Deuteronomy 2:25

2:25 This very day I will begin to fill all the people of the earth ¹  with dread and to terrify them when they hear about you. They will shiver and shake in anticipation of your approach.” ² 

Deuteronomy 9:10

9:10 The Lord gave me the two stone tablets, written by the very finger ³  of God, and on them was everything ⁴  he ⁵  said to you at the mountain from the midst of the fire at the time of that assembly.

Deuteronomy 10:4

10:4 The Lord ⁶  then wrote on the tablets the same words, ⁷  the ten commandments, ⁸  which he ⁹  had spoken to you at the mountain from the middle of the fire at the time of that assembly, and he ¹⁰  gave them to me.

Deuteronomy 10:8

10:8 At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi ¹¹  to carry the ark of the Lord’s covenant, to stand before the Lord to serve him, and to formulate blessings ¹²  in his name, as they do to this very day.

Deuteronomy 17:19

17:19 It must be with him constantly and he must read it as long as he lives, so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and observe all the words of this law and these statutes and carry them out.

[2:25]  ¹ tn Heb “under heaven” (so NIV, NRSV).

[2:25]  ² tn Heb “from before you.”

[9:10]  ³ sn The very finger of God. This is a double figure of speech (1) in which God is ascribed human features (anthropomorphism) and (2) in which a part stands for the whole (synecdoche). That is, God, as Spirit, has no literal finger nor, if he had, would he write with his finger. Rather, the sense is that God himself – not Moses in any way – was responsible for the composition of the Ten Commandments (cf. Exod 31:18; 32:16; 34:1).

[9:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “according to all the words.”

[9:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “the Lord” (likewise at the beginning of vv. 12, 13). See note on “he” in 9:3.

[10:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “according to the former writing.” See note on the phrase “the same words” in v. 2.

[10:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “ten words.” The “Ten Commandments” are known in Hebrew as the “Ten Words,” which in Greek became the “Decalogue.”

[10:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “the Lord.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[10:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” earlier in this verse.

[10:8]  ⁷ sn The Lord set apart the tribe of Levi. This was not the initial commissioning of the tribe of Levi to this ministry (cf. Num 3:11-13; 8:12-26), but with Aaron’s death it seemed appropriate to Moses to reiterate Levi’s responsibilities. There is no reference in the Book of Numbers to this having been done, but the account of Eleazar’s succession to the priesthood there (Num 20:25-28) would provide a setting for this to have occurred.

[10:8]  ⁸ sn To formulate blessings. The most famous example of this is the priestly “blessing formula” of Num 6:24-26.