Deuteronomy 28:1--30:20

The Covenant Blessings

28:1 “If you indeed ¹  obey the Lord your God and are careful to observe all his commandments I am giving ²  you today, the Lord your God will elevate you above all the nations of the earth. 28:2 All these blessings will come to you in abundance ³  if you obey the Lord your God: 28:3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the field. ⁴  28:4 Your children ⁵  will be blessed, as well as the produce of your soil, the offspring of your livestock, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks. 28:5 Your basket and your mixing bowl will be blessed. 28:6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out. ⁶  28:7 The Lord will cause your enemies who attack ⁷  you to be struck down before you; they will attack you from one direction ⁸  but flee from you in seven different directions. 28:8 The Lord will decree blessing for you with respect to your barns and in everything you do – yes, he will bless you in the land he ⁹  is giving you. 28:9 The Lord will designate you as his holy people just as he promised you, if you keep his commandments ¹⁰  and obey him. ¹¹  28:10 Then all the peoples of the earth will see that you belong to the Lord, ¹²  and they will respect you. 28:11 The Lord will greatly multiply your children, ¹³  the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your soil in the land which he ¹⁴  promised your ancestors ¹⁵  he would give you. 28:12 The Lord will open for you his good treasure house, the heavens, to give you rain for the land in its season and to bless all you do; ¹⁶  you will lend to many nations but you will not borrow from any. 28:13 The Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always end up at the top and not at the bottom, if you obey his ¹⁷  commandments which I am urging ¹⁸  you today to be careful to do. 28:14 But you must not turn away from all the commandments I am giving ¹⁹  you today, to either the right or left, nor pursue other gods and worship ²⁰  them.

Curses as Reversal of Blessings

28:15 “But if you ignore ²¹  the Lord your God and are not careful to keep all his commandments and statutes I am giving you today, then all these curses will come upon you in full force: ²²  28:16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the field. 28:17 Your basket and your mixing bowl will be cursed. 28:18 Your children ²³  will be cursed, as well as the produce of your soil, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks. 28:19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. ²⁴ 

Curses by Disease and Drought

28:20 “The Lord will send on you a curse, confusing you and opposing you ²⁵  in everything you undertake ²⁶  until you are destroyed and quickly perish because of the evil of your deeds, in that you have forsaken me. ²⁷  28:21 The Lord will plague you with deadly diseases ²⁸  until he has completely removed you from the land you are about to possess. 28:22 He ²⁹  will afflict you with weakness, ³⁰  fever, inflammation, infection, ³¹  sword, ³²  blight, and mildew; these will attack you until you perish. 28:23 The ³³  sky ³⁴  above your heads will be bronze and the earth beneath you iron. 28:24 The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust; it will come down on you from the sky until you are destroyed.

Curses by Defeat and Deportation

28:25 “The Lord will allow you to be struck down before your enemies; you will attack them from one direction but flee from them in seven directions and will become an object of terror ³⁵  to all the kingdoms of the earth. 28:26 Your carcasses will be food for every bird of the sky and wild animal of the earth, and there will be no one to chase them off. 28:27 The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, eczema, and scabies, all of which cannot be healed. 28:28 The Lord will also subject you to madness, blindness, and confusion of mind. ³⁶  28:29 You will feel your way along at noon like the blind person does in darkness and you will not succeed in anything you do; ³⁷  you will be constantly oppressed and continually robbed, with no one to save you. 28:30 You will be engaged to a woman and another man will rape ³⁸  her. You will build a house but not live in it. You will plant a vineyard but not even begin to use it. 28:31 Your ox will be slaughtered before your very eyes but you will not eat of it. Your donkey will be stolen from you as you watch and will not be returned to you. Your flock of sheep will be given to your enemies and there will be no one to save you. 28:32 Your sons and daughters will be given to another people while you look on in vain all day, and you will be powerless to do anything about it. ³⁹  28:33 As for the produce of your land and all your labor, a people you do not know will consume it, and you will be nothing but oppressed and crushed for the rest of your lives. 28:34 You will go insane from seeing all this. 28:35 The Lord will afflict you in your knees and on your legs with painful, incurable boils – from the soles of your feet to the top of your head. 28:36 The Lord will force you and your king ⁴⁰  whom you will appoint over you to go away to a people whom you and your ancestors have not known, and you will serve other gods of wood and stone there. 28:37 You will become an occasion of horror, a proverb, and an object of ridicule to all the peoples to whom the Lord will drive you.

