Discovery BoxLeviticus 26:1-46
Context26:1 “‘You must not make for yourselves idols, 1 so you must not set up for yourselves a carved image or a pillar, and you must not place a sculpted stone in your land to bow down before 2 it, for I am the Lord your God. 26:2 You must keep my Sabbaths and reverence 3 my sanctuary. I am the Lord.
26:3 “‘If you walk in my statutes and are sure to obey my commandments, 4 26:4 I will give you your rains in their time so that 5 the land will give its yield and the trees of the field will produce their fruit. 6 26:5 Threshing season will extend for you until the season for harvesting grapes, 7 and the season for harvesting grapes will extend until sowing season, so 8 you will eat your bread until you are satisfied, 9 and you will live securely in your land. 26:6 I will grant peace in the land so that 10 you will lie down to sleep without anyone terrifying you. 11 I will remove harmful animals 12 from the land, and no sword of war 13 will pass through your land. 26:7 You will pursue your enemies and they will fall before you by the sword. 14 26:8 Five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword. 26:9 I will turn to you, make you fruitful, multiply you, and maintain 15 my covenant with you. 26:10 You will still be eating stored produce from the previous year 16 and will have to clean out what is stored from the previous year to make room for new. 17
26:11 “‘I will put my tabernacle 18 in your midst and I will not abhor you. 19 26:12 I will walk among you, and I will be your God and you will be my people. 26:13 I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from being their slaves, 20 and I broke the bars of your yoke and caused you to walk upright. 21
26:14 “‘If, however, 22 you do not obey me and keep 23 all these commandments – 26:15 if you reject my statutes and abhor my regulations so that you do not keep 24 all my commandments and you break my covenant – 26:16 I for my part 25 will do this to you: I will inflict horror on you, consumption and fever, which diminish eyesight and drain away the vitality of life. 26 You will sow your seed in vain because 27 your enemies will eat it. 28 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, 29 you do not obey me, I will discipline you seven times more on account of your sins. 30 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 31 will not produce their fruit.
26:21 “‘If you walk in hostility against me 32 and are not willing to obey me, I will increase your affliction 33 seven times according to your sins. 26:22 I will send the wild animals 34 against you and they will bereave you of your children, 35 annihilate your cattle, and diminish your population 36 so that your roads will become deserted.
26:23 “‘If in spite of these things 37 you do not allow yourselves to be disciplined and you walk in hostility against me, 38 26:24 I myself will also walk in hostility against you and strike you 39 seven times on account of your sins. 26:25 I will bring on you an avenging sword, a covenant vengeance. 40 Although 41 you will gather together into your cities, I will send pestilence among you and you will be given into enemy hands. 42 26:26 When I break off your supply of bread, 43 ten women will bake your bread in one oven; they will ration your bread by weight, 44 and you will eat and not be satisfied.
26:27 “‘If in spite of this 45 you do not obey me but walk in hostility against me, 46 26:28 I will walk in hostile rage against you 47 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. 48 26:30 I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars, 49 and I will stack your dead bodies on top of the lifeless bodies of your idols. 50 I will abhor you. 51 26:31 I will lay your cities waste 52 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 53 after you, so your land will become desolate and your cities will become a waste.
26:34 “‘Then the land will make up for 54 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 55 on your Sabbaths when you lived on it.
26:36 “‘As for 56 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 57 there is no pursuer, and there will be no one to take a stand 58 for you before your enemies. 26:38 You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will consume you.
26:39 “‘As for the ones who remain among you, they will rot away because of 59 their iniquity in the lands of your enemies, and they will also rot away because of their ancestors’ 60 iniquities which are with them. 26:40 However, when 61 they confess their iniquity and their ancestors’ iniquity which they committed by trespassing against me, 62 by which they also walked 63 in hostility against me 64 26:41 (and I myself will walk in hostility against them and bring them into the land of their enemies), and 65 then their uncircumcised hearts become humbled and they make up for 66 their iniquity, 26:42 I will remember my covenant with Jacob and also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham, 67 and I will remember the land. 26:43 The land will be abandoned by them 68 in order that it may make up for 69 its Sabbaths while it is made desolate 70 without them, 71 and they will make up for their iniquity because 72 they have rejected my regulations and have abhorred 73 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 74 whom I brought out from the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am the Lord.’”
26:46 These are the statutes, regulations, and instructions which the Lord established 75 between himself and the Israelites at Mount Sinai through 76 Moses.
