Deuteronomy 32:39

The Vindication of the Lord

32:39 “See now that I, indeed I, am he!” says the Lord, ¹ 

“and there is no other god besides me.

I kill and give life,

I smash and I heal,

and none can resist ²  my power.

Deuteronomy 32:2

32:2 My teaching will drop like the rain,

my sayings will drip like the dew, ³ 

as rain drops upon the grass,

and showers upon new growth.

Deuteronomy 5:7

5:7 You must not have any other gods ⁴  besides me. ⁵ 

Job 5:18

5:18 For ⁶  he ⁷  wounds, ⁸  but he also bandages;

he strikes, but his hands also heal.

Psalms 68:20

68:20 Our God is a God who delivers;

the Lord, the sovereign Lord, can rescue from death. ⁹ 

Hosea 6:1-2

Superficial Repentance Breeds False Assurance of God’s Forgiveness

6:1 “Come on! Let’s return to the Lord!

He himself has torn us to pieces,

but he will heal us!

He has injured ¹⁰  us,

but he will bandage our wounds!

6:2 He will restore ¹¹  us in a very short time; ¹² 

he will heal us in a little while, ¹³ 

so that we may live in his presence.

John 5:25-29

5:25 I tell you the solemn truth, ¹⁴  a time ¹⁵  is coming – and is now here – when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 5:26 For just as the Father has life in himself, thus he has granted the Son to have life in himself, 5:27 and he has granted the Son ¹⁶  authority to execute judgment, ¹⁷  because he is the Son of Man.

5:28 “Do not be amazed at this, because a time ¹⁸  is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 5:29 and will come out – the ones who have done what is good to the resurrection resulting in life, and the ones who have done what is evil to the resurrection resulting in condemnation. ¹⁹ 

John 11:25

11:25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live ²⁰  even if he dies,

Revelation 1:18

1:18 and the one who lives! I ²¹  was dead, but look, now I am alive – forever and ever – and I hold the keys of death and of Hades! ²² 

[32:39]  ¹ tn Verses 39-42 appear to be a quotation of the Lord and so the introductory phrase “says the Lord” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[32:39]  ² tn Heb “deliver from” (so NRSV, NLT).

[32:2]  ³ tn Or “mist,” “light drizzle.” In some contexts the term appears to refer to light rain, rather than dew.

[5:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “there must not be for you other gods.” The expression “for you” indicates possession.

[5:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “upon my face,” or “before me” (עַל־פָּנָיַ, ’al-panaya). Some understand this in a locative sense: “in my sight.” The translation assumes that the phrase indicates exclusion. The idea is that of placing any other god before the Lord in the sense of taking his place. Contrary to the view of some, this does not leave the door open for a henotheistic system where the Lord is the primary god among others. In its literary context the statement must be taken in a monotheistic sense. See, e.g., 4:39; 6:13-15.

[5:18]  ⁶ sn Verses 18-23 give the reasons why someone should accept the chastening of God – the hand that wounds is the same hand that heals. But, of course, the lines do not apply to Job because his suffering is not due to divine chastening.

[5:18]  ⁷ tn The addition of the independent pronoun here makes the subject emphatic, as if to say, “For it is he who makes….”

[5:18]  ⁸ tn The imperfect verbs in this verse describe the characteristic activities of God; the classification as habitual imperfect fits the idea and is to be rendered with the English present tense.

[68:20]  ⁹ tn Heb “and to the Lord, the Lord, to death, goings out.”

[6:1]  ¹⁰ tn “has struck”; NRSV “struck down.”

[6:2]  ¹¹ tn The Piel of חָיָה (khayah) may mean: (1) to keep/preserve persons alive from the threat of premature death (1 Kgs 20:31; Ezek 13:18; 18:27); (2) to restore the dead to physical life (Deut 32:39; 1 Sam 2:6; cf. NCV “will put new life in us”); or (3) to restore the dying back to life from the threat of death (Ps 71:20; BDB 311 s.v. חָיָה).

[6:2]  ¹² tn Heb “after two days” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV). The expression “after two days” is an idiom meaning “after a short time” (see, e.g., Judg 11:4; BDB 399 s.v. יוֹם 5.a).

[6:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “on the third day” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV), which parallels “after two days” and means “in a little while.” The “2-3” sequence is an example of graded numerical parallelism (Prov 30:15-16, 18-19, 21-23, 24-28, 29-31). This expresses the unrepentant overconfidence of Israel that the Lord’s discipline of Israel would be relatively short and that he would restore them quickly.

[5:25]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[5:25]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “an hour.”

[5:27]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “him.”

[5:27]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “authority to judge.”

[5:28]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “an hour.”

[5:29]  ¹⁹ tn Or “a resurrection resulting in judgment.”

[11:25]  ²⁰ tn That is, will come to life.

[1:18]  ²¹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[1:18]  ²² tn Concerning “Hades” BDAG 19 s.v. ᾅδης 1 and 2 states: “Orig. proper noun, god of the nether world, ‘Hades’, then the nether world, Hades as place of the dead, Ac 2:27, 31 (Ps 15:10; Eccl 9:10; PGM 1, 179; 16, 8; Philo, Mos. 1, 195; Jos., Bell. 1, 596, Ant. 6, 332). Of Jonah’s fish ἐκ τοῦ κατωτάτου ᾅδου. In the depths, contrasted w. heaven ἕως (τοῦ) ᾅδου Mt 11:23; Lk 10:15 (PsSol 15:10; cp.; Is 14:11, 15); ἐν τῷ ᾅδῃ 16:23; ἐν ῝Αιδου ApcPt Rainer. Accessible by gates (but the pl. is also used [e.g. Hom., X., Ael. Aristid. 47, 20 K.=23 p. 450 D.] when only one gate is meant), hence πύλαι ᾅδου (Il. 5, 646; Is 38:10; Wsd 16:13; 3 Macc 5:51; Pss. Sol. 16:2. – Lucian, Menipp. 6 the magicians can open τοῦ ῝Αιδου τὰς πύλας and conduct people in and out safely) Mt 16:18…locked ἔχω τὰς κλεῖς τοῦ θανάτου καὶ τοῦ ᾅδου Rv 1:18 (the genitives are either obj. [Ps.-Apollod. 3, 12, 6, 10 Aeacus, the son of Zeus holds the κλεῖς τοῦ ῝Αιδου; SEG VIII, 574, 3 (III ad) τῷ τὰς κλεῖδας ἔχοντι τῶν καθ᾿ ῝Αιδου (restored)] or possess.; in the latter case death and Hades are personif.; s. 2)…Hades personif.…w. θάνατος (cp. Is 28:15; Job 38:17…) Rv 6:8; 20:13f.”