Deuteronomy29:1–29

Where the English smooths the original

• לִכְרֹת BSB's gentle to make hides the Hebrew idiom liḵrōṯ (H3772, kāraṯ) — literally to cut a covenant. A covenant was not "made" but cut, slaughtered animals divided and the parties passing between the pieces (Genesis 15:17). The verb is the same in both clauses of the verse.
• מִלְּבַד In addition to renders mil·lə·ḇaḏ (from H905, bad, "separation"), literally apart from / besides. The word does not settle whether the Moab covenant is a second covenant or a renewal — a question the human commentators divide over.
• בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל The Israelites flattens the construct chain bə·nê yiś·rā·’êl — "the sons of Israel," tying this assembly back to the patriarch Jacob whose renamed line stands here (29:13).

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• אַתֶּ֣ם רְאִיתֶ֗ם BSB's "You have seen with your own eyes" is right in force but the emphasis is carried by the Hebrew word order: the independent pronoun ’attem ("ye") stands before the verb rə’îṯem — Ye, yourselves, have seen. The witnesses need no second-hand report.
• עֲבָדָיו His officials softens ‘ăḇāḏāw — literally his servants / slaves (from H5650). Pharaoh's grandees are named with the same root that describes Israel's own bondage, a quiet irony.
• וַיִּקְרָא Summoned renders way·yiq·rā (H7121, qārā), "called" — the covenant-assembly verb; Moses convenes, he does not merely gather.

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• הַמַּסֹּת Trials renders ham·mas·sōṯ (H4531, maççāh) — a rare word (only four verses) meaning testings / provings. The plagues "tested" Egypt and Israel alike; the same triad recurs at Deuteronomy 4:34 and 7:19, a deliberate self-echo.
• הָאֹתֹת Miraculous signs over-translates hā·’ōṯōṯ (H226, ’ôwth), simply the signs — the same word as the sign on the doorpost or the rainbow; the marvel is in the context, not the noun.
• הַמֹּפְתִים Wonders renders ham·mō·p̄ə·ṯîm (H4159, môwphêth), "portents" — paired with signs throughout the Exodus narrative as the standard formula for the plagues.

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• לֵב BSB's a mind to understand renders lêḇ (H3820), "heart" — for the Hebrew the heart is the seat of understanding and will, not the feelings; "mind" is accurate but loses the moral weight (cf. v. 19, the same heart that turns away).
• לֹא־נָתַן Has not given (lō-nāṯan, H5414) states the matter as pure gift withheld; the commentators labor to hold together divine sovereignty ("the LORD has not given") and human culpability (the people "had not asked").
• עַד הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה To this day (‘aḏ hay·yôm haz·zeh) is pointed: forty years of mercy have not yet produced a perceiving heart — the rebuke is also an implicit summons to ask for one (cf. 30:6).

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• וָאוֹלֵךְ BSB's "I led" is right, but note the abrupt shift to the first person wā·’ô·lêḵ — the speaker is no longer Moses but the LORD Himself; the address slips imperceptibly into divine speech (so Keil), as it does at 11:14.
• לֹא־בָלוּ Did not wear out renders lō-ḇālū (H1086, bālāh, "to wear out, decay"). The miracle is stated as a flat negative — not provision of new clothes but the suspension of decay itself over forty years.
• שַׂלְמֹתֵיכֶם Clothes renders śal·mō·ṯê·ḵem (H8008), "garments/mantles"; the singular sandal that follows (na‘al) sharpens it to the most-worn item a traveler owns.

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• לֶחֶם Bread (leḥem, H3899) here means ordinary, man-made bread; the point is not starvation but that for forty years they lived on manna — "the bread of angels," as the Geneva note and Poole put it — not on bread of their own making.
• תֵּדְעוּ So that you might know renders tê·ḏə‘ū (H3045, yāḏa‘) — the purpose of the whole privation: experiential knowing that He is YHWH. The clause is the recognition-formula ("that ye may know that I am the LORD") that floods Exodus and Ezekiel.
• אֱלֹהֵיכֶם Your God (’ĕlō·hê·ḵem) — Cambridge notes the appended "your God" is the Deuteronomic expansion of the bare Exodus recognition-formula; covenant possessiveness added to bare deity.

