Lamentations 2:8

ח (Khet)

2:8 The Lord was determined to tear down

Daughter Zion’s wall.

He prepared to knock it down; ¹ 

he did not withdraw his hand from destroying. ² 

He made the ramparts and fortified walls lament;

together they mourned their ruin. ³ 

Leviticus 26:14-46

The Consequences of Disobedience

26:14 “‘If, however, ⁴  you do not obey me and keep ⁵  all these commandments – 26:15 if you reject my statutes and abhor my regulations so that you do not keep ⁶  all my commandments and you break my covenant – 26:16 I for my part ⁷  will do this to you: I will inflict horror on you, consumption and fever, which diminish eyesight and drain away the vitality of life. ⁸  You will sow your seed in vain because ⁹  your enemies will eat it. ¹⁰  26:17 I will set my face against you. You will be struck down before your enemies, those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when there is no one pursuing you.

26:18 “‘If, in spite of all these things, ¹¹  you do not obey me, I will discipline you seven times more on account of your sins. ¹²  26:19 I will break your strong pride and make your sky like iron and your land like bronze. 26:20 Your strength will be used up in vain, your land will not give its yield, and the trees of the land ¹³  will not produce their fruit.

26:21 “‘If you walk in hostility against me ¹⁴  and are not willing to obey me, I will increase your affliction ¹⁵  seven times according to your sins. 26:22 I will send the wild animals ¹⁶  against you and they will bereave you of your children, ¹⁷  annihilate your cattle, and diminish your population ¹⁸  so that your roads will become deserted.

26:23 “‘If in spite of these things ¹⁹  you do not allow yourselves to be disciplined and you walk in hostility against me, ²⁰  26:24 I myself will also walk in hostility against you and strike you ²¹  seven times on account of your sins. 26:25 I will bring on you an avenging sword, a covenant vengeance. ²²  Although ²³  you will gather together into your cities, I will send pestilence among you and you will be given into enemy hands. ²⁴  26:26 When I break off your supply of bread, ²⁵  ten women will bake your bread in one oven; they will ration your bread by weight, ²⁶  and you will eat and not be satisfied.

26:27 “‘If in spite of this ²⁷  you do not obey me but walk in hostility against me, ²⁸  26:28 I will walk in hostile rage against you ²⁹  and I myself will also discipline you seven times on account of your sins. 26:29 You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters. ³⁰  26:30 I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars, ³¹  and I will stack your dead bodies on top of the lifeless bodies of your idols. ³²  I will abhor you. ³³  26:31 I will lay your cities waste ³⁴  and make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will refuse to smell your soothing aromas. 26:32 I myself will make the land desolate and your enemies who live in it will be appalled. 26:33 I will scatter you among the nations and unsheathe the sword ³⁵  after you, so your land will become desolate and your cities will become a waste.

26:34 “‘Then the land will make up for ³⁶  its Sabbaths all the days it lies desolate while you are in the land of your enemies; then the land will rest and make up its Sabbaths. 26:35 All the days of the desolation it will have the rest it did not have ³⁷  on your Sabbaths when you lived on it.

26:36 “‘As for ³⁸  the ones who remain among you, I will bring despair into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a blowing leaf will pursue them, and they will flee as one who flees the sword and fall down even though there is no pursuer. 26:37 They will stumble over each other as those who flee before a sword, though ³⁹  there is no pursuer, and there will be no one to take a stand ⁴⁰  for you before your enemies. 26:38 You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will consume you.

Restoration through Confession and Repentance

26:39 “‘As for the ones who remain among you, they will rot away because of ⁴¹  their iniquity in the lands of your enemies, and they will also rot away because of their ancestors’ ⁴²  iniquities which are with them. 26:40 However, when ⁴³  they confess their iniquity and their ancestors’ iniquity which they committed by trespassing against me, ⁴⁴  by which they also walked ⁴⁵  in hostility against me ⁴⁶  26:41 (and I myself will walk in hostility against them and bring them into the land of their enemies), and ⁴⁷  then their uncircumcised hearts become humbled and they make up for ⁴⁸  their iniquity, 26:42 I will remember my covenant with Jacob and also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham, ⁴⁹  and I will remember the land. 26:43 The land will be abandoned by them ⁵⁰  in order that it may make up for ⁵¹  its Sabbaths while it is made desolate ⁵²  without them, ⁵³  and they will make up for their iniquity because ⁵⁴  they have rejected my regulations and have abhorred ⁵⁵  my statutes. 26:44 In spite of this, however, when they are in the land of their enemies I will not reject them and abhor them to make a complete end of them, to break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God. 26:45 I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors ⁵⁶  whom I brought out from the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am the Lord.’”

