20:24 ‘You must make for me an altar made of earth, 1 and you will sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, 2 your sheep and your cattle. In every place 3 where I cause my name to be honored 4 I will come to you and I will bless you.
16:1 Observe the month Abib 12 and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in that month 13 he 14 brought you out of Egypt by night.
7:16 You must destroy 18 all the people whom the Lord your God is about to deliver over to you; you must not pity them or worship 19 their gods, for that will be a snare to you.
132:13 Certainly 20 the Lord has chosen Zion;
he decided to make it his home. 21
132:14 He said, 22 “This will be my resting place forever;
I will live here, for I have chosen it. 23
1 sn The instructions here call for the altar to be made of natural things, not things manufactured or shaped by man. The altar was either to be made of clumps of earth or natural, unhewn rocks.
2 sn The “burnt offering” is the offering prescribed in Lev 1. Everything of this animal went up in smoke as a sweet aroma to God. It signified complete surrender by the worshiper who brought the animal, and complete acceptance by God, thereby making atonement. The “peace offering” is legislated in Lev 3 and 7. This was a communal meal offering to celebrate being at peace with God. It was made usually for thanksgiving, for payment of vows, or as a freewill offering.
3 tn Gesenius lists this as one of the few places where the noun in construct seems to be indefinite in spite of the fact that the genitive has the article. He says בְּכָל־הַמָּקוֹם (bÿkhol-hammaqom) means “in all the place, sc. of the sanctuary, and is a dogmatic correction of “in every place” (כָּל־מָקוֹם, kol-maqom). See GKC 412 §127.e.
4 tn The verb is זָכַר (zakhar, “to remember”), but in the Hiphil especially it can mean more than remember or cause to remember (remind) – it has the sense of praise or honor. B. S. Childs says it has a denominative meaning, “to proclaim” (Exodus [OTL], 447). The point of the verse is that God will give Israel reason for praising and honoring him, and in every place that occurs he will make his presence known by blessing them.
5 tn Heb “the
6 tc Some scholars, on the basis of v. 11, emend the MT reading שִׁכְנוֹ (shikhno, “his residence”) to the infinitive construct לְשָׁכֵן (lÿshakhen, “to make [his name] to dwell”), perhaps with the 3rd person masculine singular sf לְשַׁכְּנוֹ (lÿshakÿno, “to cause it to dwell”). Though the presupposed nounשֵׁכֶן (shekhen) is nowhere else attested, the parallel here with שַׁמָּה (shammah, “there”) favors retaining the MT as it stands.
7 tn Heb “and it will be (to) the place where the Lord your God chooses to cause his name to dwell you will bring.”
8 tn Heb “heave offerings of your hand.”
9 tn Heb “the
10 tn Heb “sacrifice the Passover” (so NASB). The word “animal” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
11 tn Heb “the
12 sn The month Abib, later called Nisan (Neh 2:1; Esth 3:7), corresponds to March-April in the modern calendar.
13 tn Heb “in the month Abib.” The demonstrative “that” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.
14 tn Heb “the
15 tn Heb “the
16 sn Anakites. See note on this term in Deut 1:28.
17 tn Heb “great and tall.” Many English versions understand this to refer to physical size or strength rather than numbers (cf. “strong,” NIV, NCV, NRSV, NLT).
18 tn Heb “devour” (so NRSV); KJV, NAB, NASB “consume.” The verbal form (a perfect with vav consecutive) is understood here as having an imperatival or obligatory nuance (cf. the instructions and commands that follow). Another option is to take the statement as a continuation of the preceding conditional promises and translate “and you will destroy.”
19 tn Or “serve” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV).
20 tn Or “for.”
21 tn Heb “he desired it for his dwelling place.”
22 tn The words “he said” are added in the translation to clarify that what follows are the
23 tn Heb “for I desired it.”