Deuteronomy 4 and 28:69–34:12: Translation and Exegetical Outline
by Jonathan Zavodney • July 7, 2025
DEUTERONOMY 4:1–43
Translation
1 Now Israel, hear the statutes and the judgments which I am teaching you that you might do them so that you might live, go, and inherit the land that Yahweh the God of your fathers is giving to you. 2 Do not ever add to the word by which I am commanding you—to keep the commandments of Yahweh your God—and do not ever remove anything from it, [the word] by which I am commanding you. 3 Your eyes saw what Yahweh did in Baal Peor: when all the men went after Baal Peor, Yahweh your God exterminated them from among you, 4 but as for you, those who clung to Yahweh your God, you all have life today.
5 Look, I am teaching you statutes and judgments according to Yahweh my God commanded me to do in the midst of the land you are entering to inherit. 6 You must keep them and do them because it is your wisdom and your understanding before the peoples who will hear all these statutes: They will say, “Surely This great nation is a people wise and understanding 7 because what great nation is there that has a god near to it as Yahweh our God is in every way we call to him? 8 Or what great nation is there that has statutes and righteous judgments as we do in all this Law that I am giving you today?
9 Only keep yourself, keep your souls vigilantly—or you will forget the things your eyes have seen and you will turn from your heart all the days of your life—and make your children and their children know the things you’ve seen: 10 The day you stood before Yahweh your God at Horeb while he said to me, “Assemble the people to me, and I will make them hear my words that they might learn to fear me all the days they live on the earth and that they might teach their sons.” 11 You drew near, and you stood under the mountain while the mountain was burning with fire up to the heavens, shrouded in darkness, cloud, and gloom. 12 Yahweh spoke to you from the fire—you heard a voice speaking to you, but you did not see anything. There was only a voice—13 He declared his covenant by which he commanded you to do the ten words. He wrote them upon two stones, 14 and Yahweh commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments that you might do them in the land you are crossing over to inherit.
15 You must be on vigilant guard for your souls because you did not see any form in the day Yahweh spoke to you in Horeb from the midst of the fire 16 or you will corrupt yourselves and make for yourselves an idol, the form of anything—a male or female figure, 17 a figure of any beast that is on the earth, a figure of any winged bird that flies in the heavens, 18 a figure of anything that creeps on the ground, and a figure of any fish that is in the sea under the land—19 and you will lifting your eyes toward heaven and see the sun, moon, and stars—all the host of heaven—and will be drawn away. You will worship them and serve them that Yahweh appointed to all the peoples under heaven. 20 As for you, Yahweh took you and brought you from the iron furnace, from Egypt to be a people for himself, an inheritance as you are today. 21 Yahweh was angry with me because of your words, and he swore that I would not cross the Jordan to go to the good land that Yahweh your God is giving you as an inheritance. 22 Because I will die in this land, I will not cross over the Jordan, but you will cross over and possess that good land.
23 Therefore, guard yourselves or you will forget the covenant Yahweh your God cut with you, and you will make for yourselves an idol, the form of anything Yahweh your God commanded. Guard yourselves 24 because Yahweh your God is a consuming fire: he is a jealous God. 25 When you bear sons and sons of sons, sleep in the land, corrupt yourselves by making an idol in the form of anything, and do evil in the eyes of Yahweh your God to make him angry—26 I invoke as witnesses against you today the heavens and the earth—you will certainly and quickly perish from the land which you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live many days upon it because you will certainly be destroyed. 27 Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be few in number among the nations where Yahweh will drive you. 28 There you will serve gods, the work of man’s hands, of wood and stone that do not see, nor hear, nor smell. 29 From there you will seek Yahweh your God, and you will find him because you will search diligently for him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 In your distress and when all these things find you at the end of days, you will return to Yahweh your God, hearing his voice because God is compassionate. 31 Yahweh your God will not forsake you, nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant he swore to your fathers 32 because ask about the first days, which were before you—from the day God created man upon the earth and from one end of the heavens to the other—Has something as great as this happened or has anyone heard of something like this: 33 Has a people heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of a fire—as you yourselves heard—and lived? 34 Has God attempted to go to take for himself a nation from the middle of the nation with tests, signs, wonders, warfare, a strong hand, an outstretched arm, and great terror as all that Yahweh your God did in Egypt before your eyes? 35 You were shown that you might know this: Yahweh, He is God. There is no other beside him. 36 From the heavens he made you hear his voice to discipline you, and on earth he showed you his great fire. You heard his word from the midst of the fire. 37 Because he loved your fathers, he chose his seed after him and brought you out with his presence, with his great strength from Egypt 38 to make you possess nations greater and stronger than you, to bring you to and give you their land as an inheritance, as it is this day.