The Curse of Reversed Status

28:38 “You will take much seed to the field but gather little harvest, because locusts will consume it. 28:39 You will plant vineyards and cultivate them, but you will not drink wine or gather in grapes, because worms will eat them. 28:40 You will have olive trees throughout your territory but you will not anoint yourself with olive oil, because the olives will drop off the trees while still unripe. ⁴¹  28:41 You will bear sons and daughters but not keep them, because they will be taken into captivity. 28:42 Whirring locusts ⁴²  will take over every tree and all the produce of your soil. 28:43 The foreigners ⁴³  who reside among you will become higher and higher over you and you will become lower and lower. 28:44 They will lend to you but you will not lend to them; they will become the head and you will become the tail!

28:45 All these curses will fall on you, pursuing and overtaking you until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the Lord your God by keeping his commandments and statutes that he has given ⁴⁴  you. 28:46 These curses ⁴⁵  will be a perpetual sign and wonder with reference to you and your descendants. ⁴⁶ 

The Curse of Military Siege

28:47 “Because you have not served the Lord your God joyfully and wholeheartedly with the abundance of everything you have, 28:48 instead in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and poverty ⁴⁷  you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you. They ⁴⁸  will place an iron yoke on your neck until they have destroyed you. 28:49 The Lord will raise up a distant nation against you, one from the other side of the earth ⁴⁹  as the eagle flies, ⁵⁰  a nation whose language you will not understand, 28:50 a nation of stern appearance that will have no regard for the elderly or pity for the young. 28:51 They ⁵¹  will devour the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your soil until you are destroyed. They will not leave you with any grain, new wine, olive oil, calves of your herds, ⁵²  or lambs of your flocks ⁵³  until they have destroyed you. 28:52 They will besiege all of your villages ⁵⁴  until all of your high and fortified walls collapse – those in which you put your confidence throughout the land. They will besiege all your villages throughout the land the Lord your God has given you. 28:53 You will then eat your own offspring, ⁵⁵  the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you, because of the severity of the siege ⁵⁶  by which your enemies will constrict you. 28:54 The man among you who is by nature tender and sensitive will turn against his brother, his beloved wife, and his remaining children. 28:55 He will withhold from all of them his children’s flesh that he is eating (since there is nothing else left), because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict ⁵⁷  you in your villages. 28:56 Likewise, the most ⁵⁸  tender and delicate of your women, who would never think of putting even the sole of her foot on the ground because of her daintiness, ⁵⁹  will turn against her beloved husband, her sons and daughters, 28:57 and will secretly eat her afterbirth ⁶⁰  and her newborn children ⁶¹  (since she has nothing else), ⁶²  because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict you in your villages.

The Curse of Covenant Termination

28:58 “If you refuse to obey ⁶³  all the words of this law, the things written in this scroll, and refuse to fear this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God, 28:59 then the Lord will increase your punishments and those of your descendants – great and long-lasting afflictions and severe, enduring illnesses. 28:60 He will infect you with all the diseases of Egypt ⁶⁴  that you dreaded, and they will persistently afflict you. ⁶⁵  28:61 Moreover, the Lord will bring upon you every kind of sickness and plague not mentioned in this scroll of commandments, ⁶⁶  until you have perished. 28:62 There will be very few of you left, though at one time you were as numerous as the stars in the sky, ⁶⁷  because you will have disobeyed ⁶⁸  the Lord your God. 28:63 This is what will happen: Just as the Lord delighted to do good for you and make you numerous, he ⁶⁹  will take delight in destroying and decimating you. You will be uprooted from the land you are about to possess. 28:64 The Lord will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods of wood and stone. 28:65 Among those nations you will have no rest nor will there be a place of peaceful rest for the soles of your feet, for there the Lord will give you an anxious heart, failing eyesight, and a spirit of despair. 28:66 Your life will hang in doubt before you; you will be terrified by night and day and will have no certainty of surviving from one day to the next. ⁷⁰  28:67 In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ And in the evening you will say, ‘I wish it were morning!’ because of the things you will fear and the things you will see. 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.”