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• וַנַּכֵּם We defeated them renders wan·nak·kêm (H5221, nāḵāh), literally we struck / smote them — the same verb used of the plagues striking Egypt; victory and judgment share the blow.
• לִקְרָאתֵנוּ Came out against us renders the idiom liq·rā·ṯê·nū (H7125), "to meet us" — a neutral verb of meeting pressed into a hostile sense; the kings come to meet Israel and are struck for it.
• הַמָּקוֹם הַזֶּה This place (ham·mā·qôm haz·zeh) grounds the speech geographically — the plains of Moab, the very ground of the new covenant being cut.

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• נַחֲלָה An inheritance renders na·ḥă·lāh (H5159) — a possession by allotment, not by purchase; the same word governs the whole theology of the land as gift. The Transjordan tribes receive their portion before crossing Jordan.
• וַנִּתְּנָהּ Gave it (wan·nit·tə·nāh, H5414) is the human counterpart of God's giving; Israel distributes what the LORD first delivered (v. 7).

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• תַּשְׂכִּילוּ BSB's prosper renders taś·kî·lū (H7919, śāḵal), which first means to act wisely / have insight and only then to succeed. The two senses are fused: wise covenant-keeping is the path to prosperity. Barnes and the Pulpit both flag the lost nuance.
• וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם Keep (ū·šə·mar·tem, H8104, šāmar) — "guard, watch over"; paired with and do them it is the Deuteronomic formula for whole-life obedience, not mere assent.

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• נִצָּבִים Standing renders niṣ·ṣā·ḇîm (H5324, Niphal of nāṣaḇ) — "to take one's stand, be stationed"; Cambridge calls it "stronger, and probably reflexive: ye have taken your station" — a deliberate covenant posture, not idle standing.
• רָאשֵׁיכֶם שִׁבְטֵיכֶם BSB's "you leaders of tribes" follows the Septuagint; the Hebrew rā·šê·ḵem šiḇ·ṭê·ḵem sets "your heads, your tribes" as two parallel members (so Keil and the Pulpit) — the difference of a single letter from "heads of your tribes."
• לִפְנֵי יְהוָה Before the LORD (lip̄·nê Yah·weh) — "before His face"; the Geneva note presses that the One before whom they stand "knows your hearts," so the covenant reaches the inward man.

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• גֵּרְךָ The foreigners renders gê·rə·ḵā (H1616, gêr) — the resident sojourner who has attached himself to Israel, not a casual foreigner; the technical term for the proselyte brought under the covenant (cf. Exodus 12:38).
• טַפְּכֶם Children renders ṭap·pə·ḵem (H2945), "little ones" — the smallest, who cannot answer for themselves, are nonetheless named as covenant members; Barnes and Ellicott draw the line to Acts 2:39.
• חֹטֵב עֵצֶיךָ Who cut your wood renders ḥō·ṭêḇ ‘ê·ṣe·ḵā — "the hewer of thy wood"; with "the drawer of thy water" it is the proverbial bottom rung of society (Joshua 9:21), here explicitly inside the covenant.

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• לְעָבְרְךָ BSB's enter into renders lə·‘āḇ·rə·ḵā (H5674, ‘āḇar), literally to pass over / through. The verb pictures the parties passing between the divided victim (Genesis 15:17), and Cambridge notes it survives in our own "trans-act, carry through."
• בְאָלָתוֹ His oath renders ḇə·’ā·lā·ṯô (H423, ’ālāh) — a sworn imprecation that calls down a curse if broken; the very same word is rendered "curse" in vv. 19–21. Oath and self-curse are one act.
• כֹּרֵת Making renders kō·rêṯ (H3772), literally cutting — "the word refers to the covenant" (Ellicott); the covenant is cut, the oath sworn, the people pass through, all in this verse.