39 Know today and remember that Yahweh, he is the God in the heavens above and upon the earth beneath. There is no other. 40 Keep his statutes and his judgments that I am commanding you today that it will be your good and that of your children after you in order that your days might be long upon the ground that Yahweh your God is giving you all the days.
41 Then Moses appointed three cities in the region beyond the Jordan, toward the east, toward the sun, to which a murderer can flee, that is a one who murdered his neighbor but did not know nor did he hate him previously. 42 That one will flee to one of these cities and will live there: 43 Bezer in the wilderness on the plane for the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Colan in Bashon for the Manassites.
Exegetical Outline
[Steps from How to Understand and Apply the Old Testament by Jason S. DeRouchie]
Main Idea: Savoring Yahweh's revelation, Israel must wholeheartedly
esteem Yahweh, or they will die, though when they die, Yahweh
will restore them.
I) The Call to See and Savor Yahweh Wholeheartedly by Obeying His Revealed Statutes and Judgments (4:1–40)
A) The Call to and Motivation for Wholehearted Obedience (vv. 1–4)
1) The Call to Wholehearted Obedience (vv. 1–2)
2) The Motivations for Wholehearted Obedience: Yahweh Past Just
Judgments (vv. 3–4)
B) The Clarification of the Call to and Motivation for Wholehearted
Obedience (vv. 5–40)
1) Wholehearted Obedience Means Seeing and Savoring Yahweh's
Statutes and Judgments (vv. 5–38)
(a) The Call to See and Savor the Statutes and Judgments
Because They Lead to Wisdom Among the Nations (vv. 5–8)
(b) The Clarification of the Meaning and Justification for Seeing
and Savoring the Statutes and Judgments (vv. 9–38)
(i) Clarification of the Meaning: Guard Yourself Vigilantly or else
Face Suicide (vv. 9)
(ii) Clarification of the Justification: Yahweh Gave These Statutes
and Judgments (vv. 10–38)
(01) Clarification #1 in Recalling Yahweh's Fire-filled, Form-less
Declaring His Covenant (vv. 10–14)
(02) Clarification #2 in Reiterating the Command to Guard
Yourselves Vigilantly (vv. 15–38)
α. Guarding Yourselves Vigilantly Protects from Idol-
saturated Suicide (vv. 15–22)
β. Exposition of the Necessity of Guarding Yourselves
Vigilantly (vv. 23–38)
• The Repeated Call to Guard Yourselves Diligently or
else Face Suicide in the Face of Yahweh's Jealous
and Just Wrath (vv. 23–24)
• The Promised Expression of Yahweh's Jealousy in the
Face of Unfaithfulness (vv. 25–38)
- The Promised Display of Yahweh's Jealousy in
Judgment (vv. 25–29)
- The Promised Display of Yahweh's Jealousy in
Restoration (vv. 30–38)
2) Wholehearted Obedience Means Seeing and Savoring Yahweh
Himself (vv. 39–40)
II) The Opportunity to See and Savor Yahweh Wholeheartedly by Observing His Revealed Statutes and Judgments (4:41–43)
DEUTERONOMY 28:69–34:12
Translation
28:69 These are the words of the covenant that Yahweh commanded Moses to make with the sons of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant he made with them in Horeb. 29:1 Moses called to all Israel and said to them, “You saw all Yahweh did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land: 2 the great trials you saw, the signs and the great wonders, 3 but Yahweh has not given you a heart to know nor eyes to see nor ears to hear up to this day.
4 I escorted you forty years in the wilderness. During this time, your clothes did not wear out on you nor did your sandal wear out on your foot. 5 You did not eat bread nor drink wine or intoxicating drink so that you would know that ‘I am Yahweh your God’ 6 and so that you would come to this place. Sihon, the king in Heshbon, went out as well as Og, king of Bashan, to encounter us for battle, and we smote them. 7 We took their land, and we gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, to the Gadites, and to the half tribe of the Manassites.
