4:32 Indeed, ask about the distant past, starting from the day God created humankind 1 on the earth, and ask 2 from one end of heaven to the other, whether there has ever been such a great thing as this, or even a rumor of it.
19:15 A single witness may not testify 15 against another person for any trespass or sin that he commits. A matter may be legally established 16 only on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
1 tn The Hebrew term אָדָם (’adam) may refer either to Adam or, more likely, to “man” in the sense of the human race (“mankind,” “humankind”). The idea here seems more universal in scope than reference to Adam alone would suggest.
2 tn The verb is not present in the Hebrew text but has been supplied in the translation for clarification. The challenge has both temporal and geographical dimensions. The people are challenged to (1) inquire about the entire scope of past history and (2) conduct their investigation on a worldwide scale.
3 tn The translation assumes the reference is to Israel’s God in which case the point is this: God’s intervention in Israel’s experience is unique in the sense that he has never intervened in such power for any other people on earth. The focus is on the uniqueness of Israel’s experience. Some understand the divine name here in a generic sense, “a god,” or “any god.” In this case God’s incomparability is the focus (cf. v. 35, where this theme is expressed).
4 tn Heb “tried to go to take for himself.”
5 tn Heb “by testings.” The reference here is the judgments upon Pharaoh in the form of plagues. See Deut 7:19 (cf. v. 18) and 29:3 (cf. v. 2).
6 tn Heb “by strong hand and by outstretched arm.”
5 tn Heb “or dreamer of dreams.” See note on this expression in v. 1.
6 tn Heb “the
7 tn Heb “all your heart and soul” (so NRSV, CEV, NLT); or “heart and being” (NCV “your whole being”). See note on the word “being” in Deut 6:5.
7 tn Heb “gates” (also in vv. 27, 28, 29).
8 sn Do not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk. This strange prohibition – one whose rationale is unclear but probably related to pagan ritual – may seem out of place here but actually is not for the following reasons: (1) the passage as a whole opens with a prohibition against heathen mourning rites (i.e., death, vv. 1-2) and closes with what appear to be birth and infancy rites. (2) In the other two places where the stipulation occurs (Exod 23:19 and Exod 34:26) it similarly concludes major sections. (3) Whatever the practice signified it clearly was abhorrent to the
9 tn Heb “gates.”
10 tn Heb “does the evil in the eyes of the
11 tn Heb “who acts presumptuously not to listen” (cf. NASB).
13 tn Heb “rise up” (likewise in v. 16).
14 tn Heb “may stand.”
15 tn Heb “hates.” See note on the word “other” in Deut 21:15.
16 tn Heb “writes her a document of divorce.”