Deuteronomy 27:14--28:68
Context27:14 “The Levites will call out to every Israelite 77 with a loud voice: 27:15 ‘Cursed is the one 78 who makes a carved or metal image – something abhorrent 79 to the Lord, the work of the craftsman 80 – and sets it up in a secret place.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Amen!’ 81 27:16 ‘Cursed 82 is the one who disrespects 83 his father and mother.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Amen!’ 27:17 ‘Cursed is the one who moves his neighbor’s boundary marker.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Amen!’ 27:18 ‘Cursed is the one who misleads a blind person on the road.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Amen!’ 27:19 ‘Cursed is the one who perverts justice for the resident foreigner, the orphan, and the widow.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Amen!’ 27:20 ‘Cursed is the one who has sexual relations with 84 his father’s former wife, 85 for he dishonors his father.’ 86 Then all the people will say, ‘Amen!’ 27:21 ‘Cursed is the one who commits bestiality.’ 87 Then all the people will say, ‘Amen!’ 27:22 ‘Cursed is the one who has sexual relations with his sister, the daughter of either his father or mother.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Amen!’ 27:23 ‘Cursed is the one who has sexual relations with his mother-in-law.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Amen!’ 27:24 ‘Cursed is the one who kills 88 his neighbor in private.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Amen!’ 27:25 ‘Cursed is the one who takes a bribe to kill an innocent person.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Amen!’ 27:26 ‘Cursed is the one who refuses to keep the words of this law.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Amen!’
28:1 “If you indeed 89 obey the Lord your God and are careful to observe all his commandments I am giving 90 you today, the Lord your God will elevate you above all the nations of the earth. 28:2 All these blessings will come to you in abundance 91 if you obey the Lord your God: 28:3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the field. 92 28:4 Your children 93 will be blessed, as well as the produce of your soil, the offspring of your livestock, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks. 28:5 Your basket and your mixing bowl will be blessed. 28:6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out. 94 28:7 The Lord will cause your enemies who attack 95 you to be struck down before you; they will attack you from one direction 96 but flee from you in seven different directions. 28:8 The Lord will decree blessing for you with respect to your barns and in everything you do – yes, he will bless you in the land he 97 is giving you. 28:9 The Lord will designate you as his holy people just as he promised you, if you keep his commandments 98 and obey him. 99 28:10 Then all the peoples of the earth will see that you belong to the Lord, 100 and they will respect you. 28:11 The Lord will greatly multiply your children, 101 the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your soil in the land which he 102 promised your ancestors 103 he would give you. 28:12 The Lord will open for you his good treasure house, the heavens, to give you rain for the land in its season and to bless all you do; 104 you will lend to many nations but you will not borrow from any. 28:13 The Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always end up at the top and not at the bottom, if you obey his 105 commandments which I am urging 106 you today to be careful to do. 28:14 But you must not turn away from all the commandments I am giving 107 you today, to either the right or left, nor pursue other gods and worship 108 them.
28:15 “But if you ignore 109 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: 110 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 111 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. 112
28:20 “The Lord will send on you a curse, confusing you and opposing you 113 in everything you undertake 114 until you are destroyed and quickly perish because of the evil of your deeds, in that you have forsaken me. 115 28:21 The Lord will plague you with deadly diseases 116 until he has completely removed you from the land you are about to possess. 28:22 He 117 will afflict you with weakness, 118 fever, inflammation, infection, 119 sword, 120 blight, and mildew; these will attack you until you perish. 28:23 The 121 sky 122 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.
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 123 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. 124 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; 125 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 126 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. 127 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 128 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.
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. 129 28:41 You will bear sons and daughters but not keep them, because they will be taken into captivity. 28:42 Whirring locusts 130 will take over every tree and all the produce of your soil. 28:43 The foreigners 131 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 132 you. 28:46 These curses 133 will be a perpetual sign and wonder with reference to you and your descendants. 134
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 135 you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you. They 136 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 137 as the eagle flies, 138 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 139 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, 140 or lambs of your flocks 141 until they have destroyed you. 28:52 They will besiege all of your villages 142 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, 143 the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you, because of the severity of the siege 144 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 145 you in your villages. 28:56 Likewise, the most 146 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, 147 will turn against her beloved husband, her sons and daughters, 28:57 and will secretly eat her afterbirth 148 and her newborn children 149 (since she has nothing else), 150 because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict you in your villages.
28:58 “If you refuse to obey 151 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 152 that you dreaded, and they will persistently afflict you. 153 28:61 Moreover, the Lord will bring upon you every kind of sickness and plague not mentioned in this scroll of commandments, 154 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, 155 because you will have disobeyed 156 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 157 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. 158 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 29:20-21
Context29:20 The Lord will be unwilling to forgive him, and his intense anger 159 will rage 160 against that man; all the curses 161 written in this scroll will fall upon him 162 and the Lord will obliterate his name from memory. 163 29:21 The Lord will single him out 164 for judgment 165 from all the tribes of Israel according to all the curses of the covenant written in this scroll of the law.