8 You must, therefore, keep the words of this covenant and do them so that you might succeed in all you do. 9 You stand today, all of you, before Yahweh you God—your heads, your judges, your elders, and your scribes, every man of Israel: 10 your families, your wives, and your sojourner who is in the midst of your camp, from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water—11 for the purpose of entering yourself into the covenant of Yahweh your God and into his oath that Yahweh your God is establishing with you today 12 that he might establish you today for himself as a people and himself as your God just as he spoke to you and as he swore to your fathers—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 13 Not with you alone am I establishing this covenant and this oath 14 because I am establishing it with those who are here with us today before Yahweh our God and with those who are not here with us today.
15 Because you know that we dwelt in the land of Egypt and that we passed through the midst of the nations where we passed through 16 and you saw their horrors and their idols of wood and stone, silver and gold with them 17 beware lest there is among you a man, a woman, a family, or a tribe whose heart turns today from Yahweh our God to go after for the purpose of serving the gods of those nations. Beware lest there is among you a root bearing a poisonous plant or bitterness.
18 It will be that when this one hears the words of this oath and considers himself blessed in his heart, saying, ‘I will have peace because I walk in the stubbornness of my heart in order that the wealthy one might devastate the thirsty one.’ 19 Yahweh will not be willing to pardon this one because then Yahweh’s anger will smoke and his jealousy will smoke against this one. Every oath written in this scroll will ambush him, and Yahweh will wipe out his name from under heaven. 20 Yahweh will separate him for evil from all the tribes of Israel according to all the curses of the covenant written in the scroll of this Torah, 21 and generations after your sons will rise up after you and the foreigner that will come from a distant land will speak as they see the affliction of that land and its diseases which Yahweh inflicts upon it, 22 ‘Sulfer and salt! All its land is burning! It does not produce seed, and it does not sprout. All its grass does not rise on it, just like the destruction of Sodom and Gamorah or like Admah and Zeboyim, cities Yahweh overthrew in his anger and rage.’ 23 All the nations will say, ‘Why did Yahweh do this to this land? What is this great burning anger?’ 24 They will say, ‘Because they forsook the covenant of Yahweh the God of their fathers which he made with them when he brought them from the land of Egypt. 25 They went to serve other gods, and they prostrated themselves before gods that they did not know and that were not allotted to them. 26 Therefore, the anger of Yahweh burned against this land so that he brought upon it all the curses written in this scroll. 27 Yahweh uprooted them from upon their ground in anger, rage, and great wrath, and he cast them to another land as it is this day. 28 The hidden things belong to Yahweh our God, and the disclosed things belong to us and to our children forever that we might do all the words of this Torah
30:1 And it will be that when all these things—the blessings and the curse which I gave before you—come upon you, then you remember among the nations where Yahweh your God banishes you, 2 you will return to Yahweh your God, and you will hear his voice according to all I am commanding you today—you and your sons—with all your heart and all your soul. 3 Yahweh will reverse your misfortune, have compassion on you, return, and gather you from all the peoples where Yahweh your God scattered you. 4 If your banishment be to the end of heaven, from there Yahweh your God will gather you and from there he will receive you. 5 Yahweh your God will bring you to the land your fathers possessed, and you will possess it. He will cause your good and will multiply you more than your fathers. 6 He will circumcise your heart and the heart of your seed to the end that you might love Yahweh your God with all your heart and all your soul for the sake of your life. 7 Yahweh your God will put all these curses upon your enemies and upon your haters who pursue you. 8 As for you, you will return, hear Yahweh’s voice, and do all his commandment by which I am commanding you today. 9 Yahweh your God will cause you to exceed in all the work of your hands for good—in the fruit of your womb, in the fruit of your cattle, and in the your ground—10 because you will hear the voice of Yahweh your God to the end that you will do his commandment and his statute, that which is written in this Torah scroll because you will return to Yahweh your God with all your heart and all your soul 11 because this commandment by which I am commanding you today will not be too extraordinary for you nor will it be too far. 12 It will not be in heaven that you might say, ‘Who will ascend for us to heaven, receive it for us, and teach it to us, that we might do it?’ 13 It will not be across the sea that you might say, ‘Who will go across for us to the region beyond the sea, receive it for us, and teach it to us, that we might do it?’ 14 because this word will be near to you—exceedingly so, in your mouth and in your heart to the end that you will do it.
