Genesis 23:10-11

23:10 (Now Ephron was sitting among the sons of Heth.) Ephron the Hethite ¹  replied to Abraham in the hearing ²  of the sons of Heth – before all who entered the gate ³  of his city – 23:11 “No, my lord! Hear me out. I sell ⁴  you both the field and the cave that is in it. ⁵  In the presence of my people ⁶  I sell it to you. Bury your dead.”

Genesis 23:17

23:17 So Abraham secured ⁷  Ephron’s field in Machpelah, next to Mamre, including the field, the cave that was in it, and all the trees that were in the field and all around its border,

Exodus 22:29

22:29 “Do not hold back offerings from your granaries or your vats. ⁸  You must give me the firstborn of your sons.

Exodus 23:10-11

Sabbaths and Feasts

23:10 ⁹ “For six years ¹⁰  you are to sow your land and gather in its produce. 23:11 But in the seventh year ¹¹  you must let it lie fallow and leave it alone so that the poor of your people may eat, and what they leave any animal in the field ¹²  may eat; you must do likewise with your vineyard and your olive grove.

Exodus 23:19

23:19 The first of the firstfruits of your soil you must bring to the house of the Lord your God.

“You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk. ¹³ 

Numbers 15:20

15:20 You must offer up a cake of the first of your finely ground flour ¹⁴  as a raised offering; as you offer the raised offering of the threshing floor, so you must offer it up.

Deuteronomy 26:10

26:10 So now, look! I have brought the first of the ground’s produce that you, Lord, have given me.” Then you must set it down before the Lord your God and worship before him. ¹⁵ 

Deuteronomy 26:2

26:2 you must take the first of all the ground’s produce you harvest from the land the Lord your God is giving you, place it in a basket, and go to the place where he ¹⁶  chooses to locate his name. ¹⁷ 

Deuteronomy 31:5

31:5 The Lord will deliver them over to you and you will do to them according to the whole commandment I have given you.

Deuteronomy 31:1

Succession of Moses by Joshua

31:1 Then Moses went ¹⁸  and spoke these words ¹⁹  to all Israel.

Colossians 1:20

1:20 and through him to reconcile all things to himself by making peace through the blood of his cross – through him, ²⁰  whether things on earth or things in heaven.

Revelation 14:4

14:4 These are the ones who have not defiled themselves ²¹  with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were redeemed from humanity as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb,

[23:10]  ¹ tn Or perhaps “Hittite,” but see the note on the name “Heth” in v. 3.

[23:10]  ² tn Heb “ears.” By metonymy the “ears” stand for the presence or proximity (i.e., within earshot) of the persons named.

[23:10]  ³ sn On the expression all who entered the gate see E. A. Speiser, “‘Coming’ and ‘Going’ at the City Gate,” BASOR 144 (1956): 20-23; and G. Evans, “‘Coming’ and ‘Going’ at the City Gate: A Discussion of Professor Speiser’s Paper,” BASOR 150 (1958): 28-33.

[23:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “give.” The perfect tense has here a present nuance; this is a formal, legally binding declaration. Abraham asked only for a burial site/cave within the field; Ephron agrees to sell him the entire field.

[23:11]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew text adds “to you I give [i.e., sell] it.” This is redundant in English and has not been translated for stylistic reasons.

[23:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “in the presence of the sons of my people.”

[23:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “And it was conveyed.” The recipient, Abraham (mentioned in the Hebrew text at the beginning of v. 18) has been placed here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[22:29]  ⁸ tn The expressions are unusual. U. Cassuto renders them: “from the fullness of your harvest and from the outflow of your presses” (Exodus, 294). He adds the Hittite parallel material to show that the people were to bring the offerings on time and not let them overlap, because the firstfruits had to be eaten first by the priest.

[23:10]  ⁹ sn This section concerns religious duties of the people of God as they worship by giving thanks to God for their blessings. The principles here are: God requires his people to allow the poor to share in their bounty (10-11); God requires his people to provide times of rest and refreshment for those who labor for them (12); God requires allegiance to himself (13); God requires his people to come before him in gratitude and share their bounty (14-17); God requires that his people safeguard proper worship forms (18-19).

[23:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and six years”; this is an adverbial accusative telling how long they can work their land. The following references to years and days in vv. 10-12 function similarly.

[23:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and the seventh year”; an adverbial accusative with a disjunctive vav (ו).

[23:11]  ¹² tn Heb “living thing/creature/beast of the field.” A general term for animals, usually wild animals, including predators (cf. v. 29; Gen 2:19-20; Lev 26:22; Deut 7:22; 1 Sam 17:46; Job 5:22-23; Ezek 29:5; 34:5).

[23:19]  ¹³ sn On this verse, see C. M. Carmichael, “On Separating Life and Death: An Explanation of Some Biblical Laws,” HTR 69 (1976): 1-7; J. Milgrom, “You Shall Not Boil a Kid in Its Mother’s Milk,” BRev 1 (1985): 48-55; R. J. Ratner and B. Zuckerman, “In Rereading the ‘Kid in Milk’ Inscriptions,” BRev 1 (1985): 56-58; and M. Haran, “Seething a Kid in Its Mother’s Milk,” JJS 30 (1979): 23-35. Here and at 34:26, where this command is repeated, it ends a series of instructions about procedures for worship.

[15:20]  ¹⁴ tn Or “the first of your dough.” The phrase is not very clear. N. H. Snaith thinks it means a batch of loaves from the kneading trough – the first batch of the baking (Leviticus and Numbers [NCB], 251).

[26:10]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 26:2.

[26:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[26:2]  ¹⁷ sn The place where he chooses to locate his name. This is a circumlocution for the central sanctuary, first the tabernacle and later the Jerusalem temple. See Deut 12:1-14 and especially the note on the word “you” in v. 14.

[31:1]  ¹⁸ tc For the MT reading וַיֵּלֶךְ (vayyelekh, “he went”), the LXX and Qumran have וַיְכַל (vaykhal, “he finished”): “So Moses finished speaking,” etc. The difficult reading of the MT favors its authenticity.

[31:1]  ¹⁹ tn In the MT this refers to the words that follow (cf. NIV, NCV).

[1:20]  ²⁰ tc The presence or absence of the second occurrence of the phrase δι᾿ αὐτοῦ (di’ autou, “through him”) is a difficult textual problem to solve. External evidence is fairly evenly divided. Many ancient and excellent witnesses lack the phrase (B D* F G I 0278 81 1175 1739 1881 2464 al latt sa), but equally important witnesses have it (Ì⁴⁶ א A C D¹ Ψ 048^vid 33 Ï). Both readings have strong Alexandrian support, which makes the problem difficult to decide on external evidence alone. Internal evidence points to the inclusion of the phrase as original. The word immediately preceding the phrase is the masculine pronoun αὐτοῦ (autou); thus the possibility of omission through homoioteleuton in various witnesses is likely. Scribes might have deleted the phrase because of perceived redundancy or awkwardness in the sense: The shorter reading is smoother and more elegant, so scribes would be prone to correct the text in that direction. As far as style is concerned, repetition of key words and phrases for emphasis is not foreign to the corpus Paulinum (see, e.g., Rom 8:23, Eph 1:13, 2 Cor 12:7). In short, it is easier to account for the shorter reading arising from the longer reading than vice versa, so the longer reading is more likely original.

[14:4]  ²¹ tn The aorist passive verb is rendered as a reflexive (“defiled themselves”) by BDAG 657 s.v. μολύνω 2.