Genesis 49:1

The Blessing of Jacob

49:1 Jacob called for his sons and said, “Gather together so I can tell you ¹  what will happen to you in the future. ² 

Deuteronomy 31:29-30

31:29 For I know that after I die you will totally ³  corrupt yourselves and turn away from the path I have commanded you to walk. Disaster will confront you in the days to come because you will act wickedly ⁴  before the Lord, inciting him to anger because of your actions.” ⁵  31:30 Then Moses recited the words of this song from start to finish in the hearing of the whole assembly of Israel.

Deuteronomy 31:1

Succession of Moses by Joshua

31:1 Then Moses went ⁶  and spoke these words ⁷  to all Israel.

Deuteronomy 8:1

The Lord’s Provision in the Desert

8:1 You must keep carefully all these commandments ⁸  I am giving ⁹  you today so that you may live, increase in number, ¹⁰  and go in and occupy the land that the Lord promised to your ancestors. ¹¹ 

Proverbs 5:11-14

5:11 And at the end of your life ¹²  you will groan ¹³ 

when your flesh and your body are wasted away. ¹⁴ 

5:12 And you will say, “How I hated discipline!

My heart spurned reproof!

5:13 For ¹⁵  I did not obey my teachers ¹⁶ 

and I did not heed ¹⁷  my instructors. ¹⁸ 

5:14 I almost ¹⁹  came to complete ruin ²⁰ 

in the midst of the whole congregation!” ²¹ 

Proverbs 21:30

21:30 There is no wisdom and there is no understanding,

and there is no counsel against ²²  the Lord. ²³ 

Hosea 3:4-5

3:4 For the Israelites ²⁴  must live many days without a king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred fertility pillar, without ephod or idols. 3:5 Afterward, the Israelites will turn and seek the Lord their God and their Davidic king. ²⁵  Then they will submit to the Lord in fear and receive his blessings ²⁶  in the future. ²⁷ 

[49:1]  ¹ tn After the imperative, the cohortative with prefixed vav (ו) indicates purpose/result.

[49:1]  ² tn The expression “in the future” (אַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים, ’akharit hayyamim, “in the end of days”) is found most frequently in prophetic passages; it may refer to the end of the age, the eschaton, or to the distant future. The contents of some of the sayings in this chapter stretch from the immediate circumstances to the time of the settlement in the land to the coming of Messiah. There is a great deal of literature on this chapter, including among others C. Armerding, “The Last Words of Jacob: Genesis 49,” BSac 112 (1955): 320-28; H. Pehlke, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Genesis 49:1-28” (Th.D. dissertation, Dallas Theological Seminary, 1985); and B. Vawter, “The Canaanite Background of Genesis 49,” CBQ 17 (1955): 1-18.

[31:29]  ³ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “totally.”

[31:29]  ⁴ tn Heb “do the evil.”

[31:29]  ⁵ tn Heb “the work of your hands.”

[31:1]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn In the MT this refers to the words that follow (cf. NIV, NCV).

[8:1]  ⁸ tn The singular term (מִצְוָה, mitsvah) includes the whole corpus of covenant stipulations, certainly the book of Deuteronomy at least (cf. Deut 5:28; 6:1, 25; 7:11; 11:8, 22; 15:5; 17:20; 19:9; 27:1; 30:11; 31:5). The plural (מִצְוֹת, mitsot) refers to individual stipulations (as in vv. 2, 6).

[8:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “commanding” (so NASB). For stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy, “giving” has been used in the translation (likewise in v. 11).

[8:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “multiply” (so KJV, NASB, NLT); NIV, NRSV “increase.”

[8:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 16, 18).

[5:11]  ¹² tn Heb “at your end.”

[5:11]  ¹³ tn The form is the perfect tense with the vav consecutive; it is equal to a specific future within this context.

[5:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “in the finishing of your flesh and your body.” The construction uses the Qal infinitive construct of כָּלָה (calah) in a temporal clause; the verb means “be complete, at an end, finished, spent.”

[5:13]  ¹⁵ tn The vav that introduces this clause functions in an explanatory sense.

[5:13]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew term מוֹרַי (moray) is the nominal form based on the Hiphil plural participle with a suffix, from the root יָרָה (yarah). The verb is “to teach,” the common noun is “instruction, law [torah],” and this participle form is teacher (“my teachers”).

[5:13]  ¹⁷ sn The idioms are vivid: This expression is “incline the ear”; earlier in the first line is “listen to the voice,” meaning “obey.” Such detailed description emphasizes the importance of the material.

[5:13]  ¹⁸ tn The form is the Piel plural participle of לָמַד (lamad) used substantivally.

[5:14]  ¹⁹ tn The expression כִּמְעַט (kim’at) is “like a little.” It means “almost,” and is used of unrealized action (BDB 590 s.v. 2). Cf. NCV “I came close to”; NLT “I have come to the brink of.”

[5:14]  ²⁰ tn Heb “I was in all evil” (cf. KJV, ASV).

[5:14]  ²¹ tn The text uses the two words “congregation and assembly” to form a hendiadys, meaning the entire assembly.

[21:30]  ²² tn The form לְנֶגֶד (lÿneged) means “against; over against; in opposition to.” The line indicates they cannot in reality be in opposition, for human wisdom is nothing in comparison to the wisdom of God (J. H. Greenstone, Proverbs, 232).

[21:30]  ²³ sn The verse uses a single sentence to state that all wisdom, understanding, and advice must be in conformity to the will of God to be successful. It states it negatively – these things cannot be in defiance of God (e.g., Job 5:12-13; Isa 40:13-14).

[3:4]  ²⁴ tn Heb “sons of Israel” (so NASB); KJV “children of Israel”; NAB “people of Israel” (likewise in the following verse).

[3:5]  ²⁵ tn Heb “David their king”; cf. NCV “the king from David’s family”; TEV “a descendant of David their king”; NLT “David’s descendant, their king.”

[3:5]  ²⁶ tn Heb “his goodness”; NLT “his good gifts.”

[3:5]  ²⁷ tn Heb “in the end of the days.” Cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NCV, NLT “in the last days.”