ tn Heb “keep” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV).

⁹ tn Heb “street.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “mound”; NAB “a heap of ruins.” The Hebrew word תֵּל (tel) refers to this day to a ruin represented especially by a built-up mound of dirt or debris (cf. Tel Aviv, “mound of grain”).