Joshua 21:45

21:45 Not one of the Lord’s faithful promises to the family of Israel ¹  was left unfulfilled; every one was realized. ² 

Genesis 15:15-18

15:15 But as for you, ³  you will go to your ancestors ⁴  in peace and be buried at a good old age. ⁵  15:16 In the fourth generation ⁶  your descendants ⁷  will return here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its limit.” ⁸ 

15:17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking firepot with a flaming torch ⁹  passed between the animal parts. ¹⁰  15:18 That day the Lord made a covenant ¹¹  with Abram: “To your descendants I give ¹²  this land, from the river of Egypt ¹³  to the great river, the Euphrates River –

Exodus 3:8

3:8 I have come down ¹⁴  to deliver them ¹⁵  from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a land that is both good and spacious, ¹⁶  to a land flowing with milk and honey, ¹⁷  to the region of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. ¹⁸ 

Exodus 23:27-30

23:27 “I will send my terror ¹⁹  before you, and I will destroy ²⁰  all the people whom you encounter; I will make all your enemies turn their backs ²¹  to you. 23:28 I will send ²²  hornets before you that will drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite before you. 23:29 I will not drive them out before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild animals ²³  multiply against you. 23:30 Little by little ²⁴  I will drive them out before you, until you become fruitful and inherit the land.

Exodus 33:2

33:2 I will send an angel ²⁵  before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. ²⁶ 

Deuteronomy 7:1

The Dispossession of Nonvassals

7:1 When the Lord your God brings you to the land that you are going to occupy and forces out many nations before you – Hittites, ²⁷  Girgashites, ²⁸  Amorites, ²⁹  Canaanites, ³⁰  Perizzites, ³¹  Hivites, ³²  and Jebusites, ³³  seven ³⁴  nations more numerous and powerful than you –

Psalms 44:2-3

44:2 You, by your power, ³⁵  defeated nations and settled our fathers on their land; ³⁶ 

you crushed ³⁷  the people living there ³⁸  and enabled our ancestors to occupy it. ³⁹ 

44:3 For they did not conquer ⁴⁰  the land by their swords,

and they did not prevail by their strength, ⁴¹ 

but rather by your power, ⁴²  strength ⁴³  and good favor, ⁴⁴ 

for you were partial to ⁴⁵  them.

[21:45]  ¹ tn Heb “the house of Israel.” Cf. NCV “the Israelites”; TEV “the people of Israel”; CEV, NLT “Israel.”

[21:45]  ² tn Heb “not a word from all the good word which the Lord spoke to the house of Israel fell; the whole came to pass.”

[15:15]  ³ tn The vav with the pronoun before the verb calls special attention to the subject in contrast to the preceding subject.

[15:15]  ⁴ sn You will go to your ancestors. This is a euphemistic expression for death.

[15:15]  ⁵ tn Heb “in a good old age.”

[15:16]  ⁶ sn The term generation is being used here in its widest sense to refer to a full life span. When the chronological factors are considered and the genealogies tabulated, there are four hundred years of bondage. This suggests that in this context a generation is equivalent to one hundred years.

[15:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “they”; the referent (“your descendants”) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[15:16]  ⁸ tn Heb “is not yet complete.”

[15:17]  ⁹ sn A smoking pot with a flaming torch. These same implements were used in Mesopotamian rituals designed to ward off evil (see E. A. Speiser, Genesis [AB], 113-14).

[15:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “these pieces.”

[15:18]  ¹¹ tn Heb “cut a covenant.”

[15:18]  ¹² tn The perfect verbal form is understood as instantaneous (“I here and now give”). Another option is to understand it as rhetorical, indicating certitude (“I have given” meaning it is as good as done, i.e., “I will surely give”).

[15:18]  ¹³ sn The river of Egypt is a wadi (a seasonal stream) on the northeastern border of Egypt, not to the River Nile.

[3:8]  ¹⁴ sn God’s coming down is a frequent anthropomorphism in Genesis and Exodus. It expresses his direct involvement, often in the exercise of judgment.

[3:8]  ¹⁵ tn The Hiphil infinitive with the suffix is לְהַצִּילוֹ (lÿhatsilo, “to deliver them”). It expresses the purpose of God’s coming down. The verb itself is used for delivering or rescuing in the general sense, and snatching out of danger for the specific.

[3:8]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “to a land good and large”; NRSV “to a good and broad land.” In the translation the words “that is both” are supplied because in contemporary English “good and” combined with any additional descriptive term can be understood as elative (“good and large” = “very large”; “good and spacious” = “very spacious”; “good and ready” = “very ready”). The point made in the Hebrew text is that the land to which they are going is both good (in terms of quality) and large (in terms of size).

[3:8]  ¹⁷ tn This vibrant description of the promised land is a familiar one. Gesenius classifies “milk and honey” as epexegetical genitives because they provide more precise description following a verbal adjective in the construct state (GKC 418-19 §128.x). The land is modified by “flowing,” and “flowing” is explained by the genitives “milk and honey.” These two products will be in abundance in the land, and they therefore exemplify what a desirable land it is. The language is hyperbolic, as if the land were streaming with these products.

[3:8]  ¹⁸ tn Each people group is joined to the preceding by the vav conjunction, “and.” Each also has the definite article, as in other similar lists (3:17; 13:5; 34:11). To repeat the conjunction and article in the translation seems to put more weight on the list in English than is necessary to its function in identifying what land God was giving the Israelites.

