translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: DEU

label: NET translator note

text: 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.


text: Heb “testings.” This is a reference to the plagues; see note at 4:34 .


text: Heb “a heart to know, eyes to see and ears to hear” (NASB similar); NAB, NRSV “a mind to understand, or eyes to see, or ears to hear.”


text: The Hebrew text includes “on you.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.


text: The Hebrew text includes “from on your feet.”


label: NET textual note

text: The LXX reads “that he is the Lord your God.”


text: Heb “words.”


text: 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.”


text: Heb “your.”


text: 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.”


text: 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.


text: Heb “fathers” (also in v. 25 ).


text: This is interpreted by some English versions as a reference to generations not yet born (cf. TEV, CEV, NLT).


text: The Hebrew term שִׁקּוּץ ( shiquts ) 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 תּוֹעֵבָה ( to ’ evah , “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.


text: The Hebrew text includes “which were with them.” Verses 16-17 constitute a parenthetical comment.


text: Heb “yielding fruit poisonous and wormwood.” The Hebrew noun לַעֲנָה ( la ’ anah ) literally means “wormwood” (so KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB), but is used figuratively for anything extremely bitter, thus here “fruit poisonous and bitter.”


text: Heb “he”; the referent (the subject of the warning in v. 18 ) has been specified in the translation for clarity.


text: Heb “in his heart.”


text: Or “invokes a blessing on himself.” A formalized word of blessing is in view, the content of which appears later in the verse.


text: Heb “heart.”


text: Heb “thus destroying.” For stylistic reasons the translation begins a new sentence here.


text: 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.” Cf. CEV “you will cause the rest of Israel to be punished along with you.”


text: 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.


text: Heb “smoke,” or “smolder.”


text: Heb “the entire oath.”


text: Or “will lie in wait against him.”


text: Heb “blot out his name from under the sky.”


text: Heb “set him apart.”


text: Heb “for evil”; NAB “for doom”; NASB “for adversity”; NIV “for disaster”; NRSV “for calamity.”


text: 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.


text: Heb “the anger and the wrath.” This construction is a hendiadys intended to intensify the emotion.


text: Heb “this great burning of anger”; KJV “the heat of this great anger.”


text: Heb “did not assign to them”; NASB, NRSV “had not allotted to them.”


text: Heb “the entire curse.”


text: Heb “sons” (so NASB); KJV, ASV, NIV, NRSV “children.”