Narrative Interlude

29:1 (28:69) ⁷¹  These are the words of the covenant that the Lord commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant he had made with them at Horeb. ⁷² 

The Exodus, Wandering, and Conquest Reviewed

29:2 Moses proclaimed to all Israel as follows: “You have seen all that the Lord did ⁷³  in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, all his servants, and his land. 29:3 Your eyes have seen the great judgments, ⁷⁴  those signs and mighty wonders. 29:4 But to this very day the Lord has not given you an understanding mind, perceptive eyes, or discerning ears! ⁷⁵  29:5 I have led you through the desert for forty years. Your clothing has not worn out ⁷⁶  nor have your sandals ⁷⁷  deteriorated. 29:6 You have eaten no bread and drunk no wine or beer – all so that you might know that I ⁷⁸  am the Lord your God! 29:7 When you came to this place King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan came out to make war and we defeated them. 29:8 Then we took their land and gave it as an inheritance to Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh.

The Present Covenant Setting

29:9 “Therefore, keep the terms ⁷⁹  of this covenant and obey them so that you may be successful in everything you do. 29:10 You are standing today, all of you, before the Lord your God – the heads of your tribes, ⁸⁰  your elders, your officials, every Israelite man, 29:11 your infants, your wives, and the ⁸¹  foreigners living in your encampment, those who chop wood and those who carry water – 29:12 so that you may enter by oath into the covenant the Lord your God is making with you today. ⁸²  29:13 Today he will affirm that you are his people and that he is your God, ⁸³  just as he promised you and as he swore by oath to your ancestors ⁸⁴  Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 29:14 It is not with you alone that I am making this covenant by oath, 29:15 but with whoever stands with us here today before the Lord our God as well as those not with us here today. ⁸⁵ 

The Results of Disobedience

29:16 “(For you know how we lived in the land of Egypt and how we crossed through the nations as we traveled. 29:17 You have seen their detestable things ⁸⁶  and idols of wood, stone, silver, and gold.) ⁸⁷  29:18 Beware that the heart of no man, woman, clan, or tribe among you turns away from the Lord our God today to pursue and serve the gods of those nations; beware that there is among you no root producing poisonous and bitter fruit. ⁸⁸  29:19 When such a person ⁸⁹  hears the words of this oath he secretly ⁹⁰  blesses himself ⁹¹  and says, “I will have peace though I continue to walk with a stubborn spirit.” ⁹²  This will destroy ⁹³  the watered ground with the parched. ⁹⁴  29:20 The Lord will be unwilling to forgive him, and his intense anger ⁹⁵  will rage ⁹⁶  against that man; all the curses ⁹⁷  written in this scroll will fall upon him ⁹⁸  and the Lord will obliterate his name from memory. ⁹⁹  29:21 The Lord will single him out ¹⁰⁰  for judgment ¹⁰¹  from all the tribes of Israel according to all the curses of the covenant written in this scroll of the law. 29:22 The generation to come – your descendants who will rise up after you, as well as the foreigner who will come from distant places – will see ¹⁰²  the afflictions of that land and the illnesses that the Lord has brought on it. 29:23 The whole land will be covered with brimstone, salt, and burning debris; it will not be planted nor will it sprout or produce grass. It will resemble the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord destroyed in his intense anger. ¹⁰³  29:24 Then all the nations will ask, “Why has the Lord done all this to this land? What is this fierce, heated display of anger ¹⁰⁴  all about?” 29:25 Then people will say, “Because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. 29:26 They went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods they did not know and that he did not permit them to worship. ¹⁰⁵  29:27 That is why the Lord’s anger erupted against this land, bringing on it all the curses ¹⁰⁶  written in this scroll. 29:28 So the Lord has uprooted them from their land in anger, wrath, and great rage and has deported them to another land, as is clear today.” 29:29 Secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those that are revealed belong to us and our descendants ¹⁰⁷  forever, so that we might obey all the words of this law.

