Deuteronomy 14:27-29

14:27 As for the Levites in your villages, you must not ignore them, for they have no allotment or inheritance along with you. 14:28 At the end of every three years you must bring all the tithe of your produce, in that very year, and you must store it up in your villages. 14:29 Then the Levites (because they have no allotment or inheritance with you), the resident foreigners, the orphans, and the widows of your villages may come and eat their fill so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work you do.

Deuteronomy 14:2

14:2 For you are a people holy ¹  to the Lord your God. He ²  has chosen you to be his people, prized ³  above all others on the face of the earth.

Deuteronomy 11:13-14

11:13 Now, if you pay close attention ⁴  to my commandments that I am giving you today and love ⁵  the Lord your God and serve him with all your mind and being, ⁶  11:14 then he promises, ⁷  “I will send rain for your land ⁸  in its season, the autumn and the spring rains, ⁹  so that you may gather in your grain, new wine, and olive oil.

Deuteronomy 31:4-21

31:4 The Lord will do to them just what he did to Sihon and Og, the Amorite kings, and to their land, which he destroyed. 31:5 The Lord will deliver them over to you and you will do to them according to the whole commandment I have given you. 31:6 Be strong and courageous! Do not fear or tremble before them, for the Lord your God is the one who is going with you. He will not fail you or abandon you!” 31:7 Then Moses called out to Joshua ¹⁰  in the presence of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you will accompany these people to the land that the Lord promised to give their ancestors, ¹¹  and you will enable them to inherit it. 31:8 The Lord is indeed going before you – he will be with you; he will not fail you or abandon you. Do not be afraid or discouraged!”

The Deposit of the Covenant Text

31:9 Then Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the Levitical priests, who carry the ark of the Lord’s covenant, and to all Israel’s elders. 31:10 He ¹²  commanded them: “At the end of seven years, at the appointed time of the cancellation of debts, ¹³  at the Feast of Temporary Shelters, ¹⁴  31:11 when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God in the place he chooses, you must read this law before them ¹⁵  within their hearing. 31:12 Gather the people – men, women, and children, as well as the resident foreigners in your villages – so they may hear and thus learn about and fear the Lord your God and carefully obey all the words of this law. 31:13 Then their children, who have not known this law, ¹⁶  will also hear about and learn to fear the Lord your God for as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”

The Commissioning of Joshua

31:14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “The day of your death is near. Summon Joshua and present yourselves in the tent ¹⁷  of meeting ¹⁸  so that I can commission him.” ¹⁹  So Moses and Joshua presented themselves in the tent of meeting. 31:15 The Lord appeared in the tent in a pillar of cloud that ²⁰  stood above the door of the tent. 31:16 Then the Lord said to Moses, “You are about to die, ²¹  and then these people will begin to prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land into which they ²²  are going. They ²³  will reject ²⁴  me and break my covenant that I have made with them. ²⁵  31:17 At that time ²⁶  my anger will erupt against them ²⁷  and I will abandon them and hide my face from them until they are devoured. Many disasters and distresses will overcome ²⁸  them ²⁹  so that they ³⁰  will say at that time, ‘Have not these disasters ³¹  overcome us ³²  because our ³³  God is not among us ³⁴ ?’ 31:18 But I will certainly ³⁵  hide myself at that time because of all the wickedness they ³⁶  will have done by turning to other gods. 31:19 Now write down for yourselves the following song and teach it to the Israelites. Put it into their very mouths so that this song may serve as my witness against the Israelites! 31:20 For after I have brought them ³⁷  to the land I promised to their ³⁸  ancestors – one flowing with milk and honey – and they ³⁹  eat their fill ⁴⁰  and become fat, then they ⁴¹  will turn to other gods and worship them; they will reject me and break my covenant. 31:21 Then when ⁴²  many disasters and distresses overcome them ⁴³  this song will testify against them, ⁴⁴  for their ⁴⁵  descendants will not forget it. ⁴⁶  I know the ⁴⁷  intentions they have in mind ⁴⁸  today, even before I bring them ⁴⁹  to the land I have promised.”

