OVERVIEW: The primary focus of this study is on two questions rarely discussed by scholars of the Old Testament (OT) in their commentaries on Deuteronomy. The first question is, when Moses said “you shall surely perish” for disobedience, in contrast to having the blessing of life for obeying God’s commandments, was his specific meaning that only the nation of Israel would perish (due to military conquest), or that individual persons would perish, in some sense, or both of these options? This analysis shows Moses meant both (by using Hebrew grammar).
The second question is, for instances where individual punishment was in view, what exactly did the ancient Israelites understand Moses to mean regarding what or who perishes when? Relying on several passages in Deuteronomy to support its claims, this study uses the expertise of many authors who have written relatively recent academic commentaries on Deuteronomy to show what Moses meant by “you will certainly perish.” This analysis shows they probably understood that the most severe descriptions of individual punishment were directly related to a person’s prospects in the afterlife period known as Sheol (as seen in Deuteronomy) or gravedom.
The meaning of the curse presented here (and as understood by the ancient Israelites) expands on the typical explanation of this phrase seen from these academic writers (many of whom imply that it only has the nation of Israel in view regarding it perishing—to some degree—prior to its return to Jerusalem many centuries ago). It is being suggested here this typical interpretation appears to need some adjustment (to explicitly include individual responsibility, which is certainly present in Deuteronomy, and their fate in the afterlife).
This alternative position has likely been promoted by others elsewhere; however, I’m not aware of any contemporary commentaries or other sources that have taken this view, and that also shows how specifically Deuteronomy can be interpreted this way. This study is much more explicit about the meaning—as it applies to individuals (instead of only the nation of Israel)—of “death for disobedience” compared to any of the twenty relatively recent commentaries on Deuteronomy that I have consulted.
There are eleven chapters in Deuteronomy (out of 34) that are likely relevant to eventually answering our main question, what happens to the soul when people die? See my chapter on Genesis for identification of Bible translations used in this study.
Section A: Introduction
Section B: You will perish for disobeying God (Part 1)
Section C: You will perish for disobeying God (Part 2)
Section D: God is a consuming fire who destroys those who hate God
Section E: Trying to contact the dead is detestable to God
Section F: Death is described as a sleep in the presence of your ancestors
Section G: Yahweh is the only God that controls life and death
Section H: Moses spoke about the world of the dead—Sheol
Section A: Introduction
The fifth book of the OT, and last part of the Pentateuch or Torah, has exerted a major impact on many writers of Scripture. No other OT book is quoted as often in the New Testament (NT).
Click here (foot-quote number 1) to see a short quote on how one author (Wright, 1996), in his commentary on Deuteronomy, describes the great impact of it on the early church, including on Paul and Jesus, and its great significance potentially for the church today.
Five times in just chapter 2 of Deuteronomy, we read the claim that “the Lord spoke to me [Moses].” In the last chapter (which speaks of his death in the third person), we read that “The Lord spoke face to face with him [Moses] (Deut 34:10, CEV).” This book begins by saying that “these are the words Moses spoke to all Israel (Deut 1:1, NIV).” And then to clarify the comparison of these two assertions (with “just as”), we read that “Moses spoke to the Israelites just as the Lord had commanded him to speak to them (Deut 1:3, NRSV).” Moses developed a good understanding directly from God through conversation at the mountaintop while separated from his people.
To authoritatively answer the main overall question here (what happens to the soul when people die?), it is necessary to understand the meaning of these references to death as originally intended. This is the reason for allotting much space, and depth, here to this topic of life versus death; it is foundational. Moses gave these speeches to Israel sometime around the thirteenth century before Christ. Click here (fq-2) to read what one expert (Drane, 2011) wrote regarding this estimate of the approximate year Moses gave these speeches to Israel.
It was not just Moses and other leaders that the Lord spoke to; many other people heard the voice of God as seen next: “Gather the people to Me, and I will let them hear My words, that they may learn to fear [respect] Me (Deut 4:10, NKJV). Moses reminded this very large community that “the Lord spoke to you from the fire, how you heard him speaking but did not see him in any form at all (Deut 4:12, GNT).”
There may be one primary motif that can be detected running throughout this book. First, God “declared to you [plural] his covenant, which he commanded you [plural] to perform, even the ten commandments. And he wrote them upon two tablets of stone (Deut 4:13, MLV). The Modern Literal Version (MLV) distinguishes between a plural you and a singular you, like the KJV does with a singular thou and a plural ye. This extra information is critical to the unusual methodology used in this study. Second, and in response to God requiring Moses to teach all Israel about these new laws (see Deut 4:14), we read Moses declare: “Therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you” (Deut 4:1, KJV).
Multiple authors have written in their commentaries on Deuteronomy that the main theme of this book relates to loyalty to the covenant between Israel and God, and therefore, the theme can be summarized as being the promise of reward versus the threat of punishment. Lundbom (2013) writes that this promise and threat motif runs throughout the book. Christensen (2001) says that the demand for covenant loyalty is a central theme in Deuteronomy. Craigie (1976) observes that this demand for covenant allegiance is always contrasted with the danger of unfaithfulness. McConville (2002) describes the goal of the covenant as being Israel’s life. Lenchak (1993) suggests this theme about choosing life (as seen in Deut 4:1 above) is not just the high point of Moses’ third discourse but is perhaps the high point of all Deuteronomy. Click here (fq-3) to read these very short quotes.
Section B: You will perish for disobeying God (Part 1)
Subsection 1:
What did Moses mean exactly by “you will perish if you disobey God’s commandments”? Moses said it multiple times in his three sermons (that comprise nearly all of Deuteronomy), when he told the people of Israel in his farewell speeches before they all crossed the Jordan River without him. We start with the ominous warning that appears in chapters 6 and 8.
“You will perish if you do not obey the LORD your God” (Deut 8:20, CSB). “Be careful not to forget the Lord … Do not follow other gods … Otherwise, the LORD your God will become angry with you and obliterate you from the face of the earth” (Deut 6:12-15, CSB).
These two passages above are not the only ones in Deuteronomy that say this. They were selected because there is a significant, but usually hidden, difference between them regarding the pronoun you as seen in the Hebrew and in some English translations that have transferred this difference into their version. Another pair of verses will also be shown here (that are sequential in the same chapter) that also display this same significant, but usually concealed, difference.
In his commentary on Deuteronomy, Weinfeld (1991) describes these passages as being a “threat of annihilation in the event that they worship foreign gods” (Weinfeld, 396). Click here (fq-4) to read more of his quote showing that both verses above are in view.
Who or what is to perish, be destroyed, or be obliterated for forgetting the Lord, and when roughly does this happen? The main purpose of this section, and the next one, is to determine the meaning of “you shall perish” as seen in the various sermons of Moses. This section focuses on the word you, and the next one focuses on the word perish. The pronoun you in modern English can be either singular or plural grammatically. The intended audience being addressed can be either a group or an individual, depending on the intention of the writer and his use of this pronoun, especially in the original Hebrew language of Deuteronomy.
Moses used both forms in Hebrew (i.e., a singular you and a plural you), and sometimes he referred to the nation of Israel as a collection of people (in the second person), and at other times he referred to the individuals of Israel as separate human beings (in the second person). Section C (the next section) asks, what specifically perishes, and when, and then puts it all together using the hints provided by Moses and the observations of several scholars who have written commentaries on Deuteronomy.
It seems the vast majority of commentators on Deuteronomy write that Moses was referring to Israel—as a nation—with this phrase, “you shall surely perish.” Deut 6:15 (shown above) seems to be universally interpreted as meaning the nation of Israel will be destroyed if it generally follows the false gods of the people around it. This is not an inappropriate interpretation of this verse—in itself—but is it accurate? That is to say, could it be true that Moses was, in one instance, referring to individuals, and in another instance, referring to the nation, with this same threat of punishment?