The Results of Covenant Reaffirmation

30:1 “When you have experienced all these things, both the blessings and the curses ¹⁰⁸  I have set before you, you will reflect upon them ¹⁰⁹  in all the nations where the Lord your God has banished you. 30:2 Then if you and your descendants ¹¹⁰  turn to the Lord your God and obey him with your whole mind and being ¹¹¹  just as ¹¹²  I am commanding you today, 30:3 the Lord your God will reverse your captivity and have pity on you. He will turn and gather you from all the peoples among whom he ¹¹³  has scattered you. 30:4 Even if your exiles are in the most distant land, ¹¹⁴  from there the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back. 30:5 Then he ¹¹⁵  will bring you to the land your ancestors ¹¹⁶  possessed and you also will possess it; he will do better for you and multiply you more than he did your ancestors. 30:6 The Lord your God will also cleanse ¹¹⁷  your heart and the hearts of your descendants ¹¹⁸  so that you may love him ¹¹⁹  with all your mind and being and so that you may live. 30:7 Then the Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies, on those who hate you and persecute you. 30:8 You will return and obey the Lord, keeping all his commandments I am giving ¹²⁰  you today. 30:9 The Lord your God will make the labor of your hands ¹²¹  abundantly successful and multiply your children, ¹²²  the offspring of your cattle, and the produce of your soil. For the Lord your God will once more ¹²³  rejoice over you to make you prosperous ¹²⁴  just as he rejoiced over your ancestors, 30:10 if you obey the Lord your God and keep his commandments and statutes that are written in this scroll of the law. But you must turn to him ¹²⁵  with your whole mind and being.

Exhortation to Covenant Obedience

30:11 “This commandment I am giving ¹²⁶  you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it too remote. 30:12 It is not in heaven, as though one must say, “Who will go up to heaven to get it for us and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” 30:13 And it is not across the sea, as though one must say, “Who will cross over to the other side of the sea and get it for us and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” 30:14 For the thing is very near you – it is in your mouth and in your mind ¹²⁷  so that you can do it.

30:15 “Look! I have set before you today life and prosperity on the one hand, and death and disaster on the other. 30:16 What ¹²⁸  I am commanding you today is to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to obey his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances. Then you will live and become numerous and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you are about to possess. ¹²⁹  30:17 However, if you ¹³⁰  turn aside and do not obey, but are lured away to worship and serve other gods, 30:18 I declare to you this very day that you will certainly ¹³¹  perish! You will not extend your time in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess. ¹³²  30:19 Today I invoke heaven and earth as a witness against you that I have set life and death, blessing and curse, before you. Therefore choose life so that you and your descendants may live! 30:20 I also call on you ¹³³  to love the Lord your God, to obey him and be loyal to him, for he gives you life and enables you to live continually ¹³⁴  in the land the Lord promised to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

Leviticus 19:23-25

The Produce of Fruit Trees

19:23 “‘When you enter the land and plant any fruit tree, ¹³⁵  you must consider its fruit to be forbidden. ¹³⁶  Three years it will be forbidden to you; ¹³⁷  it must not be eaten. 19:24 In the fourth year all its fruit will be holy, praise offerings ¹³⁸  to the Lord. 19:25 Then in the fifth year you may eat its fruit to add its produce to your harvest. ¹³⁹  I am the Lord your God.

Jeremiah 31:5

31:5 Once again you will plant vineyards

on the hills of Samaria. ¹⁴⁰ 

Those who plant them

will once again enjoy their fruit. ¹⁴¹ 

[28:1]  ¹ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “indeed.”

[28:1]  ² tn Heb “commanding”; NAB “which I enjoin on you today” (likewise in v. 15).

[28:2]  ³ tn Heb “come upon you and overtake you” (so NASB, NRSV); NIV “come upon you and accompany you.”

[28:3]  ⁴ tn Or “in the country” (so NAB, NIV, NLT). This expression also occurs in v. 15.