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Context30:15 “Look! I have set before you today life and prosperity on the one hand, and death and disaster on the other. 30:16 What 166 I am commanding you today is to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to obey his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances. Then you will live and become numerous and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you are about to possess. 167 30:17 However, if you 168 turn aside and do not obey, but are lured away to worship and serve other gods, 30:18 I declare to you this very day that you will certainly 169 perish! You will not extend your time in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess. 170 30:19 Today I invoke heaven and earth as a witness against you that I have set life and death, blessing and curse, before you. Therefore choose life so that you and your descendants may live! 30:20 I also call on you 171 to love the Lord your God, to obey him and be loyal to him, for he gives you life and enables you to live continually 172 in the land the Lord promised to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
[26:1] 1 sn For the literature regarding the difficult etymology and meaning of the term for “idols” (אֱלִילִם, ’elilim), see the literature cited in the note on Lev 19:4. It appears to be a diminutive play on words with אֵל (’el, “god, God”) and, perhaps at the same time, recalls a common Semitic word for “worthless, weak, powerless, nothingness.” Snaith suggests a rendering of “worthless godlings.”
[26:1] 2 tn Heb “on.” The “sculpted stone” appears to be some sort of stone with images carved into (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 181, and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 449).
[26:2] 3 tn Heb “and my sanctuary you shall fear.” Cf. NCV “respect”; CEV “honor.”
[26:3] 4 tn Heb “and my commandments you shall keep and do them.” This appears to be a kind of verbal hendiadys, where the first verb is a modifier of the action of the second verb (see GKC 386 §120.d, although שָׁמַר [shamar, “to keep”] is not cited there; cf. Lev 20:8; 25:18, etc.).
[26:4] 5 tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.
[26:4] 6 tn Heb “the tree of the field will give its fruit.” As a collective singular this has been translated as plural.
[26:5] 7 tn Heb “will reach for you the vintage season.”
[26:5] 8 tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.
[26:5] 9 tn Heb “to satisfaction”; KJV, ASV, NASB “to the full.”
[26:6] 10 tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.
[26:6] 11 tn Heb “and there will be no one who terrifies.” The words “to sleep” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.
[26:6] 12 tn Heb “harmful animal,” singular, but taken here as a collective plural (so almost all English versions).
[26:6] 13 tn Heb “no sword”; the words “of war” are supplied in the translation to indicate what the metaphor of the sword represents.
[26:7] 14 tn Heb “to the sword.”
[26:9] 15 tn Heb “cause to arise,” but probably used here for the
[26:10] 16 tn Heb “old [produce] growing old.”
[26:10] 17 tn Heb “and old from the presence of new you will bring out.”
[26:11] 18 tn LXX codexes Vaticanus and Alexandrinus have “my covenant” rather than “my tabernacle.” Cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV “my dwelling.”
[26:11] 19 tn Heb “and my soul [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh] will not abhor you.”
[26:13] 20 tn Heb “from being to them slaves.”
[26:13] 21 tn In other words, to walk as free people and not as slaves. Cf. NIV “with (+ your CEV, NLT) heads held high”; NCV “proudly.”
[26:14] 23 tn Heb “and do not do.”
[26:15] 24 tn Heb “to not do.”
[26:16] 25 tn Or “I also” (see HALOT 76 s.v. אַף 6.b).
[26:16] 26 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] 27 tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have causal force here.
[26:16] 28 tn That is, “your enemies will eat” the produce that grows from the sown seed.
[26:18] 29 tn Heb “And if until these.”
[26:18] 30 tn Heb “I will add to discipline you seven [times] on your sins.”
[26:20] 31 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
[26:21] 32 tn Heb “hostile with me,” but see the added preposition בְּ (bet) on the phrase “in hostility” in v. 24 and 27.
[26:21] 33 tn Heb “your blow, stroke”; cf. TEV “punishment”; NLT “I will inflict you with seven more disasters.”
[26:22] 34 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] 35 tn The words “of your children” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied.
[26:22] 36 tn Heb “and diminish you.”
[26:23] 37 tn Heb “And if in these.”
[26:23] 38 tn Heb “with me,” but see the added preposition בְּ (bet) on the phrase “in hostility” in vv. 24 and 27.
[26:24] 39 tn Heb “and I myself will also strike you.”
[26:25] 40 tn Heb “vengeance of covenant”; cf. NAB “the avenger of my covenant.”
[26:25] 41 tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) has a concessive force in this context.