It also appears to me (based on a sample size of twenty) that all, or nearly all, of these authors of commentaries, both contemporary and classic (older commentaries), probably refrain from also saying that it could not refer to individual Israelites. That is, the question is not addressed in the books I have seen of whether “you shall perish for disobeying God” refers to them as individuals, in the eschatological sense of divine judgment. Additionally, very few of them (or none that I have seen) have addressed the different meanings and basic implications of a “second person singular pronoun” versus a you that is plural in the Hebrew, in the context of this threat.
Since there is universal agreement with the interpretation in the particular (i.e., Deut 6:15 above), what can a person say about it in the general sense? One should not jump to the conclusion that the other passage, Deut 8:20 (shown above), that speaks of something or someone perishing due to disobedience must also be referring only to the nation of Israel, in contrast to the fate of an individual person. This is my main assertion here, and the evidence presented below takes two approaches. The first one is more direct, but it does not, to my knowledge, have any precedent in the literature (therefore it is untested). The second one has support by some top scholars (and there is disagreement among them regarding these pronouns), but their commentaries provide only preliminary observations without stating the ramifications of them.
Subsection 2:
The primary basis for the claim that various iterations of “you will certainly perish for your disobedience” refer to both the nation of Israel and individuals is to be found in Deuteronomy itself, and particularly in the difference in meaning between a singular you and a plural you. What can legitimately be made of the observation that “you (singular) shall perish” and “you (plural) shall perish” have been highlighted using the rhetorical structure inherent in a particular pericope?
The first step is to confirm, using both verses shown above, that these pronouns—there are multiple instances of them in each verse—are, in fact, opposite in number to each other. Two Bible translations that focus on the Hebrew language will be used here to accomplish this, in addition to showing two Bible translations that use Early Modern English instead (with a singular thou, a singular thee, or a plural ye) to also accomplish this for both passages.
The Modern Literal Version (MLV) – 2019, the Mechanical Translation of the Torah (MTT) – 2014, the King James Version (KJV) – 1611, and the American Standard version (ASV) – 1901 are shown together beginning with Deut 8:20. Click here (fq-5) to see these four versions of the first verse and a short summary of each Bible version regarding its pronouns.
To summarize this part: All four versions agree that the pronoun you (or ye) in the phrase “you/ye perish; because you/ye” is a plural word in each case in Deut 8:20.
Click here (fq-6) to see these same four translations of Deut 6:15.
To summarize this part: All four versions agree that the pronoun you (or thee) in the phrase “against you/thee, and he destroy you/thee” is a singular word in each case in Deut 6:15.
To summarize both parts for this first step: All four versions agree that Deut 8:20 uses plural pronouns, and all four versions agree that Deut 6:15 uses singular pronouns, in the phrase that speaks of punishment as well as in the phrase next to it (for both verses). Therefore, if the first passage was referring to the nation of Israel, then the second passage must be referring to the individual, and vice-versa. Since Deut 6:15 is universally interpreted to refer to the group (and it uses singular pronouns), Deut 8:20 must necessarily refer to the individual since it uses pronouns of the opposite number (i.e., plural). If instead, the reverse is true (which I doubt based on other similar passages in Deuteronomy), that is, if Deut 6:15 is later found to refer to the individual, then Deut 8:20 must necessarily refer to the group. Surely, there is at least one Hebrew expert that has already broken the silence for this specific context.
Subsection 3:
The second step is to begin to test this observation for those who remain unconvinced. It would be better to have a pair of verses that share the same context (i.e., the same chapter), rather than this pair above that are present in different chapters with chapter 7 separating them. Fortunately, repetition is highly valued by the biblical writers; so we next examine Deut 30:18-19. Another difference between the next pair of verses and the previous ones is that we just saw a negative-negative formula while the next pair uses a negative-positive formula (i.e., curse and blessing).
“I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it” (Deut 30:18, KJV).
“I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live” (Deut 30:19, KJV).
To confirm agreement regarding pronoun number with a Hebrew-focused translation (MLV) with the one above that uses both thou (which is singular) and ye (which is plural) in Deut 30:18, and thou and thy (both singular) in Deut 30:19, observe the following.
Deut 30:18-19 (MLV) – a plural you is designated with an asterisk, and a singular you has none (within the text of the MLV):
“I declare to you* this day, that you* will surely perish. You* will not prolong your* days in the land where you pass over the Jordan to go in to possess it. I call heaven and earth to testify against you* this day, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your seed.”
To summarize: The MLV agrees with the KJV for both v. 18 and v. 19 of chapter 30 regarding the following: “ye [plural] shall surely perish” and “choose life, so that thou [singular] may live.” The plural pronoun in v. 18 is opposite in number to the singular pronoun in v. 19 for these curse/blessing phrases. The curse phrase (“you shall perish”) is opposite in its ramification to the blessing phrase (“you may live”). That is, if a person can avoid divine punishment, then the reward is expected to be the opposite (i.e., having life) because the choice is presented by Moses within v. 19 as a contrast with only two options—life or death, and the blessing or the curse.
The reader may be aware that the translators of the KJV used thou, thee, thy, and thine as singular pronouns, and ye, you, your, and yours as plural pronouns. Shakespeare also followed this convention (particularly thou for the singular subject form). What seems to be fairly certain now is that in Early Modern English (1500-1700), the meaning of thou, as a personal pronoun in the second person, was used exclusively in the singular number.
Additionally, we know the meaning of ye, you, and your as personal pronouns in the second person, were used both in the singular and plural number at the time. This ambiguity is irrelevant for Deut 30:18 (where a ye appears) because both the MLV and the Hebrew Bible itself (presumably) shows the original pronoun number as being plural. Click here (fq-7) to read more about this matter to confirm that the KJV uses thou in the singular number.
An emphasis can be seen in Deut 30:18 for the plural pronoun ye where it is repeated in back-to-back phrases as follows (KJV): “ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land.” This same repetition is seen in v. 19 with two singular pronouns, thou and thy as follows (KJV): “that both thou and thy seed may live.”
The likely reason for the abrupt change in the addressed audience, from a plural you in v. 19 (as seen in the MLV above) to a singular you, or a sudden switch from referring to individuals to referring next to the nation itself, is to obtain a rhetorical affect meant to capture a person’s attention.
The same shift but in the opposite direction can be noticed in the other verse (v. 18) which was used for the same reason (i.e., rhetorical effect) by Moses. The starkness is emphasized even more by compressing four plural pronouns consecutively in the first part of the sentence, as follows (in the MLV). “I declare to you* this day, that you* will surely perish. You* will not prolong your* days in the land” and then the hearer or reader may notice in the last part of the same sentence—“where you pass over the Jordan to go in to possess it”—that it switched to a singular you (which refers to the plan for the people of Israel as a group to miraculously cross the river).
This unexpected change is repeated in the very next sentence: “I call heaven and earth to testify against you* this day, that I have set before you life and death” where the same pronoun (you) appears as plural and then appears as singular to emphasize again the intended impact on the audience. Moses was urging his people to choose wisely regarding this warning of perishing, and both the nation of Israel and its individuals who are under the covenant are in view. Thus, an individual person is liable to perish for disobedience, and this solemn alert was not just directed toward the nation. The warning of perishing regarding the nation may have been meant in the general sense—the vast majority of it—and excluding a small remnant (i.e., 11 of the 12 tribes of Israel fell without renewal in the short or medium term).
One good explanation for why many critical commentaries, both contemporary and classic, have not fully addressed the meaning of a plural you in “you shall perish” within the context of many singular second person pronouns is due to the need to fully address the state of the scholarship on a different matter involving these singular and plural pronouns. This ongoing discussion (now lasting over a century) about the pronoun variances in the singular and plural possibly serving as an indication of “separate layers of a text, that is, to discover what was the original text and what were later editorial additions” (to quote Lenchak, 13). Click here (fq-8) to read more by Lenchak (1993) related to this theory, its eventual rejection, and to the beginning of this singular/plural controversy in critical scholarship.