Summary Colophon

26:46 These are the statutes, regulations, and instructions which the Lord established ⁵⁷  between himself and the Israelites at Mount Sinai through ⁵⁸  Moses.

Deuteronomy 28:15-68

Curses as Reversal of Blessings

28:15 “But if you ignore ⁵⁹  the Lord your God and are not careful to keep all his commandments and statutes I am giving you today, then all these curses will come upon you in full force: ⁶⁰  28:16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the field. 28:17 Your basket and your mixing bowl will be cursed. 28:18 Your children ⁶¹  will be cursed, as well as the produce of your soil, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks. 28:19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. ⁶² 

Curses by Disease and Drought

28:20 “The Lord will send on you a curse, confusing you and opposing you ⁶³  in everything you undertake ⁶⁴  until you are destroyed and quickly perish because of the evil of your deeds, in that you have forsaken me. ⁶⁵  28:21 The Lord will plague you with deadly diseases ⁶⁶  until he has completely removed you from the land you are about to possess. 28:22 He ⁶⁷  will afflict you with weakness, ⁶⁸  fever, inflammation, infection, ⁶⁹  sword, ⁷⁰  blight, and mildew; these will attack you until you perish. 28:23 The ⁷¹  sky ⁷²  above your heads will be bronze and the earth beneath you iron. 28:24 The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust; it will come down on you from the sky until you are destroyed.

Curses by Defeat and Deportation

28:25 “The Lord will allow you to be struck down before your enemies; you will attack them from one direction but flee from them in seven directions and will become an object of terror ⁷³  to all the kingdoms of the earth. 28:26 Your carcasses will be food for every bird of the sky and wild animal of the earth, and there will be no one to chase them off. 28:27 The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, eczema, and scabies, all of which cannot be healed. 28:28 The Lord will also subject you to madness, blindness, and confusion of mind. ⁷⁴  28:29 You will feel your way along at noon like the blind person does in darkness and you will not succeed in anything you do; ⁷⁵  you will be constantly oppressed and continually robbed, with no one to save you. 28:30 You will be engaged to a woman and another man will rape ⁷⁶  her. You will build a house but not live in it. You will plant a vineyard but not even begin to use it. 28:31 Your ox will be slaughtered before your very eyes but you will not eat of it. Your donkey will be stolen from you as you watch and will not be returned to you. Your flock of sheep will be given to your enemies and there will be no one to save you. 28:32 Your sons and daughters will be given to another people while you look on in vain all day, and you will be powerless to do anything about it. ⁷⁷  28:33 As for the produce of your land and all your labor, a people you do not know will consume it, and you will be nothing but oppressed and crushed for the rest of your lives. 28:34 You will go insane from seeing all this. 28:35 The Lord will afflict you in your knees and on your legs with painful, incurable boils – from the soles of your feet to the top of your head. 28:36 The Lord will force you and your king ⁷⁸  whom you will appoint over you to go away to a people whom you and your ancestors have not known, and you will serve other gods of wood and stone there. 28:37 You will become an occasion of horror, a proverb, and an object of ridicule to all the peoples to whom the Lord will drive you.

The Curse of Reversed Status

28:38 “You will take much seed to the field but gather little harvest, because locusts will consume it. 28:39 You will plant vineyards and cultivate them, but you will not drink wine or gather in grapes, because worms will eat them. 28:40 You will have olive trees throughout your territory but you will not anoint yourself with olive oil, because the olives will drop off the trees while still unripe. ⁷⁹  28:41 You will bear sons and daughters but not keep them, because they will be taken into captivity. 28:42 Whirring locusts ⁸⁰  will take over every tree and all the produce of your soil. 28:43 The foreigners ⁸¹  who reside among you will become higher and higher over you and you will become lower and lower. 28:44 They will lend to you but you will not lend to them; they will become the head and you will become the tail!

28:45 All these curses will fall on you, pursuing and overtaking you until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the Lord your God by keeping his commandments and statutes that he has given ⁸²  you. 28:46 These curses ⁸³  will be a perpetual sign and wonder with reference to you and your descendants. ⁸⁴ 

