Deuteronomy 8:10-11

8:10 You will eat your fill and then praise the Lord your God because of the good land he has given you.

Exhortation to Remember That Blessing Comes from God

8:11 Be sure you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments, ordinances, and statutes that I am giving you today.

Deuteronomy 10:12-15

An Exhortation to Love Both God and People

10:12 Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you except to revere him, ¹  to obey all his commandments, ²  to love him, to serve him ³  with all your mind and being, ⁴  10:13 and to keep the Lord’s commandments and statutes that I am giving ⁵  you today for your own good? 10:14 The heavens – indeed the highest heavens – belong to the Lord your God, as does the earth and everything in it. 10:15 However, only to your ancestors did he ⁶  show his loving favor, ⁷  and he chose you, their descendants, ⁸  from all peoples – as is apparent today.

Deuteronomy 26:16-19

Narrative Interlude

26:16 Today the Lord your God is commanding you to keep these statutes and ordinances, something you must do with all your heart and soul. ⁹  26:17 Today you have declared the Lord to be your God, and that you will walk in his ways, keep his statutes, commandments, and ordinances, and obey him. 26:18 And today the Lord has declared you to be his special people (as he already promised you) so you may keep all his commandments. 26:19 Then ¹⁰  he will elevate you above all the nations he has made and you will receive praise, fame, and honor. ¹¹  You will ¹²  be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he has said.

Deuteronomy 28:47

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,

Psalms 116:12-16

116:12 How can I repay the Lord

for all his acts of kindness to me?

116:13 I will celebrate my deliverance, ¹³ 

and call on the name of the Lord.

116:14 I will fulfill my vows to the Lord

before all his people.

116:15 The Lord values

the lives of his faithful followers. ¹⁴ 

116:16 Yes, Lord! I am indeed your servant;

I am your lowest slave. ¹⁵ 

You saved me from death. ¹⁶ 

[10:12]  ¹ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 10:4.

[10:12]  ² tn Heb “to walk in all his ways” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NAB “follow his ways exactly”; NLT “to live according to his will.”

[10:12]  ³ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 10:4.

[10:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “heart and soul” or “heart and being”; NCV “with your whole being.” See note on the word “being” in Deut 6:5.

[10:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “commanding” (so NASB, NRSV). For stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy, “giving” has been used in the translation.

[10:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 10:4.

[10:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “take delight to love.” Here again the verb אָהַב (’ahav, “love”), juxtaposed with בָחַר (bakhar, “choose”), is a term in covenant contexts that describes the Lord’s initiative in calling the patriarchal ancestors to be the founders of a people special to him (cf. the note on the word “loved” in Deut 4:37).

[10:15]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew text includes “after them,” but it is redundant in English style and has not been included in the translation.

[26:16]  ⁹ tn Or “mind and being”; cf. NCV “with your whole being”; TEV “obey them faithfully with all your heart.”

[26:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “so that.” Verses 18-19 are one sentence in the Hebrew text, but the translation divides it into three sentences for stylistic reasons. The first clause in verse 19 gives a result of the preceding clause. When Israel keeps God’s law, God will bless them with fame and honor (cf. NAB “he will then raise you high in praise and renown and glory”; NLT “And if you do, he will make you greater than any other nation”).

[26:19]  ¹¹ tn Heb “for praise and for a name and for glory.”

[26:19]  ¹² tn Heb “and to be.” A new sentence was started here for stylistic reasons.

[116:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “a cup of deliverance I will lift up.” Perhaps this alludes to a drink offering the psalmist will present as he thanks the Lord for his deliverance. See v. 17.

[116:15]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “precious in the eyes of the Lord [is] the death of his godly ones.” The point is not that God delights in or finds satisfaction in the death of his followers! The psalmist, who has been delivered from death, affirms that the life-threatening experiences of God’s followers get God’s attention, just as a precious or rare object would attract someone’s eye. See Ps 72:14 for a similar expression of this belief.

[116:16]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “I am your servant, the son of your female servant.” The phrase “son of a female servant” (see also Ps 86:16) is used of a son born to a secondary wife or concubine (Exod 23:12). In some cases the child’s father is the master of the house (see Gen 21:10, 13; Judg 9:18). The use of the expression here certainly does not imply that the Lord has such a secondary wife or concubine! It is used metaphorically and idiomatically to emphasize the psalmist’s humility before the Lord and his status as the Lord’s servant.

[116:16]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “you have loosed my bonds.” In this context the imagery refers to deliverance from death (see v. 3).