Discovery BoxDeuteronomy 24:19--26:15
Context24:19 Whenever you reap your harvest in your field and leave some unraked grain there, 1 you must not return to get it; it should go to the resident foreigner, orphan, and widow so that the Lord your God may bless all the work you do. 2 24:20 When you beat your olive tree you must not repeat the procedure; 3 the remaining olives belong to the resident foreigner, orphan, and widow. 24:21 When you gather the grapes of your vineyard you must not do so a second time; 4 they should go to the resident foreigner, orphan, and widow. 24:22 Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt; therefore, I am commanding you to do all this.
25:1 If controversy arises between people, 5 they should go to court for judgment. When the judges 6 hear the case, they shall exonerate 7 the innocent but condemn 8 the guilty. 25:2 Then, 9 if the guilty person is sentenced to a beating, 10 the judge shall force him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with the number of blows his wicked behavior deserves. 11 25:3 The judge 12 may sentence him to forty blows, 13 but no more. If he is struck with more than these, you might view your fellow Israelite 14 with contempt.
25:4 You must not muzzle your 15 ox when it is treading grain.
25:5 If brothers live together and one of them dies without having a son, the dead man’s wife must not remarry someone outside the family. Instead, her late husband’s brother must go to her, marry her, 16 and perform the duty of a brother-in-law. 17 25:6 Then 18 the first son 19 she bears will continue the name of the dead brother, thus preventing his name from being blotted out of Israel. 25:7 But if the man does not want to marry his brother’s widow, then she 20 must go to the elders at the town gate and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to preserve his brother’s name in Israel; he is unwilling to perform the duty of a brother-in-law to me!” 25:8 Then the elders of his city must summon him and speak to him. If he persists, saying, “I don’t want to marry her,” 25:9 then his sister-in-law must approach him in view of the elders, remove his sandal from his foot, and spit in his face. 21 She will then respond, “Thus may it be done to any man who does not maintain his brother’s family line!” 22 25:10 His family name will be referred to 23 in Israel as “the family 24 of the one whose sandal was removed.” 25
25:11 If two men 26 get into a hand-to-hand fight, and the wife of one of them gets involved to help her husband against his attacker, and she reaches out her hand and grabs his genitals, 27 25:12 then you must cut off her hand – do not pity her.
25:13 You must not have in your bag different stone weights, 28 a heavy and a light one. 29 25:14 You must not have in your house different measuring containers, 30 a large and a small one. 25:15 You must have an accurate and correct 31 stone weight and an accurate and correct measuring container, so that your life may be extended in the land the Lord your God is about to give you. 25:16 For anyone who acts dishonestly in these ways is abhorrent 32 to the Lord your God.
25:17 Remember what the Amalekites 33 did to you on your way from Egypt, 25:18 how they met you along the way and cut off all your stragglers in the rear of the march when you were exhausted and tired; they were unafraid of God. 34 25:19 So when the Lord your God gives you relief from all the enemies who surround you in the land he 35 is giving you as an inheritance, 36 you must wipe out the memory of the Amalekites from under heaven 37 – do not forget! 38
26:1 When 39 you enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you occupy it and live in it, 26:2 you must take the first of all the ground’s produce you harvest from the land the Lord your God is giving you, place it in a basket, and go to the place where he 40 chooses to locate his name. 41 26:3 You must go to the priest in office at that time and say to him, “I declare today to the Lord your 42 God that I have come into the land that the Lord 43 promised 44 to our ancestors 45 to give us.” 26:4 The priest will then take the basket from you 46 and set it before the altar of the Lord your God. 26:5 Then you must affirm before the Lord your God, “A wandering 47 Aramean 48 was my ancestor, 49 and he went down to Egypt and lived there as a foreigner with a household few in number, 50 but there he became a great, powerful, and numerous people. 26:6 But the Egyptians mistreated and oppressed us, forcing us to do burdensome labor. 26:7 So we cried out to the Lord, the God of our ancestors, and he 51 heard us and saw our humiliation, toil, and oppression. 26:8 Therefore the Lord brought us out of Egypt with tremendous strength and power, 52 as well as with great awe-inspiring signs and wonders. 26:9 Then he brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 26:10 So now, look! I have brought the first of the ground’s produce that you, Lord, have given me.” Then you must set it down before the Lord your God and worship before him. 53 26:11 You will celebrate all the good things that the Lord your God has given you and your family, 54 along with the Levites and the resident foreigners among you.