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, 28:48 instead in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and poverty ⁸⁵  you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you. They ⁸⁶  will place an iron yoke on your neck until they have destroyed you. 28:49 The Lord will raise up a distant nation against you, one from the other side of the earth ⁸⁷  as the eagle flies, ⁸⁸  a nation whose language you will not understand, 28:50 a nation of stern appearance that will have no regard for the elderly or pity for the young. 28:51 They ⁸⁹  will devour the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your soil until you are destroyed. They will not leave you with any grain, new wine, olive oil, calves of your herds, ⁹⁰  or lambs of your flocks ⁹¹  until they have destroyed you. 28:52 They will besiege all of your villages ⁹²  until all of your high and fortified walls collapse – those in which you put your confidence throughout the land. They will besiege all your villages throughout the land the Lord your God has given you. 28:53 You will then eat your own offspring, ⁹³  the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you, because of the severity of the siege ⁹⁴  by which your enemies will constrict you. 28:54 The man among you who is by nature tender and sensitive will turn against his brother, his beloved wife, and his remaining children. 28:55 He will withhold from all of them his children’s flesh that he is eating (since there is nothing else left), because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict ⁹⁵  you in your villages. 28:56 Likewise, the most ⁹⁶  tender and delicate of your women, who would never think of putting even the sole of her foot on the ground because of her daintiness, ⁹⁷  will turn against her beloved husband, her sons and daughters, 28:57 and will secretly eat her afterbirth ⁹⁸  and her newborn children ⁹⁹  (since she has nothing else), ¹⁰⁰  because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict you in your villages.

The Curse of Covenant Termination

28:58 “If you refuse to obey ¹⁰¹  all the words of this law, the things written in this scroll, and refuse to fear this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God, 28:59 then the Lord will increase your punishments and those of your descendants – great and long-lasting afflictions and severe, enduring illnesses. 28:60 He will infect you with all the diseases of Egypt ¹⁰²  that you dreaded, and they will persistently afflict you. ¹⁰³  28:61 Moreover, the Lord will bring upon you every kind of sickness and plague not mentioned in this scroll of commandments, ¹⁰⁴  until you have perished. 28:62 There will be very few of you left, though at one time you were as numerous as the stars in the sky, ¹⁰⁵  because you will have disobeyed ¹⁰⁶  the Lord your God. 28:63 This is what will happen: Just as the Lord delighted to do good for you and make you numerous, he ¹⁰⁷  will take delight in destroying and decimating you. You will be uprooted from the land you are about to possess. 28:64 The Lord will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods of wood and stone. 28:65 Among those nations you will have no rest nor will there be a place of peaceful rest for the soles of your feet, for there the Lord will give you an anxious heart, failing eyesight, and a spirit of despair. 28:66 Your life will hang in doubt before you; you will be terrified by night and day and will have no certainty of surviving from one day to the next. ¹⁰⁸  28:67 In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ And in the evening you will say, ‘I wish it were morning!’ because of the things you will fear and the things you will see. 28:68 Then the Lord will make you return to Egypt by ship, over a route I said to you that you would never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”

Deuteronomy 29:18-23

29:18 Beware that the heart of no man, woman, clan, or tribe among you turns away from the Lord our God today to pursue and serve the gods of those nations; beware that there is among you no root producing poisonous and bitter fruit. ¹⁰⁹  29:19 When such a person ¹¹⁰  hears the words of this oath he secretly ¹¹¹  blesses himself ¹¹²  and says, “I will have peace though I continue to walk with a stubborn spirit.” ¹¹³  This will destroy ¹¹⁴  the watered ground with the parched. ¹¹⁵  29:20 The Lord will be unwilling to forgive him, and his intense anger ¹¹⁶  will rage ¹¹⁷  against that man; all the curses ¹¹⁸  written in this scroll will fall upon him ¹¹⁹  and the Lord will obliterate his name from memory. ¹²⁰  29:21 The Lord will single him out ¹²¹  for judgment ¹²²  from all the tribes of Israel according to all the curses of the covenant written in this scroll of the law. 29:22 The generation to come – your descendants who will rise up after you, as well as the foreigner who will come from distant places – will see ¹²³  the afflictions of that land and the illnesses that the Lord has brought on it. 29:23 The whole land will be covered with brimstone, salt, and burning debris; it will not be planted nor will it sprout or produce grass. It will resemble the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord destroyed in his intense anger. ¹²⁴ 

Deuteronomy 31:16-17

31:16 Then the Lord said to Moses, “You are about to die, ¹²⁵  and then these people will begin to prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land into which they ¹²⁶  are going. They ¹²⁷  will reject ¹²⁸  me and break my covenant that I have made with them. ¹²⁹  31:17 At that time ¹³⁰  my anger will erupt against them ¹³¹  and I will abandon them and hide my face from them until they are devoured. Many disasters and distresses will overcome ¹³²  them ¹³³  so that they ¹³⁴  will say at that time, ‘Have not these disasters ¹³⁵  overcome us ¹³⁶  because our ¹³⁷  God is not among us ¹³⁸ ?’

Deuteronomy 32:15-27

Israel’s Rebellion

32:15 But Jeshurun ¹³⁹  became fat and kicked,

you ¹⁴⁰  got fat, thick, and stuffed!

Then he deserted the God who made him,

and treated the Rock who saved him with contempt.

32:16 They made him jealous with other gods, ¹⁴¹ 

they enraged him with abhorrent idols. ¹⁴² 

32:17 They sacrificed to demons, not God,

to gods they had not known;

to new gods who had recently come along,

gods your ancestors ¹⁴³  had not known about.