15–16 Look, today I have put before you what is life and what is good, what is death and what is evil in that I am commanding you today to love Yahweh your God, to walk in his way, and to keep his commandment, his statute, and his judgment to the end that you might live and multiply and that Yahweh might bless you in the land you are going to possess. 17 If, however, your heart turns, you do not listen, are banished, prostrate yourselves before other gods, and serve them—18 I declare to you today—you will certainly perish. Your days will not be long upon the ground you are crossing over the Jordan to inherit. 19 I call as witnesses against you today heaven and earth. What is life and what is death I put before you, the blessing and the curse. Choose life that you might live, you and your seed, by loving Yahweh your God, listening to his voice, and clinging to him 20 because he is your life and the length of your days to the end that you might dwell on the ground which Yahweh swore to give to your fathers: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
31:1 Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel. 2 He said to them, “I am 120 years old today. I am not able to go out or come in. Yahweh said to me, ‘You will not cross over the Jordan.’ 3 Yahweh your God is crossing over before you. He will destroy these nations from before you, and you will possess them. Joshua is crossing over before you just as Yahweh said. 4 Yahweh will do to these nations as he did to Sihon and Og, kings of the Amorites and to their land which he destroyed. 5 Yahweh will give them to you, and you will do to them according to the commandment by which I am commanding you today. 6 Be strong. Be courageous. Do not fear nor tremble before them because Yahweh your God is going with you. He will not sink back nor will he forsake you.’ 7 Moses called to Joshua and said to him before Israel, ‘Be strong, and be courageous because you will bring this people to the land Yahweh their God swore to give them. You will make them inherit it. 8 Yahweh will go before you. He will be with you. He will not sink back nor forsake you. Do not fear nor be terrified.’
9 Moses wrote this Torah, and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, the carriers of the Ark of the Covenant of Yahweh and to all the elders of Israel. 10 Moses commanded them: ‘At the end of seven years, at the appointed time, the year of remission at the feast of booths, when all Israel comes to appear before Yahweh your God in the place he chooses, 11 you must proclaim this Torah in the hearing of all Israel. 12 Assemble the people—the men, the women, the children, and your sojourner in your gates—that they might hear and learn to the end that they might fear Yahweh your God and keep unto obedience all the words of this Torah 13 and to the end that their sons who do not know might hear and learn to fear Yahweh your God all the days you live upon the ground that you are crossing over the Jordan to inherit.
14 Yahweh said to Moses, “Behold, you day to die is near. Call Joshua. Station yourselves in the Tent of Meeting, and I will command him. And Moses went with Joshua, and they stationed themselves in the Tent of Meeting.
15 Yahweh appeared in the Tent in a pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud stood upon the entrance of the Tent. 16 Yahweh said to Moses, “Look, you will soon lie down with your fathers, and this people will rise up and prostitute themselves before other foreign gods of the land where they are going in its midst. The will forsake me, and they will break my covenant which I made with them. 17 My anger will be kindled against this people in that day. I will forsake them and hide my face from them. This people will be food, and great evils and distresses will find them. They will say in that day, ‘Is it not because my god is not in my midst that these evils find me?’ 18 “As for me, I will certainly hide my face in that day on account of all that this people did because they turned to other gods. 19 Now, write this song for them and teach it to the sons of Israel. Set it in their mouths that this song will be a witness for me against the sons of Israel. 20 When I bring this people to the ground that I swore to their fathers, flowing with milk and honey, and they eat, are satisfied, and grow fat, they will turn to other gods and serve them. They will spurn me, and the will break my covenant. 21 It will be, when great evils and distresses find this people, this song will respond before them as a witness because it will not be forgotten from the mouth of their seed because I know their purpose that they are making today when I have not yet brought them to the land I swore.”
22 Moses wrote this song on that day and taught it to the sons of Israel.
23 He commanded Joshua, the son of Nun, and he said, “Be strong, and be courageous because you will bring the sons of Israel to the land that I swore to them. I myself will be with you.”
24 And as Moses finished writing the words of this Torah upon a scroll until completion, 25 Moses commanded the Levites, those carrying the Ark of Yahweh’s Covenant, saying 26 “Take this scroll of the Torah, place it inside the Ark of the Covenant of Yahweh your God, and it will be in it, there as a witness 27 because I know your rebellious and your hard neck. Behold, for the duration of my life that I’ve been with you until today, you are rebellious with Yahweh. How much more after my death! 28 Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your scribes, and I will speak these words in their ears. I will call as a witness against you the heavens and the earth 29 because I know after my death that you will certainly corrupt yourselves. You will turn aside from the way I commanded you, and the evils will happen to you at the end of days because you will do evil in the eyes of Yahweh to make him angry with the work of your hands.”