The amount of space Lundbom devotes to his explanation of this diversion, as it turns out (which was addressed back in 1894 and continued to capture the attention of scholarly authors) as it relates to a possible indication of various sources for the text due to shifts between the singular and plural, is six times more space than Lundbom devotes to a description of his own view of the same issue (as shown above). Click here (fq-9) to see what he wrote regarding this point related to the singular/plural forms in the context of a search for different sources of the text as seen in Deuteronomy.
Before the third step can be taken—which is to determine the meaning of perish (what and when?) which is addressed in Section C—it may be helpful to further pursue this issue. None of the recent academic-technical commentaries on Deuteronomy that I have consulted have tested this method of interpretation for these passages or even mentioned it. Therefore, for those who remain skeptical of it, there is another method available for reaching the same result. It involves the observations of some OT scholars on this matter of who the subject is in “you shall perish.”
This less direct method utilizes the preliminary observations of several authors that are typically found in their recent commentaries of Deuteronomy. Whenever the singular/plural pronoun topic is alluded to on rare occasion there, disagreement among them can be detected on even this basic matter of the meaning of a second person pronoun.
Subsection 4:
It is the specific meaning of a singular you versus a plural you in Hebrew that is disputed today among OT scholars. Either a reference is made to the single collection of people (as the nation of Israel), or alternatively, it refers to single individuals that are distinct from the larger group (regarding punishment). That which is not generally disputed among OT scholars is that a plural you and a singular you refer to widely separate things—a group versus an individual.
The main question of Section B is, which sense of you applies to this one message (i.e., “you will perish”), as seen in these four verses—the collective sense or the individual sense of you, or both? The typical interpretation in contemporary academic commentaries of the meaning of this prophetic claim is that the nation of Israel is liable to losing its existence (e.g., through military conquest and dispersion of its people) as divine punishment for its citizens generally disobeying the commandments.
Click here (fq-10) to see what two experts (Nelson, 2002 and Lenchak, 1993) write very briefly regarding their observation of Deuteronomy and its use of both singular and plural forms of the pronoun you in the Hebrew Bible.
The singular form of you is considered to have been the standard form by which the community was addressed. “Israel was viewed as one person before Yahweh in worship” (Lenchak, 13). Sources footnoted at this point by Lenchak include Bee (1979), Begg (1980), Cazelles (1967), Mayes (1981), and Moran (1963). When the people who escaped Egypt were gathered before Moses, a singular you in Hebrew was not understood as referring to individuals, but rather to the single group—as Israel. The grandson of Abraham, Jacob, was also named Israel, and the Israelites, or the children of Israel/Jacob, were referred to in the singular as if it was one person, this one Israel/Jacob, whenever you as a singular pronoun was used.
Click here (fq-11) to read more from Lenchak (1993) on this pronoun disagreement among scholars who summarizes the views of two writers, Knapp and Thompson, both of whom clearly state the opposite belief: that a plural you refers instead to all Israel and that a singular you refers to the individual.
However, there is an OT scholar whose commentary on Deuteronomy takes the same position as Lenchak has. Lundbom (2013) says, first, the singular you in Hebrew probably refers to the single collection of people as a nation, and second, the plural you in Hebrew refers to the many individuals of that nation as individual persons. He illustrates this difference by saying a singular you means “the people as a whole” (a single entity, the nation of Israel) and that a plural you means “each and every one of you” whenever persons are addressed “individually and emphatically.” Click here (fq-12) to see Lundbom’s quote in which he identifies others who disagree with him on this point.
Lundbom states that not only is there a significant difference in meaning between a singular you and a plural you as easily seen in the Hebrew (thus the difference seen in older English between a thou and a ye), but what is noteworthy is his preference for attaching the “people as a whole” meaning to a singular you, and regarding a plural you, he writes that it addresses “each person individually and emphatically (‘each and every one of you’).”
It has been noticed by Hebrew scholars that some biblical writers in the OT have a habit of apparently disregarding consistency in the shifting of singular and plural use of pronouns. Apparently, these other prophets saw a benefit to imitating Deuteronomy in this regard. Lundbom attributes the “sudden and frequent changes between second singular you and second plural you in the speeches of Moses” to be “simply another facet of the celebrated Deuteronomic rhetoric [2, 10].” Thus, he seems to distance himself somewhat from a discussion about the implication of an individualized you in a verse that says “you (plural) shall perish” although he briefly mentions the presence of “individual responsibility” in Deuteronomy. This presence is shown below as being clearly visible.
Although Lundbom does not address final punishment in the afterlife for disobedience to God (and neither does Lenchak), he concludes by suggesting that the long-standing confusion about whether a plural you in Hebrew refers to a nation or its people does not matter because “either way, we have support for the idea that ‘individual responsibility’ [in his quote of Albright, 1957, 326] does indeed exist in Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic History.”
Since Lundbom has taken a view of this grammatical matter that, along with Lenchak, puts them in the minority apparently, against scholars such as Tigay (1996), Paul (1991), Knapp (1987), and Thompson (1975), it may be necessary to describe something about how Lundbom’s work has been perceived by his peers. Click here (fq-13) for this description. Tigay’s fine commentary on Deuteronomy is ranked in the top quartile (number 19 out of about 80) by bestcommentaries.com.
There is another highly regarded OT scholar, McConville (2002), that appears to agree with the position taken by both Lenchak and Lundbom on this issue of whether a plural you in the Hebrew refers to the nation itself or as distinct individuals. He also has written commentaries on both Deuteronomy and Jeremiah. McConville’s Jeremiah commentary is ranked in the top quartile (number 16out of about 80). However, unlike Lundbom and his Deuteronomy commentary, McConville’s highly regarded commentary on Deuteronomy is ranked number 2 (out of about 80). Click here (fq-14) to read parts of two endorsements from McConville’s book that highlight the goals of the Apollos series including an emphasis on the message of the text (as opposed to the heavy emphasis on various other issues: textual, sources, grammar, syntax, etc.) often seen.
McConville wrote the following in the section titled, Deuteronomy 30:1-20 – Explanation (which covers one of the main passages of this section, Deut 30:18, that includes the phrase “you shall surely perish”). The structure of the twenty verses in chapter 30 mostly encompasses discussion of the nation of Israel in the context of benefiting as a nation if the people generally obey the Lord. The following three snippets show this: “when all these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse,” “restore you from captivity,” and “inflict all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you”).
McConville (2002) writes: “The first point to be made is that the picture applies to Israel taken as a whole (the singular address [emphasis mine] in 30:1-10 must be understood of the community as such, as elsewhere in Deuteronomy). (Joyce [1989: 79-87] argues similarly about Ezekiel, in that book’s vision of a renewed Israel, though Ezekiel is often held to be the prophet of individualism par excellence)” (McConville, 431).
That which should be taken from this quote above is that McConville sees the first half of chapter 30, with its you pronouns, as referring to the nation “as a whole” and not individually until later in the chapter where it speaks of the curses to be placed on individuals who have turned their back on God (“you shall surely perish”).
McConville’s “first point to be made” in his explanation section covering all of Deuteronomy 30 includes the assertion that the meaning of a singular you, as seen within its context, should also apply to other parts of Deuteronomy that use a singular you (as also referring to the nation as a singular unit) in addition to him agreeing with Lenchak and Lundbom (by inference). The second point that can be taken from McConville’s quote above is based on his reference to Joyce’s book on Ezekiel. If it was the case that the scholarly view in general was already settled, and consistently clear, on what a singular you refers to, then McConville probably would not need to stress that this part of the address “must be understood” as referring to the community of Israel. That is, this point was not critical to his line of reasoning.
There are many authors of academic commentaries that leave the impression, or say it outright, that “you shall perish” applies only to Israel as a nation and was not meant individually.
Click here (fq-15) to see five examples (from Kalland-1992, Lundbom-2013, Biddle-2003, Merrill-1994, and Clements-1994) of what has been said about the meaning of you in, for example, Deut 8:19-20 (and not just in v. 20) as being meant in the collective sense and not in the individual sense. Although typically they do not explicitly say that you should not be taken in the individual sense, they mention only the collective sense of you (as they refer to the nation of Israel) in their comments about Deut 8:19-20. It would have been more accurate to suggest that both the nation and the individuals of it are subject to potential punishment for disobedience since individual responsibility is explicitly addressed at some length within Deuteronomy.