32:18 You have forgotten ¹⁴⁴  the Rock who fathered you,

and put out of mind the God who gave you birth.

A Word of Judgment

32:19 But the Lord took note and despised them

because his sons and daughters enraged him.

32:20 He said, “I will reject them, ¹⁴⁵ 

I will see what will happen to them;

for they are a perverse generation,

children ¹⁴⁶  who show no loyalty.

32:21 They have made me jealous ¹⁴⁷  with false gods, ¹⁴⁸ 

enraging me with their worthless gods; ¹⁴⁹ 

so I will make them jealous with a people they do not recognize, ¹⁵⁰ 

with a nation slow to learn ¹⁵¹  I will enrage them.

32:22 For a fire has been kindled by my anger,

and it burns to lowest Sheol; ¹⁵² 

it consumes the earth and its produce,

and ignites the foundations of the mountains.

32:23 I will increase their ¹⁵³  disasters,

I will use up my arrows on them.

32:24 They will be starved by famine,

eaten by plague, and bitterly stung; ¹⁵⁴ 

I will send the teeth of wild animals against them,

along with the poison of creatures that crawl in the dust.

32:25 The sword will make people childless outside,

and terror will do so inside;

they will destroy ¹⁵⁵  both the young man and the virgin,

the infant and the gray-haired man.

The Weakness of Other Gods

32:26 “I said, ‘I want to cut them in pieces. ¹⁵⁶ 

I want to make people forget they ever existed.

32:27 But I fear the reaction ¹⁵⁷  of their enemies,

for ¹⁵⁸  their adversaries would misunderstand

and say, “Our power is great, ¹⁵⁹ 

and the Lord has not done all this!”’

Jeremiah 18:11

18:11 So now, tell the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem ¹⁶⁰  this: The Lord says, ‘I am preparing to bring disaster on you! I am making plans to punish you. ¹⁶¹  So, every one of you, stop the evil things you have been doing. ¹⁶²  Correct the way you have been living and do what is right.’ ¹⁶³ 

Micah 2:3

2:3 Therefore the Lord says this: “Look, I am devising disaster for this nation! ¹⁶⁴ 

It will be like a yoke from which you cannot free your neck. ¹⁶⁵ 

You will no longer ¹⁶⁶  walk proudly,

for it will be a time of catastrophe.

[2:8]  ¹ tn Heb “he stretched out a measuring line.” In Hebrew, this idiom is used (1) literally: to describe a workman’s preparation of measuring and marking stones before cutting them for building (Job 38:5; Jer 31:39; Zech 1:16) and (2) figuratively: to describe the Lord’s planning and preparation to destroy a walled city, that is, to mark off for destruction (2 Kgs 21:13; Isa 34:11; Lam 2:8). It is not completely clear how a phrase from the vocabulary of building becomes a metaphor for destruction; however, it might picture a predetermined and carefully planned measure from which God will not deviate.

[2:8]  ² tn Heb “He did not return His hand from swallowing.” That is, he persisted until it was destroyed.

[2:8]  ³ tn Heb “they languished together.” The verbs אָבַּלּ (’aval, “to lament”) and אָמַל (’amal, “languish, mourn”) are often used in contexts of funeral laments in secular settings. The Hebrew prophets often use these terms to describe the aftermath of the Lord’s judgment on a nation. Based on parallel terms, אָמַל (’amal) may describe either mourning or deterioration and so makes for a convenient play on meaning when destroyed objects are personified. Incorporating this play into the translation, however, may obscure the parallel between this line and the deterioration of the gates beginning in v. 9.

[26:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “And if.”

[26:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “and do not do.”

[26:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “to not do.”

[26:16]  ⁷ tn Or “I also” (see HALOT 76 s.v. אַף 6.b).

[26:16]  ⁸ tn Heb “soul.” These expressions may refer either to the physical effects of consumption and fever as the rendering in the text suggests (e.g., J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 452, 454, “diminishing eyesight and loss of appetite”), or perhaps the more psychological effects, “which exhausts the eyes” because of anxious hope “and causes depression” (Heb “causes soul [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh] to pine away”), e.g., B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 185.

[26:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have causal force here.

[26:16]  ¹⁰ tn That is, “your enemies will eat” the produce that grows from the sown seed.

[26:18]  ¹¹ tn Heb “And if until these.”

[26:18]  ¹² tn Heb “I will add to discipline you seven [times] on your sins.”

[26:20]  ¹³ tn Heb “the tree of the land will not give its fruit.” The collective singular has been translated as a plural. Tg. Onq., some medieval Hebrew mss, Smr, LXX, and Tg. Ps.-J. have “the field” as in v. 4, rather than “the land.”

