Deuteronomy 4:9

Reminder of the Horeb Covenant

4:9 Again, however, pay very careful attention, ¹  lest you forget the things you have seen and disregard them for the rest of your life; instead teach them to your children and grandchildren.

Deuteronomy 11:13-15

11:13 Now, if you pay close attention ²  to my commandments that I am giving you today and love ³  the Lord your God and serve him with all your mind and being, ⁴  11:14 then he promises, ⁵  “I will send rain for your land ⁶  in its season, the autumn and the spring rains, ⁷  so that you may gather in your grain, new wine, and olive oil. 11:15 I will provide pasture ⁸  for your livestock and you will eat your fill.”

Deuteronomy 28:1-15

The Covenant Blessings

28:1 “If you indeed ⁹  obey the Lord your God and are careful to observe all his commandments I am giving ¹⁰  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 ¹¹  if you obey the Lord your God: 28:3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the field. ¹²  28:4 Your children ¹³  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. ¹⁴  28:7 The Lord will cause your enemies who attack ¹⁵  you to be struck down before you; they will attack you from one direction ¹⁶  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 ¹⁷  is giving you. 28:9 The Lord will designate you as his holy people just as he promised you, if you keep his commandments ¹⁸  and obey him. ¹⁹  28:10 Then all the peoples of the earth will see that you belong to the Lord, ²⁰  and they will respect you. 28:11 The Lord will greatly multiply your children, ²¹  the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your soil in the land which he ²²  promised your ancestors ²³  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; ²⁴  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 ²⁵  commandments which I am urging ²⁶  you today to be careful to do. 28:14 But you must not turn away from all the commandments I am giving ²⁷  you today, to either the right or left, nor pursue other gods and worship ²⁸  them.

Curses as Reversal of Blessings

28:15 “But if you ignore ²⁹  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: ³⁰ 

Leviticus 26:3-14

The Benefits of Obedience

26:3 “‘If you walk in my statutes and are sure to obey my commandments, ³¹  26:4 I will give you your rains in their time so that ³²  the land will give its yield and the trees of the field will produce their fruit. ³³  26:5 Threshing season will extend for you until the season for harvesting grapes, ³⁴  and the season for harvesting grapes will extend until sowing season, so ³⁵  you will eat your bread until you are satisfied, ³⁶  and you will live securely in your land. 26:6 I will grant peace in the land so that ³⁷  you will lie down to sleep without anyone terrifying you. ³⁸  I will remove harmful animals ³⁹  from the land, and no sword of war ⁴⁰  will pass through your land. 26:7 You will pursue your enemies and they will fall before you by the sword. ⁴¹  26:8 Five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword. 26:9 I will turn to you, make you fruitful, multiply you, and maintain ⁴²  my covenant with you. 26:10 You will still be eating stored produce from the previous year ⁴³  and will have to clean out what is stored from the previous year to make room for new. ⁴⁴ 

26:11 “‘I will put my tabernacle ⁴⁵  in your midst and I will not abhor you. ⁴⁶  26:12 I will walk among you, and I will be your God and you will be my people. 26:13 I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from being their slaves, ⁴⁷  and I broke the bars of your yoke and caused you to walk upright. ⁴⁸ 

The Consequences of Disobedience

26:14 “‘If, however, ⁴⁹  you do not obey me and keep ⁵⁰  all these commandments –

Joshua 1:7

1:7 Make sure you are ⁵¹  very strong and brave! Carefully obey ⁵²  all the law my servant Moses charged you to keep! ⁵³  Do not swerve from it to the right or to the left, so that you may be successful ⁵⁴  in all you do. ⁵⁵ 

Psalms 19:11

19:11 Yes, your servant finds moral guidance there; ⁵⁶ 

those who obey them receive a rich reward. ⁵⁷ 

Isaiah 1:19-20

1:19 If you have a willing attitude and obey, ⁵⁸ 

then you will again eat the good crops of the land.

1:20 But if you refuse and rebel,

you will be devoured ⁵⁹  by the sword.”

Know for certain that the Lord has spoken. ⁶⁰ 

Philippians 1:27

1:27 Only conduct yourselves ⁶¹  in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ so that – whether I come and see you or whether I remain absent – I should hear that ⁶²  you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, by contending side by side for the faith of the gospel, ⁶³ 

[4:9]  ¹ tn Heb “watch yourself and watch your soul carefully.”

[11:13]  ² tn Heb “if hearing, you will hear.” The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute to emphasize the verbal idea. The translation renders this emphasis with the word “close.”

[11:13]  ³ tn Again, the Hebrew term אָהַב (’ahav) draws attention to the reciprocation of divine love as a condition or sign of covenant loyalty (cf. Deut 6:5).

[11:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “heart and soul” or “heart and being.” See note on the word “being” in Deut 6:5.

[11:14]  ⁵ tn The words “he promises” do not appear in the Hebrew text but are needed in the translation to facilitate the transition from the condition (v. 13) to the promise and make it clear that the Lord is speaking the words of vv. 14-15.

[11:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “the rain of your land.” In this case the genitive (modifying term) indicates the recipient of the rain.

[11:14]  ⁷ sn The autumn and the spring rains. The “former” (יוֹרֶה, yoreh) and “latter” (מַלְקוֹשׁ, malqosh) rains come in abundance respectively in September/October and March/April. Planting of most crops takes place before the former rains fall and the harvests follow the latter rains.

