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).
1 tn Heb “have grown old in the land,” i.e., been there for a long time.
2 tn Heb “a form of anything.” Cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV, TEV “an idol.”
3 tn The infinitive construct is understood here as indicating the result, not the intention, of their actions.
1 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
2 tn Or “be destroyed”; KJV “utterly perish”; NLT “will quickly disappear”; CEV “you won’t have long to live.”
3 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.
1 tn Heb “you will be left men (i.e., few) of number.”
1 tc The LXX reads the plural “kings.”
1 tn Heb “the entire curse.”
1 tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “certainly.”
2 tn Heb “to go there to possess it.”
1 tn Heb “the blessing and the curse.”
2 tn Heb “and you bring (them) back to your heart.”
1 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”).
2 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).
3 tn The Hebrew term נֵץ (nets) may refer to the falcon or perhaps the hawk (so NEB, NIV).
1 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.”