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• הָקִים Establish renders hā·qîm (H6965, Hiphil of qûm) — "to raise up, set up, confirm"; Ellicott stresses the verb makes God responsible for the whole — "He takes all this trouble for the sake of establishing thee."
• לְעָם As His people renders lə·‘ām (H5971) with the directional le- — "into a people for Himself"; the constituting of a nation, the first half of the covenant formula "I will be their God, they shall be my people."
• נִשְׁבַּע Swore renders niš·ba‘ (H7650), grounding the Moab covenant in the older sworn promise to the patriarchs — the covenant is renewed, not invented.

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• אִתְּכֶם לְבַדְּכֶם Not only with you renders ’it·tə·ḵem lə·ḇad·də·ḵem — "with you, by yourselves alone"; the same root bad ("separation") that opened the chapter (v. 1, "besides") now widens the covenant's reach beyond the present assembly.
• כֹּרֵת Making is again kō·rêṯ (H3772), cutting — the third covenant-cutting verb in the unit (vv. 1, 12, 14); the act is being performed in the speaking.

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• עֹמֵד Standing here with us renders ‘ō·mêḏ (H5975, ‘āmaḏ) — a different "stand" verb than v. 10's niṣṣāḇ; the present generation literally stands, the absent generation is bound by representation.
• אֵינֶנּוּ פֹּה Who are not here today renders ’ê·nen·nū pōh — "he who is not here." The commentators split: posterity (most), or the temporarily absent (Gill), or, in a Targum, every generation to the end of the world.

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• יְדַעְתֶּם You yourselves know renders yə·ḏa‘·tem (H3045) — the same verb as the recognition-formula of v. 6, now turned to a sober knowledge: you have seen idolatry up close, in Egypt and on the road, and so know its worthlessness.
• עֲבַרְתֶּם We passed through renders ‘ăḇar·tem (H5674) — the same ‘āḇar ("pass through") as the covenant-passing of v. 12; Cambridge notes the Hebrew idem-per-idem construction, "the nations through which ye passed."

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• שִׁקּוּצֵיהֶם Abominations renders šiq·qū·ṣê·hem (H8251) — "detestable things," a word frequent in Jeremiah and Ezekiel for idols, not the milder "abomination" (tô‘êḇāh) of 7:25; Cambridge insists on the sharper "detestable things."
• גִּלֻּלֵיהֶם Idols renders gil·lu·lê·hem (H1544), a term of open contempt — "dungy gods," "blocks" or "things you can roll about" (from gālal, to roll); Barnes glosses "dungy gods," Keil "clods." The very word for the gods is an insult.

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• פֶּן BSB's confident "Make sure there is no..." renders the single particle pen (H6435), "lest" — which the Pulpit and Cambridge note carries an elliptical force of warning ("beware," "see that there be not"); the syntax leaves a verb to be supplied, so the tone is a dread possibility, not a flat command.
• רֹאשׁ וְלַעֲנָה BSB's poisonous and bitter fruit renders the two plant-names rōš wə·la·‘ănāh (H7219 + H3939) — "gall (or hemlock/poppy) and wormwood"; a fixed pair (Jeremiah 9:15; Lamentations 3:19) for what is bitter and ruinous. Keil: "a striking image of the destructive fruit borne by idolatry."
• שֹׁרֶשׁ Root (šō·reš, H8328) is figural: not a doctrine but a person — "any person lurking among them who is tainted with apostasy" (Barnes); the hidden idolater who, like a root underground, spreads poison unseen (Poole). The LXX of this phrase is taken up in Hebrews 12:15.

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• וְהִתְבָּרֵךְ He invokes a blessing on himself renders wə·hiṯ·bā·rêḵ (H1288, Hithpael) — "he blesses himself," i.e. congratulates himself (Keil), flatters himself secure under the covenant-oath. Cambridge: "found only here." The sinner turns the oath of self-curse into a private assurance of safety.
• בִּשְׁרִרוּת לִבִּי BSB's stubbornness of my own heart renders biš·ri·rūṯ lib·bî (H8307, šᵉrîrûwth) — a rare word (ten verses), "firmness/hardness of heart," almost always negative. It is the signature phrase of Jeremiah (used eight times there) and Psalm 81:12; the covenant-breaker speaks in the very idiom the prophets will indict.
• סְפוֹת הָרָוָה אֶת־הַצְּמֵאָה BSB's This will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry renders a famously hard proverb — literally "to sweep away (səpôṯ) the saturated (rāwāh, H7302) with the thirsty (ṣᵊmê’āh)." The voices divide on whether to supply "land" or "soul"; the sense is that idolatry's ruin engulfs all, the willing and the merely susceptible alike.