[23:27]  ¹⁹ tn The word for “terror” is אֵימָתִי (’emati); the word has the thought of “panic” or “dread.” God would make the nations panic as they heard of the exploits and knew the Israelites were drawing near. U. Cassuto thinks the reference to “hornets” in v. 28 may be a reference to this fear, an unreasoning dread, rather than to another insect invasion (Exodus, 308). Others suggest it is symbolic of an invading army or a country like Egypt or literal insects (see E. Neufeld, “Insects as Warfare Agents in the Ancient Near East,” Or 49 [1980]: 30-57).

[23:27]  ²⁰ tn Heb “kill.”

[23:27]  ²¹ tn The text has “and I will give all your enemies to you [as] a back.” The verb of making takes two accusatives, the second being the adverbial accusative of product (see GKC 371-72 §117.ii, n. 1).

[23:28]  ²² tn Heb “and I will send.”

[23:29]  ²³ tn Heb “the beast of the field.”

[23:30]  ²⁴ tn The repetition expresses an exceptional or super-fine quality (see GKC 396 §123.e).

[33:2]  ²⁵ sn This seems not to be the same as the Angel of the Presence introduced before.

[33:2]  ²⁶ sn See T. Ishida, “The Structure and Historical Implications of Lists of Pre-Israelite Nations,” Bib (1979): 461-90.

[7:1]  ²⁷ sn Hittites. The center of Hittite power was in Anatolia (central modern Turkey). In the Late Bronze Age (1550-1200 b.c.) they were at their zenith, establishing outposts and colonies near and far. Some elements were obviously in Canaan at the time of the Conquest (1400-1350 b.c.).

[7:1]  ²⁸ sn Girgashites. These cannot be ethnically identified and are unknown outside the OT. They usually appear in such lists only when the intention is to have seven groups in all (see also the note on the word “seven” later in this verse).

[7:1]  ²⁹ sn Amorites. Originally from the upper Euphrates region (Amurru), the Amorites appear to have migrated into Canaan beginning in 2200 b.c. or thereabouts.

[7:1]  ³⁰ sn Canaanites. These were the indigenous peoples of the land, going back to the beginning of recorded history (ca. 3000 b.c.). The OT identifies them as descendants of Ham (Gen 10:6), the only Hamites to have settled north and east of Egypt.

[7:1]  ³¹ sn Perizzites. This is probably a subgroup of Canaanites (Gen 13:7; 34:30).

[7:1]  ³² sn Hivites. These are usually thought to be the same as the Hurrians, a people well-known in ancient Near Eastern texts. They are likely identical to the Horites (see note on the term “Horites” in Deut 2:12).

[7:1]  ³³ sn Jebusites. These inhabited the hill country, particularly in and about Jerusalem (cf. Num 13:29; Josh 15:8; 2 Sam 5:6; 24:16).

[7:1]  ³⁴ sn Seven. This is an ideal number in the OT, one symbolizing fullness or completeness. Therefore, the intent of the text here is not to be precise and list all of Israel’s enemies but simply to state that Israel will have a full complement of foes to deal with. For other lists of Canaanites, some with fewer than seven peoples, see Exod 3:8; 13:5; 23:23, 28; 33:2; 34:11; Deut 20:17; Josh 3:10; 9:1; 24:11. Moreover, the “Table of Nations” (Gen 10:15-19) suggests that all of these (possibly excepting the Perizzites) were offspring of Canaan and therefore Canaanites.

[44:2]  ³⁵ tn Heb “you, your hand.”

[44:2]  ³⁶ tn Heb “dispossessed nations and planted them.” The third masculine plural pronoun “them” refers to the fathers (v. 1). See Ps 80:8, 15.

[44:2]  ³⁷ tn The verb form in the Hebrew text is a Hiphil preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive) from רָעַע (ra’a’, “be evil; be bad”). If retained it apparently means, “you injured; harmed.” Some prefer to derive the verb from רָעַע (“break”; cf. NEB “breaking up the peoples”), in which case the form must be revocalized as Qal (since this verb is unattested in the Hiphil).

[44:2]  ³⁸ tn Or “peoples.”

[44:2]  ³⁹ tn Heb “and you sent them out.” The translation assumes that the third masculine plural pronoun “them” refers to the fathers (v. 1), as in the preceding parallel line. See Ps 80:11, where Israel, likened to a vine, “spreads out” its tendrils to the west and east. Another option is to take the “peoples” as the referent of the pronoun and translate, “and you sent them away,” though this does not provide as tight a parallel with the corresponding line.

[44:3]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “take possession of.”

[44:3]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “and their arm did not save them.” The “arm” here symbolizes military strength.

[44:3]  ⁴² tn Heb “your right hand.” The Lord’s “right hand” here symbolizes his power to protect and deliver (see Pss 17:7; 20:6; 21:8).

[44:3]  ⁴³ tn Heb “your arm.”

[44:3]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “light of your face.” The idiom “light of your face” probably refers to a smile (see Eccl 8:1), which in turn suggests favor and blessing (see Num 6:25; Pss 4:6; 31:16; 67:1; 80:3, 7, 19; 89:15; Dan 9:17).

[44:3]  ⁴⁵ tn Or “favorable toward.”