Deuteronomy 25:3

25:3 The judge ¹  may sentence him to forty blows, ²  but no more. If he is struck with more than these, you might view your fellow Israelite ³  with contempt.

Deuteronomy 19:20

19:20 The rest of the people will hear and become afraid to keep doing such evil among you.

Deuteronomy 1:11

1:11 Indeed, may the Lord, the God of your ancestors, make you a thousand times more numerous than you are now, blessing you ⁴  just as he said he would!

Deuteronomy 5:25

5:25 But now, why should we die, because this intense fire will consume us! If we keep hearing the voice of the Lord our God we will die!

Deuteronomy 12:32

Idolatry and False Prophets

12:32 (13:1) ⁵  You ⁶  must be careful to do everything I am commanding you. Do not add to it or subtract from it! ⁷ 

Deuteronomy 13:11

13:11 Thus all Israel will hear and be afraid; no longer will they continue to do evil like this among you. ⁸ 

Deuteronomy 3:26

3:26 But the Lord was angry at me because of you and would not listen to me. Instead, he ⁹  said to me, “Enough of that! ¹⁰  Do not speak to me anymore about this matter.

Deuteronomy 4:2

4:2 Do not add a thing to what I command you nor subtract from it, so that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I am delivering to ¹¹  you.

Deuteronomy 5:22

The Narrative of the Sinai Revelation and Israel’s Response

5:22 The Lord said these things to your entire assembly at the mountain from the middle of the fire, the cloud, and the darkness with a loud voice, and that was all he said. ¹²  Then he inscribed the words ¹³  on two stone tablets and gave them to me.

Deuteronomy 17:16

17:16 Moreover, he must not accumulate horses for himself or allow the people to return to Egypt to do so, ¹⁴  for the Lord has said you must never again return that way.

Deuteronomy 18:16

18:16 This accords with what happened at Horeb in the day of the assembly. You asked the Lord your God: “Please do not make us hear the voice of the Lord our ¹⁵  God any more or see this great fire any more lest we die.”

Deuteronomy 19:9

19:9 and then you are careful to observe all these commandments ¹⁶  I am giving ¹⁷  you today (namely, to love the Lord your God and to always walk in his ways), then you must add three more cities ¹⁸  to these three.

Deuteronomy 20:8

20:8 In addition, the officers are to say to the troops, “Who among you is afraid and fainthearted? He may go home so that he will not make his fellow soldier’s ¹⁹  heart as fearful ²⁰  as his own.”

Deuteronomy 28:68

28:68 Then the Lord will make you return to Egypt by ship, over a route I said to you that you would never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”

[25:3]  ¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the judge) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[25:3]  ² 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]  ³ tn Heb “your brothers” but not limited only to an actual sibling; cf. NAB) “your kinsman”; NRSV, NLT “your neighbor.”

[1:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “may he bless you.”

[12:32]  ⁷ sn Beginning with 12:32, the verse numbers through 13:18 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 12:32 ET = 13:1 HT, 13:1 ET = 13:2 HT, 13:2 ET = 13:3 HT, etc., through 13:18 ET = 13:19 HT. With 14:1 the verse numbers in the ET and HT are again the same.

[12:32]  ⁸ tn This verse highlights a phenomenon found throughout Deuteronomy, but most especially in chap. 12, namely, the alternation of grammatical singular and plural forms of the pronoun (known as Numeruswechsel in German scholarship). Critical scholarship in general resolves the “problem” by suggesting varying literary traditions – one favorable to the singular pronoun and the other to the plural – which appear in the (obviously rough) redacted text at hand. Even the ancient versions were troubled by the lack of harmony of grammatical number and in this verse, for example, offered a number of alternate readings. The MT reads “Everything I am commanding you (plural) you (plural) must be careful to do; you (singular) must not add to it nor should you (singular) subtract form it.” Smr, LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate suggest singular for the first two pronouns but a few Smr mss propose plural for the last two. What both ancient and modern scholars tend to overlook, however, is the covenantal theological tone of the Book of Deuteronomy, one that views Israel as a collective body (singular) made up of many individuals (plural). See M. Weinfeld, Deuteronomy 1–11 (AB), 15-16; J. A. Thompson, Deuteronomy (TOTC), 21-23.

[12:32]  ⁹ sn Do not add to it or subtract from it. This prohibition makes at least two profound theological points: (1) This work by Moses is of divine origination (i.e., it is inspired) and therefore can tolerate no human alteration; and (2) the work is complete as it stands (i.e., it is canonical).

[13:11]  ¹⁰ sn Some see in this statement an argument for the deterrent effect of capital punishment (Deut 17:13; 19:20; 21:21).

[3:26]  ¹³ tn Heb “the Lord.” For stylistic reasons the pronoun (“he”) has been used in the translation here.

[3:26]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “much to you” (an idiom).

[4:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “commanding.”

[5:22]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and he added no more” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); NLT “This was all he said at that time.”

[5:22]  ²⁰ tn Heb “them”; the referent (the words spoken by the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:16]  ²² tn Heb “in order to multiply horses.” The translation uses “do so” in place of “multiply horses” to avoid redundancy (cf. NAB, NIV).

[18:16]  ²⁵ tn The Hebrew text uses the collective singular in this verse: “my God…lest I die.”

[19:9]  ²⁸ tn Heb “all this commandment.” This refers here to the entire covenant agreement of the Book of Deuteronomy as encapsulated in the Shema (Deut 6:4-5).

[19:9]  ²⁹ tn Heb “commanding”; NAB “which I enjoin on you today.”

[19:9]  ³⁰ sn You will add three more cities. Since these are alluded to nowhere else and thus were probably never added, this must be a provision for other cities of refuge should they be needed (cf. v. 8). See P. C. Craigie, Deuteronomy (NICOT), 267.

[20:8]  ³¹ tn Heb “his brother’s.”

[20:8]  ³² tn Heb “melted.”