Deuteronomy 3:18

Instructions to the Transjordanian Tribes

3:18 At that time I instructed you as follows: “The Lord your God has given you this land for your possession. You warriors are to cross over before your fellow Israelites ¹  equipped for battle.

Deuteronomy 4:26

4:26 I invoke heaven and earth as witnesses against you ²  today that you will surely and swiftly be removed ³  from the very land you are about to cross the Jordan to possess. You will not last long there because you will surely be ⁴  annihilated.

Deuteronomy 5:31

5:31 But as for you, remain here with me so I can declare to you all the commandments, ⁵  statutes, and ordinances that you are to teach them, so that they can carry them out in the land I am about to give them.” ⁶ 

Deuteronomy 7:1

The Dispossession of Nonvassals

7:1 When the Lord your God brings you to the land that you are going to occupy and forces out many nations before you – Hittites, ⁷  Girgashites, ⁸  Amorites, ⁹  Canaanites, ¹⁰  Perizzites, ¹¹  Hivites, ¹²  and Jebusites, ¹³  seven ¹⁴  nations more numerous and powerful than you –

Deuteronomy 11:8

The Abundance of the Land of Promise

11:8 Now pay attention to all the commandments ¹⁵  I am giving ¹⁶  you today, so that you may be strong enough to enter and possess the land where you are headed, ¹⁷ 

Deuteronomy 11:10

11:10 For the land where you are headed ¹⁸  is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, a land where you planted seed and which you irrigated by hand ¹⁹  like a vegetable garden.

Deuteronomy 11:29

11:29 When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are to possess, you must pronounce the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. ²⁰ 

Deuteronomy 12:1

The Central Sanctuary

12:1 These are the statutes and ordinances you must be careful to obey as long as you live in the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, ²¹  has given you to possess. ²² 

Deuteronomy 23:20

23:20 You may lend with interest to a foreigner, but not to your fellow Israelite; if you keep this command the Lord your God will bless you in all you undertake in the land you are about to enter to possess.

Deuteronomy 25:19

25:19 So when the Lord your God gives you relief from all the enemies who surround you in the land he ²³  is giving you as an inheritance, ²⁴  you must wipe out the memory of the Amalekites from under heaven ²⁵  – do not forget! ²⁶ 

Deuteronomy 28:63

28:63 This is what will happen: Just as the Lord delighted to do good for you and make you numerous, he ²⁷  will take delight in destroying and decimating you. You will be uprooted from the land you are about to possess.

Deuteronomy 30:16

30:16 What ²⁸  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. ²⁹ 

Deuteronomy 30:18

30:18 I declare to you this very day that you will certainly ³⁰  perish! You will not extend your time in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess. ³¹ 

Deuteronomy 31:13

31:13 Then their children, who have not known this law, ³²  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.”

Deuteronomy 32:47

32:47 For this is no idle word for you – it is your life! By this word you will live a long time in the land you are about to cross the Jordan to possess.”

[3:18]  ¹ tn Heb “your brothers, the sons of Israel.”

[4:26]  ² sn I invoke heaven and earth as witnesses against you. This stock formula introduces what is known form-critically as a רִיב (riv) or controversy pattern. It is commonly used in the ancient Near Eastern world in legal contexts and in the OT as a forensic or judicial device to draw attention to Israel’s violation of the Lord’s covenant with them (see Deut 30:19; Isa 1:2; 3:13; Jer 2:9). Since court proceedings required the testimony of witnesses, the Lord here summons heaven and earth (that is, all creation) to testify to his faithfulness, Israel’s disobedience, and the threat of judgment.

[4:26]  ³ tn Or “be destroyed”; KJV “utterly perish”; NLT “will quickly disappear”; CEV “you won’t have long to live.”

[4:26]  ⁴ tn Or “be completely” (so NCV, TEV). It is not certain here if the infinitive absolute indicates the certainty of the following action (cf. NIV) or its degree.

[5:31]  ³ tn Heb “commandment.” The MT actually has the singular (הַמִּצְוָה, hammitsvah), suggesting perhaps that the following terms (חֻקִּים [khuqqim] and מִשְׁפָּטִים [mishpatim]) are in epexegetical apposition to “commandment.” That is, the phrase could be translated “the entire command, namely, the statutes and ordinances.” This would essentially make מִצְוָה (mitsvah) synonymous with תּוֹרָה (torah), the usual term for the whole collection of law.

[5:31]  ⁴ tn Heb “to possess it” (so KJV, ASV); NLT “as their inheritance.”

