4:25 After you have produced children and grandchildren and have been in the land a long time, 2 if you become corrupt and make an image of any kind 3 and do other evil things before the Lord your God that enrage him, 4 4:26 I invoke heaven and earth as witnesses against you 5 today that you will surely and swiftly be removed 6 from the very land you are about to cross the Jordan to possess. You will not last long there because you will surely be 7 annihilated. 4:27 Then the Lord will scatter you among the peoples and there will be very few of you 8 among the nations where the Lord will drive you. 4:28 There you will worship gods made by human hands – wood and stone that can neither see, hear, eat, nor smell.
30:1 “When you have experienced all these things, both the blessings and the curses 13 I have set before you, you will reflect upon them 14 in all the nations where the Lord your God has banished you.
5:27 and I will drive you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord.
He is called the God who commands armies!
1 tn Heb “and I will empty sword” (see HALOT 1228 s.v. ריק 3).
2 tn Heb “have grown old in the land,” i.e., been there for a long time.
3 tn Heb “a form of anything.” Cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV, TEV “an idol.”
4 tn The infinitive construct is understood here as indicating the result, not the intention, of their actions.
5 sn I invoke heaven and earth as witnesses against you. This stock formula introduces what is known form-critically as a רִיב (riv) or controversy pattern. It is commonly used in the ancient Near Eastern world in legal contexts and in the OT as a forensic or judicial device to draw attention to Israel’s violation of the
6 tn Or “be destroyed”; KJV “utterly perish”; NLT “will quickly disappear”; CEV “you won’t have long to live.”
7 tn Or “be completely” (so NCV, TEV). It is not certain here if the infinitive absolute indicates the certainty of the following action (cf. NIV) or its degree.
8 tn Heb “you will be left men (i.e., few) of number.”
9 tc The LXX reads the plural “kings.”
10 tn Heb “the entire curse.”
11 tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “certainly.”
12 tn Heb “to go there to possess it.”
13 tn Heb “the blessing and the curse.”
14 tn Heb “and you bring (them) back to your heart.”
15 tn Or “owl.” The Hebrew term בַּת הַיַּעֲנָה (bat hayya’anah) is sometimes taken as “ostrich” (so ASV, NAB, NASB, NRSV, NLT), but may refer instead to some species of owl (cf. KJV “owl”; NEB “desert-owl”; NIV “horned owl”).
16 tn The Hebrew term תַּחְמָס (takhmas) is either a type of owl (cf. NEB “short-eared owl”; NIV “screech owl”) or possibly the nighthawk (so NRSV, NLT).
17 tn The Hebrew term נֵץ (nets) may refer to the falcon or perhaps the hawk (so NEB, NIV).
18 tn The Hebrew term תִּנְשֶׁמֶת (tinshemet) may refer to a species of owl (cf. ASV “horned owl”; NASB, NIV, NLT “white owl”) or perhaps even to the swan (so KJV); cf. NRSV “water hen.”