Psalms 95:7

95:7 For he is our God;

we are the people of his pasture,

the sheep he owns. ¹ 

Today, if only you would obey him! ² 

Psalms 100:3

100:3 Acknowledge that the Lord is God!

He made us and we belong to him; ³ 

we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Genesis 17:7

17:7 I will confirm ⁴  my covenant as a perpetual ⁵  covenant between me and you. It will extend to your descendants after you throughout their generations. I will be your God and the God of your descendants after you. ⁶ 

Exodus 20:2

20:2 “I, ⁷  the Lord, am your God, ⁸  who brought you ⁹  from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery. ¹⁰ 

Deuteronomy 26:17-18

26:17 Today you have declared the Lord to be your God, and that you will walk in his ways, keep his statutes, commandments, and ordinances, and obey him. 26:18 And today the Lord has declared you to be his special people (as he already promised you) so you may keep all his commandments.

Deuteronomy 29:10-15

29:10 You are standing today, all of you, before the Lord your God – the heads of your tribes, ¹¹  your elders, your officials, every Israelite man, 29:11 your infants, your wives, and the ¹²  foreigners living in your encampment, those who chop wood and those who carry water – 29:12 so that you may enter by oath into the covenant the Lord your God is making with you today. ¹³  29:13 Today he will affirm that you are his people and that he is your God, ¹⁴  just as he promised you and as he swore by oath to your ancestors ¹⁵  Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 29:14 It is not with you alone that I am making this covenant by oath, 29:15 but with whoever stands with us here today before the Lord our God as well as those not with us here today. ¹⁶ 

Joshua 24:15-24

24:15 If you have no desire ¹⁷  to worship ¹⁸  the Lord, choose today whom you will worship, ¹⁹  whether it be the gods whom your ancestors ²⁰  worshiped ²¹  beyond the Euphrates, ²²  or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But I and my family ²³  will worship ²⁴  the Lord!”

24:16 The people responded, “Far be it from us to abandon the Lord so we can ²⁵  worship ²⁶  other gods! 24:17 For the Lord our God took us and our fathers out of slavery ²⁷  in the land of Egypt ²⁸  and performed these awesome miracles ²⁹  before our very eyes. He continually protected us as we traveled and when we passed through nations. ³⁰  24:18 The Lord drove out from before us all the nations, including the Amorites who lived in the land. So we too will worship ³¹  the Lord, for he is our God!”

24:19 Joshua warned ³²  the people, “You will not keep worshiping ³³  the Lord, for ³⁴  he is a holy God. ³⁵  He is a jealous God who will not forgive ³⁶  your rebellion or your sins. 24:20 If ³⁷  you abandon the Lord and worship ³⁸  foreign gods, he will turn against you; ³⁹  he will bring disaster on you and destroy you, ⁴⁰  though he once treated you well.” ⁴¹ 

24:21 The people said to Joshua, “No! We really will ⁴²  worship ⁴³  the Lord!” 24:22 Joshua said to the people, “Do you agree to be witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to worship the Lord?” ⁴⁴  They replied, “We are witnesses!” ⁴⁵  24:23 Joshua said, ⁴⁶  “Now put aside the foreign gods that are among you and submit to ⁴⁷  the Lord God of Israel.”

24:24 The people said to Joshua, “We will worship ⁴⁸  the Lord our God and obey him.” ⁴⁹ 

[95:7]  ¹ tn Heb “of his hand.”

[95:7]  ² tn Heb “if only you would listen to his voice.” The Hebrew particle אִם (’im, “if”) and following prefixed verbal form here express a wish (cf. Ps 81:8). Note that the apodosis (the “then” clause of the conditional sentence) is suppressed.

[100:3]  ³ tn The present translation (like most modern translations) follows the Qere (marginal reading), which reads literally, “and to him [are] we.” The Kethib (consonantal text) has “and not we.” The suffixed preposition לו (“to him”) was confused aurally with the negative particle לא because the two sound identical.

[17:7]  ⁴ tn The verb קוּם (qum, “to arise, to stand up”) in the Hiphil verbal stem means “to confirm, to give effect to, to carry out” (i.e., a covenant or oath; see BDB 878-79 s.v. קוּם).

[17:7]  ⁵ tn Or “as an eternal.”

[17:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “to be to you for God and to your descendants after you.”