[26:21]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “hostile with me,” but see the added preposition בְּ (bet) on the phrase “in hostility” in v. 24 and 27.

[26:21]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “your blow, stroke”; cf. TEV “punishment”; NLT “I will inflict you with seven more disasters.”

[26:22]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the animal of the field.” This collective singular has been translated as a plural. The expression “animal of the field” refers to a wild (i.e., nondomesticated) animal.

[26:22]  ¹⁷ tn The words “of your children” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied.

[26:22]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and diminish you.”

[26:23]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “And if in these.”

[26:23]  ²⁰ tn Heb “with me,” but see the added preposition בְּ (bet) on the phrase “in hostility” in vv. 24 and 27.

[26:24]  ²¹ tn Heb “and I myself will also strike you.”

[26:25]  ²² tn Heb “vengeance of covenant”; cf. NAB “the avenger of my covenant.”

[26:25]  ²³ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) has a concessive force in this context.

[26:25]  ²⁴ tn Heb “in hand of enemy,” but Tg. Ps.-J. and Tg. Neof. have “in the hands of your enemies” (J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 454).

[26:26]  ²⁵ tn Heb “When I break to you staff of bread” (KJV, ASV, and NASB all similar).

[26:26]  ²⁶ tn Heb “they will return your bread in weight.”

[26:27]  ²⁷ tn Heb “And if in this.”

[26:27]  ²⁸ tn Heb “with me.”

[26:28]  ²⁹ tn Heb “in rage of hostility with you”; NASB “with wrathful hostility”; NRSV “I will continue hostile to you in fury”; CEV “I’ll get really furious.”

[26:29]  ³⁰ tn Heb “and the flesh of your daughters you will eat.” The phrase “you will eat” has not been repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[26:30]  ³¹ sn Regarding these cultic installations, see the remarks in B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 188, and R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:903. The term rendered “incense altars” might better be rendered “sanctuaries [of foreign deities]” or “stelae.”

[26:30]  ³² tn The translation reflects the Hebrew wordplay “your corpses…the corpses of your idols.” Since idols, being lifeless, do not really have “corpses,” the translation uses “dead bodies” for people and “lifeless bodies” for the idols.

[26:30]  ³³ tn Heb “and my soul will abhor you.”

[26:31]  ³⁴ tn Heb “And I will give your cities a waste”; NLT “make your cities desolate.”

[26:33]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and I will empty sword” (see HALOT 1228 s.v. ריק 3).

[26:34]  ³⁶ tn There are two Hebrew roots רָצָה (ratsah), one meaning “to be pleased with; to take pleasure” (HALOT 1280-81 s.v. רצה; cf. “enjoy” in NASB, NIV, NRSV, and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 452), and the other meaning “to restore” (HALOT 1281-82 s.v. II רצה; cf. NAB “retrieve” and B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 189).

[26:35]  ³⁷ tn Heb “it shall rest which it did not rest.”

[26:36]  ³⁸ tn Heb “And.”

[26:37]  ³⁹ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) is used in a concessive sense here.

[26:37]  ⁴⁰ tn The term rendered “to stand up” is a noun, not an infinitive. It occurs only here and appears to designate someone who would take a powerful stand for them against their enemies.

[26:39]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “in” (so KJV, ASV; also later in this verse).

[26:39]  ⁴² tn Heb “fathers’” (also in the following verse).

[26:40]  ⁴³ tn Heb “And.” Many English versions take this to be a conditional clause (“if…”) though there is no conditional particle (see, e.g., NASB, NIV, NRSV; but see the very different rendering in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 190). The temporal translation offered here (“when”) takes into account the particle אָז (’az, “then”), which occurs twice in v. 41. The obvious contextual contrast between vv. 39 and 40 is expressed by “however” in the translation.

[26:40]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “in their trespassing which they trespassed in me.” See the note on Lev 5:15, although the term is used in a more technical sense there in relation to the “guilt offering.”

[26:40]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “and also which they walked.”

[26:40]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “with me.”

[26:41]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “or then,” although the LXX has “then” and the Syriac “and then.”

[26:41]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “and then they make up for.” On the verb “make up for” see the note on v. 34 above.

[26:42]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “my covenant with Abraham I will remember.” The phrase “I will remember” has not been repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[26:43]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “from them.” The preposition “from” refers here to the agent of the action (J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 455).

[26:43]  ⁵¹ tn The jussive form of the verb with the simple vav (ו) here calls for a translation that expresses purpose.

[26:43]  ⁵² tn The verb is the Hophal infinitive construct with the third feminine singular suffix (GKC 182 §67.y; cf. v. 34).

[26:43]  ⁵³ tn Heb “from them.”

[26:43]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “because and in because,” a double expression, which is used only here and in Ezek 13:10 (without the vav) for emphasis (GKC 492 §158.b).

