Numbers 24:20

Balaam’s Final Prophecies

24:20 Then Balaam ¹  looked on Amalek and delivered this oracle: ² 

“Amalek was the first ³  of the nations,

but his end will be that he will perish.”

Deuteronomy 25:17-19

Treatment of the Amalekites

25:17 Remember what the Amalekites ⁴  did to you on your way from Egypt, 25:18 how they met you along the way and cut off all your stragglers in the rear of the march when you were exhausted and tired; they were unafraid of God. ⁵  25:19 So when the Lord your God gives you relief from all the enemies who surround you in the land he ⁶  is giving you as an inheritance, ⁷  you must wipe out the memory of the Amalekites from under heaven ⁸  – do not forget! ⁹ 

Deuteronomy 25:1

25:1 If controversy arises between people, ¹⁰  they should go to court for judgment. When the judges ¹¹  hear the case, they shall exonerate ¹²  the innocent but condemn ¹³  the guilty.

Deuteronomy 15:2-3

15:2 This is the nature of the cancellation: Every creditor must remit what he has loaned to another person; ¹⁴  he must not force payment from his fellow Israelite, ¹⁵  for it is to be recognized as “the Lord’s cancellation of debts.” 15:3 You may exact payment from a foreigner, but whatever your fellow Israelite ¹⁶  owes you, you must remit.

Deuteronomy 15:7-8

The Spirit of Liberality

15:7 If a fellow Israelite ¹⁷  from one of your villages ¹⁸  in the land that the Lord your God is giving you should be poor, you must not harden your heart or be insensitive ¹⁹  to his impoverished condition. ²⁰  15:8 Instead, you must be sure to open your hand to him and generously lend ²¹  him whatever he needs. ²² 

Deuteronomy 15:18

15:18 You should not consider it difficult to let him go free, for he will have served you for six years, twice ²³  the time of a hired worker; the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do.

Deuteronomy 27:8-9

27:8 You must inscribe on the stones all the words of this law, making them clear.”

27:9 Then Moses and the Levitical priests spoke to all Israel: “Be quiet and pay attention, Israel. Today you have become the people of the Lord your God.

Deuteronomy 30:1

The Results of Covenant Reaffirmation

30:1 “When you have experienced all these things, both the blessings and the curses ²⁴  I have set before you, you will reflect upon them ²⁵  in all the nations where the Lord your God has banished you.

Deuteronomy 30:17

30:17 However, if you ²⁶  turn aside and do not obey, but are lured away to worship and serve other gods,

Deuteronomy 30:2

30:2 Then if you and your descendants ²⁷  turn to the Lord your God and obey him with your whole mind and being ²⁸  just as ²⁹  I am commanding you today,

Deuteronomy 1:1

The Covenant Setting

1:1 This is what ³⁰  Moses said to the assembly of Israel ³¹  in the Transjordanian ³²  wastelands, the arid country opposite ³³  Suph, ³⁴  between ³⁵  Paran ³⁶  and Tophel, ³⁷  Laban, ³⁸  Hazeroth, ³⁹  and Di Zahab ⁴⁰ 

Deuteronomy 1:8-16

1:8 Look! I have already given the land to you. ⁴¹  Go, occupy the territory that I, ⁴²  the Lord, promised ⁴³  to give to your ancestors ⁴⁴  Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to their descendants.” ⁴⁵  1:9 I also said to you at that time, “I am no longer able to sustain you by myself. 1:10 The Lord your God has increased your population ⁴⁶  to the point that you are now as numerous as the very stars of the sky. ⁴⁷  1:11 Indeed, may the Lord, the God of your ancestors, make you a thousand times more numerous than you are now, blessing you ⁴⁸  just as he said he would! 1:12 But how can I alone bear up under the burden of your hardship and strife? 1:13 Select wise and practical ⁴⁹  men, those known among your tribes, whom I may appoint as your leaders.” 1:14 You replied to me that what I had said to you was good. 1:15 So I chose ⁵⁰  as your tribal leaders wise and well-known men, placing them over you as administrators of groups of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, and also as other tribal officials. 1:16 I furthermore admonished your judges at that time that they ⁵¹  should pay attention to issues among your fellow citizens ⁵²  and judge fairly, ⁵³  whether between one citizen and another ⁵⁴  or a citizen and a resident foreigner. ⁵⁵ 