[20:2]  ⁷ sn The revelation of Yahweh here begins with the personal pronoun. “I” – a person, a living personality, not an object or a mere thought. This enabled him to address “you” – Israel, and all his people, making the binding stipulations for them to conform to his will (B. Jacob, Exodus, 544).

[20:2]  ⁸ tn Most English translations have “I am Yahweh your God.” But the preceding chapters have again and again demonstrated how he made himself known to them. Now, the emphasis is on “I am your God” – and what that would mean in their lives.

[20:2]  ⁹ tn The suffix on the verb is second masculine singular. It is this person that will be used throughout the commandments for the whole nation. God addresses them all as his people, but he addresses them individually for their obedience. The masculine form is not, thereby, intended to exclude women.

[20:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the house of slaves” meaning “the land of slavery.”

[29:10]  ¹¹ tc Heb “your heads, your tribes.” The Syriac presupposes either “heads of your tribes” or “your heads, your judges,” etc. (reading שֹׁפְטֵכֶם [shofÿtekhem] for שִׁבְטֵיכֶם [shivtekhem]). Its comparative difficulty favors the originality of the MT reading. Cf. KJV “your captains of your tribes”; NRSV “the leaders of your tribes”; NLT “your tribal leaders.”

[29:11]  ¹² tn Heb “your.”

[29:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “for you to pass on into the covenant of the Lord your God and into his oath, which the Lord your God is cutting with you today.”

[29:13]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “in order to establish you today to him for a people and he will be to you for God.” Verses 10-13 are one long sentence in Hebrew. The translation divides this into two sentences for stylistic reasons.

[29:13]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 25).

[29:15]  ¹⁶ tn This is interpreted by some English versions as a reference to generations not yet born (cf. TEV, CEV, NLT).

[24:15]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “if it is bad in your eyes.”

[24:15]  ¹⁸ tn Or “to serve.”

[24:15]  ¹⁹ tn Or “will serve.”

[24:15]  ²⁰ tn Heb “your fathers.”

[24:15]  ²¹ tn Or “served.”

[24:15]  ²² tn Heb “the river,” referring to the Euphrates. This has been specified in the translation for clarity; see v. 3.

[24:15]  ²³ tn Heb “house.”

[24:15]  ²⁴ tn Or “will serve.”

[24:16]  ²⁵ tn Heb “to.”

[24:16]  ²⁶ tn Or “can serve.”

[24:17]  ²⁷ tn Heb “of the house of slavery.”

[24:17]  ²⁸ tn Heb “for the Lord our God, he is the one who brought up us and our fathers from the land of Egypt, from the house of slaves.”

[24:17]  ²⁹ tn Or “great signs.”

[24:17]  ³⁰ tn Heb “and he guarded us in all the way in which we walked and among all the peoples through whose midst we passed.”

[24:18]  ³¹ tn Or “will serve.”

[24:19]  ³² tn Heb “said to.”

[24:19]  ³³ tn Heb “you are not able to serve.”

[24:19]  ³⁴ sn For an excellent discussion of Joshua’s logical argument here, see T. C. Butler, Joshua (WBC), 274-75.

[24:19]  ³⁵ tn In the Hebrew text both the divine name (אֱלֹהִים, ’elohim) and the adjective (קְדֹשִׁים, qÿdoshim, “holy”) are plural. Normally the divine name, when referring to the one true God, takes singular modifiers, but this is a rare exception where the adjective agrees grammatically with the honorific plural noun. See GKC §124.i and IBHS 122.

[24:19]  ³⁶ tn Heb “lift up” or “take away.”

[24:20]  ³⁷ tn Or “when.”

[24:20]  ³⁸ tn Or “and serve.”

[24:20]  ³⁹ tn The words “against you” are added for clarification.

[24:20]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “bring you to an end.”

[24:20]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “after he did good for you.”

[24:21]  ⁴² tn The translation assumes that כִּי (ki) is emphatic. Another option is to take it as explanatory, “No, for we will….”

[24:21]  ⁴³ tn Or “will serve.”

[24:22]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen for yourselves the Lord to serve him.”

[24:22]  ⁴⁵ sn Like witnesses in a court of law, Israel’s solemn vow to worship the Lord will testify against them in the divine court if the nation ever violates its commitment.

[24:23]  ⁴⁶ tn The words “Joshua said” are supplied for clarification.

[24:23]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “bend your heart toward.” The term לֵבָב (levav, “heart”) probably here refers to the people’s volition or will.

[24:24]  ⁴⁸ tn Or “will serve.”

[24:24]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “and listen to his voice.”