[26:25] 42 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] 43 tn Heb “When I break to you staff of bread” (KJV, ASV, and NASB all similar).
[26:26] 44 tn Heb “they will return your bread in weight.”
[26:27] 45 tn Heb “And if in this.”
[26:28] 47 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] 48 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] 49 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] 50 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] 51 tn Heb “and my soul will abhor you.”
[26:31] 52 tn Heb “And I will give your cities a waste”; NLT “make your cities desolate.”
[26:33] 53 tn Heb “and I will empty sword” (see HALOT 1228 s.v. ריק 3).
[26:34] 54 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] 55 tn Heb “it shall rest which it did not rest.”
[26:37] 57 tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) is used in a concessive sense here.
[26:37] 58 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] 59 tn Heb “in” (so KJV, ASV; also later in this verse).
[26:39] 60 tn Heb “fathers’” (also in the following verse).
[26:40] 61 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] 62 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] 63 tn Heb “and also which they walked.”
[26:41] 65 tn Heb “or then,” although the LXX has “then” and the Syriac “and then.”
[26:41] 66 tn Heb “and then they make up for.” On the verb “make up for” see the note on v. 34 above.
[26:42] 67 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] 68 tn Heb “from them.” The preposition “from” refers here to the agent of the action (J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 455).
[26:43] 69 tn The jussive form of the verb with the simple vav (ו) here calls for a translation that expresses purpose.
[26:43] 70 tn The verb is the Hophal infinitive construct with the third feminine singular suffix (GKC 182 §67.y; cf. v. 34).
[26:43] 71 tn Heb “from them.”
[26:43] 72 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] 73 tn Heb “and their soul has abhorred.”
[26:45] 74 tn Heb “covenant of former ones.”
[26:46] 75 tn Heb “gave” (so NLT); KJV, ASV, NCV “made.”
[26:46] 76 tn Heb “by the hand of” (so KJV).
[27:14] 77 tn Heb “Israelite man.”
[27:15] 78 tn Heb “man,” but in a generic sense here.
[27:15] 79 tn The Hebrew term translated here “abhorrent” (תּוֹעֵבָה, to’evah) speaks of attitudes and/or behaviors so vile as to be reprehensible to a holy God. See note on the word “abhorrent” in Deut 7:25.
[27:15] 80 tn Heb “craftsman’s hands.”
[27:15] 81 tn Or “So be it!” The term is an affirmation expressing agreement with the words of the Levites.
[27:16] 82 tn The Levites speak again at this point; throughout this pericope the Levites pronounce the curse and the people respond with “Amen.”
[27:16] 83 tn The Hebrew term קָלָה (qalah) means to treat with disdain or lack of due respect (cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV “dishonors”; NLT “despises”). It is the opposite of כָּבֵד (kaved, “to be heavy,” that is, to treat with reverence and proper deference). To treat a parent lightly is to dishonor him or her and thus violate the fifth commandment (Deut 5:16; cf. Exod 21:17).
[27:20] 84 tn Heb “who lies with” (so NASB, NRSV); also in vv. 22, 23. This is a Hebrew idiom for having sexual relations (cf. NIV “who sleeps with”; NLT “who has sexual intercourse with”).
[27:20] 85 tn See note at Deut 22:30.
[27:20] 86 tn Heb “he uncovers his father’s skirt” (NASB similar). See note at Deut 22:30.
[27:21] 87 tn Heb “lies with any animal” (so NASB, NRSV). “To lie with” is a Hebrew euphemism for having sexual relations with someone (or in this case, some animal).
[27:24] 88 tn Or “strikes down” (so NRSV).
[28:1] 89 tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “indeed.”
[28:1] 90 tn Heb “commanding”; NAB “which I enjoin on you today” (likewise in v. 15).
[28:2] 91 tn Heb “come upon you and overtake you” (so NASB, NRSV); NIV “come upon you and accompany you.”
[28:3] 92 tn Or “in the country” (so NAB, NIV, NLT). This expression also occurs in v. 15.
[28:4] 93 tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).
[28:6] 94 sn Come in…go out. To “come in” and “go out” is a figure of speech (merism) indicating all of life and its activities.
[28:7] 95 tn Heb “who rise up against” (so NIV).
[28:7] 96 tn Heb “way” (also later in this verse and in v. 25).
[28:8] 97 tn Heb “the
[28:9] 98 tn Heb “the commandments of the
[28:9] 99 tn Heb “and walk in his ways” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
[28:10] 100 tn Heb “the name of the Lord is called over you.” The Hebrew idiom indicates ownership; see 2 Sam 12:28; Isa 4:1, as well as BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph. 2.d.(4).