[11:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “grass in your field.”

[28:1]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “indeed.”

[28:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “commanding”; NAB “which I enjoin on you today” (likewise in v. 15).

[28:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “come upon you and overtake you” (so NASB, NRSV); NIV “come upon you and accompany you.”

[28:3]  ¹² tn Or “in the country” (so NAB, NIV, NLT). This expression also occurs in v. 15.

[28:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[28:6]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “who rise up against” (so NIV).

[28:7]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “way” (also later in this verse and in v. 25).

[28:8]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the commandments of the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in the previous verse.

[28:9]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and walk in his ways” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[28:10]  ²⁰ 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]  ²¹ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); CEV “will give you a lot of children.”

[28:11]  ²² tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

[28:11]  ²³ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 36, 64).

[28:12]  ²⁴ tn Heb “all the work of your hands.”

[28:13]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the Lord your God’s.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

[28:13]  ²⁶ tn Heb “commanding” (so NRSV); NASB “which I charge you today.”

[28:14]  ²⁷ tn Heb “from all the words which I am commanding.”

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

[28:15]  ²⁹ tn Heb “do not hear the voice of.”

[28:15]  ³⁰ tn Heb “and overtake you” (so NIV, NRSV); NAB, NLT “and overwhelm you.”

[26:3]  ³¹ tn Heb “and my commandments you shall keep and do them.” This appears to be a kind of verbal hendiadys, where the first verb is a modifier of the action of the second verb (see GKC 386 §120.d, although שָׁמַר [shamar, “to keep”] is not cited there; cf. Lev 20:8; 25:18, etc.).

[26:4]  ³² tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.

[26:4]  ³³ tn Heb “the tree of the field will give its fruit.” As a collective singular this has been translated as plural.

[26:5]  ³⁴ tn Heb “will reach for you the vintage season.”

[26:5]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.

[26:5]  ³⁶ tn Heb “to satisfaction”; KJV, ASV, NASB “to the full.”

[26:6]  ³⁷ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.

[26:6]  ³⁸ tn Heb “and there will be no one who terrifies.” The words “to sleep” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[26:6]  ³⁹ tn Heb “harmful animal,” singular, but taken here as a collective plural (so almost all English versions).

[26:6]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “no sword”; the words “of war” are supplied in the translation to indicate what the metaphor of the sword represents.

[26:7]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “to the sword.”

[26:9]  ⁴² tn Heb “cause to arise,” but probably used here for the Lord’s intention of confirming or maintaining the covenant commitment made at Sinai. Cf. KJV “establish”; NASB “will confirm”; NAB “carry out”; NIV “will keep.”

[26:10]  ⁴³ tn Heb “old [produce] growing old.”

[26:10]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “and old from the presence of new you will bring out.”

[26:11]  ⁴⁵ tn LXX codexes Vaticanus and Alexandrinus have “my covenant” rather than “my tabernacle.” Cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV “my dwelling.”

[26:11]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “and my soul [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh] will not abhor you.”

[26:13]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “from being to them slaves.”

[26:13]  ⁴⁸ tn In other words, to walk as free people and not as slaves. Cf. NIV “with (+ your CEV, NLT) heads held high”; NCV “proudly.”

[26:14]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “And if.”

[26:14]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “and do not do.”

[1:7]  ⁵¹ tn Or “Only be.”

[1:7]  ⁵² tn Heb “so you can be careful to do.” The use of the infinitive לִשְׁמֹר (lishmor, “to keep”) after the imperatives suggests that strength and bravery will be necessary for obedience. Another option is to take the form לִשְׁמֹר as a vocative lamed (ל) with imperative (see Isa 38:20 for an example of this construction), which could be translated, “Indeed, be careful!”

[1:7]  ⁵³ tn Heb “commanded you.”

[1:7]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “be wise,” but the word can mean “be successful” by metonymy.

[1:7]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “in all which you go.”

[19:11]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “moreover your servant is warned by them.”

[19:11]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “in the keeping of them [there is] a great reward.”

[1:19]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “listen”; KJV “obedient”; NASB “If you consent and obey.”

[1:20]  ⁵⁹ sn The wordplay in the Hebrew draws attention to the options. The people can obey, in which case they will “eat” v. 19 (תֹּאכֵלוּ [to’khelu], Qal active participle of אָכַל) God’s blessing, or they can disobey, in which case they will be devoured (Heb “eaten,” תְּאֻכְּלוּ, [tÿ’ukkÿlu], Qal passive/Pual of אָכַל) by God’s judgment.

[1:20]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” The introductory כִּי (ki) may be asseverative (as reflected in the translation) or causal/explanatory, explaining why the option chosen by the people will become reality (it is guaranteed by the divine word).

[1:27]  ⁶¹ tn Grk “live as citizens.” The verb πολιτεύεσθε (politeuesqe) connotes the life of a freeman in a free Roman colony.

[1:27]  ⁶² tn Grk “the things concerning you, [namely,] that.” The ὅτι (Joti) clause is appositional to τὰ περὶ ὑμῶν (ta peri Jumwn) and therefore “the things concerning you” was not translated.

[1:27]  ⁶³ tn The phrase “the faith of the gospel” could mean one of three things: “the faith that is the gospel” (genitive of apposition), “the faith that originates from the gospel” (genitive of source), or “faith in the gospel” (objective genitive).