[28:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[28:6]  ⁶ sn Come in…go out. To “come in” and “go out” is a figure of speech (merism) indicating all of life and its activities.

[28:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “who rise up against” (so NIV).

[28:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “way” (also later in this verse and in v. 25).

[28:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” Because English would not typically reintroduce the proper name following a relative pronoun (“he will bless…the Lord your God is giving”), the pronoun (“he”) has been employed here in the translation.

[28:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the commandments of the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in the previous verse.

[28:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and walk in his ways” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[28:10]  ¹² tn Heb “the name of the Lord is called over you.” The Hebrew idiom indicates ownership; see 2 Sam 12:28; Isa 4:1, as well as BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph. 2.d.(4).

[28:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); CEV “will give you a lot of children.”

[28:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

[28:11]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 36, 64).

[28:12]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “all the work of your hands.”

[28:13]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the Lord your God’s.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

[28:13]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “commanding” (so NRSV); NASB “which I charge you today.”

[28:14]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “from all the words which I am commanding.”

[28:14]  ²⁰ tn Heb “in order to serve.”

[28:15]  ²¹ tn Heb “do not hear the voice of.”

[28:15]  ²² tn Heb “and overtake you” (so NIV, NRSV); NAB, NLT “and overwhelm you.”

[28:18]  ²³ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[28:19]  ²⁴ sn See note on the similar expression in v. 6.

[28:20]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the curse, the confusion, and the rebuke” (NASB and NIV similar); NRSV “disaster, panic, and frustration.”

[28:20]  ²⁶ tn Heb “in all the stretching out of your hand.”

[28:20]  ²⁷ tc For the MT first person common singular suffix (“me”), the LXX reads either “Lord” (Lucian) or third person masculine singular suffix (“him”; various codices). The MT’s more difficult reading probably represents the original text.

[28:21]  ²⁸ tn Heb “will cause pestilence to cling to you.”

[28:22]  ²⁹ tn Heb “The Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

[28:22]  ³⁰ tn Or perhaps “consumption” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV). The term is from a verbal root that indicates a weakening of one’s physical strength (cf. NAB “wasting”; NIV, NLT “wasting disease”).

[28:22]  ³¹ tn Heb “hot fever”; NIV “scorching heat.”

[28:22]  ³² tn Or “drought” (so NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[28:23]  ³³ tc The MT reads “Your.” The LXX reads “Heaven will be to you.”

[28:23]  ³⁴ tn Or “heavens” (also in the following verse). The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[28:25]  ³⁵ tc The meaningless MT reading זַעֲוָה (za’avah) is clearly a transposition of the more commonly attested Hebrew noun זְוָעָה (zÿva’ah, “terror”).

[28:28]  ³⁶ tn Heb “heart” (so KJV, NASB).

[28:29]  ³⁷ tn Heb “you will not cause your ways to prosper.”

[28:30]  ³⁸ tc For MT reading שָׁגַל (shagal, “ravish; violate”), the Syriac, Targum, and Vulgate presume the less violent שָׁכַב (shakhav, “lie with”). The unexpected counterpart to betrothal here favors the originality of the MT.

[28:32]  ³⁹ tn Heb “and there will be no power in your hand”; NCV “there will be nothing you can do.”

[28:36]  ⁴⁰ tc The LXX reads the plural “kings.”

[28:40]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “your olives will drop off” (נָשַׁל, nashal), referring to the olives dropping off before they ripen.

[28:42]  ⁴² tn The Hebrew term denotes some sort of buzzing or whirring insect; some have understood this to be a type of locust (KJV, NIV, CEV), but other insects have also been suggested: “buzzing insects” (NAB); “the cricket” (NASB); “the cicada” (NRSV).

[28:43]  ⁴³ tn Heb “the foreigner.” This is a collective singular and has therefore been translated as plural; this includes the pronouns in the following verse, which are also singular in the Hebrew text.

[28:45]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “commanded”; NAB, NIV, TEV “he gave you.”

[28:46]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the curses mentioned previously) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[28:46]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “seed” (so KJV, ASV).

[28:48]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “lack of everything.”

