Deuteronomy 4:38

4:38 to dispossess nations greater and stronger than you and brought you here this day to give you their land as your property. ¹ 

Deuteronomy 6:1

Exhortation to Keep the Covenant Principles

6:1 Now these are the commandments, ²  statutes, and ordinances that the Lord your God instructed me to teach you so that you may carry them out in the land where you are headed ³ 

Deuteronomy 6:10

Exhortation to Worship the Lord Exclusively

6:10 Then when the Lord your God brings you to the land he promised your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give you – a land with large, fine cities you did not build,

Deuteronomy 6:19

6:19 and that you may drive out all your enemies just as the Lord said.

Deuteronomy 6:23

6:23 He delivered us from there so that he could give us the land he had promised our ancestors.

Deuteronomy 9:1

Theological Justification of the Conquest

9:1 Listen, Israel: Today you are about to cross the Jordan so you can dispossess the nations there, people greater and stronger than you who live in large cities with extremely high fortifications. ⁴ 

Deuteronomy 9:4

9:4 Do not think to yourself after the Lord your God has driven them out before you, “Because of my own righteousness the Lord has brought me here to possess this land.” It is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out ahead of you.

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. ⁵ 

Deuteronomy 31:3

31:3 As for the Lord your God, he is about to cross over before you; he will destroy these nations before you and dispossess them. As for Joshua, he is about to cross before you just as the Lord has said.

Deuteronomy 31:20

31:20 For after I have brought them ⁶  to the land I promised to their ⁷  ancestors – one flowing with milk and honey – and they ⁸  eat their fill ⁹  and become fat, then they ¹⁰  will turn to other gods and worship them; they will reject me and break my covenant.

Exodus 6:8

6:8 I will bring you to the land I swore to give ¹¹  to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob – and I will give it to you ¹²  as a possession. I am the Lord!’”

Exodus 15:7

15:7 In the abundance of your majesty ¹³  you have overthrown ¹⁴ 

those who rise up against you. ¹⁵ 

You sent forth ¹⁶  your wrath; ¹⁷ 

it consumed them ¹⁸  like stubble.

Numbers 14:31

14:31 But I will bring in your little ones, whom you said would become victims of war, ¹⁹  and they will enjoy ²⁰  the land that you have despised.

Psalms 44:2-3

44:2 You, by your power, ²¹  defeated nations and settled our fathers on their land; ²² 

you crushed ²³  the people living there ²⁴  and enabled our ancestors to occupy it. ²⁵ 

44:3 For they did not conquer ²⁶  the land by their swords,

and they did not prevail by their strength, ²⁷ 

but rather by your power, ²⁸  strength ²⁹  and good favor, ³⁰ 

for you were partial to ³¹  them.

Psalms 78:55

78:55 He drove the nations out from before them;

he assigned them their tribal allotments ³² 

and allowed the tribes of Israel to settle down. ³³ 

[4:38]  ¹ tn Heb “(as) an inheritance,” that is, landed property that one can pass on to one’s descendants.

[6:1]  ² tn Heb “commandment.” The word מִצְוָה (mitsvah) again is in the singular, serving as a comprehensive term for the whole stipulation section of the book. See note on the word “commandments” in 5:31.

[6:1]  ³ tn Heb “where you are going over to possess it” (so NASB); NRSV “that you are about to cross into and occupy.”

[9:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “fortified to the heavens” (so NRSV); NLT “cities with walls that reach to the sky.” This is hyperbole.

[11:29]  ⁵ 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).

[31:20]  ⁶ tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:20]  ⁷ tn Heb “his.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “their.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:20]  ⁸ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:20]  ⁹ tn Heb “and are satisfied.”

[31:20]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[6:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “which I raised my hand to give it.” The relative clause specifies which land is their goal. The bold anthropomorphism mentions part of an oath-taking ceremony to refer to the whole event and reminds the reader that God swore that he would give the land to them. The reference to taking an oath would have made the promise of God sure in the mind of the Israelite.

[6:8]  ¹² sn Here is the twofold aspect again clearly depicted: God swore the promise to the patriarchs, but he is about to give what he promised to this generation. This generation will know more about him as a result.

[15:7]  ¹³ sn This expression is cognate with words in v. 1. Here that same greatness or majesty is extolled as in abundance.

[15:7]  ¹⁴ tn Here, and throughout the song, these verbs are the prefixed conjugation that may look like the imperfect but are actually historic preterites. This verb is to “overthrow” or “throw down” – like a wall, leaving it in shattered pieces.

[15:7]  ¹⁵ tn The form קָמֶיךָ (qamekha) is the active participle with a pronominal suffix. The participle is accusative, the object of the verb, but the suffix is the genitive of nearer definition (see GKC 358 §116.i).

[15:7]  ¹⁶ sn The verb is the Piel of שָׁלַח (shalakh), the same verb used throughout for the demand on Pharaoh to release Israel. Here, in some irony, God released his wrath on them.

[15:7]  ¹⁷ sn The word wrath is a metonymy of cause; the effect – the judgment – is what is meant.

[15:7]  ¹⁸ tn The verb is the prefixed conjugation, the preterite, without the consecutive vav (ו).

[14:31]  ¹⁹ tn Or “plunder.”

[14:31]  ²⁰ tn Heb “know.”

[44:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “you, your hand.”

[44:2]  ²² tn Heb “dispossessed nations and planted them.” The third masculine plural pronoun “them” refers to the fathers (v. 1). See Ps 80:8, 15.

[44:2]  ²³ tn The verb form in the Hebrew text is a Hiphil preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive) from רָעַע (ra’a’, “be evil; be bad”). If retained it apparently means, “you injured; harmed.” Some prefer to derive the verb from רָעַע (“break”; cf. NEB “breaking up the peoples”), in which case the form must be revocalized as Qal (since this verb is unattested in the Hiphil).

[44:2]  ²⁴ tn Or “peoples.”

[44:2]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and you sent them out.” The translation assumes that the third masculine plural pronoun “them” refers to the fathers (v. 1), as in the preceding parallel line. See Ps 80:11, where Israel, likened to a vine, “spreads out” its tendrils to the west and east. Another option is to take the “peoples” as the referent of the pronoun and translate, “and you sent them away,” though this does not provide as tight a parallel with the corresponding line.

[44:3]  ²⁶ tn Or “take possession of.”

[44:3]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and their arm did not save them.” The “arm” here symbolizes military strength.

[44:3]  ²⁸ tn Heb “your right hand.” The Lord’s “right hand” here symbolizes his power to protect and deliver (see Pss 17:7; 20:6; 21:8).

[44:3]  ²⁹ tn Heb “your arm.”

[44:3]  ³⁰ tn Heb “light of your face.” The idiom “light of your face” probably refers to a smile (see Eccl 8:1), which in turn suggests favor and blessing (see Num 6:25; Pss 4:6; 31:16; 67:1; 80:3, 7, 19; 89:15; Dan 9:17).

[44:3]  ³¹ tn Or “favorable toward.”

[78:55]  ³² tn Heb “he caused to fall [to] them with a measuring line an inheritance.”

[78:55]  ³³ tn Heb “and caused the tribes of Israel to settle down in their tents.”