Nehemiah 10:29-30

10:29 hereby participate with their colleagues the town leaders ¹  and enter into a curse and an oath ²  to adhere to ³  the law of God which was given through Moses the servant of God, and to obey ⁴  carefully all the commandments of the LORD our Lord, ⁵  along with his ordinances and his statutes.

10:30 “We will not give our daughters in marriage to the neighboring peoples, and we will not take their daughters in marriage for our sons.

Deuteronomy 6:13

6:13 You must revere the Lord your God, serve him, and take oaths using only his name.

Deuteronomy 6:2

6:2 and that you may so revere the Lord your God that you will keep all his statutes and commandments ⁶  that I am giving ⁷  you – you, your children, and your grandchildren – all your lives, to prolong your days.

Deuteronomy 15:12-15

Release of Debt Slaves

15:12 If your fellow Hebrew ⁸  – whether male or female ⁹  – is sold to you and serves you for six years, then in the seventh year you must let that servant ¹⁰  go free. ¹¹  15:13 If you set them free, you must not send them away empty-handed. 15:14 You must supply them generously ¹²  from your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress – as the Lord your God has blessed you, you must give to them. 15:15 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore, I am commanding you to do this thing today.

Ezra 10:5

10:5 So Ezra got up and made the leading priests and Levites and all Israel take an oath to carry out this plan. ¹³  And they all took a solemn oath.

[10:29]  ¹ tn Heb “the nobles.”

[10:29]  ² tn The expression “a curse and an oath” may be a hendiadys, meaning “an oath with penalties.”

[10:29]  ³ tn Heb “to walk in.”

[10:29]  ⁴ tn Heb “keep.” See the note on the word “obey” in Neh 1:5.

[10:29]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[6:2]  ⁶ tn Here the terms are not the usual חֻקִּים (khuqqim) and מִשְׁפָּטִים (mishpatim; as in v. 1) but חֻקֹּת (khuqqot, “statutes”) and מִצְוֹת (mitsot, “commandments”). It is clear that these terms are used interchangeably and that their technical precision ought not be overly stressed.

[6:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “commanding.” For stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy, “giving” has been used in the translation.

[15:12]  ⁸ sn Elsewhere in the OT, the Israelites are called “Hebrews” (עִבְרִי, ’ivriy) by outsiders, rarely by themselves (cf. Gen 14:13; 39:14, 17; 41:12; Exod 1:15, 16, 19; 2:6, 7, 11, 13; 1 Sam 4:6; Jonah 1:9). Thus, here and in the parallel passage in Exod 21:2-6 the term עִבְרִי may designate non-Israelites, specifically a people well-known throughout the ancient Near East as ’apiru or habiru. They lived a rather vagabond lifestyle, frequently hiring themselves out as laborers or mercenary soldiers. While accounting nicely for the surprising use of the term here in an Israelite law code, the suggestion has against it the unlikelihood that a set of laws would address such a marginal people so specifically (as opposed to simply calling them aliens or the like). More likely עִבְרִי is chosen as a term to remind Israel that when they were “Hebrews,” that is, when they were in Egypt, they were slaves. Now that they are free they must not keep their fellow Israelites in economic bondage. See v. 15.

[15:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “your brother, a Hebrew (male) or Hebrew (female).”

[15:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “him.” The singular pronoun occurs throughout the passage.

[15:12]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew text includes “from you.”

[15:14]  ¹² tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “generously.”

[10:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “to do according to this plan.”