Deuteronomy 17:14-15

Provision for Kingship

17:14 When you come to the land the Lord your God is giving you and take it over and live in it and then say, “I will select a king like all the nations surrounding me,” 17:15 you must select without fail ¹  a king whom the Lord your God chooses. From among your fellow citizens ²  you must appoint a king – you may not designate a foreigner who is not one of your fellow Israelites. ³ 

Deuteronomy 17:1

17:1 You must not sacrifice to him ⁴  a bull or sheep that has a blemish or any other defect, because that is considered offensive ⁵  to the Lord your God.

Deuteronomy 10:1

The Opportunity to Begin Again

10:1 At that same time the Lord said to me, “Carve out for yourself two stone tablets like the first ones and come up the mountain to me; also make for yourself a wooden ark. ⁶ 

Deuteronomy 11:15

11:15 I will provide pasture ⁷  for your livestock and you will eat your fill.”

Deuteronomy 11:2

11:2 Bear in mind today that I am not speaking ⁸  to your children who have not personally experienced the judgments ⁹  of the Lord your God, which revealed ¹⁰  his greatness, strength, and power. ¹¹ 

Deuteronomy 2:8-9

2:8 So we turned away from our relatives ¹²  the descendants of Esau, the inhabitants of Seir, turning from the desert route, ¹³  from Elat ¹⁴  and Ezion Geber, ¹⁵  and traveling the way of the Moab wastelands. 2:9 Then the Lord said to me, “Do not harass Moab and provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land as your territory. This is because I have given Ar ¹⁶  to the descendants of Lot ¹⁷  as their possession.

Deuteronomy 2:1

The Journey from Kadesh Barnea to Moab

2:1 Then we turned and set out toward the desert land on the way to the Red Sea ¹⁸  just as the Lord told me to do, detouring around Mount Seir for a long time.

Deuteronomy 1:24-25

1:24 They left and went up to the hill country, coming to the Eshcol Valley, ¹⁹  which they scouted out. 1:25 Then they took ²⁰  some of the produce of the land and carried it back down to us. They also brought a report to us, saying, “The land that the Lord our God is about to give us is good.”

Deuteronomy 12:20

The Sanctity of Blood

12:20 When the Lord your God extends your borders as he said he would do and you say, “I want to eat meat just as I please,” ²¹  you may do so as you wish. ²² 

[17:15]  ¹ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, indicated in the translation by the words “without fail.”

[17:15]  ² tn Heb “your brothers,” but not referring to siblings (cf. NIV “your brother Israelites”; NLT “a fellow Israelite”). The same phrase also occurs in v. 20.

[17:15]  ³ tn Heb “your brothers.” See the preceding note on “fellow citizens.”

[17:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “to the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 16:1.

[17:1]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew word תּוֹעֵבָה (to’evah, “an abomination”; cf. NAB) describes persons, things, or practices offensive to ritual or moral order. See M. Grisanti, NIDOTTE 4:314-18; see also the note on the word “abhorrent” in Deut 7:25.

[10:1]  ⁶ tn Or “chest” (so NIV, CEV); NLT “sacred chest”; TEV “wooden box.” This chest was made of acacia wood; it is later known as the ark of the covenant.

[11:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “grass in your field.”

[11:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “that not.” The words “I am speaking” have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[11:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “who have not known and who have not seen the discipline of the Lord.” The collocation of the verbs “know” and “see” indicates that personal experience (knowing by seeing) is in view. The term translated “discipline” (KJV, ASV “chastisement”) may also be rendered “instruction,” but vv. 2b-6 indicate that the referent of the term is the various acts of divine judgment the Israelites had witnessed.

[11:2]  ¹⁰ tn The words “which revealed” have been supplied in the translation to show the logical relationship between the terms that follow and the divine judgments. In the Hebrew text the former are in apposition to the latter.

[11:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “his strong hand and his stretched-out arm.”

[2:8]  ¹² tn Or “brothers”; NRSV “our kin.”

[2:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “the way of the Arabah” (so ASV); NASB, NIV “the Arabah road.”

[2:8]  ¹⁴ sn Elat was a port city at the head of the eastern arm of the Red Sea, that is, the Gulf of Aqaba (or Gulf of Eilat). Solomon (1 Kgs 9:28), Uzziah (2 Kgs 14:22), and Ahaz (2 Kgs 16:5-6) used it as a port but eventually it became permanently part of Edom. It may be what is known today as Tell el-Kheleifeh. Modern Eilat is located further west along the northern coast. See G. Pratico, “Nelson Glueck’s 1938-1940 Excavations at Tell el-Kheleifeh: A Reappraisal,” BASOR 259 (1985): 1-32.

[2:8]  ¹⁵ sn Ezion Geber. A place near the Gulf of Aqaba, Ezion-geber must be distinguished from Elat (cf. 1 Kgs 9:26-28; 2 Chr 8:17-18). It was, however, also a port city (1 Kgs 22:48-49). It may be the same as the modern site Gezirat al-Fauran, 15 mi (24 km) south-southwest from Tell el-Kheleifah.

[2:9]  ¹⁶ sn Ar was a Moabite city on the Arnon River east of the Dead Sea. It is mentioned elsewhere in the “Book of the Wars of Yahweh” (Num 21:15; cf. 21:28; Isa 15:1). Here it is synonymous with the whole land of Moab.

[2:9]  ¹⁷ sn The descendants of Lot. Following the destruction of the cities of the plain, Sodom and Gomorrah, as God’s judgment, Lot fathered two sons by his two daughters, namely, Moab and Ammon (Gen 19:30-38). Thus, these descendants of Lot in and around Ar were the Moabites.

[2:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Reed Sea.” See note on the term “Red Sea” in Deut 1:40.

[1:24]  ¹⁹ tn Or “the Wadi Eshcol” (so NAB).

[1:25]  ²⁰ tn The Hebrew text includes “in their hand,” which is unnecessary and somewhat redundant in English style.

[12:20]  ²¹ tn Heb “for my soul desires to eat meat.”

[12:20]  ²² tn Heb “according to all the desire of your soul you may eat meat.”