30 Moses spoke in the ears of the assembly of Israel the words of this song until it was complete:
32:1 “Give your ear, heavens, and I will speak. Listen, earth, to the words of my mouth. 2 My teaching will fall as rain. My sayings will drop as dew, as showers upon the grass and as great showers upon the herbage 3 because I will proclaim the name of Yahweh. Ascribe greatness to our God, the Rock. 4 His work is perfect because all his ways are just. He is a God of faithfulness in whom there is no injustice. He is righteous and upright.
5 This people corrupted themselves. They are not his sons. They are blemished, a generation crooked and twisted. 6 Is this how you, a people foolish and without wisdom, repay Yahweh? Is he not your father who purchased you, who made you and established you? 7 Remember the days of antiquity. Discern the years of generation and generation. Ask your father, and he will declare it to you. Ask your elders, and they will speak to you. 8 “When the Most High gave the nations an inheritance, when he divided the sons of men, he established the people’s boundaries for the number of the sons of Israel 9 because Yahweh’s portion is his people, Jacob is the portion of his inheritance. 10 He found them in a wilderness, in a void of a howling wasteland. He encircled them and raised them. He guarded them as the apple of his eye. 11 As an eagle stirs up its nest, over young birds it moves gently, he spread out his wings, took them, and carried them on his pinions. 12 Yahweh alone guided them. There was no foreign god with them. 13 He made them ride on the high places of the earth, and they ate the yield of the field. He made them suck honey from the rock and oil from the flinty rock, 14 curds of cattle and milk of a flock with fat of lambs and rams, the sons of Bashan and rams with choices grains of wheat, and you drank the blood of grapes. 15 Jeshurun grew fat and kicked. You grew fat, grew thicker, and were gorged. He forsook God—he who made him—and he despised the Rock of his salvation. 16 He made him jealous with strangers. He made him angry with abominations. 17 They sacrificed to demons, not God, gods whom they do not know, new ones who recently came—Your fathers were not acquainted with them. 18 Rock bore you. You deserted him, and you forgot God who brought you forth.
19 Yahweh saw, and he spurned his sons and his daughters from anger. 20 He said, ‘I will hide my face from them and will see what their end is because they are a perversity. They are sons in whom there is no truth. 21 They make me jealous with what is not god, and they make me angry with their emptiness. I will make them jealous with what is not a people. I will make them angry with a foolish nation 22 because in my anger a fire is kindled. It will burn until Sheol’s lowest part and will consume the earth and its produce. The foundations of the mountains will blaze. 23 I will add evils upon them: my arrows will devour them; 24 The emptiness of hunger, the consumption of fire and destruction, bitterness and the tooth of beasts I will send against them with poison of things that crawl in the dust. 25 From outside the sword will bereave, and from inside there will be horror—Yea for a young man as well as for a virgin, for a nursing child as well as for a gray-haired man. 26 I said, ‘I will scatter them and exterminate their memory from men 27 except I feared the provocation of the enemy lest their adversaries misidentify, lest they say, “Our hands are exalted!” and “Yahweh did not do all this.” 28 Because they are a nation devoid of prudence and there is no understanding in them—29 If only they were wise, they would understand this. They would discern their end. 30 How can one pursue one thousand and two make multitudes flee unless because their Rock is selling them, and Yahweh is delivering them up?—31 “Their Rock is not like our rock”—our enemies are judges. 32 Because from the vine of Sodom is their vine and from the fields of Gomorrah: his grapes are grapes of poison; bitter clusters are his. 33 Their wine is serpents’ poison and the poison of deadly vipers.
34 Is it not stored up with me, sealed in my treasuries? 35 Vengence and recompense belong to me.” For a time their foot will slip because the day of their disaster is near. It will hasten to them ready 36 because Yahweh will vindicate his people and have compassion upon his servants. When he sees that strength has disappeared and that there is not one bound nor free, 37 Then he will say, “Where are their gods, the rock in whom they sought refuge, who ate the fat of their sacrifices, who drank the wine of their offerings? 38 Let them arise and help you. Let them be your refuge.
