6:1 Now these are the commandments, 2 statutes, and ordinances that the Lord your God instructed me to teach you so that you may carry them out in the land where you are headed 3
6:10 Then when the Lord your God brings you to the land he promised your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give you – a land with large, fine cities you did not build,
9:1 Listen, Israel: Today you are about to cross the Jordan so you can dispossess the nations there, people greater and stronger than you who live in large cities with extremely high fortifications. 4
15:7 In the abundance of your majesty 13 you have overthrown 14
those who rise up against you. 15
You sent forth 16 your wrath; 17
it consumed them 18 like stubble.
44:2 You, by your power, 21 defeated nations and settled our fathers on their land; 22
you crushed 23 the people living there 24 and enabled our ancestors to occupy it. 25
44:3 For they did not conquer 26 the land by their swords,
and they did not prevail by their strength, 27
but rather by your power, 28 strength 29 and good favor, 30
for you were partial to 31 them.
78:55 He drove the nations out from before them;
he assigned them their tribal allotments 32
and allowed the tribes of Israel to settle down. 33
1 tn Heb “(as) an inheritance,” that is, landed property that one can pass on to one’s descendants.
2 tn Heb “commandment.” The word מִצְוָה (mitsvah) again is in the singular, serving as a comprehensive term for the whole stipulation section of the book. See note on the word “commandments” in 5:31.
3 tn Heb “where you are going over to possess it” (so NASB); NRSV “that you are about to cross into and occupy.”
4 tn Heb “fortified to the heavens” (so NRSV); NLT “cities with walls that reach to the sky.” This is hyperbole.
5 sn Mount Gerizim…Mount Ebal. These two mountains are near the ancient site of Shechem and the modern city of Nablus. The valley between them is like a great amphitheater with the mountain slopes as seating sections. The place was sacred because it was there that Abraham pitched his camp and built his first altar after coming to Canaan (Gen 12:6). Jacob also settled at Shechem for a time and dug a well from which Jesus once requested a drink of water (Gen 33:18-20; John 4:5-7). When Joshua and the Israelites finally brought Canaan under control they assembled at Shechem as Moses commanded and undertook a ritual of covenant reaffirmation (Josh 8:30-35; 24:1, 25). Half the tribes stood on Mt. Gerizim and half on Mt. Ebal and in antiphonal chorus pledged their loyalty to the
6 tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.
7 tn Heb “his.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “their.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.
8 tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.
9 tn Heb “and are satisfied.”
10 tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.
11 tn Heb “which I raised my hand to give it.” The relative clause specifies which land is their goal. The bold anthropomorphism mentions part of an oath-taking ceremony to refer to the whole event and reminds the reader that God swore that he would give the land to them. The reference to taking an oath would have made the promise of God sure in the mind of the Israelite.
12 sn Here is the twofold aspect again clearly depicted: God swore the promise to the patriarchs, but he is about to give what he promised to this generation. This generation will know more about him as a result.
13 sn This expression is cognate with words in v. 1. Here that same greatness or majesty is extolled as in abundance.
14 tn Here, and throughout the song, these verbs are the prefixed conjugation that may look like the imperfect but are actually historic preterites. This verb is to “overthrow” or “throw down” – like a wall, leaving it in shattered pieces.
15 tn The form קָמֶיךָ (qamekha) is the active participle with a pronominal suffix. The participle is accusative, the object of the verb, but the suffix is the genitive of nearer definition (see GKC 358 §116.i).
16 sn The verb is the Piel of שָׁלַח (shalakh), the same verb used throughout for the demand on Pharaoh to release Israel. Here, in some irony, God released his wrath on them.
17 sn The word wrath is a metonymy of cause; the effect – the judgment – is what is meant.
18 tn The verb is the prefixed conjugation, the preterite, without the consecutive vav (ו).
19 tn Or “plunder.”
20 tn Heb “know.”
21 tn Heb “you, your hand.”
22 tn Heb “dispossessed nations and planted them.” The third masculine plural pronoun “them” refers to the fathers (v. 1). See Ps 80:8, 15.
23 tn The verb form in the Hebrew text is a Hiphil preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive) from רָעַע (ra’a’, “be evil; be bad”). If retained it apparently means, “you injured; harmed.” Some prefer to derive the verb from רָעַע (“break”; cf. NEB “breaking up the peoples”), in which case the form must be revocalized as Qal (since this verb is unattested in the Hiphil).
24 tn Or “peoples.”
25 tn Heb “and you sent them out.” The translation assumes that the third masculine plural pronoun “them” refers to the fathers (v. 1), as in the preceding parallel line. See Ps 80:11, where Israel, likened to a vine, “spreads out” its tendrils to the west and east. Another option is to take the “peoples” as the referent of the pronoun and translate, “and you sent them away,” though this does not provide as tight a parallel with the corresponding line.
26 tn Or “take possession of.”
27 tn Heb “and their arm did not save them.” The “arm” here symbolizes military strength.
28 tn Heb “your right hand.” The
29 tn Heb “your arm.”
30 tn Heb “light of your face.” The idiom “light of your face” probably refers to a smile (see Eccl 8:1), which in turn suggests favor and blessing (see Num 6:25; Pss 4:6; 31:16; 67:1; 80:3, 7, 19; 89:15; Dan 9:17).
31 tn Or “favorable toward.”
32 tn Heb “he caused to fall [to] them with a measuring line an inheritance.”
33 tn Heb “and caused the tribes of Israel to settle down in their tents.”