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• יֶעְשַׁן Will burn renders ye‘·šan (H6225), literally will smoke — the image of a furnace or of Sinai "altogether on a smoke" (Ellicott; cf. Exodus 19:18; Psalm 74:1). Anger and jealousy do not merely burn but smoke, a visible, rising fury.
• וְקִנְאָתוֹ Jealousy renders wə·qin·’ā·ṯô (H7068) — God's zeal for His exclusive covenant claim; not petty envy but the burning of the "jealous God" of the Decalogue (Deuteronomy 4:24).
• רָבְצָה Will fall upon him renders rāḇ·ṣāh (H7257), "will crouch / lie down" — Ellicott: "as the beasts lie down in their lairs"; the same verb as "sin lieth at the door" (Genesis 4:7). The curse settles on him like a crouching predator that will not leave.
• וּמָחָה Will blot out renders ū·mā·ḥāh (H4229), "wipe out / erase" — the same verb as blotting out Amalek's memory (Exodus 17:14; Deuteronomy 25:19); total erasure "from under heaven."

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• וְהִבְדִּילוֹ Single him out renders wə·hiḇ·dî·lô (H914, bāḏal), "separate / set apart" — the same verb used for separating the holy from the common (Leviticus); here, terribly inverted, a man is set apart for evil out of the tribes.
• לְרָעָה For disaster renders lə·rā·‘āh (H7451), "for evil/calamity" — Poole: "unto some peculiar and exemplary plague; he will make him a monument of his displeasure to the whole land."
• אָלוֹת הַבְּרִית The curses of the covenant renders ’ā·lôṯ hab·bə·rîṯ (H423 + H1285) — the plural of the very ’ālāh ("oath") of v. 12; the oath sworn for blessing becomes the curse executed. Poole: the covenant of grace "hath not only blessings... but curses also to the transgressors of it."

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• הַדּוֹר הָאַחֲרוֹן The generation to come renders had·dôr hā·’a·ḥă·rôn (H1755 + H314) — "the latter generation"; Gill reads it not of the next generation but of "future times... even after the destruction of Judea by the Romans." Moses speaks as a prophet of the far future.
• תַּחֲלֻאֶיהָ The sicknesses renders ta·ḥă·lu·’e·hā (H8463, tachălûwʼ) — a rare word (only five verses) for diseases; it links verbally to Jeremiah 14:18; 16:4 and the death of Jehoram (2 Chronicles 21:19), the prophetic vocabulary of covenant-judgment sickness.
• הַנָּכְרִי The foreigner renders han·nāḵ·rî (H5237) — not the covenant gêr of v. 11 but the outside stranger from a distant land; even pagan travelers will read the ruin as a verdict (so JFB on "strangers from a far country").

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• גָּפְרִית וָמֶלַח Sulfur and salt renders gā·p̄ə·rîṯ wā·me·laḥ (H1614 + H4417) — the signature of the Dead Sea waste; "sulfur" (gophrîyth, a rare word, seven verses) ties this verse verbally to the destruction of Sodom in Genesis 19:24.
• מַהְפֵּכַת Destruction renders mah·pê·ḵaṯ (H4114) — literally the overthrow / overturning, from hāp̄aḵ ("to turn upside down"); the technical word for the catastrophe of the cities of the plain (Isaiah 13:19; Jeremiah 50:40).
• אַדְמָה וּצְבֹאִים BSB keeps Admah and Zeboiim (’aḏ·māh ū·ṣə·ḇō·’îm, H126 + H6636) — two cities of the plain rarely named (each only five verses). Their pairing here links verbally to Hosea 11:8, where God's heart recoils from treating Ephraim as Admah.

