Deuteronomy 28:22

28:22 He ¹  will afflict you with weakness, ²  fever, inflammation, infection, ³  sword, ⁴  blight, and mildew; these will attack you until you perish.

Deuteronomy 28:1

The Covenant Blessings

28:1 “If you indeed ⁵  obey the Lord your God and are careful to observe all his commandments I am giving ⁶  you today, the Lord your God will elevate you above all the nations of the earth.

Deuteronomy 17:1-2

17:1 You must not sacrifice to him ⁷  a bull or sheep that has a blemish or any other defect, because that is considered offensive ⁸  to the Lord your God. 17:2 Suppose a man or woman is discovered among you – in one of your villages ⁹  that the Lord your God is giving you – who sins before the Lord your God ¹⁰  and breaks his covenant

Deuteronomy 8:1

The Lord’s Provision in the Desert

8:1 You must keep carefully all these commandments ¹¹  I am giving ¹²  you today so that you may live, increase in number, ¹³  and go in and occupy the land that the Lord promised to your ancestors. ¹⁴ 

Job 34:29

34:29 But if God ¹⁵  is quiet, who can condemn ¹⁶  him?

If he hides his face, then who can see him?

Yet ¹⁷  he is over the individual and the nation alike, ¹⁸ 

Lamentations 1:21

ש (Sin/Shin)

1:21 They have heard ¹⁹  that I groan,

yet there is no one to comfort me.

All my enemies have heard of my trouble;

they are glad that you ²⁰  have brought it about. ²¹ 

Bring about ²²  the day of judgment ²³  that you promised ²⁴ 

so that ²⁵  they may end up ²⁶  like me!

Amos 5:8

5:8 (But there is one who made the constellations Pleiades and Orion;

he can turn the darkness into morning

and daylight ²⁷  into night.

He summons the water of the seas

and pours it out on the earth’s surface.

The Lord is his name!

Amos 7:4

7:4 The sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw ²⁸  the sovereign Lord summoning a shower of fire. ²⁹  It consumed the great deep and devoured the fields.

Amos 9:6

9:6 He builds the upper rooms of his palace ³⁰  in heaven

and sets its foundation supports ³¹  on the earth. ³² 

He summons the water of the sea

and pours it out on the earth’s surface.

The Lord is his name.

[28:22]  ¹ tn Heb “The Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

[28:22]  ² tn Or perhaps “consumption” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV). The term is from a verbal root that indicates a weakening of one’s physical strength (cf. NAB “wasting”; NIV, NLT “wasting disease”).

[28:22]  ³ tn Heb “hot fever”; NIV “scorching heat.”

[28:22]  ⁴ tn Or “drought” (so NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[28:1]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “indeed.”

[28:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “commanding”; NAB “which I enjoin on you today” (likewise in v. 15).

[17:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “to the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 16:1.

[17:1]  ⁸ 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.

[17:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “gates.”

[17:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “does the evil in the eyes of the Lord your God.”

[8:1]  ¹¹ tn The singular term (מִצְוָה, mitsvah) includes the whole corpus of covenant stipulations, certainly the book of Deuteronomy at least (cf. Deut 5:28; 6:1, 25; 7:11; 11:8, 22; 15:5; 17:20; 19:9; 27:1; 30:11; 31:5). The plural (מִצְוֹת, mitsot) refers to individual stipulations (as in vv. 2, 6).

[8:1]  ¹² tn Heb “commanding” (so NASB). For stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy, “giving” has been used in the translation (likewise in v. 11).

[8:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “multiply” (so KJV, NASB, NLT); NIV, NRSV “increase.”

[8:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 16, 18).

[34:29]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[34:29]  ¹⁶ tn The verb in this position is somewhat difficult, although it does make good sense in the sentence – it is just not what the parallelism would suggest. So several emendations have been put forward, for which see the commentaries.

[34:29]  ¹⁷ tn The line simply reads “and over a nation and over a man together.” But it must be the qualification for the points being made in the previous lines, namely, that even if God hides himself so no one can see, yet he is still watching over them all (see H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 222).

[34:29]  ¹⁸ tn The word translated “alike” (Heb “together”) has bothered some interpreters. In the reading taken here it is acceptable. But others have emended it to gain a verb, such as “he visits” (Beer), “he watches over” (Duhm), “he is compassionate” (Kissane), etc. But it is sufficient to say “he is over.”