[7:1]  ⁴ sn Hittites. The center of Hittite power was in Anatolia (central modern Turkey). In the Late Bronze Age (1550-1200 b.c.) they were at their zenith, establishing outposts and colonies near and far. Some elements were obviously in Canaan at the time of the Conquest (1400-1350 b.c.).

[7:1]  ⁵ sn Girgashites. These cannot be ethnically identified and are unknown outside the OT. They usually appear in such lists only when the intention is to have seven groups in all (see also the note on the word “seven” later in this verse).

[7:1]  ⁶ sn Amorites. Originally from the upper Euphrates region (Amurru), the Amorites appear to have migrated into Canaan beginning in 2200 b.c. or thereabouts.

[7:1]  ⁷ sn Canaanites. These were the indigenous peoples of the land, going back to the beginning of recorded history (ca. 3000 b.c.). The OT identifies them as descendants of Ham (Gen 10:6), the only Hamites to have settled north and east of Egypt.

[7:1]  ⁸ sn Perizzites. This is probably a subgroup of Canaanites (Gen 13:7; 34:30).

[7:1]  ⁹ sn Hivites. These are usually thought to be the same as the Hurrians, a people well-known in ancient Near Eastern texts. They are likely identical to the Horites (see note on the term “Horites” in Deut 2:12).

[7:1]  ¹⁰ sn Jebusites. These inhabited the hill country, particularly in and about Jerusalem (cf. Num 13:29; Josh 15:8; 2 Sam 5:6; 24:16).

[7:1]  ¹¹ sn Seven. This is an ideal number in the OT, one symbolizing fullness or completeness. Therefore, the intent of the text here is not to be precise and list all of Israel’s enemies but simply to state that Israel will have a full complement of foes to deal with. For other lists of Canaanites, some with fewer than seven peoples, see Exod 3:8; 13:5; 23:23, 28; 33:2; 34:11; Deut 20:17; Josh 3:10; 9:1; 24:11. Moreover, the “Table of Nations” (Gen 10:15-19) suggests that all of these (possibly excepting the Perizzites) were offspring of Canaan and therefore Canaanites.

[11:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “the commandment.” The singular מִצְוָה (mitsvah, “commandment”) speaks here as elsewhere of the whole corpus of covenant stipulations in Deuteronomy (cf. 6:1, 25; 7:11; 8:1).

[11:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “commanding” (so NASB, NRSV). For stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy, “giving” has been used in the translation (likewise in vv. 13, 27).

[11:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “which you are crossing over there to possess it.”

[11:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “you are going there to possess it”; NASB “into which you are about to cross to possess it”; NRSV “that you are crossing over to occupy.”

[11:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “with your foot” (so NASB, NLT). There is a two-fold significance to this phrase. First, Egypt had no rain so water supply depended on human efforts at irrigation. Second, the Nile was the source of irrigation waters but those waters sometimes had to be pumped into fields and gardens by foot-power, perhaps the kind of machinery (Arabic shaduf) still used by Egyptian farmers (see C. Aldred, The Egyptians, 181). Nevertheless, the translation uses “by hand,” since that expression is the more common English idiom for an activity performed by manual labor.

[11:29]  ⁷ sn Mount Gerizim…Mount Ebal. These two mountains are near the ancient site of Shechem and the modern city of Nablus. The valley between them is like a great amphitheater with the mountain slopes as seating sections. The place was sacred because it was there that Abraham pitched his camp and built his first altar after coming to Canaan (Gen 12:6). Jacob also settled at Shechem for a time and dug a well from which Jesus once requested a drink of water (Gen 33:18-20; John 4:5-7). When Joshua and the Israelites finally brought Canaan under control they assembled at Shechem as Moses commanded and undertook a ritual of covenant reaffirmation (Josh 8:30-35; 24:1, 25). Half the tribes stood on Mt. Gerizim and half on Mt. Ebal and in antiphonal chorus pledged their loyalty to the Lord before Joshua and the Levites who stood in the valley below (Josh 8:33; cf. Deut 27:11-13).

[12:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “fathers.”

[12:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “you must be careful to obey in the land the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess all the days which you live in the land.” This adverbial statement modifies “to obey,” not “to possess,” so the order in the translation has been rearranged to make this clear.

[25:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “ the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[25:19]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew text includes “to possess it.”

[25:19]  ¹¹ tn Or “from beneath the sky.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[25:19]  ¹² sn This command is fulfilled in 1 Sam 15:1-33.

[28:63]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

[30:16]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² tn Heb “which you are going there to possess it.” This has been simplified in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[30:18]  ¹² tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “certainly.”

[30:18]  ¹³ tn Heb “to go there to possess it.”

[31:13]  ¹³ 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”).