Click here (fq-16) to see a rare example of an expert (Brueggemann, 2001) that seems to barely suggest Moses was referring to both the nation and its individual people who owned a particular attitude of personal self-sufficiency that would not get them, as an individual, in trouble (due to a lack of accountability). His commentary on Deuteronomy is a top-rated one (i.e., ranked number 5 out of about 80) at bestcommentaries.com.
Subsection 6:
This subsection tackles two questions by an examination of some passages in Deuteronomy. One of them has already been addressed above but it tests that conclusion by calling up two additional passages. This first one asks, is it really true that Moses was referring both to the nation of Israel and to its individuals with these threats? There are a number of verses that could be used to help with this question, For example, the following two passages provide support for the claim that Moses was not just referring to the nation in the “you shall perish” warning: Deut 7:10 and Deut 29:21.
Moses told his people that God punishes those who hate God by destroying them. “He [Yahweh] directly pays back and destroys those individuals who hate him. He will not hesitate to pay back directly (fn: to their faces) the one who hates him” (Deut 7:10, CSB).
Deut 29:18-21 describes the possible situation where the nation in the future is led by someone who is faithful to Yahweh (YHWH), along with much of his fellow Israelites, and yet some of its people have broken the first commandment regarding serving the gods of other nations. According to Moses, God had addressed this situation and any possible punishment for disobedience. That is, does the unfaithful individual share in the blessings poured upon a generally faithful Israel, or does that person get singled out for extreme punishment?
“It shall be when he hears the words of this curse, that he will consider himself fortunate in his heart, saying, ‘I will do well though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart in order to destroy the watered land along with the dry.’… Then the Lord will single him out for disaster from all the tribes of Israel, in accordance with all the curses of the covenant which is written in this Book of the Law” (Deut 29:19, 21, NASB).
We read the Lord shall never be willing to forgive him for this appalling sin of following a demon-god even though the country, at the time, is generally rejecting these other false gods. See Deut 32:17 that shows these were actual devil-leaders in the spiritual realm that reigned over their nation or territory (and with the Hebrew elohim meaning a god). The key phrase in this passage above is “the Lord will single him out for disaster” due to his stubbornness regarding obeying the commandments of God. This is an example of personal responsibility being clearly present in Deuteronomy. Click here (fq-17) to see what two experts (Nelson, 2002 and Tigay, 1996) write about Yahweh isolating an offender who may try to hide within an obedient Israel.
These twenty verses in chapter 30 include both the singular you and the plural you grouped together such that in verses 1-10 there occur forty-three instances of you and your with all of them in the singular—and that does not include another dozen instances of this pronoun in the phrase, the Lord your God. There’s a clear emphasis present by repeating these pronouns an average of over four times per verse for ten straight verses (43 / 10 = 4.3). The context seems to be very clear that Moses was referring to the nation itself, the people as a large group, as confirmed by McConville in his “first point” within the explanation section.
The singular you continues for another seven verses (without any plural forms of these pronouns) with there being thirteen instances of you and your (excluding the Lord your God phrases). Then an abrupt and alarming shift occurs in Deut 30:18-19a with there being five instances of the plural form of you and your when it begins by saying: “I declare to you [plural] this day, that you [plur.] will surely perish. You [plur.] will not prolong your [plur.] days in the land …” (Deut 30:18, MLV).
The singular and plural pronouns of this verse above in the MLV completely agree with those seen at this same verse in the MTT, which presents a heavy emphasis on the Hebrew itself for each word in the Hebrew Bible. Consequently, the Deuteronomic curse was clearly intended for both the nation and its individuals. For those who are comfortable with the KJV and its archaic, but at times more helpful, language (regarding pronoun number), notice the plural ye below. It is relevant and important that the KJV translators chose to not use the singular thou with “shall surely perish” as explained next.
“I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it” (Deut 30:18, KJV).
The second question in Subsection 6: Is it really true that a plural you in Hebrew refers to individuals and not the group itself? The analysis above on Deut 30:1-18 shows this is true; the plural second person pronoun refers to the punishment of individuals. However, there is one additional verse beyond this pericope above that can serve to emphasize it to readers of Deuteronomy today (i.e., it uses the testimony of a later prophet, Ezekiel). And it can be seen in the very next verse, v. 19.
“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live” (Deut 30:19, ESV).
You don’t need to be an expert in Hebrew to determine how this verse can be helpful to this second question here. You only need to become convinced by a Bible version you trust (regarding pronoun number), and one that shows the difference between a singular and plural you.
“I have set before you [singular] life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore, choose life, that you [sing.] may live” (Deut 30:19, MLV). The singular and plural pronouns above agree with those seen in the MTT. The phrase “so that you may live” also appears earlier in this chapter, at v. 6. The KJV also switches from a ye in v. 18 to a thou and a thy in v. 19 to show these pronouns switched from plural to singular.
“I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live” (Deut 30:19, KJV).
Chapter 30 concludes with a shift from plural pronouns back to the singular consisting of eight instances for vv. 19-20. This emphasis using eight singular pronouns in the last two verses of the chapter serves to bracket Deut 30:18 (“you [plur.] will surely perish”) against the preceding group of seventy-five singular pronouns (including “Lord your God”) over the first seventeen verses. This rhetorical structure of the text is remarkable in its intended effect on the audience at the time of its hearing.
The twenty verses in chapter 30, where nineteen of them use only a singular you or your, and at a high concentration of them (83 / 19 = 4.4) contrasts with v. 18 with its plural pronouns, and its threat of death for the individual who disobeys God. This emphasis on individual responsibility to avoid personal punishment apart from the demise of the country can be seen linguistically by readers today and was detected by the ear of the Israelites due to repetition. In numerical verse order, we see these three groups of similar pronoun verses and a double shift: only singular pronouns to then only two plural pronouns (in the “you will surely perish” part of the verse) and then back to only singular pronouns to complete the chapter (from 18b to 20).
The phrase in Deut 30:19 (above), “that you and your offspring may live,” is a consequence of a personal choice to be made, and that indicates they are being addressed as a nation, rather than as individuals. The warrant for this assessment can be based on the judgment code of Yahweh God (which was unusual within Israel at the time) as fully described with several examples in Ezekiel 18:1-32. “Therefore, you Israelites, I will judge each of you according to your own ways” (Ezek 18:30, NIV). “The one who sins is the one who will die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child” (Ezek 18:20, NIV).
Therefore, since it is much more likely that Deut 30:19 (“that you and your offspring may live”) has the nation’s fate in view and it uses singular pronouns within it, then v. 18 and its “ye shall surely perish” is referring to the individual with its plural pronoun ye. If v. 19 was meant in a collective sense, then v. 18 must have been meant in an individual sense due to the change in pronoun number.
Since this unusual interpretation of Deut 30:18 (i.e., within modern commentaries)—that God holds people accountable for their sins at this early stage, and that this was known by some at the time of Moses—aligns with Ezek 18:20 (written six centuries later) and its emphasis on individual responsibility (contrary to the then prevailing opinion), it reflects divine consistency and human stubbornness.
Hopefully, others will concur that this interpretation is right for these several verses in this section that explicitly say “you shall perish”—and thereby demonstrate that the position taken by Lenchak, Lundbom, and McConville is correct regarding a plural you in the Hebrew (ye in Old English) as being understood at the time of Moses to refer to an individual person, and not collectively as a nation.
Subsection 7:
Section B has examined thus far two pairs of verses: Deut 6:15 with Deut 8:20, and Deut 30:18 with Deut 30:19. Subsection 7 (the last one in this section) will briefly scrutinize two more similar passages: Deut 4:26 and Deut 8:19.