39 See now: I alone am He, and there are no gods with me. I will kill, and I will enliven; I wound, and I myself heal. There is none who can deliver from my hand 40 because I life my hand to the heaven and say, ‘As I live forever: 41 If I sharpen my flashing sword and my hand seizes justice, I will return vengeance to my adversaries, and I will recompense those who hate me. 42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword will consume flesh from the blood of a pierced one and a captive, from the head of a Pharoah-like enemy.” 43 Sing for joy, nations, his people because he will avenge the blood of his servants, and he will return vengeance to his adversaries and atone for his land, that of his people.”
44 Moses went, and he spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he and Joshua, son of Nun. 45 Moses completed speaking all these words to all Israel, 46 and he said to them, “Set in your heart all the words that I am calling as a witness against you today, which you must command to your sons that they might keep all the words of this Torah by doing them 47 because it is not a word of emptiness for you because it is your life and by this word your days will be long upon the ground you are crossing over the Jordan to inherit.”
48 Yahweh spoke to Moses on that same day, saying, 49 “Ascend the mountain of this Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, across from Jericho, and see the land of Canaan which I am giving to the sons of Israel as an inheritance. 50 Die on the mountain you are ascending, and be gathered to you people as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people 51 because you acted unfaithfully against me in the midst of the sons of Israel at the waters of Meribath of Kadesh, the wilderness of Tsin because you did not treat me as holy in the midst of the sons of Israel. 52 When from the opposite side you view the land, there you will not enter the land I am giving to the sons of Israel.”
33:1 This is the blessing with which Moses, the man of God, blessed the sons of Israel before his death, 2 He said, “Yahweh from Sinai came, and he rose like the sun from Seir to us. He shone from Mount Paran, and he came from among myriads of holy ones from his right hand giving the fiery law to them. 3 Alas, lover of peoples, all his holy ones are in your hand, and they bow down at your feet. He took from your words, 4 the Torah. Moses commanded us, a possession, the assembly of Jacob 5 And among Jeshurun he was a king when the heads of people, the tribes of Israel, assembled themselves together.
6 May Reuben live, and may he not die. May his fewness be innumerable.”
7 This he said to Judah: “Hear, Yahweh, the voice of Judah, and bring him to his people. Let his hand increase for him, and be to him a help against his adversaries.”
8 He said to Levi, “Your Thummim and your Urim be for your faithful one whom you tested at Massah, whom you contended against at the waters of Meribah, 9 the one who said to his father and to his mother, “I do not see them.” His brother he does not regard, and his sons he does not know because they keep your word and guard your covenant. 10 May they teach from your judgments to Jacob and from your Torah to Israel. May they place incense before your nose, a whole offering upon your altar. 11 Bless, Yahweh, his substance, and enjoy the work of his hands. Shatter the loins of those who rise up against him and his haters so they do not rise up against him.
12 He said to Benjamin, “The beloved of Yahweh, may he dwell in safety, the Most High hovering over him all day, and he dwells between his shoulders.
13–16 He said to Joseph, “Blessed of Yahweh is his land from the best of heaven, from dew, from the deep lying beneath, from the best produce of the sun, from the best yield of the moons, from the heard of the mountain of antiquity, from the best of the hills of eternity, and from the best of the earth, its fullness, and the favor of the dwellers of Sinai. May they come to the head of Joseph, and to the head’s crown of those dedicated to God, of his brothers. 17 As a firstborn of his bull, majesty is his and the horns of a wild ox are his horns. With them he gores peoples. Together, the ends of the earth, and they are the thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh”
18 He said to Zebulun, “Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out, and Issachar in your tents. 19 May they call peoples, a mountain. May they sacrifice righteous sacrifices for may they suck the abundance of the sea as well as the hidden things covered by the sand.”
20 He said to Gad, “Blessed be the enlargement of Gad. He lived as a lion, and he tore are and head’s crown. 21 He saw the first for himself because the decreed portion was covered there, and he came as a head of a people. He did Yahweh’s righteousness and his ordnances with Israel.
22 He said to Dan, “Dan is a cub of a lion. May he leap from Bashan.”
23 He said to Naphtali, “Naphtali, be satisfied with favor, and full of Yahweh’s blessing. Possess west and south.
24 He said to Asher, “May Asher be more blessed than the sons of Asher. May he be the most enjoyed of his brothers, and may he dip his foot in oil. May your gates be iron and bronze, and may your strength be as your days are.
25 There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, 26 riding the heavens with your help and riding the skies with his majesty. 27 The God of antiquity is a dwelling place and under you are the eternal arms. He drives out enemy from before you, and he says, ‘Destroy!’ 28 Israel dwells securely. Alone, Jacob is a spring to the land of grain. Alas, his heavens drop dew.