[26:43]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “and their soul has abhorred.”

[26:45]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “covenant of former ones.”

[26:46]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “gave” (so NLT); KJV, ASV, NCV “made.”

[26:46]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “by the hand of” (so KJV).

[28:15]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “do not hear the voice of.”

[28:15]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “and overtake you” (so NIV, NRSV); NAB, NLT “and overwhelm you.”

[28:18]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[28:19]  ⁶² sn See note on the similar expression in v. 6.

[28:20]  ⁶³ tn Heb “the curse, the confusion, and the rebuke” (NASB and NIV similar); NRSV “disaster, panic, and frustration.”

[28:20]  ⁶⁴ tn Heb “in all the stretching out of your hand.”

[28:20]  ⁶⁵ tc For the MT first person common singular suffix (“me”), the LXX reads either “Lord” (Lucian) or third person masculine singular suffix (“him”; various codices). The MT’s more difficult reading probably represents the original text.

[28:21]  ⁶⁶ tn Heb “will cause pestilence to cling to you.”

[28:22]  ⁶⁷ tn Heb “The Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

[28:22]  ⁶⁸ tn Or perhaps “consumption” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV). The term is from a verbal root that indicates a weakening of one’s physical strength (cf. NAB “wasting”; NIV, NLT “wasting disease”).

[28:22]  ⁶⁹ tn Heb “hot fever”; NIV “scorching heat.”

[28:22]  ⁷⁰ tn Or “drought” (so NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[28:23]  ⁷¹ tc The MT reads “Your.” The LXX reads “Heaven will be to you.”

[28:23]  ⁷² tn Or “heavens” (also in the following verse). The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[28:25]  ⁷³ tc The meaningless MT reading זַעֲוָה (za’avah) is clearly a transposition of the more commonly attested Hebrew noun זְוָעָה (zÿva’ah, “terror”).

[28:28]  ⁷⁴ tn Heb “heart” (so KJV, NASB).

[28:29]  ⁷⁵ tn Heb “you will not cause your ways to prosper.”

[28:30]  ⁷⁶ tc For MT reading שָׁגַל (shagal, “ravish; violate”), the Syriac, Targum, and Vulgate presume the less violent שָׁכַב (shakhav, “lie with”). The unexpected counterpart to betrothal here favors the originality of the MT.

[28:32]  ⁷⁷ tn Heb “and there will be no power in your hand”; NCV “there will be nothing you can do.”

[28:36]  ⁷⁸ tc The LXX reads the plural “kings.”

[28:40]  ⁷⁹ tn Heb “your olives will drop off” (נָשַׁל, nashal), referring to the olives dropping off before they ripen.

[28:42]  ⁸⁰ tn The Hebrew term denotes some sort of buzzing or whirring insect; some have understood this to be a type of locust (KJV, NIV, CEV), but other insects have also been suggested: “buzzing insects” (NAB); “the cricket” (NASB); “the cicada” (NRSV).

[28:43]  ⁸¹ tn Heb “the foreigner.” This is a collective singular and has therefore been translated as plural; this includes the pronouns in the following verse, which are also singular in the Hebrew text.

[28:45]  ⁸² tn Heb “commanded”; NAB, NIV, TEV “he gave you.”

[28:46]  ⁸³ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the curses mentioned previously) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[28:46]  ⁸⁴ tn Heb “seed” (so KJV, ASV).

[28:48]  ⁸⁵ tn Heb “lack of everything.”

[28:48]  ⁸⁶ tn Heb “he” (also later in this verse). The pronoun is a collective singular referring to the enemies (cf. CEV, NLT). Many translations understand the singular pronoun to refer to the Lord (cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NCV, NRSV, TEV).

[28:49]  ⁸⁷ tn Heb “from the end of the earth.”

[28:49]  ⁸⁸ tn Some translations understand this to mean “like an eagle swoops down” (e.g., NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT), comparing the swift attack of an eagle to the attack of the Israelites’ enemies.

[28:51]  ⁸⁹ tn Heb “it” (so NRSV), a collective singular referring to the invading nation (several times in this verse and v. 52).

[28:51]  ⁹⁰ tn Heb “increase of herds.”

[28:51]  ⁹¹ tn Heb “growth of flocks.”

[28:52]  ⁹² tn Heb “gates,” also in vv. 55, 57.

[28:53]  ⁹³ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NRSV); NASB “the offspring of your own body.”

[28:53]  ⁹⁴ tn Heb “siege and stress.”

[28:55]  ⁹⁵ tn Heb “besiege,” redundant with the noun “siege.”

[28:56]  ⁹⁶ tc The LXX adds σφόδρα (sfodra, “very”) to bring the description into line with v. 54.