Each of these six passages, either in it or in the verse immediately prior to it, identifies the same commandment – the first one of the Ten Commandments (seen at Deut 5:6). Four of them say “you shall perish” and one says, “obliterate you from the face of the earth.” The remaining one identifies the opposite result in the context of perishing for disobedience: “that you and your ancestors may live.” All four of them that say “you shall perish” refer to the individual using plural pronouns. The other two, Deut 6:15 and 30:19, refer to the nation of Israel using singular pronouns. One of the verse pairs (Deut 8:19-20) refers to punishment of individuals in both. The other remaining verse pair (Deut 30:18-19) refers to individuals in one and the nation in the other.
Of the remaining two verses, one refers to individuals and the other to the nation.
Beginning with Deut 4:26, four versions of it are presented next, with each one adding clarity to the singular/plural pronoun question and to the nation or individual question.
“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to occupy; you will not live long on it, but will be utterly destroyed” (Deut 4:26, NRSV).
“I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed” (Deut 4:26, KJV).
“I call heaven and earth to witness against you [*plural] this day, that you [*plur.] will soon utterly perish from the land which you [*plur.] cross over the Jordan to possess; you [*plur.] will not prolong your [*plur.] days in it, but will be utterly destroyed” (Deut 4:26, NKJV with asterisk marking from MLV).
“I testify against y’all [plural individual] this day, that you and you and you too [plur. indiv.] will soon utterly perish from the land to which you guys [plur. indiv.] go over the Jordan to possess. You sir, and you too ma’am, [plur. indiv.] will not prolong your [plur. indiv.] days upon it, but will be utterly destroyed” (Deut 4:26, my translation).
The vast majority of English translations of the Bible (about 80-90%) do not indicate to the reader that both a singular you and a plural you are clearly present in this verse (and which yous are which number). This verse, as well as others similar to it, in themselves do not inform the reader, using the Hebrew, whether a thou was meant in the collective sense or a ye was meant in the individual sense of the pronoun.
When deciding whether the pronoun you in Hebrew indicates a collective or individual sense, it is inappropriate to minimize the role of context by requiring that English and Hebrew must agree in every case. Thou, which is a singular pronoun, can be meant in either the collective or individual sense. “Thou shalt not kill” refers to the individual rather than the group (similar to the other ten commandments).
Although thou usually means the individual sense, that is not always true in Scripture. For example, the following passage uses thou in the collective sense. “Joshua answered them, if thou be a great people, then get thee up to the wood country” (Josh 17:15, KJV). Examples of other translations that also use thou in this verse (rather than you or ye) include: KJ21, ASV, BRG, DBY, DRA, GNV, JUB, OJB, WYC, and YLT.
There is yet another passage in Deuteronomy that clearly says “you will perish” for disobeying God. The following three deductions (as explained above) will be applied to it in a brief evaluation: (1) “you shall perish” can refer to either the nation or the individual; (2) you (plural) refers to the individual; and (3) whenever the pronoun you switches from singular to plural to say “you shall perish” it was intentionally done to jolt the audience, capture their attention, and clearly state to them that God demands individual responsibility with obedience.
You may prefer to verify the pronoun number using your favorite translation (or the Hebrew Bible), but the NRSV, the NKJV with the asterisk indications seen in the MLV added, and the KJV will be used here.
“If you do forget the Lord your God and follow other gods to serve and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish” (Deut 8:19, NRSV).
“Then it shall be, if you [singular] by any means forget the Lord your [sing.] God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you [*plur.] this day that you [*plur.] shall surely perish.” (Deut 8:19, NKJV with asterisks from MLV).
“And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish” (Deut 8:19, KJV).
This passage in effect tells us that if the nation of ancient Israel generally follows other gods, Moses was testifying against them on an individual basis—who potentially may personally violate the first commandment—that the punishment of perishing will certainly be applied to them as individuals for this chosen disobedience by their covenant partner, the YHWH God.
Therefore, it seems evident that Lenchak, Lundbom, and McConville are correct about this grammatical point, compared to the other position—represented here by Tigay, Paul, Knapp, and Thompson—regarding the meaning, collective or individual, of different second person pronoun numbers.
However, this disagreement among scholars is secondary since the main issue is whether the use of a singular you and a plural you in the Hebrew within a number of similar “life or death” phrases throughout Deuteronomy is an indication of two audiences being addressed—the nation of Israel and the individual.
The next section uses specific hints repeated in Deuteronomy to focus on the meaning of perish (what and when?), as understood then by the ancient Israelites.
Section C: You will perish for disobeying God (Part 2)
The purpose of this section is to determine the likely meaning of “you, as an individual, shall perish for disobedience” as Moses originally intended it during his speeches to the Israelites, with an emphasis on the meaning of “perishing” (i.e., what and when?). Although an assessment can be reached using only Deuteronomy, later writings will be included in this determination due to the future orientation of Deuteronomy itself and of this specific warning. Click here (fq-18) to see what one expert says (Wright, 1996; whose top commentary on Deuteronomy is ranked number 3 out of about 80) about these speeches of Moses having the long-term future in mind.
What is the ramification of individual responsibility seen in Deuteronomy in the context of “certain death” being the stated punishment for breaking the first commandment? Did the Israelites understand eventually that the timing of this warning of death was not an instant death? They probably did after some time elapsed. At times, it happened suddenly, but for most others, this threat of certain death did not occur immediately, as can be readily seen in the OT among those “who did evil in the sight of the Lord.”
We know from later OT writings, such as from the Kings and Chronicles books, that many people in Israel, including their kings, continued to break the first commandment (that requires having only YHWH as their God, instead of another spirit or false god). Yet, these leaders did not perish suddenly; they remained in power as an evil king, and for decades in some cases. King Manasseh reigned for 55 years and caused God to say to a prophet, “Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations … I am bringing … disaster upon Jerusalem and Judah (2 Kings 21:12). The calamity did not occur for at least another fifty-five years since the Babylon Captivity occurred in 586 BC.
The divine threat of perishing, as it affects an individual person, is taken here to mean, for Moses, either a physical death in this world or alternatively, a symbolic death in the next one where something important perishes. Since Moses mentioned the world of the dead, Sheol, in one of his speeches, it cannot be ruled out at this point that, for some people at least, the punishment will not be handed down until the afterlife.
“Spiritual death” (or separation from God) is being ruled out here as a divine punishment because under the covenant between Israel and YHWH it must mean more than mere separation—to better align with the ominous examples of this curse (as seen in the second half of Deuteronomy 28 for example). In the case of an evil king who had rejected the God of Israel and all the commandments in Deuteronomy, as we know happened regularly in the history of ancient Israel, these people and their associates were already living a life separated from God due to their actions.
They chose to be separated from YHWH, God of Israel, through their choice to break the first commandment. God’s judgment of these evil people must be something that goes beyond a “spiritual death” or separation from God because that would be too similar of a continuation, in the afterlife, of their situation in this world. And where is the justice in that? How is that outcome different such that it aligns with the solemn “life or death” warnings from Moses of an outcome that is the opposite of having life?
Moses provides three examples of how perishing, or death for an individual person, should be understood. It is because of these indirect definitions of death that a person can rule out the type of punishment in the afterlife that many today have unfortunately called a “spiritual death.” These clues will be addressed in the next subsection.
Therefore, with both immediate death and spiritual death as a punishment ruled out, only three options remain. These are: (1) physical death happens to the individual prior to the time of their normally expected natural death, (2) symbolic death of some sort happens that has significant bearing on the individual during the afterlife, or (3) both of these options occur in some cases. That is, evil and disobedient people may or may not get what is coming to them (i.e., perishing) before their own physical death in this world. It is being allowed in this analysis that due to certain clues in Deuteronomy, people judged by God to be deserving of the wrath of God may only receive that punishment after dying.
Deut 28:15-68 repeatedly makes the point clear there are many types of curses that will affect everyday life in this world which will fall on those who ignore God’s commandments (including threats of destruction, of some type, as seen in vv. 20, 45, 48, 51, and 63). Therefore, Israel understood the picture of blessings and curses applying to the here and now. However, the main focus of this study relates to the threat of perishing and of destruction, as it affects a person after their resurrection (i.e., the long-term future of Israel as individuals).
