¹tn Heb “and it will come to pass that.”
²tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.
³sn The place where he chooses to locate his name. This is a circumlocution for the central sanctuary, first the tabernacle and later the Jerusalem temple. See Deut 12:1-14 and especially the note on the word “you” in v. 14.
⁴tc For the MT reading “your God,” certain LXX mss have “my God,” a contextually superior rendition. Perhaps the text reflects dittography (yK! hk*yh@Oa^).
⁵tc The Syriac adds “your God” to complete the usual formula.
⁶tn Heb “swore on oath.”
⁷tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 7, 15).
⁸tn Heb “your hand.”
⁹tn Though the Hebrew term dba generally means “to perish” or the like (HALOT 2-3; BDB 1-2), a meaning “to go astray” or “to be lost” is also attested. The ambivalence in the Hebrew text is reflected in the versions where LXX Vaticanus reads ajpevbalen (“lose”) for a possibly metathesized reading found in Alexandrinus, Ambrosianus, ajpevlaben (“receive”); others attest katevleipen (“leave, abandon”). “Wandering” seems to suit best the contrast with the sedentary life Israel would enjoy in Canaan (v. 9).
¹⁰sn A wandering Aramean. This is a reference to Jacob whose mother Rebekah was an Aramean (Gen 24:10; 25:20, 26) and who himself lived in Aram for at least twenty years (Gen 31:41-42).
¹¹tn Heb “father.”
¹²tn Heb “sojourned there few in number.” The words “with a household” have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons and for clarity.
¹³tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 26:2.
¹⁴tn Heb “by a powerful hand and an extended arm.” These are anthropomorphisms designed to convey God’s tremendously great power in rescuing Israel from their Egyptian bondage.
¹⁵tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 26:2.
¹⁶tn Or “household”; Heb “house.”
¹⁷tn Heb includes “the tithes of.”
¹⁸tn The terms “Levite, resident foreigner, orphan, and widow” are collective singulars in the Hebrew text (also in v. 13).
¹⁹tn Heb “gates.”
²⁰tn Heb “the sacred thing.” The term vd#Q)h^ likely refers to an offering normally set apart for the Lord but, as a third-year tithe, given on this occasion to people in need. Frequently this is translated as “the sacred portion,” but that could sound to a modern reader as if a part of the house were being removed and given away.
²¹tn Heb “according to all your commandment that you commanded me.”
²²sn These practices suggest overtones of pagan ritual, all of which the confessor denies having undertaken. In Canaan they were connected with fertility practices associated with harvest time. See E. H. Merrill, Deuteronomy, 335-36.
²³tn Heb “the Lord my God.” See note on “he” in 26:2.
²⁴tn Or “mind and being.”
²⁵tn Heb “so that.” Verses 18-19 are one sentence in the Hebrew text, but the translation divides it into three sentences for stylistic reasons. The first clause in verse 19 gives a result of the preceding clause. When Israel keeps God’s law, God will bless them with fame and honor.
²⁶tn Heb “for praise and for a name and for glory.”
²⁷tn Heb “and to be.” A new sentence was started here for stylistic reasons.