Nehemiah 10:34-39

10:34 “We – the priests, the Levites, and the people – have cast lots concerning the wood offerings, to bring them to the temple of our God according to our families ⁵⁰  at the designated times year by year to burn on the altar of the LORD our God, as is written in the law. 10:35 We also accept responsibility for ⁵¹  bringing the first fruits of our land and the first fruits of every fruit tree year by year to the temple of the LORD. 10:36 We also accept responsibility, as is written in the law, for bringing the firstborn of our sons and our cattle and the firstborn of our herds and of our flocks to the temple of our God, to the priests who are ministering in the temple of our God. 10:37 We will also bring the first of our coarse meal, of our contributions, of the fruit of every tree, of new wine, and of olive oil to the priests at the storerooms of the temple of our God, along with a tenth of the produce ⁵²  of our land to the Levites, for the Levites are the ones who collect the tithes in all the cities where we work. ⁵³  10:38 A priest of Aaron’s line ⁵⁴  will be with the Levites when the Levites collect the tithes, and the Levites will bring up a tenth of the tithes to the temple of our God, to the storerooms of the treasury. 10:39 The Israelites and the Levites will bring the contribution of the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil to the storerooms where the utensils of the sanctuary are kept, and where the priests who minister stay, along with the gatekeepers and the singers. We will not neglect the temple of our God.”

Nehemiah 10:1

10:1 On the sealed documents were the following names: ⁵⁵ 

Nehemiah the governor, son of Hacaliah, along with Zedekiah,

Colossians 1:10-14

1:10 so that you may live ⁵⁶  worthily of the Lord and please him in all respects ⁵⁷  – bearing fruit in every good deed, growing in the knowledge of God, 1:11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for the display of ⁵⁸  all patience and steadfastness, joyfully 1:12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share ⁵⁹  in the saints’ ⁶⁰  inheritance in the light. 1:13 He delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son he loves, ⁶¹  1:14 in whom we have redemption, ⁶²  the forgiveness of sins.

[14:2]  ¹ tn Or “set apart.”

[14:2]  ² tn Heb “The Lord.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[14:2]  ³ tn Or “treasured.” The Hebrew term סְגֻלָּה (sÿgullah) describes Israel as God’s choice people, those whom he elected and who are most precious to him (cf. Exod 19:4-6; Deut 14:2; 26:18; 1 Chr 29:3; Ps 135:4; Eccl 2:8 Mal 3:17). See E. Carpenter, NIDOTTE 3:224.

[11:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “if hearing, you will hear.” The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute to emphasize the verbal idea. The translation renders this emphasis with the word “close.”

[11:13]  ⁵ tn Again, the Hebrew term אָהַב (’ahav) draws attention to the reciprocation of divine love as a condition or sign of covenant loyalty (cf. Deut 6:5).

[11:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “heart and soul” or “heart and being.” See note on the word “being” in Deut 6:5.

[11:14]  ⁷ tn The words “he promises” do not appear in the Hebrew text but are needed in the translation to facilitate the transition from the condition (v. 13) to the promise and make it clear that the Lord is speaking the words of vv. 14-15.

[11:14]  ⁸ tn Heb “the rain of your land.” In this case the genitive (modifying term) indicates the recipient of the rain.

[11:14]  ⁹ sn The autumn and the spring rains. The “former” (יוֹרֶה, yoreh) and “latter” (מַלְקוֹשׁ, malqosh) rains come in abundance respectively in September/October and March/April. Planting of most crops takes place before the former rains fall and the harvests follow the latter rains.

[31:7]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew text includes “and said to him.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[31:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 20).

[31:10]  ¹² tn Heb “Moses.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[31:10]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew term שְׁמִטָּה (shÿmittah), a derivative of the verb שָׁמַט (shamat, “to release; to relinquish”), refers to the procedure whereby debts of all fellow Israelites were to be canceled. Since the Feast of Tabernacles celebrated God’s own deliverance of and provision for his people, this was an appropriate time for Israelites to release one another. See note on this word at Deut 15:1.

[31:10]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew phrase הַסֻּכּוֹת[חַג] ([khag] hassukot, “[festival of] huts” [or “shelters”]) is traditionally known as the Feast of Tabernacles. See note on the name of the festival in Deut 16:13.

[31:11]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “before all Israel.”

[31:13]  ¹⁶ tn The phrase “this law” is not in the Hebrew text, but English style requires an object for the verb here. Other translations also supply the object which is otherwise implicit (cf. NIV “who do not know this law”; TEV “who have never heard the Law of the Lord your God”).

[31:14]  ¹⁷ tc The LXX reads “by the door of the tent” in line with v. 10 but also, perhaps, as a reflection of its tendency to avoid over-familiarity with Yahweh and his transcendence.

[31:14]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “tent of assembly” (מוֹעֵד אֹהֶל, ’ohel mo’ed); this is not always the same as the tabernacle, which is usually called מִשְׁכָּן (mishkan, “dwelling-place”), a reference to its being invested with God’s presence. The “tent of meeting” was erected earlier than the tabernacle and was the place where Yahweh occasionally appeared, especially to Moses (cf. Exod 18:7-16; 33:7-11; Num 11:16, 24, 26; 12:4).