What clues did Moses leave about whether this individual punishment could occur after one’s death? One hint was already mentioned above, in this section, but there is another clue that was repeatedly mentioned by Moses in Deuteronomy. After combining the concept of the Hebrew term, Sheol, or the world of the dead, with the book of life, including the removal of names from it due to divine editing, a picture emerges that has “you shall perish” in it for breaking the first commandment.
Subsection 2:
The specific threat of doom for a person went beyond the surface meaning of an untimely death in this world at the hand of God. Moses intended to impress on them that the consequence of very bad behavior went beyond the expected outcome of just a physical death in this world given divine judgment. The great seriousness of this warning of death and destruction, as seen in the pleas of Moses, was meant to hold their attention and get them to realize the scope and duration of this retribution.
Shortly before embarking into the promised land, the people were listening during the speeches of Moses to a beloved leader, and a man they probably respected and admired very much. Moses understood the importance of keeping Yahweh’s commandments as shown by his providing a specific example of how it all could go wrong (i.e., excessive pride). So, imagine how they felt inside when they heard him solemnly warn these followers quite sternly, “I testify against you today (Deut 8:19, NASB).” Mayes writes that “it is a legal phrase with the sense ‘pronounce or testify in the presence of witnesses.’”
Moses could have just said, “you will perish” instead of saying the following (that include these four terms for emphasis: shall … ever … I testify … certainly). “It shall come about, if you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and serve and worship them, I testify against you today that you will certainly perish” (Deut 8:19, NASB). This shows the degree of earnestness that Moses desired to convey to them on the point that his warning of perishing was a solemn one that people should remember. Moses emphasized that they must understand that this consequence of disobedience was certain to occur.
Weinfeld describes these verses (Deut 8:19-20) as a “threat of annihilation.” This particular curse for disobedience in following other gods appears to not be just a regular type of punishment, as McConville describes it as being a “severe punishment.” Weinfeld’s commentary on Deuteronomy is ranked in the top quartile. Click here (fq-19) to see short quotes from Weinfeld (1991) and McConville (2002).
Christensen (2001) observes that chapter 8 began with “you just might live,” but that the same chapter ends with “or, you will certainly perish” if you forget about God. Click here (fq-20) to read his quote.
Of the three examples used by Moses to clarify his understanding of the nature of human death, Deut 8:20 (shown above) illustrates it by way of comparison. The other two examples are seen in the next subsection. Nearly every Bible version includes one of the following: like, as, just like, the same way. “Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God” (Deut 8:20, NIV). The MLV shows that the pronoun you appears in the Hebrew as a plural you multiple times for just this one verse. Based on the previous section, we know that a plural you in this context refers to individual people, and not to the nation of Israel itself.
So, what exactly was meant here by perish or be destroyed? “You will perish” means that whatever is destroyed, it could include a person’s name in God’s book of life since Moses repeatedly referred to it. When some entry is deleted from a record, it vanishes, and is like the consequence of a small town, city-state, or a tiny nation located in the central part of the promised land upon the start of war under Joshua, where few, if any, had survived to carry on the name of that small city. The symbol of those defeated and obliterated people, the name of their city, soon no longer existed anywhere because people stopped using the name of the place that became insignificant compared to the larger neighboring nations. Similarly, an evil person’s name perishes from the book of life.
Not only did the sinful people who followed Baal die there, and also lose their place in the book of life perhaps, but their collective name perished too. They completely lost their identity, and were totally destroyed, with the help of Yahweh during the fight. The purpose for intentionally identifying the collective sense, rather than using an individual sense, for this noun could be related to the point seen in other parts of Deuteronomy that refer to the name being eradicated from God’s book due to disobedience.
There are four passages (in chapters 7, 9, 25, and 29) that all use a similar phrase that may be the main clue to seeing how they understood what specifically perished whenever individual punishment involving destruction was in view. The key phrase below is “blot out their name from under heaven.” From Deuteronomy 7 we read: “He will hand their kings over to you and you shall blot out their name from under heaven; no one will be able to stand against you, until you have destroyed them” (Deut 7:24, NRSV). A quick check of 50-plus English translations of this verse at biblegateway.com shows that perish, destroy, and blot out are the most common translations of the Hebrew verb. However, there are four others that use erase their name (MEV, NLT, NET, and TLB). The NASB-1995 version says perish, but the updated NASB from 2020 says “you will eliminate their name from under heaven.”
Perhaps a better translation and even more modern English term for “blot out,” is delete their name, as in deleting a file from your computer (since few people blot out ink anymore as mistakes are made). So, from what exactly is the name of an unrepentant, or unforgiven, individual being deleted from—some sort of divine record perhaps—the book of life maybe? Yes, later prophets have called Moses’ mega-scroll in the sky the book of life, which according to them, contains the names and actions committed by everyone born into this world; and it is constantly being revised according to the OT prophets.
The second passage says the following: “The Lord also said to me, ‘I have seen how stubborn and rebellious these people are. Leave me alone so I [Yahweh] may destroy them and erase their name from under heaven” (Deut 9:13-14, NLT).
The third verse in Deuteronomy says: “Thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it” (Deut 25:19, ESV).
The fourth passage says: “The Lord will not be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the Lord and His wrath will burn against that person, and every curse that is written in this book will lie upon him, and the Lord will wipe out his name from under heaven” (Deut 29:20, NASB).
There are two more verses that can become helpful clues in interpreting exactly what it may be that is eradicated or erased, and they are found in Exodus. We are informed there about two conversations between God and Moses. The first one follows: “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven” (Exod 17:14, NIV).
The second one follows: “Now if you would only forgive their sin. But if not, please erase me from the book you have written. The Lord replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me I will erase from my book” (Exod 32:32-33, CSB).
It is clear that Moses knew that God maintains a record of people in heaven, a huge scroll at his abode, in which names are added and taken away from it. We can also conclude that Moses understood this book is edited in that sins committed against God may be deleted from this record upon divine forgiveness. Moses asked God to forgive the sins of the Israelites.
It is also clear that Moses requested that he be blotted out, that is, his name be removed from God’s book. Consequently, Moses probably told Joshua and other leaders about this understanding that it is the name that is erased, not the actual person in this present life that must die. This kind of divine editing from God’s book would be easily distinguished from the everyday type of curses found in chapter 28 and would likely be understood as happening after a person naturally dies.
It is very likely that Moses and others understood the curse, “you will perish,” whenever referring to individuals, as meaning “your name will no longer be present in God’s heavenly book.” Moses probably knew the great importance of someone’s name being erased from the scroll. I can imagine that it was not just a name that is deleted. It likely includes all the relevant information under the person’s name—certainly actions committed, but also other things as well (affecting our resurrection for example). One of the purposes of the book of life (and other similar records in heaven, seen in Rev 20:12) is to assist with divine judgment as we find out from Christ in his revelation to John.
Therefore, for Moses to be understood as to the severity of this type of destruction or death, the Israelites probably noticed—due to the repetition by Moses (twice in the second speech and twice in the third speech)—of erasing a person’s name in heaven for disobedience. Others less discerning probably realized eventually that Moses was not referring to an instant or premature death in this world for each and every person.
The meaning of perish in Hebrew, in this context, was perceived by them to affect the heart/mind of a deceased person in Sheol, a place that Moses described. The beginning of my study on Genesis addresses the ancient understanding of the world of the dead (i.e., Sheol), as developed by Jacob, that the destination of the heart/mind was this other mysterious existence, and the obvious destination of the physical body was the grave. It is likely, in my view, that Sheol, as a sort of supercomputer, contains the book of life. Click here (fq-21) to see what one expert (Merrill, 1994) wrote regarding the contents of the book of life. Notice that only names, rather than names and deeds, are identified by him there.