26:12 When you finish tithing all 55 your income in the third year (the year of tithing), you must give it to the Levites, the resident foreigners, the orphans, and the widows 56 so that they may eat to their satisfaction in your villages. 57 26:13 Then you shall say before the Lord your God, “I have removed the sacred offering 58 from my house and given it to the Levites, the resident foreigners, the orphans, and the widows just as you have commanded me. 59 I have not violated or forgotten your commandments. 26:14 I have not eaten anything when I was in mourning, or removed any of it while ceremonially unclean, or offered any of it to the dead; 60 I have obeyed you 61 and have done everything you have commanded me. 26:15 Look down from your holy dwelling place in heaven and bless your people Israel and the land you have given us, just as you promised our ancestors – a land flowing with milk and honey.”
[24:19] 1 tn Heb “in the field.”
[24:19] 2 tn Heb “of your hands.” This law was later applied in the story of Ruth who, as a poor widow, was allowed by generous Boaz to glean in his fields (Ruth 2:1-13).
[24:20] 3 tn Heb “knock down after you.”
[24:21] 4 tn Heb “glean after you.”
[25:1] 6 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the judges) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[25:1] 7 tn Heb “declare to be just”; KJV, NASB “justify the righteous”; NAB, NIV “acquitting the innocent.”
[25:1] 8 tn Heb “declare to be evil”; NIV “condemning the guilty (+ party NAB).”
[25:2] 9 tn Heb “and it will be.”
[25:2] 10 tn Heb “if the evil one is a son of smiting.”
[25:2] 11 tn Heb “according to his wickedness, by number.”
[25:3] 12 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the judge) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[25:3] 13 tn Heb “Forty blows he may strike him”; however, since the judge is to witness the punishment (v. 2) it is unlikely the judge himself administered it.
[25:3] 14 tn Heb “your brothers” but not limited only to an actual sibling; cf. NAB) “your kinsman”; NRSV, NLT “your neighbor.”
[25:4] 15 tn Heb “an.” By implication this is one’s own animal.
[25:5] 16 tn Heb “take her as wife”; NRSV “taking her in marriage.”
[25:5] 17 sn This is the so-called “levirate” custom (from the Latin term levir, “brother-in-law”), an ancient provision whereby a man who died without male descendants to carry on his name could have a son by proxy, that is, through a surviving brother who would marry his widow and whose first son would then be attributed to the brother who had died. This is the only reference to this practice in an OT legal text but it is illustrated in the story of Judah and his sons (Gen 38) and possibly in the account of Ruth and Boaz (Ruth 2:8; 3:12; 4:6).
[25:6] 18 tn Heb “and it will be that.”
[25:6] 19 tn Heb “the firstborn.” This refers to the oldest male child.
[25:7] 20 tn Heb “want to take his sister-in-law, then his sister in law.” In the second instance the pronoun (“she”) has been used in the translation to avoid redundancy.
[25:9] 21 sn The removal of the sandal was likely symbolic of the relinquishment by the man of any claim to his dead brother’s estate since the sandal was associated with the soil or land (cf. Ruth 4:7-8). Spitting in the face was a sign of utmost disgust or disdain, an emotion the rejected widow would feel toward her uncooperative brother-in-law (cf. Num 12:14; Lev 15:8). See W. Bailey, NIDOTTE 2:544.
[25:9] 22 tn Heb “build the house of his brother”; TEV “refuses to give his brother a descendant”; NLT “refuses to raise up a son for his brother.”
[25:10] 23 tn Heb “called,” i.e., “known as.”
[25:10] 25 tn Cf. NIV, NCV “The Family of the Unsandaled.”
[25:11] 26 tn Heb “a man and his brother.”
[25:11] 27 tn Heb “shameful parts.” Besides the inherent indelicacy of what she has done, the woman has also threatened the progenitive capacity of the injured man. The level of specificity given this term in modern translations varies: “private parts” (NAB, NIV, CEV); “genitals” (NASB, NRSV, TEV); “sex organs” (NCV); “testicles” (NLT).
[25:13] 28 tn Heb “a stone and a stone.” The repetition of the singular noun here expresses diversity, as the following phrase indicates. See IBHS 116 §7.2.3c.