[1:21]  ¹⁹ tc The MT reads שָׁמְעוּ (sham’u, “They heard”), Qal perfect 3rd person common plural from שָׁמַע (shama’, “to hear”). The LXX ἀκούσατε (akousate) reflects the vocalization שִׁמְעוּ (shim’u, “Hear!”), Qal imperative 2nd person masculine plural from שָׁמַע (shama’, “to hear”). Internal evidence favors the MT. Elsewhere in Lamentations, personified Jerusalem urges God with singular imperatives (“Look! See!”); however, nowhere else is a plural imperative used. In fact, the Qal perfect 3rd person common plural form שָׁמְעוּ (sham’u, “They hear”) appears in the following line. The referent of שָׁמְעוּ (sham’u) is the enemy who has destroyed Jerusalem and now mocks her when they hear her laments. The MT vocalization is undoubtedly original. Most English versions follow the MT: “They hear” (KJV, NKJV, NASB, NIV, NJPS, CEV); but several follow the LXX and revocalize the text as an imperative: “Hear!” (RSV, NRSV, TEV).

[1:21]  ²⁰ tn “You” here and in the following line refers to the Lord.

[1:21]  ²¹ tn Heb “that You have done it.”

[1:21]  ²² tn The verb הֵבֵאתָ (heve’ta) Hiphil perfect 2nd person masculine singular from בּוֹא (bo’, “to bring” in the Hiphil) probably functions, not as a simple past-time perfect, but as a precative perfect, an unusual volitional nuance similar to the imperative of request. The precative is used in reference to situations the speaker prays for and expects to be realized; it is a prayer or request of confidence (e.g., 2 Sam 7:29; Job 21:16; 22:18; Pss 3:8; 4:2; 7:7; 22:22; 31:5-6; 71:3; Lam 1:21). See IBHS 494-95 §30.5.4c, d. This volitional precative nuance is reflected in the Syriac Peshitta which translates this verb using an imperative. Most English versions adopt the precative nuance: “Bring on the day you have announced” (NRSV), “Oh, that Thou wouldst bring the day which Thou hast proclaimed” (NASB), “May you bring the day you have announced” (NIV), “Bring the day you promised” (TEV), “Oh, bring on them what befell me!” (NJPS), “Hurry and punish them, as you have promised” (CEV). A few English versions adopt a prophetic perfect future-time nuance: “thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called” (KJV, NKJV, ASV).

[1:21]  ²³ tn The term יוֹם (yom, “day”) is often used as a metonymy of association, standing for the event associated with that particular time period: judgment (e.g., Isa 2:12; 13:6, 9; Jer 46:10; Lam 2:22; Ezek 13:5; 30:3; Amos 5:18, 20; Obad 15; Zeph 1:7, 14; Zech 14:1; Mal 3:23) (BDB 399 s.v. 3).

[1:21]  ²⁴ tn Heb “proclaimed.”

[1:21]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and.” Following a volitive use of the perfect, the vav (ו) prefixed to וְיִהְיוּ (vÿyihyu, “and let it be!”) introduces a purpose/result clause in a dependent volitive construction: “so that they may be like me!”

[1:21]  ²⁶ tn Heb “that they be like me.”

[5:8]  ²⁷ tn Heb “darkens the day into night.”

[7:4]  ²⁸ tn Heb “behold” or “look.”

[7:4]  ²⁹ tc The Hebrew appears to read, “summoning to contend with fire,” or “summoning fire to contend,” but both are problematic syntactically (H. W. Wolff, Joel and Amos [Hermeneia], 292; S. M. Paul, Amos [Hermeneia], 230-31). Many emend the text to לרבב אשׁ, “(calling) for a shower of fire,” though this interpretation is also problematic (see F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman, Amos [AB], 746-47).

[9:6]  ³⁰ tc The MT reads “his steps.” If this is correct, then the reference may be to the steps leading up to the heavenly temple or the throne of God (cf. 1 Kgs 10:19-20). The prefixed מ (mem) may be dittographic (note the preceding word ends in mem). The translation assumes an emendation to עֲלִיָּתוֹ (’aliyyato, “his upper rooms”).

[9:6]  ³¹ tn Traditionally, “vault” (so ASV, NAB, NRSV). The precise meaning of this word in this context is unclear. Elsewhere it refers to objects grouped or held together. F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman (Amos [AB], 845-46) suggest the foundational structure of a building is in view.

[9:6]  ³² sn Verse 6a pictures the entire universe as a divine palace founded on the earth and extending into the heavens.