34:5 So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab as the Lord had said.
105:26 He sent his servant Moses,
and Aaron, whom he had chosen.
1 tn The preterite with the vav (ו) consecutive introduces a clause that is subordinate to the main points that the verse is making.
2 tn Heb “the great hand,” with “hand” being a metonymy for work or power. The word play using “hand” contrasts the Lord’s hand/power at work on behalf of the Israelites with the hand/power of Egypt that would have killed them.
3 tn Heb “did, made.”
4 tn Heb “and the people feared.”
5 tn The verb is the Hiphil preterite of אָמַן (’aman).
6 sn Here the title of “servant” is given to Moses. This is the highest title a mortal can have in the OT – the “servant of Yahweh.” It signifies more than a believer; it describes the individual as acting on behalf of God. For example, when Moses stretched out his hand, God used it as his own (Isa 63:12). Moses was God’s personal representative. The chapter records both a message of salvation and of judgment. Like the earlier account of deliverance at the Passover, this chapter can be a lesson on deliverance from present troubles – if God could do this for Israel, there is no trouble too great for him to overcome. The passage can also be understood as a picture (at least) of the deliverance at the final judgment on the world. But the Israelites used this account for a paradigm of the power of God: namely, God is able to deliver his people from danger because he is the sovereign Lord of creation. His people must learn to trust him, even in desperate situations; they must fear him and not the situation. God can bring any threat to an end by bringing his power to bear in judgment on the wicked.
7 tn Heb “Lord
8 tn Heb “your servant.” The pronoun is used in the translation to clarify that Moses is speaking of himself, since in contemporary English one does not usually refer to oneself in third person.
9 tn Heb “your strong hand” (so NIV), a symbol of God’s activity.
10 tn Heb “Get up!”
11 tn Heb “this Jordan”; the word “River” has been supplied in the translation for clarity (likewise in v. 11).
12 tc Heb “Cross over this Jordan, you and all these people, to the land that I am giving to them, to the children of Israel.” The final phrase, “to the children of Israel,” is probably a later scribal addition specifying the identity of “these people/them.”
13 tn Or “Only be.”
14 tn Heb “so you can be careful to do.” The use of the infinitive לִשְׁמֹר (lishmor, “to keep”) after the imperatives suggests that strength and bravery will be necessary for obedience. Another option is to take the form לִשְׁמֹר as a vocative lamed (ל) with imperative (see Isa 38:20 for an example of this construction), which could be translated, “Indeed, be careful!”
15 tn Heb “commanded you.”
16 tn Heb “be wise,” but the word can mean “be successful” by metonymy.
17 tn Heb “in all which you go.”
18 tn Heb “Then you may return to the land of your possession and possess it, that which Moses, the
19 tn Heb “as it is written in the scroll of the law of Moses, an altar of whole stones on which no one had wielded iron.” The expression “whole stones” refers to stones in their natural condition, i.e., not carved or shaped artificially with tools (“wielded iron”).
20 tn Or “peace offerings.”
21 tn Heb “All Israel.”
22 tn Or “elders.”
23 tn Heb “like the resident alien, like the citizen.” The language is idiomatic, meaning that both groups were treated the same, at least in this instance.
24 tn Heb “as Moses, the
25 tn Heb “by the hand of.”