[28:48]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “he” (also later in this verse). The pronoun is a collective singular referring to the enemies (cf. CEV, NLT). Many translations understand the singular pronoun to refer to the Lord (cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NCV, NRSV, TEV).

[28:49]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “from the end of the earth.”

[28:49]  ⁵⁰ tn Some translations understand this to mean “like an eagle swoops down” (e.g., NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT), comparing the swift attack of an eagle to the attack of the Israelites’ enemies.

[28:51]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “it” (so NRSV), a collective singular referring to the invading nation (several times in this verse and v. 52).

[28:51]  ⁵² tn Heb “increase of herds.”

[28:51]  ⁵³ tn Heb “growth of flocks.”

[28:52]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “gates,” also in vv. 55, 57.

[28:53]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NRSV); NASB “the offspring of your own body.”

[28:53]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “siege and stress.”

[28:55]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “besiege,” redundant with the noun “siege.”

[28:56]  ⁵⁸ tc The LXX adds σφόδρα (sfodra, “very”) to bring the description into line with v. 54.

[28:56]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “delicateness and tenderness.”

[28:57]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb includes “that which comes out from between her feet.”

[28:57]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “her sons that she will bear.”

[28:57]  ⁶² tn Heb includes “in her need for everything.”

[28:58]  ⁶³ tn Heb “If you are not careful to do.”

[28:60]  ⁶⁴ sn These are the plagues the Lord inflicted on the Egyptians prior to the exodus which, though they did not fall upon the Israelites, must have caused great terror (cf. Exod 15:26).

[28:60]  ⁶⁵ tn Heb “will cling to you” (so NIV); NLT “will claim you.”

[28:61]  ⁶⁶ tn The Hebrew term תּוֹרָה (torah) can refer either (1) to the whole Pentateuch or, more likely, (2) to the book of Deuteronomy or even (3) only to this curse section of the covenant text. “Scroll” better reflects the actual document, since “book” conveys the notion of a bound book with pages to the modern English reader. Cf. KJV, NASB, NRSV “the book of this law”; NIV, NLT “this Book of the Law”; TEV “this book of God’s laws and teachings.”

[28:62]  ⁶⁷ tn Or “heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[28:62]  ⁶⁸ tn Heb “have not listened to the voice of.”

[28:63]  ⁶⁹ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

[28:66]  ⁷⁰ tn Heb “you will not be confident in your life.” The phrase “from one day to the next” is implied by the following verse.

[29:1]  ⁷¹ sn Beginning with 29:1, the verse numbers through 29:29 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 29:1 ET = 28:69 HT, 29:2 ET = 29:1 HT, 29:3 ET = 29:2 HT, etc., through 29:29 ET = 29:28 HT. With 30:1 the verse numbers in the ET and HT are again the same.

[29:1]  ⁷² sn Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai (which some English versions substitute here for clarity, cf. NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).

[29:2]  ⁷³ tn The Hebrew text includes “to your eyes,” but this is redundant in English style (cf. the preceding “you have seen”) and is omitted in the translation.

[29:3]  ⁷⁴ tn Heb “testings.” This is a reference to the plagues; see note at 4:34.

[29:4]  ⁷⁵ tn Heb “a heart to know, eyes to see and ears to hear” (NASB similar); NAB, NRSV “a mind to understand, or eyes to see, or ears to hear.”

[29:5]  ⁷⁶ tn The Hebrew text includes “on you.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[29:5]  ⁷⁷ tn The Hebrew text includes “from on your feet.”

[29:6]  ⁷⁸ tc The LXX reads “that he is the Lord your God.”

[29:9]  ⁷⁹ tn Heb “words.”

[29:10]  ⁸⁰ tc Heb “your heads, your tribes.” The Syriac presupposes either “heads of your tribes” or “your heads, your judges,” etc. (reading שֹׁפְטֵכֶם [shofÿtekhem] for שִׁבְטֵיכֶם [shivtekhem]). Its comparative difficulty favors the originality of the MT reading. Cf. KJV “your captains of your tribes”; NRSV “the leaders of your tribes”; NLT “your tribal leaders.”