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• עַל־מֶה Why renders ‘al-meh (H4100), "on account of what?" — the nations' astonished interrogation; the same question Israel itself is made to ask in Jeremiah 5:19 and Solomon is warned of in 1 Kings 9:8.
• חֳרִי הָאַף This great outburst of anger renders ḥo·rî hā·’ap̄ (H2750 + H639) — literally "the heat/burning of the nose (anger)"; the idiom makes wrath a glowing heat, picking up the "smoke" of v. 20. Keil: "what does it mean — whence does it come?"

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• עָזְבוּ They abandoned renders ‘ā·zə·ḇū (H5800, ‘āzaḇ), "forsook" — Cambridge notes the phrase "forsook the covenant" occurs here, then in Jeremiah, 1 Kings, and Daniel, but nowhere else in Deuteronomy (which prefers "forget"); the answer to the nations' question is, in a word, covenant-abandonment.
• בְּרִית The covenant (bə·rîṯ, H1285) — the unit's keyword returns at its climax: everything turns on the bond cut at the Exodus and now broken; the curse is not arbitrary but the covenant's own sworn sanction.

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• לֹא יְדָעוּם They had not known renders lō yə·ḏā·‘ūm (H3045) — the recognition-verb of vv. 6 and 16 turned negative: they served gods of whom they had no experience at all, unlike the LORD whose mighty acts they had seen.
• וְלֹא חָלַק BSB's gods that the LORD had not given to them renders wə·lō ḥā·laq (H2505), "and He had not apportioned / allotted" — the verb of dividing an inheritance. Poole and Gill note the irony: God apportioned Israel a land (v. 8) but never apportioned these gods; the idols gave them no portion at all (cf. 4:19).

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• וַיִּחַר־אַף The anger of the LORD burned renders way·yi·ḥar-’ap̄ (H2734), the idiom "His nose grew hot" — the same root behind "the heat of anger" the nations asked about (v. 24); the question of v. 24 is answered by the very vocabulary it used.
• כָּל־הַקְּלָלָה BSB's every curse renders kāl-haq·qə·lā·lāh (H7045) — literally "the whole curse" (Pulpit), a different word for curse than the ’ālāh/oath of vv. 20–21; the full written sanction of ch. 28, gathered onto the land (cf. Daniel 9:11).

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• וַיִּתְּשֵׁם Uprooted them renders way·yit·tə·šêm (H5428, nāṯaš) — "to pluck up by the roots"; Cambridge notes the verb is "not elsewhere in the Hexateuch but common in Jeremiah," the prophet of the uprooting. The "root" of v. 18 is now itself torn out.
• וַיַּשְׁלִכֵם Cast them renders way·yaš·li·ḵêm (H7993), "flung/hurled them" — Gill notes the violence of the word; in the Masoretic text its lamed is written oversized, a scribal flag that "there is no casting away like that of the ten tribes."
• כַּיּוֹם הַזֶּה Where they are today renders kay·yôm haz·zeh ("as at this day") — Cambridge: this phrase "can hardly belong to the predicted statement of the contemporaries of the Exile; it must either be the writer's own... or an editorial addition" — a candid textual datum the synthesis must not paper over.

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• הַנִּסְתָּרֹת The secret things renders han·nis·tā·rōṯ (H5641, Niphal participle of sāṯar) — "the hidden things"; the same root as the "secret faults" of Psalm 19:12. Cambridge: "the still hidden things are the future"; what God will yet do with Israel is His affair alone.
• וְהַנִּגְלֹת The things revealed renders wə·han·nig·lōṯ (H1540, Niphal of gālāh), "the uncovered/disclosed things" — the law itself with its promises and threats; over both phrases the Masoretes set extraordinary scribal points (puncta extraordinaria), one of the most famous textual marks in the Hebrew Bible.
• לַעֲשׂוֹת So that we may follow renders la·‘ă·śôṯ (H6213), "to do" — the whole revelation terminates not in speculation but in obedience; Matthew Henry: "the end of all Divine revelation is... that we may do all the words of this law."