[28:56]  ⁹⁷ tn Heb “delicateness and tenderness.”

[28:57]  ⁹⁸ tn Heb includes “that which comes out from between her feet.”

[28:57]  ⁹⁹ tn Heb “her sons that she will bear.”

[28:57]  ¹⁰⁰ tn Heb includes “in her need for everything.”

[28:58]  ¹⁰¹ tn Heb “If you are not careful to do.”

[28:60]  ¹⁰² sn These are the plagues the Lord inflicted on the Egyptians prior to the exodus which, though they did not fall upon the Israelites, must have caused great terror (cf. Exod 15:26).

[28:60]  ¹⁰³ tn Heb “will cling to you” (so NIV); NLT “will claim you.”

[28:61]  ¹⁰⁴ tn The Hebrew term תּוֹרָה (torah) can refer either (1) to the whole Pentateuch or, more likely, (2) to the book of Deuteronomy or even (3) only to this curse section of the covenant text. “Scroll” better reflects the actual document, since “book” conveys the notion of a bound book with pages to the modern English reader. Cf. KJV, NASB, NRSV “the book of this law”; NIV, NLT “this Book of the Law”; TEV “this book of God’s laws and teachings.”

[28:62]  ¹⁰⁵ tn Or “heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[28:62]  ¹⁰⁶ tn Heb “have not listened to the voice of.”

[28:63]  ¹⁰⁷ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

[28:66]  ¹⁰⁸ tn Heb “you will not be confident in your life.” The phrase “from one day to the next” is implied by the following verse.

[29:18]  ¹⁰⁹ tn Heb “yielding fruit poisonous and wormwood.” The Hebrew noun לַעֲנָה (la’anah) literally means “wormwood” (so KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB), but is used figuratively for anything extremely bitter, thus here “fruit poisonous and bitter.”

[29:19]  ¹¹⁰ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the subject of the warning in v. 18) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[29:19]  ¹¹¹ tn Heb “in his heart.”

[29:19]  ¹¹² tn Or “invokes a blessing on himself.” A formalized word of blessing is in view, the content of which appears later in the verse.

[29:19]  ¹¹³ tn Heb “heart.”

[29:19]  ¹¹⁴ tn Heb “thus destroying.” For stylistic reasons the translation begins a new sentence here.

[29:19]  ¹¹⁵ tn Heb “the watered with the parched.” The word “ground” is implied. The exact meaning of the phrase is uncertain although it appears to be figurative. This appears to be a proverbial observation employing a figure of speech (a merism) suggesting totality. That is, the Israelite who violates the letter and even spirit of the covenant will harm not only himself but everything he touches – “the watered and the parched.” Cf. CEV “you will cause the rest of Israel to be punished along with you.”

[29:20]  ¹¹⁶ tn Heb “the wrath of the Lord and his zeal.” The expression is a hendiadys, a figure in which the second noun becomes adjectival to the first.

[29:20]  ¹¹⁷ tn Heb “smoke,” or “smolder.”

[29:20]  ¹¹⁸ tn Heb “the entire oath.”

[29:20]  ¹¹⁹ tn Or “will lie in wait against him.”

[29:20]  ¹²⁰ tn Heb “blot out his name from under the sky.”

[29:21]  ¹²¹ tn Heb “set him apart.”

[29:21]  ¹²² tn Heb “for evil”; NAB “for doom”; NASB “for adversity”; NIV “for disaster”; NRSV “for calamity.”

[29:22]  ¹²³ tn Heb “will say and see.” One expects a quotation to appear, but it seems to be omitted. To avoid confusion in the translation, the verb “will say” is omitted.

[29:23]  ¹²⁴ tn Heb “the anger and the wrath.” This construction is a hendiadys intended to intensify the emotion.

[31:16]  ¹²⁵ tn Heb “lie down with your fathers” (so NASB); NRSV “ancestors.”

[31:16]  ¹²⁶ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they,” which is necessary in any case in the translation because of contemporary English style. The third person singular also occurs in the Hebrew text twice more in this verse, three times in v. 17, once in v. 18, five times in v. 20, and four times in v. 21. Each time it is translated as third person plural for stylistic reasons.

[31:16]  ¹²⁷ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:16]  ¹²⁸ tn Or “abandon” (TEV, NLT).

[31:16]  ¹²⁹ tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:17]  ¹³⁰ tn Heb “on that day.” This same expression also appears later in the verse and in v. 18.

[31:17]  ¹³¹ tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:17]  ¹³² tn Heb “find,” “encounter.”

[31:17]  ¹³³ tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:17]  ¹³⁴ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:17]  ¹³⁵ tn Heb “evils.”

[31:17]  ¹³⁶ tn Heb “me.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “us,” which is necessary in any case in the translation because of contemporary English style.

[31:17]  ¹³⁷ tn Heb “my.”