Deuteronomy 8:12

8:12 When you eat your fill, when you build and occupy good houses,

Deuteronomy 8:1

The Lord’s Provision in the Desert

8:1 You must keep carefully all these commandments ⁵⁶  I am giving ⁵⁷  you today so that you may live, increase in number, ⁵⁸  and go in and occupy the land that the Lord promised to your ancestors. ⁵⁹ 

Deuteronomy 4:43

4:43 These cities are Bezer, in the desert plateau, for the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan for the Manassehites.

Ezra 9:14

9:14 Shall we once again break your commandments and intermarry with these abominable peoples? Would you not be so angered by us that you would wipe us out, with no survivor or remnant?

[24:20]  ¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Balaam) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[24:20]  ² tn Heb “and he lifted up his oracle and said.” So also in vv. 21, 23.

[24:20]  ³ sn This probably means that it held first place, or it thought that it was “the first of the nations.” It was not the first, either in order or greatness.

[25:17]  ⁴ tn Heb “what Amalek” (so NAB, NRSV). Here the individual ancestor, the namesake of the tribe, is cited as representative of the entire tribe at the time Israel was entering Canaan. Consistent with this, singular pronouns are used in v. 18 and the singular name appears again in v. 19. Since readers unfamiliar with the tribe of Amalekites might think this refers to an individual, the term “Amalekites” and the corresponding plural pronouns have been used throughout these verses (cf. NIV, NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).

[25:18]  ⁵ sn See Exod 17:8-16.

[25:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “ the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[25:19]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew text includes “to possess it.”

[25:19]  ⁸ tn Or “from beneath the sky.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[25:19]  ⁹ sn This command is fulfilled in 1 Sam 15:1-33.

[25:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “men.”

[25:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the judges) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[25:1]  ¹² tn Heb “declare to be just”; KJV, NASB “justify the righteous”; NAB, NIV “acquitting the innocent.”

[25:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “declare to be evil”; NIV “condemning the guilty (+ party NAB).”

[15:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “his neighbor,” used idiomatically to refer to another person.

[15:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “his neighbor and his brother.” The words “his brother” may be a scribal gloss identifying “his neighbor” (on this idiom, see the preceding note) as a fellow Israelite (cf. v. 3). In this case the conjunction before “his brother” does not introduce a second category, but rather has the force of “that is.”

[15:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “your brother.”

[15:7]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “one of your brothers” (so NASB); NAB “one of your kinsmen”; NRSV “a member of your community.” See the note at v. 2.

[15:7]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “gates.”

[15:7]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “withdraw your hand.” Cf. NIV “hardhearted or tightfisted” (NRSV and NLT similar).

[15:7]  ²⁰ tn Heb “from your needy brother.”

[15:8]  ²¹ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute before both verbs. The translation indicates the emphasis with the words “be sure to” and “generously,” respectively.

[15:8]  ²² tn Heb “whatever his need that he needs for himself.” This redundant expression has been simplified in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[15:18]  ²³ tn The Hebrew term מִשְׁנֶה (mishneh, “twice”) could mean “equivalent to” (cf. NRSV) or, more likely, “double” (cf. NAB, NIV, NLT). The idea is that a hired worker would put in only so many hours per day whereas a bondslave was available around the clock.

[30:1]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the blessing and the curse.”

[30:1]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and you bring (them) back to your heart.”

[30:17]  ²⁶ tn Heb “your heart,” as a metonymy for the person.

[30:2]  ²⁷ tn Heb “sons” (so NASB); KJV, ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT “children.”