[28:11] 101 tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); CEV “will give you a lot of children.”
[28:11] 102 tn Heb “the
[28:11] 103 tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 36, 64).
[28:12] 104 tn Heb “all the work of your hands.”
[28:13] 105 tn Heb “the
[28:13] 106 tn Heb “commanding” (so NRSV); NASB “which I charge you today.”
[28:14] 107 tn Heb “from all the words which I am commanding.”
[28:14] 108 tn Heb “in order to serve.”
[28:15] 109 tn Heb “do not hear the voice of.”
[28:15] 110 tn Heb “and overtake you” (so NIV, NRSV); NAB, NLT “and overwhelm you.”
[28:18] 111 tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).
[28:19] 112 sn See note on the similar expression in v. 6.
[28:20] 113 tn Heb “the curse, the confusion, and the rebuke” (NASB and NIV similar); NRSV “disaster, panic, and frustration.”
[28:20] 114 tn Heb “in all the stretching out of your hand.”
[28:20] 115 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] 116 tn Heb “will cause pestilence to cling to you.”
[28:22] 117 tn Heb “The
[28:22] 118 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] 119 tn Heb “hot fever”; NIV “scorching heat.”
[28:22] 120 tn Or “drought” (so NIV, NRSV, NLT).
[28:23] 121 tc The MT reads “Your.” The LXX reads “Heaven will be to you.”
[28:23] 122 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] 123 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] 124 tn Heb “heart” (so KJV, NASB).
[28:29] 125 tn Heb “you will not cause your ways to prosper.”
[28:30] 126 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] 127 tn Heb “and there will be no power in your hand”; NCV “there will be nothing you can do.”
[28:36] 128 tc The LXX reads the plural “kings.”
[28:40] 129 tn Heb “your olives will drop off” (נָשַׁל, nashal), referring to the olives dropping off before they ripen.
[28:42] 130 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] 131 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] 132 tn Heb “commanded”; NAB, NIV, TEV “he gave you.”
[28:46] 133 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the curses mentioned previously) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[28:46] 134 tn Heb “seed” (so KJV, ASV).
[28:48] 135 tn Heb “lack of everything.”
[28:48] 136 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
[28:49] 137 tn Heb “from the end of the earth.”
[28:49] 138 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] 139 tn Heb “it” (so NRSV), a collective singular referring to the invading nation (several times in this verse and v. 52).
[28:51] 140 tn Heb “increase of herds.”
[28:51] 141 tn Heb “growth of flocks.”
[28:52] 142 tn Heb “gates,” also in vv. 55, 57.
[28:53] 143 tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NRSV); NASB “the offspring of your own body.”
[28:53] 144 tn Heb “siege and stress.”
[28:55] 145 tn Heb “besiege,” redundant with the noun “siege.”
[28:56] 146 tc The LXX adds σφόδρα (sfodra, “very”) to bring the description into line with v. 54.
[28:56] 147 tn Heb “delicateness and tenderness.”
[28:57] 148 tn Heb includes “that which comes out from between her feet.”
[28:57] 149 tn Heb “her sons that she will bear.”
[28:57] 150 tn Heb includes “in her need for everything.”
[28:58] 151 tn Heb “If you are not careful to do.”
[28:60] 152 sn These are the plagues the
[28:60] 153 tn Heb “will cling to you” (so NIV); NLT “will claim you.”
[28:61] 154 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] 155 tn Or “heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.
[28:62] 156 tn Heb “have not listened to the voice of.”
[28:63] 157 tn Heb “the
[28:66] 158 tn Heb “you will not be confident in your life.” The phrase “from one day to the next” is implied by the following verse.
[29:20] 159 tn Heb “the wrath of the
[29:20] 160 tn Heb “smoke,” or “smolder.”
[29:20] 161 tn Heb “the entire oath.”
[29:20] 162 tn Or “will lie in wait against him.”
[29:20] 163 tn Heb “blot out his name from under the sky.”
[29:21] 164 tn Heb “set him apart.”
[29:21] 165 tn Heb “for evil”; NAB “for doom”; NASB “for adversity”; NIV “for disaster”; NRSV “for calamity.”
[30:16] 166 tc A number of LXX
[30:16] 167 tn Heb “which you are going there to possess it.” This has been simplified in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[30:17] 168 tn Heb “your heart,” as a metonymy for the person.
[30:18] 169 tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “certainly.”
[30:18] 170 tn Heb “to go there to possess it.”
[30:20] 171 tn The words “I also call on you” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text vv. 19-20 are one long sentence, which the translation divides into two.
[30:20] 172 tn Heb “he is your life and the length of your days to live.”