[29:11]  ⁸¹ tn Heb “your.”

[29:12]  ⁸² tn Heb “for you to pass on into the covenant of the Lord your God and into his oath, which the Lord your God is cutting with you today.”

[29:13]  ⁸³ tn Heb “in order to establish you today to him for a people and he will be to you for God.” Verses 10-13 are one long sentence in Hebrew. The translation divides this into two sentences for stylistic reasons.

[29:13]  ⁸⁴ tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 25).

[29:15]  ⁸⁵ tn This is interpreted by some English versions as a reference to generations not yet born (cf. TEV, CEV, NLT).

[29:17]  ⁸⁶ tn The Hebrew term שִׁקּוּץ (shiquts) refers to anything out of keeping with the nature and character of Yahweh and therefore to be avoided by his people Israel. It is commonly used with or as a synonym for תּוֹעֵבָה (to’evah, “detestable, abhorrent”; 2 Kgs 23:13; Jer 16:18; Ezek 5:11; 7:20; 11:18, 21; see note on the term “abhorrent” in Deut 7:25). See M. Grisanti, NIDOTTE 4:243-46.

[29:17]  ⁸⁷ tn The Hebrew text includes “which were with them.” Verses 16-17 constitute a parenthetical comment.

[29:18]  ⁸⁸ tn Heb “yielding fruit poisonous and wormwood.” The Hebrew noun לַעֲנָה (la’anah) literally means “wormwood” (so KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB), but is used figuratively for anything extremely bitter, thus here “fruit poisonous and bitter.”

[29:19]  ⁸⁹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the subject of the warning in v. 18) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[29:19]  ⁹⁰ tn Heb “in his heart.”

[29:19]  ⁹¹ tn Or “invokes a blessing on himself.” A formalized word of blessing is in view, the content of which appears later in the verse.

[29:19]  ⁹² tn Heb “heart.”

[29:19]  ⁹³ tn Heb “thus destroying.” For stylistic reasons the translation begins a new sentence here.

[29:19]  ⁹⁴ tn Heb “the watered with the parched.” The word “ground” is implied. The exact meaning of the phrase is uncertain although it appears to be figurative. This appears to be a proverbial observation employing a figure of speech (a merism) suggesting totality. That is, the Israelite who violates the letter and even spirit of the covenant will harm not only himself but everything he touches – “the watered and the parched.” Cf. CEV “you will cause the rest of Israel to be punished along with you.”

[29:20]  ⁹⁵ tn Heb “the wrath of the Lord and his zeal.” The expression is a hendiadys, a figure in which the second noun becomes adjectival to the first.

[29:20]  ⁹⁶ tn Heb “smoke,” or “smolder.”

[29:20]  ⁹⁷ tn Heb “the entire oath.”

[29:20]  ⁹⁸ tn Or “will lie in wait against him.”

[29:20]  ⁹⁹ tn Heb “blot out his name from under the sky.”

[29:21]  ¹⁰⁰ tn Heb “set him apart.”

[29:21]  ¹⁰¹ tn Heb “for evil”; NAB “for doom”; NASB “for adversity”; NIV “for disaster”; NRSV “for calamity.”

[29:22]  ¹⁰² tn Heb “will say and see.” One expects a quotation to appear, but it seems to be omitted. To avoid confusion in the translation, the verb “will say” is omitted.

[29:23]  ¹⁰³ tn Heb “the anger and the wrath.” This construction is a hendiadys intended to intensify the emotion.

[29:24]  ¹⁰⁴ tn Heb “this great burning of anger”; KJV “the heat of this great anger.”

[29:26]  ¹⁰⁵ tn Heb “did not assign to them”; NASB, NRSV “had not allotted to them.”

[29:27]  ¹⁰⁶ tn Heb “the entire curse.”

[29:29]  ¹⁰⁷ tn Heb “sons” (so NASB); KJV, ASV, NIV, NRSV “children.”

[30:1]  ¹⁰⁸ tn Heb “the blessing and the curse.”

[30:1]  ¹⁰⁹ tn Heb “and you bring (them) back to your heart.”