[31:14]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “I will command him.”

[31:15]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and the pillar of cloud.” This phrase was not repeated in the translation; a relative clause was used instead.

[31:16]  ²¹ tn Heb “lie down with your fathers” (so NASB); NRSV “ancestors.”

[31:16]  ²² tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they,” which is necessary in any case in the translation because of contemporary English style. The third person singular also occurs in the Hebrew text twice more in this verse, three times in v. 17, once in v. 18, five times in v. 20, and four times in v. 21. Each time it is translated as third person plural for stylistic reasons.

[31:16]  ²³ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:16]  ²⁴ tn Or “abandon” (TEV, NLT).

[31:16]  ²⁵ tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:17]  ²⁶ tn Heb “on that day.” This same expression also appears later in the verse and in v. 18.

[31:17]  ²⁷ tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:17]  ²⁸ tn Heb “find,” “encounter.”

[31:17]  ²⁹ tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:17]  ³⁰ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:17]  ³¹ tn Heb “evils.”

[31:17]  ³² tn Heb “me.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “us,” which is necessary in any case in the translation because of contemporary English style.

[31:17]  ³³ tn Heb “my.”

[31:17]  ³⁴ tn Heb “me.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “us,” which is necessary in any case in the translation because of contemporary English style.

[31:18]  ³⁵ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “certainly.”

[31:18]  ³⁶ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:20]  ³⁷ tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:20]  ³⁸ tn Heb “his.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “their.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:20]  ³⁹ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:20]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “and are satisfied.”

[31:20]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:21]  ⁴² tn Heb “Then it will come to pass that.”

[31:21]  ⁴³ tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:21]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:21]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “his.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “their.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:21]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “it will not be forgotten from the mouth of his seed.”

[31:21]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “his.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “their.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:21]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “which he is doing.”

[31:21]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[10:34]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “the house of our fathers.”

[10:35]  ⁵¹ tn The words “we accept responsibility” are not included in the Hebrew text, but are inferred from v. 33 (so also in v. 37).

[10:37]  ⁵² tn Heb “a tithe of our land.”

[10:37]  ⁵³ tn Heb “of our work.”

[10:38]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “And the priest the son of Aaron.”

[10:1]  ⁵⁵ tn The words “were the following names” are not in the Hebrew text but have been supplied in the translation for clarity. Cf. vv. 9, 10, 14.

[1:10]  ⁵⁶ tn The infinitive περιπατῆσαι (peripathsai, “to walk, to live, to live one’s life”) is best taken as an infinitive of purpose related to “praying” (προσευχόμενοι, proseucomenoi) and “asking” (αἰτούμενοι, aitoumenoi) in v. 9 and is thus translated as “that you may live.”

[1:10]  ⁵⁷ tn BDAG 129 s.v. ἀρεσκεία states that ἀρεσκείαν (areskeian) refers to a “desire to please εἰς πᾶσαν ἀ. to please (the Lord) in all respects Col 1:10.”

[1:11]  ⁵⁸ tn The expression “for the display of” is an attempt to convey in English the force of the Greek preposition εἰς (eis) in this context.

[1:12]  ⁵⁹ tn BDAG 473 s.v. ἱκανόω states, “τινὰ εἴς τι someone for someth. Col 1:12.” The point of the text is that God has qualified the saints for a “share” or “portion” in the inheritance of the saints.

[1:12]  ⁶⁰ tn Grk “the inheritance of the saints.” The genitive noun τῶν ἁγίων (twn Jagiwn) is a possessive genitive: “the saints’ inheritance.”

[1:13]  ⁶¹ tn Here αὐτοῦ (autou) has been translated as a subjective genitive (“he loves”).

[1:14]  ⁶² tc διὰ τοῦ αἵματος αὐτοῦ (dia tou {aimato" autou, “through his blood”) is read at this juncture by several minuscule mss (614 630 1505 2464 al) as well as a few, mostly secondary, versional and patristic witnesses. But the reading was prompted by the parallel in Eph 1:7 where the wording is solid. If these words had been in the original of Colossians, why would scribes omit them here but not in Eph 1:7? Further, the testimony on behalf of the shorter reading is quite overwhelming: {א A B C D F G Ψ 075 0150 6 33 1739 1881 Ï latt co as well as several other versions and fathers}. The conviction that “through his blood” is not authentic in Col 1:14 is as strong as the conviction that these words are authentic in Eph 1:7.