26:3 “‘If you walk in my statutes and are sure to obey my commandments, 11
28:1 “If you indeed 13 obey the Lord your God and are careful to observe all his commandments I am giving 14 you today, the Lord your God will elevate you above all the nations of the earth. 28:2 All these blessings will come to you in abundance 15 if you obey the Lord your God: 28:3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the field. 16 28:4 Your children 17 will be blessed, as well as the produce of your soil, the offspring of your livestock, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks. 28:5 Your basket and your mixing bowl will be blessed. 28:6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out. 18 28:7 The Lord will cause your enemies who attack 19 you to be struck down before you; they will attack you from one direction 20 but flee from you in seven different directions. 28:8 The Lord will decree blessing for you with respect to your barns and in everything you do – yes, he will bless you in the land he 21 is giving you. 28:9 The Lord will designate you as his holy people just as he promised you, if you keep his commandments 22 and obey him. 23 28:10 Then all the peoples of the earth will see that you belong to the Lord, 24 and they will respect you. 28:11 The Lord will greatly multiply your children, 25 the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your soil in the land which he 26 promised your ancestors 27 he would give you. 28:12 The Lord will open for you his good treasure house, the heavens, to give you rain for the land in its season and to bless all you do; 28 you will lend to many nations but you will not borrow from any. 28:13 The Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always end up at the top and not at the bottom, if you obey his 29 commandments which I am urging 30 you today to be careful to do. 28:14 But you must not turn away from all the commandments I am giving 31 you today, to either the right or left, nor pursue other gods and worship 32 them.
28:1 “If you indeed 33 obey the Lord your God and are careful to observe all his commandments I am giving 34 you today, the Lord your God will elevate you above all the nations of the earth.
1 tn Heb “For” but this introduces a long explanation about the relative importance of sacrifice and obedience.
2 tn Verses 22-23a read in Hebrew, “I did not speak with your ancestors and I did not command them when I brought them out of Egypt about words/matters concerning burnt offering and sacrifice, but I commanded them this word:” Some modern commentators have explained this passage as an evidence for the lateness of the Pentateuchal instruction regarding sacrifice or a denial that sacrifice was practiced during the period of the wilderness wandering. However, it is better explained as an example of what R. de Vaux calls a dialectical negative, i.e., “not so much this as that” or “not this without that” (Ancient Israel, 454-56). For other examples of this same argument see Isa 1:10-17; Hos 6:4-6; Amos 5:21-25.
3 tn Heb “Obey me and I will be.” The translation is equivalent syntactically but brings out the emphasis in the command.
4 tn Heb “Walk in all the way that I command you.”
5 tn Heb “Make good your ways and your actions.” For the same expression see 7:3, 5; 18:11.
6 tn For the idiom and translation of terms involved here see 18:8 and the translator’s note there.
7 tn Literally “doing loyal love” (עֹשֶׂה חֶסֶד, ’oseh khesed). The noun refers to God’s covenant loyalty, his faithful love to those who belong to him. These are members of the covenant, recipients of grace, the people of God, whom God will preserve and protect from evil and its effects.
8 tn Heb “to thousands” or “to thousandth.” After “tenth,” Hebrew uses cardinal numbers for ordinals also. This statement is the antithesis of the preceding line. The “thousands” or “thousandth [generation]” are those who love Yahweh and keep his commands. These are descendants from the righteous, and even associates with them, who benefit from the mercy that God extends to his people. S. R. Driver (Exodus, 195) says that this passage teaches that God’s mercy transcends his wrath; in his providence the beneficial consequences of a life of goodness extend indefinitely further than the retribution that is the penalty for persisting in sin. To say that God’s loyal love extends to thousands of generations or the thousandth generation is parallel to saying that it endures forever (Ps. 118). See also Exod 34:7; Deut 5:10; 7:9; Ps 18:51; Jer 32:18.
9 sn This means “the manifestation of my being” is in him (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 247). Driver quotes McNeile as saying, “The ‘angel’ is Jehovah Himself ‘in a temporary descent to visibility for a special purpose.’” Others take the “name” to represent Yahweh’s “power” (NCV) or “authority” (NAB, CEV).
10 tn The infinitive absolute here does not add as great an emphasis as normal, but emphasizes the condition that is being set forth (see GKC 342-43 §113.o).
11 tn Heb “and my commandments you shall keep and do them.” This appears to be a kind of verbal hendiadys, where the first verb is a modifier of the action of the second verb (see GKC 386 §120.d, although שָׁמַר [shamar, “to keep”] is not cited there; cf. Lev 20:8; 25:18, etc.).
12 tn Heb “listen to,” that is, obey.
13 tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “indeed.”
14 tn Heb “commanding”; NAB “which I enjoin on you today” (likewise in v. 15).
15 tn Heb “come upon you and overtake you” (so NASB, NRSV); NIV “come upon you and accompany you.”
16 tn Or “in the country” (so NAB, NIV, NLT). This expression also occurs in v. 15.
17 tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).
18 sn Come in…go out. To “come in” and “go out” is a figure of speech (merism) indicating all of life and its activities.
19 tn Heb “who rise up against” (so NIV).
20 tn Heb “way” (also later in this verse and in v. 25).
21 tn Heb “the
22 tn Heb “the commandments of the
23 tn Heb “and walk in his ways” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
24 tn Heb “the name of the Lord is called over you.” The Hebrew idiom indicates ownership; see 2 Sam 12:28; Isa 4:1, as well as BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph. 2.d.(4).
25 tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); CEV “will give you a lot of children.”
26 tn Heb “the
27 tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 36, 64).
28 tn Heb “all the work of your hands.”
29 tn Heb “the
30 tn Heb “commanding” (so NRSV); NASB “which I charge you today.”
31 tn Heb “from all the words which I am commanding.”
32 tn Heb “in order to serve.”
33 tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “indeed.”
34 tn Heb “commanding”; NAB “which I enjoin on you today” (likewise in v. 15).
35 tn Heb “in your gates.”
36 tc The LXX adds ἐν σοί (en soi, “among you”) to make clear that the antecedent is the people and not the animals. That is, the people, whether ritually purified or not, may eat such defective animals.
37 sn Those who are far away is probably a reference to later groups of returning exiles under Ezra, Nehemiah, and others.
38 tn The Greek word ἰδού (idou) has been translated here as “remember” (BDAG 468 s.v. 1.c).
39 sn I am with you. Matthew’s Gospel begins with the prophecy that the Savior’s name would be “Emmanuel, that is, ‘God with us,’” (1:23, in which the author has linked Isa 7:14 and 8:8, 10 together) and it ends with Jesus’ promise to be with his disciples forever. The Gospel of Matthew thus forms an inclusio about Jesus in his relationship to his people that suggests his deity.
40 tc Most