There are several more verses in the OT that are helpful to understanding the book of life that do not use this label, but rather refer to how the divine computer file, or book, is maintained. We know that the book of life not only contains the names of people, but it also is a record of their actions, as seen in one of David’s psalms. “Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions.” (Ps 51:2, NKJV). We can confirm from this same psalm of David (which was written after he had “gone in to Bathsheba”) that the process of erasing a person’s recorded actions does not mean that the name of the person is also blotted out. There are at least five more OT passages that refer to God’s book on us. Click here (fq-22) to read Ps 51:9, Ps 69:28, Jer 18:23, Neh 13:14, and 2Kgs 14:27 (with each of them talking about the deleting of information, typically actions by a human, from the book of life).
The book of life is not a book of everyone who is presently alive on earth, but rather, it is a book of everyone who may receive the promise of life afterwards, depending on the judgment of their lives. It is important to remember that the book of life, referred to in Deuteronomy, was shown by later prophets in the OT to include much information about the person identified in it, even their deeds committed in their life, and that this heavenly record is not just a list of the names of the righteous to be saved. The NT further elaborates on this divine record of people.
An examination of the Hebrew root form for perish, ‘bd (pronounced “avad”), may be necessary. This Hebrew verb usually means “to perish or be destroyed,” but it can sometimes also mean “become lost” according to NIDOTTE (Van Dam). This lexicon/reference work describes the range of meanings for ‘bd as follows: “The perishing and destruction can refer to a wide variety of things, usually in the context of judgment: e.g., images … one’s name, memory … The judgment described by ‘bd is devastating. …The verb ‘bd also describes the lot of the wicked in contrast to that of the righteous. ‘Those who are far from you [Yahweh] will perish [‘bd]; … But as for me, it is good to be near God’ (Ps 73:27-28).’” Click here (fq-23) to read more about the meaning of this Hebrew term (regarding an emphasis on God causing the death of the person).
Subsection 3:
The second example used by Moses of how death, or perishing for an individual person, should be understood can be seen in Deuteronomy 30. The key phrase below is “not prolong your days” and “your life and length of days” after people are resurrected on the new earth.
“I tell you today that you will certainly perish and will not prolong your days in the land you are entering to possess across the Jordan” (Deut 30:18, CSB). Loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers” (Deut 30:20, ESV).
Each of the several second person pronouns in Hebrew in this “you shall perish” passage (v. 18) are plural. Therefore, Moses was referring to the individual person and their fate in the future, perhaps distant future. “I declare to you [plural] this day, that you [plur.] will surely perish. You [plur.] will not prolong your [plur.] days in the land” (Deut 30:18, MLV). The “land” refers to the new promised land they were to possess. The “obeying his voice” phrase in Deut 30:20 (above) is a more accurate translation of the Hebrew (for this verse, not the entire Bible necessarily) compared to the NIV’s “listen to his voice” according to Merrill (in his highly-ranked Deuteronomy commentary, p. 393).
Someone may object and say that dwelling in the land for more time (from Deut 30:18,20) must necessarily be referring to a premature death in this world. Not so. The NT is not required as a resource here for ancient Israel to have realized that heaven will come down to earth, where present worldly institutions will have been destroyed in the end times, and that paradise on a new earth will be our abode with Christ in the afterlife. God’s other main prophet, Isaiah, was also informed of the plan regarding where people in the next life will live (i.e., on a new earth, or for Moses, on the (new) land).
“For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind” (Isa 65:17, KJV).
“For just as the new heavens and the new earth, Which I make, will endure before Me,” declares the Lord, “So will your descendants and your name endure” (Isa 66:22, NASB).
Additional life over the long-term on “a new earth” (see also Rev 21:1) is the reward from God if his judgment of someone’s life is favorable due to divine forgiveness. If not, then the loss of a person’s name in the book of life, and death of a certain type, will occur. But what type of death did the Israelites understand it to be back then before Christ appeared as a man to enlighten his apostles on the nature of death and resurrection? They probably understood that having your personal name erased from the heavenly scroll meant that your time in Sheol, or the comparative depth in Sheol (symbolically), would affect a person in the afterlife. Sheol was a concept known by Moses and had been discussed by Jacob several times (see my Genesis study on this point).
“For fire has been kindled because of my anger and burns to the depths of Sheol” (Deut 32:22, CSB).
Moses meant that the individual person who sins without repentance and divine forgiveness will be subject to certain death, and they will forfeit an additional period of living (“not prolong your days”) comprising, I believe, of a heavenly life on the new earth (i.e., “in the land”) for those who receive salvation. Click here (fq-24) to read what two experts (Christensen, 2002 quoting Tigay, 1996) write regarding the importance to Judaism in remembering the meaning of the blessing of further life to come.
The third example seen in Deuteronomy for assisting us today in defining the biblical view of the nature of death can go unnoticed. In OT times, this example was probably minimized because death was then seen very differently compared to today. But it remains the case that Moses seems to define, or characterize, death as the opposite of life. Life versus death is how he put it. Either a person possesses the characteristic of life at any given time, or that person does not.
A blessing is not meant to be just another type of curse; and death is also not meant to be just another type of life (since both pairs can be plainly understood as opposites). Moses framed the issue as a life-or-death matter probably to imitate what human death is: the absence of life itself, as opposed to death being just another phase of life. The alternative and long-standing view (since Augustine’s importation into church doctrine) is that human death is not the opposite of life, it is rather the continuation of life. Death would appear to not be an enemy in this view, yet that is how it has been described in Scripture.
“I have placed before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants” (Deut 30:19, NASB).
“I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live” (Deut 30:19, KJV).
Moses would have needed to describe this severe punishment of death differently if he believed the evil person, in the depths of Sheol following a person’s physical death, did not actually die, body and soul (or both the body and the heart/mind, as the OT would put it, based on Genesis). Click here (fq-25) to read what two experts (Merrill, 1994 and Keil & Delitzsch, 2006 [1891]) write about the “blessing and curse” actually being “salvation and destruction.”
Click here (fq-26) to read what one expert (Work, 2009) writes regarding divine “future judgment” and that “only resurrection or destruction” are the two options for people.
The next question in this Bible study of the meaning of “you will perish” is, why did Moses say you will perish for disobedience, instead of telling them that your name in heaven will perish? Moses understood this was a divine book of life that directly effects a person in the afterlife, and that it represented the difference between life and death over the very long term.
We can imagine that if there was something important for Moses to impart to them, then Moses knew this was his last chance to tell them what he knew about it, since his people were nearly ready to leave him at the Jordan River. Click here (fq-27) to read what two experts (Merrill, 1994 and Christensen, 2001) wrote regarding the meaning of erasing one’s name from God’s book (i.e., terminating a relationship with God and destroying the person).
Deleting the name of an evil person from God’s book on us must mean that severe punishment in the afterlife is in view. “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev 20:15, NASB). This imagery of a destructive lake of fire (e.g., hell) is equated with actual death (as in loss of life), even a second death (from Rev 20:14) that probably is meant in the literal sense. God told Moses about this scenario involving real death and literal destruction of the person.
So, finally, what did Moses really mean? Moses was telling them that the significance of having one’s name deleted from God’s book of life had great impact related to having the length of your days shortened (Deut 30:18) in the context of Sheol and the wrath of God. Moses was confirming that the ramification of being blotted out, or deleted, from God’s book of life is that “you, and you too, will surely perish completely in due time.” Click here (fq-28) to read what an expert (Merrill, 1994) writes in his highly esteemed commentary on Deuteronomy (it was ranked number 4 out of about 80). What is noteworthy is that Merrill describes the blessing and curse as presented by Moses to consist of “life itself” versus “death forever,” and that life should be understood as a matter of “mere existence.”
It was a life-or-death choice to be made back then, and therefore it seems very likely that the divine system remains in place. Therefore, we today also have the same choice between life and death, and its ramification: resuming our life after our death and our resurrection versus not doing this. Click here (fq-29) to read what one expert (Thompson) says regarding it applying to people today.
