Genesis 26:28

26:28 They replied, “We could plainly see ¹  that the Lord is with you. So we decided there should be ²  a pact between us ³  – between us ⁴  and you. Allow us to make ⁵  a treaty with you

Exodus 23:32

23:32 “You must make no covenant with them or with their gods.

Deuteronomy 23:3

23:3 An Ammonite or Moabite ⁶  may not enter the assembly of the Lord; to the tenth generation none of their descendants shall ever ⁷  do so, ⁸ 

Deuteronomy 23:1

Purity in Public Worship

23:1 A man with crushed ⁹  or severed genitals ¹⁰  may not enter the assembly of the Lord. ¹¹ 

Deuteronomy 20:1

Laws Concerning War with Distant Enemies

20:1 When you go to war against your enemies and see chariotry ¹²  and troops ¹³  who outnumber you, do not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, is with you.

Job 41:4

41:4 Will it make a pact ¹⁴  with you,

so you could take it ¹⁵  as your slave for life?

Isaiah 36:16

36:16 Don’t listen to Hezekiah!’ For this is what the king of Assyria says, ‘Send me a token of your submission and surrender to me. ¹⁶  Then each of you may eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern,

Ezekiel 17:13

17:13 He took one from the royal family, ¹⁷  made a treaty with him, and put him under oath. ¹⁸  He then took the leaders of the land

¹ tn The infinitive absolute before the verb emphasizes the clarity of their perception.

² tn Heb “And we said, ‘Let there be.’” The direct discourse in the Hebrew text has been rendered as indirect discourse in the translation for stylistic reasons.

³ tn The pronoun “us” here is inclusive – it refers to the Philistine contingent on the one hand and Isaac on the other.

⁴ tn The pronoun “us” here is exclusive – it refers to just the Philistine contingent (the following “you” refers to Isaac).

⁵ tn The translation assumes that the cohortative expresses their request. Another option is to understand the cohortative as indicating resolve: “We want to make.’”

⁶ sn An Ammonite or Moabite. These descendants of Lot by his two daughters (cf. Gen 19:30-38) were thereby the products of incest and therefore excluded from the worshiping community. However, these two nations also failed to show proper hospitality to Israel on their way to Canaan (v. 4).

⁷ tn The Hebrew term translated “ever” (עַד־עוֹלָם, ’ad-’olam) suggests that “tenth generation” (vv. 2, 3) also means “forever.” However, in the OT sense “forever” means not “for eternity” but for an indeterminate future time. See A. Tomasino, NIDOTTE 3:346.

⁸ tn Heb “enter the assembly of the Lord.” The phrase “do so” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

⁹ tn Heb “bruised by crushing,” which many English versions take to refer to crushed testicles (NAB, NRSV, NLT); TEV “who has been castrated.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “cut off with respect to the penis”; KJV, ASV “hath his privy member cut off”; English versions vary in their degree of euphemism here; cf. NAB, NRSV, TEV, NLT “penis”; NASB “male organ”; NCV “sex organ”; CEV “private parts”; NIV “emasculated by crushing or cutting.”

¹¹ sn The Hebrew term translated “assembly” (קָהָל, qahal) does not refer here to the nation as such but to the formal services of the tabernacle or temple. Since emasculated or other sexually abnormal persons were commonly associated with pagan temple personnel, the thrust here may be primarily polemical in intent. One should not read into this anything having to do with the mentally and physically handicapped as fit to participate in the life and ministry of the church.

¹² tn Heb “horse and chariot.”

¹³ tn Heb “people.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “will he cut a covenant.”

¹⁵ tn The imperfect verb serves to express what the covenant pact would cover, namely, “that you take.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “make with me a blessing and come out to me.”

¹⁷ tn Or “descendants”; Heb “seed” (cf. v. 5).

¹⁸ tn Heb “caused him to enter into an oath.”