[30:2]  ²⁸ tn Or “heart and soul” (also in vv. 6, 10).

[30:2]  ²⁹ tn Heb “according to all.”

[1:1]  ³⁰ tn Heb “These are the words.”

[1:1]  ³¹ tn Heb “to all Israel.”

[1:1]  ³² tn Heb “on the other side of the Jordan.” This would appear to favor authorship by someone living on the west side of the Jordan, that is, in Canaan, whereas the biblical tradition locates Moses on the east side (cf. v. 5). However the Hebrew phrase בְּעֵבֶר הַיּרְדֵּן (bÿ’ever hayyrÿden) is a frozen form meaning “Transjordan,” a name appropriate from any geographical vantage point. To this day, one standing east of the Jordan can describe himself as being in Transjordan.

[1:1]  ³³ tn The Hebrew term מוֹל (mol) may also mean “in front of” or “near” (cf. NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).

[1:1]  ³⁴ sn This place is otherwise unattested and its location is unknown. Perhaps it is Khirbet Sufah, 4 mi (6 km) SSE of Madaba, Jordan.

[1:1]  ³⁵ tn The Hebrew term בֵּין (ben) may suggest “in the area of.”

[1:1]  ³⁶ sn Paran is the well-known desert area between Mount Sinai and Kadesh Barnea (cf. Num 10:12; 12:16).

[1:1]  ³⁷ sn Tophel refers possibly to et£-T£afîleh, 15 mi (25 km) SE of the Dead Sea, or to Da‚bîlu, another name for Paran. See H. Cazelles, “Tophel (Deut. 1:1),” VT 9 (1959): 412-15.

[1:1]  ³⁸ sn Laban. Perhaps this refers to Libnah (Num 33:20).

[1:1]  ³⁹ sn Hazeroth. This probably refers to àAin Khadra. See Y. Aharoni, The Land of the Bible, 199-200.

[1:1]  ⁴⁰ sn Di Zahab. Perhaps this refers to Mina al-Dhahab on the eastern Sinai coast.

[1:8]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “I have placed before you the land.”

[1:8]  ⁴² tn Heb “the Lord.” Since the Lord is speaking, it is preferable for clarity to supply the first person pronoun in the translation.

[1:8]  ⁴³ tn Heb “swore” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT). This refers to God’s promise, made by solemn oath, to give the patriarchs the land.

[1:8]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 11, 21, 35).

[1:8]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “their seed after them.”

[1:10]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “multiplied you.”

[1:10]  ⁴⁷ tn Or “heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[1:11]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “may he bless you.”

[1:13]  ⁴⁹ tn The Hebrew verb נְבֹנִים (nÿvonim, from בִּין [bin]) is a Niphal referring to skill or intelligence (see T. Fretheim, NIDOTTE 1:652-53).

[1:15]  ⁵⁰ tn Or “selected”; Heb “took.”

[1:16]  ⁵¹ tn Or “you.” A number of English versions treat the remainder of this verse and v. 17 as direct discourse rather than indirect discourse (cf. KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[1:16]  ⁵² tn Heb “brothers.” The term “brothers” could, in English, be understood to refer to siblings, so “fellow citizens” has been used in the translation.

[1:16]  ⁵³ tn The Hebrew word צֶדֶק (tsedeq, “fairly”) carries the basic idea of conformity to a norm of expected behavior or character, one established by God himself. Fair judgment adheres strictly to that norm or standard (see D. Reimer, NIDOTTE 3:750).

[1:16]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “between a man and his brother.”

[1:16]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “his stranger” or “his sojourner”; NAB, NIV “an alien”; NRSV “resident alien.” The Hebrew word גֵּר (ger) commonly means “foreigner.”

[8:1]  ⁵⁶ 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]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “commanding” (so NASB). For stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy, “giving” has been used in the translation (likewise in v. 11).

[8:1]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “multiply” (so KJV, NASB, NLT); NIV, NRSV “increase.”

[8:1]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 16, 18).