[25:13] 29 tn Heb “a large and a small,” but since the issue is the weight, “a heavy and a light one” conveys the idea better in English.
[25:14] 30 tn Heb “an ephah and an ephah.” An ephah refers to a unit of dry measure roughly equivalent to five U.S. gallons (just under 20 liters). On the repetition of the term to indicate diversity, see IBHS 116 §7.2.3c.
[25:15] 31 tn Or “just”; Heb “righteous.”
[25:16] 32 tn The Hebrew term translated here “abhorrent” (תּוֹעֵבָה, to’evah) speaks of attitudes and/or behaviors so vile as to be reprehensible to a holy God. See note on the word “abhorrent” in Deut 7:25.
[25:17] 33 tn Heb “what Amalek” (so NAB, NRSV). Here the individual ancestor, the namesake of the tribe, is cited as representative of the entire tribe at the time Israel was entering Canaan. Consistent with this, singular pronouns are used in v. 18 and the singular name appears again in v. 19. Since readers unfamiliar with the tribe of Amalekites might think this refers to an individual, the term “Amalekites” and the corresponding plural pronouns have been used throughout these verses (cf. NIV, NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).
[25:18] 34 sn See Exod 17:8-16.
[25:19] 35 tn Heb “ the
[25:19] 36 tn The Hebrew text includes “to possess it.”
[25:19] 37 tn Or “from beneath the sky.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.
[25:19] 38 sn This command is fulfilled in 1 Sam 15:1-33.
[26:1] 39 tn Heb “and it will come to pass that.”
[26:2] 40 tn Heb “the
[26:2] 41 sn The place where he chooses to locate his name. This is a circumlocution for the central sanctuary, first the tabernacle and later the Jerusalem temple. See Deut 12:1-14 and especially the note on the word “you” in v. 14.
[26:3] 42 tc For the MT reading “your God,” certain LXX
[26:3] 43 tc The Syriac adds “your God” to complete the usual formula.
[26:3] 44 tn Heb “swore on oath.”
[26:3] 45 tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 7, 15).
[26:5] 47 tn Though the Hebrew term אָבַד (’avad) generally means “to perish” or the like (HALOT 2-3 s.v.; BDB 1-2 s.v.; cf. KJV “a Syrian ready to perish”), a meaning “to go astray” or “to be lost” is also attested. The ambivalence in the Hebrew text is reflected in the versions where LXX Vaticanus reads ἀπέβαλεν (apebalen, “lose”) for a possibly metathesized reading found in Alexandrinus, Ambrosianus, ἀπέλαβεν (apelaben, “receive”); others attest κατέλειπεν (kateleipen, “leave, abandon”). “Wandering” seems to suit best the contrast with the sedentary life Israel would enjoy in Canaan (v. 9) and is the meaning followed by many English versions.
[26:5] 48 sn A wandering Aramean. This is a reference to Jacob whose mother Rebekah was an Aramean (Gen 24:10; 25:20, 26) and who himself lived in Aram for at least twenty years (Gen 31:41-42).
[26:5] 50 tn Heb “sojourned there few in number.” The words “with a household” have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons and for clarity.
[26:7] 51 tn Heb “the
[26:8] 52 tn Heb “by a powerful hand and an extended arm.” These are anthropomorphisms designed to convey God’s tremendously great power in rescuing Israel from their Egyptian bondage. They are preserved literally in many English versions (cf. KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV).
[26:10] 53 tn Heb “the
[26:11] 54 tn Or “household” (so NASB, NIV, NLT); Heb “house” (so KJV, NRSV).
[26:12] 55 tn Heb includes “the tithes of.” This has not been included in the translation to avoid redundancy.
[26:12] 56 tn The terms “Levite, resident foreigner, orphan, and widow” are collective singulars in the Hebrew text (also in v. 13).
[26:13] 58 tn Heb “the sacred thing.” The term הַקֹּדֶשׁ (haqqodesh) likely refers to an offering normally set apart for the
[26:13] 59 tn Heb “according to all your commandment that you commanded me.” This has been simplified in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[26:14] 60 sn These practices suggest overtones of pagan ritual, all of which the confessor denies having undertaken. In Canaan they were connected with fertility practices associated with harvest time. See E. H. Merrill, Deuteronomy (NAC), 335-36.
[26:14] 61 tn Heb “the
