Deuteronomy 7:9

7:9 So realize that the Lord your God is the true God, ¹  the faithful God who keeps covenant faithfully ²  with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,

Deuteronomy 7:1

The Dispossession of Nonvassals

7:1 When the Lord your God brings you to the land that you are going to occupy and forces out many nations before you – Hittites, ³  Girgashites, ⁴  Amorites, ⁵  Canaanites, ⁶  Perizzites, ⁷  Hivites, ⁸  and Jebusites, ⁹  seven ¹⁰  nations more numerous and powerful than you –

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 

Daniel 9:4

9:4 I prayed to the LORD my God, confessing in this way:

“O Lord, ¹⁵  great and awesome God who is faithful to his covenant ¹⁶  with those who love him and keep his commandments,

Micah 7:18-20

7:18 There is no other God like you! ¹⁷ 

You ¹⁸  forgive sin

and pardon ¹⁹  the rebellion

of those who remain among your people. ²⁰ 

You do not remain angry forever, ²¹ 

but delight in showing loyal love.

7:19 You will once again ²²  have mercy on us;

you will conquer ²³  our evil deeds;

you will hurl our ²⁴  sins into the depths of the sea. ²⁵ 

7:20 You will be loyal to Jacob

and extend your loyal love to Abraham, ²⁶ 

which you promised on oath to our ancestors ²⁷ 

in ancient times. ²⁸ 

[7:9]  ¹ tn Heb “the God.” The article here expresses uniqueness; cf. TEV “is the only God”; NLT “is indeed God.”

[7:9]  ² tn Heb “who keeps covenant and loyalty.” The syndetic construction of בְּרִית (bÿrit) and חֶסֶד (khesed) should be understood not as “covenant” plus “loyalty” but as an adverbial construction in which חֶסֶד (“loyalty”) modifies the verb שָׁמַר (shamar, “keeps”).

[7:1]  ³ sn Hittites. The center of Hittite power was in Anatolia (central modern Turkey). In the Late Bronze Age (1550-1200 b.c.) they were at their zenith, establishing outposts and colonies near and far. Some elements were obviously in Canaan at the time of the Conquest (1400-1350 b.c.).

[7:1]  ⁴ sn Girgashites. These cannot be ethnically identified and are unknown outside the OT. They usually appear in such lists only when the intention is to have seven groups in all (see also the note on the word “seven” later in this verse).

[7:1]  ⁵ sn Amorites. Originally from the upper Euphrates region (Amurru), the Amorites appear to have migrated into Canaan beginning in 2200 b.c. or thereabouts.

[7:1]  ⁶ sn Canaanites. These were the indigenous peoples of the land, going back to the beginning of recorded history (ca. 3000 b.c.). The OT identifies them as descendants of Ham (Gen 10:6), the only Hamites to have settled north and east of Egypt.

[7:1]  ⁷ sn Perizzites. This is probably a subgroup of Canaanites (Gen 13:7; 34:30).

[7:1]  ⁸ sn Hivites. These are usually thought to be the same as the Hurrians, a people well-known in ancient Near Eastern texts. They are likely identical to the Horites (see note on the term “Horites” in Deut 2:12).

[7:1]  ⁹ sn Jebusites. These inhabited the hill country, particularly in and about Jerusalem (cf. Num 13:29; Josh 15:8; 2 Sam 5:6; 24:16).

[7:1]  ¹⁰ sn Seven. This is an ideal number in the OT, one symbolizing fullness or completeness. Therefore, the intent of the text here is not to be precise and list all of Israel’s enemies but simply to state that Israel will have a full complement of foes to deal with. For other lists of Canaanites, some with fewer than seven peoples, see Exod 3:8; 13:5; 23:23, 28; 33:2; 34:11; Deut 20:17; Josh 3:10; 9:1; 24:11. Moreover, the “Table of Nations” (Gen 10:15-19) suggests that all of these (possibly excepting the Perizzites) were offspring of Canaan and therefore Canaanites.

[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).

[9:4]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here and in vv. 7, 9, 15, 16, and 19 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[9:4]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “who keeps the covenant and the loyal love.” The expression is a hendiadys.

[7:18]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Who is a God like you?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “No one!”

[7:18]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “one who.” The prayer moves from direct address (second person) in v. 18a to a descriptive (third person) style in vv. 18b-19a and then back to direct address (second person) in vv. 19b-20. Due to considerations of English style and the unfamiliarity of the modern reader with alternation of persons in Hebrew poetry, the entire section has been rendered as direct address (second person) in the translation.

[7:18]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “pass over.”

[7:18]  ²⁰ tn Heb “of the remnant of his inheritance.”

[7:18]  ²¹ tn Heb “he does not keep hold of his anger forever.”

[7:19]  ²² tn The verb יָשׁוּב (yashuv, “he will return”) is here used adverbially in relation to the following verb, indicating that the Lord will again show mercy.

[7:19]  ²³ tn Some prefer to read יִכְבֹּס (yikhbos, “he will cleanse”; see HALOT 459 s.v. כבס pi). If the MT is taken as it stands, sin is personified as an enemy that the Lord subdues.

[7:19]  ²⁴ tn Heb “their sins,” but the final mem (ם) may be enclitic rather than a pronominal suffix. In this case the suffix from the preceding line (“our”) may be understood as doing double duty.

[7:19]  ²⁵ sn In this metaphor the Lord disposes of Israel’s sins by throwing them into the waters of the sea (here symbolic of chaos).

[7:20]  ²⁶ tn More literally, “You will extend loyalty to Jacob, and loyal love to Abraham.

[7:20]  ²⁷ tn Heb “our fathers.” The Hebrew term refers here to more distant ancestors, not immediate parents.

[7:20]  ²⁸ tn Heb “which you swore [or, “pledged”] to our fathers from days of old.”