Deuteronomy 4:34

4:34 Or has God ¹  ever before tried to deliver ²  a nation from the middle of another nation, accompanied by judgments, ³  signs, wonders, war, strength, power, ⁴  and other very terrifying things like the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

Deuteronomy 26:14

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; ⁵  I have obeyed you ⁶  and have done everything you have commanded me.

Deuteronomy 31:16

31:16 Then the Lord said to Moses, “You are about to die, ⁷  and then these people will begin to prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land into which they ⁸  are going. They ⁹  will reject ¹⁰  me and break my covenant that I have made with them. ¹¹ 

[4:34]  ¹ tn The translation assumes the reference is to Israel’s God in which case the point is this: God’s intervention in Israel’s experience is unique in the sense that he has never intervened in such power for any other people on earth. The focus is on the uniqueness of Israel’s experience. Some understand the divine name here in a generic sense, “a god,” or “any god.” In this case God’s incomparability is the focus (cf. v. 35, where this theme is expressed).

[4:34]  ² tn Heb “tried to go to take for himself.”

[4:34]  ³ tn Heb “by testings.” The reference here is the judgments upon Pharaoh in the form of plagues. See Deut 7:19 (cf. v. 18) and 29:3 (cf. v. 2).

[4:34]  ⁴ tn Heb “by strong hand and by outstretched arm.”

[26:14]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “the Lord my God.” See note on “he” in 26:2.

[31:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “lie down with your fathers” (so NASB); NRSV “ancestors.”

[31:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they,” which is necessary in any case in the translation because of contemporary English style. The third person singular also occurs in the Hebrew text twice more in this verse, three times in v. 17, once in v. 18, five times in v. 20, and four times in v. 21. Each time it is translated as third person plural for stylistic reasons.

[31:16]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:16]  ¹² tn Or “abandon” (TEV, NLT).

[31:16]  ¹³ tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.