¹sn Beginning with 29:1, the verse numbers through 29:29 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 29:1 ET = 28:69 HT, 29:2 ET = 29:1 HT, 29:3 ET = 29:2 HT, etc., through 29:29 ET = 29:28 HT. With 30:1 the verse numbers in the ET and HT are again the same.
²tn The Hebrew text includes “to your eyes,” but this is redundant in English style (cf. the preceding “you have seen”) and is omitted in the translation.
³tn Heb “testings.” This is a reference to the plagues; see note at 4:34.
⁴tn Heb “a heart to know, eyes to see and ears to hear.”
⁵tn The Hebrew text includes “on you.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.
⁶tn The Hebrew text includes “from on your feet.”
⁷tc The LXX reads “that he is the Lord your God.”
⁸tn Heb “words.”
⁹tc Heb “your heads, your tribes.” The Syriac presupposes either “heads of your tribes” or “your heads, your judges,” etc. (reading <k#f@p=v) for <k#yf@b=v!). Its comparative difficulty favors the originality of the MT reading.
¹⁰tn Heb “your.”
¹¹tn 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.”
¹²tn 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.
¹³tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 25).
¹⁴tn The Hebrew term JWQv! refers to anything out of keeping with the nature and character of Yahweh and therefore to be avoided by his people Israel. It is commonly used with or as a synonym for hb*u@oT (“detestable, abhorrent”; 2 Kgs 23:13; Jer 16:18; Ezek 5:11; 7:20; 11:18, 21; see note on the term “abhorrent” in Deut 7:25). See M. Grisanti, NIDOTTE 4:243-46.
¹⁵tn The Hebrew text includes “which were with them.” Verses 16-17 constitute a parenthetical comment.
¹⁶tn Heb “yielding fruit poisonous and wormwood.” The Hebrew noun hn`u&l^ (l^u&n`h) literally means “wormwood,” but is used figuratively for anything extremely bitter, thus here “fruit poisonous and bitter.”
¹⁷tn Heb “he”; the referent (the subject of the warning in v. 18) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
¹⁸tn Heb “in his heart.”
¹⁹tn Or “invokes a blessing on himself.” A formalized word of blessing is in view, the content of which appears later in the verse.
²⁰tn Heb “heart.”
²¹tn Heb “thus destroying.” For stylistic reasons the translation begins a new sentence here.
²²tn Heb “the watered with the parched.” The word “ground” is implied. The exact meaning of the phrase is uncertain although it appears to be figurative. This appears to be a proverbial observation employing a figure of speech (a merism) suggesting totality. That is, the Israelite who violates the letter and even spirit of the covenant will harm not only himself but everything he touches—“the watered and the parched.”
²³tn Heb “the wrath of the Lord and his zeal.” The expression is a hendiadys, a figure in which the second noun becomes adjectival to the first.
²⁴tn Heb “smoke,” or “smolder.”
²⁵tn Heb “the entire oath.”
²⁶tn Or “will lie in wait against him.”
²⁷tn Heb “blot out his name from under the sky.”
²⁸tn Heb “set him apart.”
²⁹tn Heb “for evil.”
³⁰tn Heb “will say and see.” One expects a quotation to appear, but it seems to be omitted. To avoid confusion in the translation, the verb “will say” is omitted.
³¹tn Heb “the anger and the wrath.” This construction is a hendiadys intended to intensify the emotion.
³²tn Heb “this great burning of anger.”
³³tn Heb “did not assign to them.”
³⁴tn Heb “the entire curse.”