29 Blessed are you, Israel! Who is like you? A people saved by Yahweh, the shield of your help and who is the sword of pride. Your enemies come to you feigning obedience, and you will tread upon their high places.”
34: 1–3 Moses ascended from the region on Moab to Mount Nebo, the top of Pisgah which is opposite Jericho, and Yahweh showed him all the land, Gilead until Dan, all Naphtali and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh and all the land of Judah until the last sea, and the Negev and the valley, the plain of Jericho, the city of the palms until Zoar
4 Yahweh said to Moses, “This is the land that I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give to your seed.’ I let your eyes see it, but you will not go there.”
5 Moses, the servant of Yahweh, died in the land of Moab according to Yahweh’s word, 6 and Yahweh buried him in the valley of the land of Moab, opposite Beth-Peor. No one knows the place of his burial to this day. 7 Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eyes did not dim, and his strength did not flee.
8 The sons Israel grieved Moses in the region of Moab thirty days, and the days of grief mourning were completed. 9 Joshua, the son of Nun, was full of a spirit of wisdom because Moses laid hands on him, and the sons of Israel listened to him. He did what Yahweh commanded Moses.
10 Now, no prophet rose again in Israel like Moses whom Yahweh knew face to face 11–12 for all the signs and wonders which Yahweh sent him to do in the land of Pharoah and to all his servants and to all his land and for all the strong hand and for all the great terror which Moses did before the eyes of all Israel.
Exegetical Outline
Main Idea: In view of Yahweh's faithfulness alongside Israel's fundamental
flaw and future failure, Moses the dying prophet preaches and
portrays a new covenant.
I) The Prophet Preaches Faithfulness, Flaw, and a New Covenant
(28:69–30:20)
A) The Message: Faithfulness and Flaws Give Rise to a New Covenant
(28:69–30:14)
1) The Context of the Coming New Covenant, Cradled in Yahweh's
Faithful Character (28:69–8)
2) The Character of the Coming New Covenant, Kept with All Israel
Forever (29:9–30:14)
(a) The Fact of Yahweh's Coming New Covenant with All Israel
Forever (29:9–14)
(b) The Future of Yahweh's Coming New Covenant with All Israel
Forever (29:15–30:14)
(i) Stage #1: Israel's fundamental flaw giving rise to future
failure (29:15–28)
(ii) Stage #2: Yahweh's fundamental faithfulness giving rise to
future forgiveness (30:1–14)
B) The Mandatum: Choose Life in Yahweh or Die (30:15–20)
II) The Prophet Portrays Faithfulness, Flaw, and a New Covenant in as
Witnesses of Song and Sign (31:1–34:12)
A) The Witness of Song (31:1–32:47) [A chiastic structure emphasizes the
song as witness against Israel]
1) The Song's Surrounding Circumstances (31:1–14, 23–29; 32:44–47)
(a) The Circumstance of Moses's charge to Israel and Joshua,
Israel's new head (31:1–8; 32:44–47)
(b) The Circumstance of Moses's charge to the priests to teach
the Law, a witness against Israel (31:9–13, 24–29)
(c) The Circumstance of Moses's commission of Joshua at
Yahweh's command (31:14, 23)
(d) The Circumstance of Moses's composition of the witness song
at Yahweh's command (31:15–22)
2) The Song's Covenantal Content (31:30–32:43)
(a) The Nature of the Song (31:30–32:4)
(i) The Song's Singer: the Prophet Moses (31:30)
(ii) The Song's Audience: the Creation (32:1–2)
(iii) The Song's Impetus: the Supremacy of Yahweh (32:3–4)
(b) The Narrative of the Song (32:5–43)
(i) Israel's Gross Corruption despite Yahweh's Gracious
Compassion and Care (32:5–18)
(ii) Yahweh's Faithfulness to Punish (32:19–33)
(iii) Yahweh's Faithfulness to Vindicate (32:34–38)
(c) The Note of the Song: Yahweh's Supremacy Praised in its
Display (32:39–43)
B) The Witness of Sign (32:48–34:12) [A chiastic structure emphasizes
future blessing (=life) after death]
1) The Death of the Sign Spoken (32:48–52)
2) The Life of the Sign Spoken (33:1–29)
3) The Death of the Sign Settled (34:1–12)
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