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. ¹ 

Deuteronomy 9:14

9:14 Stand aside ²  and I will destroy them, obliterating their very name from memory, ³  and I will make you into a stronger and more numerous nation than they are.”

Deuteronomy 10:17

10:17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God who is unbiased and takes no bribe,

Deuteronomy 10:21

10:21 He is the one you should praise; ⁴  he is your God, the one who has done these great and awesome things for you that you have seen.

Deuteronomy 19:17

19:17 then both parties to the controversy must stand before the Lord, that is, before the priests and judges ⁵  who will be in office in those days.

Deuteronomy 28:7

28:7 The Lord will cause your enemies who attack ⁶  you to be struck down before you; they will attack you from one direction ⁷  but flee from you in seven different directions.

Deuteronomy 33:3

33:3 Surely he loves the people; ⁸ 

all your holy ones ⁹  are in your power. ¹⁰ 

And they sit ¹¹  at your feet,

each receiving ¹²  your words.

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

[9:14]  ² tn Heb “leave me alone.”

[9:14]  ³ tn Heb “from under heaven.”

[10:21]  ³ tn Heb “your praise.” The pronoun is subjective and the noun “praise” is used here metonymically for the object of their praise (the Lord).

[19:17]  ⁴ tn The appositional construction (“before the Lord, that is, before the priests and judges”) indicates that these human agents represented the Lord himself, that is, they stood in his place (cf. Deut 16:18-20; 17:8-9).

[28:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “who rise up against” (so NIV).

[28:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “way” (also later in this verse and in v. 25).

[33:3]  ⁶ tc Heb “peoples.” The apparent plural form is probably a misunderstood singular (perhaps with a pronominal suffix) with enclitic mem (ם). See HALOT 838 s.v. עַם B.2.

[33:3]  ⁷ tc Heb “his holy ones.” The third person masculine singular suffix of the Hebrew MT is problematic in light of the second person masculine singular suffix on בְּיָדֶךָ (bÿyadekha, “your hands”). The LXX versions by Lucian and Origen read, therefore, “the holy ones.” The LXX version by Theodotion and the Vulgate, however, presuppose third masculine singular suffix on בְּיָדָיו (bÿyadayv, “his hands”), and thus retain “his holy ones.” The efforts to bring pronominal harmony into the line is commendable but unnecessary given the Hebrew tendency to be untroubled by such grammatical inconsistencies. However, the translation harmonizes the first pronoun with the second so that the referent (the Lord) is clear.

[33:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “hands.” For the problem of the pronoun see note on the term “holy ones” earlier in this verse.

[33:3]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew term תֻּכּוּ (tuku, probably Pual perfect of תָּכָה, takhah) is otherwise unknown. The present translation is based on the reference to feet and, apparently, receiving instruction in God’s words (cf. KJV, ASV). Other options are as follows: NIV “At your feet they all bow down” (cf. NCV, CEV); NLT “They follow in your steps” (cf. NAB, NASB); NRSV “they marched at your heels.”

[33:3]  ¹⁰ tn The singular verbal form in the Hebrew text (lit. “he lifts up”) is understood in a distributive manner, focusing on the action of each individual within the group.