[30:2]  ¹¹⁰ tn Heb “sons” (so NASB); KJV, ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT “children.”

[30:2]  ¹¹¹ tn Or “heart and soul” (also in vv. 6, 10).

[30:2]  ¹¹² tn Heb “according to all.”

[30:3]  ¹¹³ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[30:4]  ¹¹⁴ tn Heb “are at the farthest edge of the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[30:5]  ¹¹⁵ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on the second occurrence of the word “he” in v. 3.

[30:5]  ¹¹⁶ tn Heb “fathers” (also later in this verse and in vv. 9, 20).

[30:6]  ¹¹⁷ tn Heb “circumcise” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); TEV “will give you and your descendents obedient hearts.” See note on the word “cleanse” in Deut 10:16.

[30:6]  ¹¹⁸ tn Heb “seed” (so KJV, ASV).

[30:6]  ¹¹⁹ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on the second occurrence of the word “he” in v. 3.

[30:8]  ¹²⁰ tn Heb “commanding”; NAB “which I now enjoin on you.”

[30:9]  ¹²¹ tc The MT reads “hand” (singular). Most versions read the plural.

[30:9]  ¹²² tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV); NRSV “of your body.”

[30:9]  ¹²³ tn Heb “return and.” The Hebrew verb is used idiomatically here to indicate the repetition of the following action.

[30:9]  ¹²⁴ tn The Hebrew text includes “for good.”

[30:10]  ¹²⁵ tn Heb “to the Lord your God.” See note on the second occurrence of the word “he” in v. 3.

[30:11]  ¹²⁶ tn Heb “commanding”; NAB “which I enjoin on you.”

[30:14]  ¹²⁷ tn Heb “heart.”

[30:16]  ¹²⁸ tc A number of LXX mss insert before this verse, “if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God,” thus translating אֲשֶׁר (’asher) as “which” and the rest as “I am commanding you today, to love,” etc., “then you will live,” etc.

[30:16]  ¹²⁹ tn Heb “which you are going there to possess it.” This has been simplified in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[30:17]  ¹³⁰ tn Heb “your heart,” as a metonymy for the person.

[30:18]  ¹³¹ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “certainly.”

[30:18]  ¹³² tn Heb “to go there to possess it.”

[30:20]  ¹³³ tn The words “I also call on you” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text vv. 19-20 are one long sentence, which the translation divides into two.

[30:20]  ¹³⁴ tn Heb “he is your life and the length of your days to live.”

[19:23]  ¹³⁵ tn Heb “tree of food”; KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV “trees for food.”

[19:23]  ¹³⁶ tn Heb “you shall circumcise its fruit [as] its foreskin,” taking the fruit to be that which is to be removed and, therefore, forbidden. Since the fruit is uncircumcised it is forbidden (see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 306, and esp. B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 131-32).

[19:23]  ¹³⁷ tn Heb “it shall be to you uncircumcised.”

[19:24]  ¹³⁸ tn See B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 132, where the translation reads “set aside for jubilation”; a special celebration before the Lord.

[19:25]  ¹³⁹ tn Heb “to add to you its produce.” The rendering here assumes that the point of this clause is simply that finally being allowed to eat the fruit in the fifth year adds the fruit of the tree to their harvest. Some take the verb to be from אָסַף (’asaf, “to gather”) rather than יָסַף (yasaf, “to add; to increase”), rendering the verse, “to gather to you the produce” (E. S. Gerstenberger, Leviticus [OTL], 260, and see the versions referenced in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 306). Others take it to mean that by following the regulations given previously they will honor the Lord so that the Lord will cause the trees to increase the amount of fruit they would normally produce (Hartley, 303, 306; cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[31:5]  ¹⁴⁰ map For location see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.

[31:5]  ¹⁴¹ sn The terms used here refer to the enjoyment of a period of peace and stability and the reversal of the curse (contrast, e.g., Deut 28:30). The Hebrew word translated “enjoy its fruit” is a technical one that refers to the owner of a vineyard getting to enjoy its fruit in the fifth year after it was planted, the crops of the first three years lying fallow, and that of the fourth being given to the Lord (cf. Lev 19:23-25).