Deuteronomy 10:1-3

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. ¹  10:2 I will write on the tablets the same words ²  that were on the first tablets you broke, and you must put them into the ark.” 10:3 So I made an ark of acacia ³  wood and carved out two stone tablets just like the first ones. Then I went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hands.

Deuteronomy 13:9

13:9 Instead, you must kill him without fail! ⁴  Your own hand must be the first to strike him, ⁵  and then the hands of the whole community.

Deuteronomy 16:4

16:4 There must not be a scrap of yeast within your land ⁶  for seven days, nor can any of the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain until the next morning. ⁷ 

Deuteronomy 17:7

17:7 The witnesses ⁸  must be first to begin the execution, and then all the people ⁹  are to join in afterward. In this way you will purge evil from among you.

Deuteronomy 19:14

Laws Concerning Witnesses

19:14 You must not encroach on your neighbor’s property, ¹⁰  which will have been defined ¹¹  in the inheritance you will obtain in the land the Lord your God is giving you. ¹² 

Deuteronomy 4:32

The Uniqueness of Israel’s God

4:32 Indeed, ask about the distant past, starting from the day God created humankind ¹³  on the earth, and ask ¹⁴  from one end of heaven to the other, whether there has ever been such a great thing as this, or even a rumor of it.

Deuteronomy 9:18

9:18 Then I again fell down before the Lord for forty days and nights; I ate and drank nothing because of all the sin you had committed, doing such evil before the Lord as to enrage him.

Deuteronomy 10:4

10:4 The Lord ¹⁵  then wrote on the tablets the same words, ¹⁶  the ten commandments, ¹⁷  which he ¹⁸  had spoken to you at the mountain from the middle of the fire at the time of that assembly, and he ¹⁹  gave them to me.

Deuteronomy 10:10

10:10 As for me, I stayed at the mountain as I did the first time, forty days and nights. The Lord listened to me that time as well and decided not to destroy you.

Deuteronomy 24:4

24:4 her first husband who divorced her is not permitted to remarry ²⁰  her after she has become ritually impure, for that is offensive to the Lord. ²¹  You must not bring guilt on the land ²²  which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

[10:1]  ¹ 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.

[10:2]  ² sn The same words. The care with which the replacement copy must be made underscores the importance of verbal precision in relaying the Lord’s commandments.

[10:3]  ³ sn Acacia wood (Heb “shittim wood”). This is wood from the acacia, the most common timber tree of the Sinai region. Most likely it is the species Acacia raddiana because this has the largest trunk. See F. N. Hepper, Illustrated Encyclopedia of Bible Plants, 63.

[13:9]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with the words “without fail” (cf. NIV “you must certainly put him to death”).

[13:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “to put him to death,” but this is misleading in English for such an action would leave nothing for the others to do.

[16:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “leaven must not be seen among you in all your border.”

[16:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “remain all night until the morning” (so KJV, ASV). This has been simplified in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[17:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “the hand of the witnesses.” This means the two or three witnesses are to throw the first stones (cf. NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).

[17:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “the hand of all the people.”

[19:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “border.” Cf. NRSV “You must not move your neighbor’s boundary marker.”

[19:14]  ⁸ tn Heb “which they set off from the beginning.”

[19:14]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew text includes “to possess it.” This phrase has been left untranslated to avoid redundancy.

[4:32]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew term אָדָם (’adam) may refer either to Adam or, more likely, to “man” in the sense of the human race (“mankind,” “humankind”). The idea here seems more universal in scope than reference to Adam alone would suggest.

[4:32]  ⁹ tn The verb is not present in the Hebrew text but has been supplied in the translation for clarification. The challenge has both temporal and geographical dimensions. The people are challenged to (1) inquire about the entire scope of past history and (2) conduct their investigation on a worldwide scale.

[10:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “according to the former writing.” See note on the phrase “the same words” in v. 2.

[10:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “ten words.” The “Ten Commandments” are known in Hebrew as the “Ten Words,” which in Greek became the “Decalogue.”

[10:4]  ¹² tn Heb “the Lord.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[10:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” earlier in this verse.

[24:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “to return to take her to be his wife.”

[24:4]  ¹¹ sn The issue here is not divorce and its grounds per se but prohibition of remarriage to a mate whom one has previously divorced.

[24:4]  ¹² tn Heb “cause the land to sin” (so KJV, ASV).