[31:17]  ¹³⁸ tn Heb “me.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “us,” which is necessary in any case in the translation because of contemporary English style.

[32:15]  ¹³⁹ tn To make the continuity of the referent clear, some English versions substitute “Jacob” here (NAB, NRSV) while others replace “Jeshurun” with “Israel” (NCV, CEV, NLT) or “the Lord’s people” (TEV).

[32:15]  ¹⁴⁰ tc The LXX reads the third person masculine singular (“he”) for the MT second person masculine singular (“you”), but such alterations are unnecessary in Hebrew poetic texts where subjects fluctuate frequently and without warning.

[32:16]  ¹⁴¹ tc Heb “with strange (things).” The Vulgate actually supplies diis (“gods”).

[32:16]  ¹⁴² tn Heb “abhorrent (things)” (cf. NRSV). A number of English versions understand this as referring to “idols” (NAB, NIV, NCV, CEV), while NLT supplies “acts.”

[32:17]  ¹⁴³ tn Heb “your fathers.”

[32:18]  ¹⁴⁴ tc The Hebrew text is corrupt here; the translation follows the suggestion offered in HALOT 1477 s.v. שׁיה. Cf. NASB, NLT “You neglected”; NIV “You deserted”; NRSV “You were unmindful of.”

[32:20]  ¹⁴⁵ tn Heb “I will hide my face from them.”

[32:20]  ¹⁴⁶ tn Heb “sons” (so NAB, NASB); TEV “unfaithful people.”

[32:21]  ¹⁴⁷ sn They have made me jealous. The “jealousy” of God is not a spirit of pettiness prompted by his insecurity, but righteous indignation caused by the disloyalty of his people to his covenant grace (see note on the word “God” in Deut 4:24). The jealousy of Israel, however (see next line), will be envy because of God’s lavish attention to another nation. This is an ironic wordplay. See H. Peels, NIDOTTE 3:938-39.

[32:21]  ¹⁴⁸ tn Heb “what is not a god,” or a “nondeity.”

[32:21]  ¹⁴⁹ tn Heb “their empty (things).” The Hebrew term used here to refer pejoratively to the false gods is הֶבֶל (hevel, “futile” or “futility”), used frequently in Ecclesiastes (e.g., Eccl 1:1, “Futile! Futile!” laments the Teacher, “Absolutely futile! Everything is futile!”).

[32:21]  ¹⁵⁰ tn Heb “what is not a people,” or a “nonpeople.” The “nonpeople” (לֹא־עָם, lo’-’am) referred to here are Gentiles who someday would become God’s people in the fullest sense (cf. Hos 1:9; 2:23).

[32:21]  ¹⁵¹ tn Heb “a foolish nation” (so KJV, NAB, NRSV); NIV “a nation that has no understanding”; NLT “I will provoke their fury by blessing the foolish Gentiles.”

[32:22]  ¹⁵² tn Or “to the lowest depths of the earth”; cf. NAB “to the depths of the nether world”; NIV “to the realm of death below”; NLT “to the depths of the grave.”

[32:23]  ¹⁵³ tn Heb “upon them.”

[32:24]  ¹⁵⁴ tn The Hebrew term קֶטֶב (qetev) is probably metaphorical here for the sting of a disease (HALOT 1091-92 s.v.).

[32:25]  ¹⁵⁵ tn A verb is omitted here in the Hebrew text; for purposes of English style one suitable to the context is supplied.

[32:26]  ¹⁵⁶ tc The LXX reads “I said I would scatter them.” This reading is followed by a number of English versions (e.g., KJV, ASV, NIV, NCV, NRSV, NLT, CEV).

[32:27]  ¹⁵⁷ tn Heb “anger.”

[32:27]  ¹⁵⁸ tn Heb “lest.”

[32:27]  ¹⁵⁹ tn Heb “Our hand is high.” Cf. NAB “Our own hand won the victory.”

[18:11]  ¹⁶⁰ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[18:11]  ¹⁶¹ sn Heb “I am forming disaster and making plans against you.” The word translated “forming” is the same as that for “potter,” so there is a wordplay taking the reader back to v. 5. They are in his hands like the clay in the hands of the potter. Since they have not been pliable he forms new plans. He still offers them opportunity to repent; but their response is predictable.

[18:11]  ¹⁶² tn Heb “Turn, each one from his wicked way.” See v. 8.

[18:11]  ¹⁶³ tn Or “Make good your ways and your actions.” See the same expression in 7:3, 5.

[2:3]  ¹⁶⁴ tn Heb “clan” or “extended family.”

[2:3]  ¹⁶⁵ tn Heb “from which you will not remove your neck.” The words “It will be like a yoke” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[2:3]  ¹⁶⁶ tn Or “you will not.”