Genesis 22:1

The Sacrifice of Isaac

22:1 Some time after these things God tested ¹  Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am!” Abraham ²  replied.

Deuteronomy 8:2

8:2 Remember the whole way by which he ³  has brought you these forty years through the desert ⁴  so that he might, by humbling you, test you to see if you have it within you to keep his commandments or not.

Deuteronomy 8:16

8:16 fed you in the desert with manna (which your ancestors had never before known) so that he might by humbling you test you ⁵  and eventually bring good to you.

Deuteronomy 13:3

13:3 You must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer, ⁶  for the Lord your God will be testing you to see if you love him ⁷  with all your mind and being. ⁸ 

Deuteronomy 33:8

Blessing on Levi

33:8 Of Levi he said:

Your Thummim and Urim ⁹  belong to your godly one, ¹⁰ 

whose authority you challenged at Massah, ¹¹ 

and with whom you argued at the waters of Meribah. ¹² 

Deuteronomy 33:2

33:2 He said:

A Historical Review

The Lord came from Sinai

and revealed himself ¹³  to Israel ¹⁴  from Seir.

He appeared in splendor ¹⁵  from Mount Paran,

and came forth with ten thousand holy ones. ¹⁶ 

With his right hand he gave a fiery law ¹⁷  to them.

Deuteronomy 32:31

32:31 For our enemies’ ¹⁸  rock is not like our Rock,

as even our enemies concede.

¹ sn The Hebrew verb used here means “to test; to try; to prove.” In this passage God tests Abraham to see if he would be obedient. See T. W. Mann, The Book of the Torah, 44-48. See also J. L. Crenshaw, A Whirlpool of Torment (OBT), 9-30; and J. I. Lawlor, “The Test of Abraham,” GTJ 1 (1980): 19-35.

² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁴ tn Or “wilderness” (so KJV, NRSV, NLT); likewise in v. 15.

⁵ tn Heb “in order to humble you and in order to test you.” See 8:2.

⁶ tn Heb “or dreamer of dreams.” See note on this expression in v. 1.

⁷ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

⁸ 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.

⁹ sn Thummim and Urim. These terms, whose meaning is uncertain, refer to sacred stones carried in a pouch on the breastplate of the high priest and examined on occasion as a means of ascertaining God’s will or direction. See Exod 28:30; Lev 8:8; Num 27:21; 1 Sam 28:6. See also C. Van Dam, NIDOTTE 1:329-31.

¹⁰ tn Heb “godly man.” The reference is probably to Moses as representative of the whole tribe of Levi.

¹¹ sn Massah means “testing” in Hebrew; the name is a wordplay on what took place there. Cf. Exod 17:7; Deut 6:16; 9:22; Ps 95:8-9.

¹² sn Meribah means “contention, argument” in Hebrew; this is another wordplay on the incident that took place there. Cf. Num 20:13, 24; Ps 106:32.

¹³ tn Or “rose like the sun” (NCV, TEV).

¹⁴ tc Heb “to him.” The LXX reads “to us” (לָנוּ [lanu] for לָמוֹ [lamo]), the reading of the MT is acceptable since it no doubt has in mind Israel as a collective singular.

¹⁵ tn Or “he shone forth” (NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

¹⁶ tc With slight alteration (מִמְרִבַת קָדֵשׁ [mimrivat qadesh] for the MT’s מֵרִבְבֹת קֹדֶשׁ [merivvot qodesh]) the translation would be “from Meribah Kadesh” (cf. NAB, NLT; see Deut 32:51). However, the language of holy war in the immediate context favors the reading of the MT, which views the Lord as accompanied by angelic hosts.

¹⁷ tc The mispointed Hebrew term אֵשְׁדָּת (’eshdat) should perhaps be construed as אֵשְׁהַת (’eshhat) with Smr.

¹⁸ tn Heb “their,” but the referent (enemies) is specified in the translation for the sake of clarity.