Subsection 4:
There may be some objection to the assertion that Deuteronomy says the person receiving the curse associated with the life or death admonition of Moses who then proceeds to repeatedly sin will have their name deleted from the book of life. Rather, the objection would hold that Moses was referring to the book of the law instead of a book of personal names. This law book of commandments and curses is what the person was being judged against to determine compliance as a whole people. If they are non-compliant, or if their sin remains unforgiven, then the punishment, this objection asserts, would be that their group name is to be blotted out from under heaven.
That is, the collective name of the Israelites would be either made so despicable that it is forgotten among the peoples of the world (being under heaven), or alternatively, this collective name would become a source of continued mockery. This objection disregards a person’s name, or God’s memory of individuals, in the context of divine judgment. Rather, it is the nation that would see their name become a lowly name of disrepute. God would be taking away their honor and reputation which is a serious cost in an honor-based society (see Deut 29:20; 28:37,58,64; Gen 11:4,8).
My response to this objection is that Deuteronomy includes clear references to individual responsibility too; it is not just the nation that is subject to the curses due to disobedience. Deut 29:19-21 focuses on the possible punishment of a hypothetical person who continually disobeys God’s commandments at a time in the future when the nation as a whole is rather obedient to God. It says the anger of God will burn against that man; every curse in Deuteronomy will rest on him as an individual; and that “the Lord will single him out for disaster from all the tribes of Israel (NASB)” as punishment.
The question is: when Moses said “you shall surely perish for disobeying God,” was he referring to individuals, as well as to the nation, and were individual names to be erased from God’s book of life? The focus here on removing personal names from a book is based on several indications in the OT and the NT that this is done due to unforgiven sin and divine judgment of people. The meaning of the phrase in Deut 29:20 that is central in the dispute in the objection described above is “and the Lord would blot out his name from under heaven” (NKJV). So, what does this phrase mean?
Although the main issue is the meaning of the removal of personal names of people in Deut 29:20, the last part (“from under heaven”) can be addressed first. A person defending the objection above may say that it means “on the earth” (since heaven is above the planet) and it therefore means earthly societies regarding their memories of a people.
My response to this interpretation of “from under heaven” is that the relevant Hebrew word-form does not necessarily mean “literally below heaven, as in a scenario related to this world.” The meaning of mi’ta’hhat (מִ תַ חַ ת) depends on its context, and the use of this particular term based on the root word, tahat (H8478) which usually means “under” or “underneath,” tells us that it can mean “of subjection; under the hand or power of” as it appears in Deut 29:20 in the Hebrew Bible. There are many verses in Scripture that use various forms of this root word. However, if only this specific form seen in Deut 29:20 is used to search for other occurrences of it, the following examples can be compared: Exod 18:10, 2 Kings 8:20,22, 2 Kings 13:5, and 2 Kings 17:7 (according to Strong’s). Exod 18:10 reads, “who rescued the people from under the hand of the Egyptians” (NASB) where “under” in its immediate context refers to the power of the Egyptians and Pharaoh.
Similarly, it is very likely that “under heaven” in Deut 29:10 also means “under the power of God in heaven.” However, to achieve more certainty on whether “from under heaven” in this verse means “earthly matters” or “under God’s power” it is the wider context that determines its meaning in this case rather than the other way around. So, an investigation is necessary of the other part immediately prior to “from under heaven”: “The Lord would not spare him; for then the anger of the Lord and His jealousy would burn against that man, and every curse that is written in this book would settle on him, and the Lord would blot out his name” (NKJV).
What is the meaning of this last part of Deut 29:20: are individual names to be erased from God’s book of life based on divine judgment of those individuals? The grounds for answering in the affirmative can be found, first, in a conversation Moses had with God: “Now if you would only forgive their sin. But if not, please erase me from the book you have written. The Lord replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me I will erase from my book” (Exod 32:32-33, CSB).
God made it clear later that this book of personal names and deeds, the “book of life,” (Rev 20:12) directly relates to divine judgment and being destroyed in hell (Rev 20:15: “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire”).
The contents of the book of life includes both personal names and their deeds committed in this world according to Scripture. Regarding names of people, or their presence in this divine book, the following Bible verses tell us about the book of life: Ps 69:4,28; Phil 4:3; Rev 3:5; Rev 13:8; Rev 17:8; Rev 20:15; Rev 21:27. Additionally, there are several other references to the book of life that omit this phrase from the biblical text and only mention God’s removal of their names or their sins.
Due to a common purpose, which is divine judgment, between God’s book of names of individual people seen at Exod 32:32-33, from above, and Christ’s book of names seen at Rev 21:27 (which reads “names are written in the Lamb’s book of life”), it can be determined using the contexts of each passage that they are referring to the same book.
Similarly, it can be asserted that Deut 29:20 also is referring to the book of life, even though it only says “the Lord will blot out his name” without adding in the words “from God’s book” (from Exod 32:32-33). The context of Deut 9:14 (“that I may destroy them and delete their names”) is the bridge within the same book as our subject passage (Deut 29:20) that allows this melding of the Exodus “book” and the Revelation “book,” which is Deut 9:8 (“Even at Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, and the Lord was so angry with you that he would have destroyed you”).
This chapter 9 reference to Horeb, the mountain of God where the covenant was made (Deut 5:2), is the same place where Moses said to God that the Israelites did, in fact, commit a great sin by making a golden calf as their god (Exod 32:31). It is Deut 9:8 that links Exod 32:32-33 (“please delete my name [Moses’] from your book”). The reason Deut 9:8 is relevant is due to it being pivotal on the issue of “destruction” at Horeb. The second part of it says that YHWH was so angry with the Israelites that “he would have destroyed you there.”
So, what was averted through Moses’ atonement request (Deut 32:30) was a mass slaughter of Israelites and the erasing of their names from God’s book (Deut 32:33). What happened instead was 3,000 people were killed by the sons of Levi (Deut 32:28), and for the rest of them, God smote them with some type of plague (Deut 32:35).
Further support for claiming that the last part of Deut 29:20 (“delete his name from under heaven”) refers to the book of life, and hence, to a scenario involving what happens after someone dies—due to its purpose of divine judgment—can be found in Deut 32:22. This passage is within the “Song of Moses” which reads “For a fire is kindled in My anger and burns to the lowest part of Sheol.” Consequently, it is clear that Moses picked up on Jacob’s use of Sheol (in Genesis) and probably taught others about Sheol being where the heart/minds of the deceased are gathered into the “world of the dead” (as Sheol is defined by Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary) and where “the shades of the dead are gathered together” (as Sheol is defined by Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon).
One additional note: the pronoun in the last part of Deut 29:20 (“his name” versus “their names”) varies depending on the Bible version and can be misleading. Most of the versions of this passage shown at biblegateway.com have selected the individual sense and say either “him,” “his name,” “that person,” or “you” (40 out of 54). The remaining versions say either “their names” (8 versions) or “them” (6 versions) in the last part of this verse.
This is a relevant issue because my main question here is, who exactly was Moses referring to when he said “you shall surely perish for disobeying God,” an individual, the nation, or both? It may be inappropriate to change a singular pronoun in the Hebrew text into a plural pronoun in an English translation since it is critical in determining the meaning of this curse. A strong case can be made that due to Moses’ use of both singular and plural second person pronouns (i.e., “thou” versus “ye”) in his several warnings of “you shall perish” in Deuteronomy that he was referring to both the nation perishing due to conquest and to individuals perishing after their resurrection and judgment. The usual interpretation is that “you shall perish” refers only to the nation, not to individuals. This seems to be problematic due to the emphasis seen in Deuteronomy on individual accountability (e.g., Deut 29:19-21) and on the assertion in Gen 3:22-24 that the penalty for sin is forfeiting immortality.
Subsection 5:
The purpose of this last subsection is to show, based on the OT history of Israel and Judah, that the meaning of “you as an individual who forgot about loving the true God shall certainly perish sooner or later” applies both to before-death and after-death for some people and only to after-death for other people. That is, God saw to it that a physical death occurred decades, or many years, ahead of time for some people.
For 200 years prior to the Assyrian Captivity of the ten northern tribes of Israel in 722 BC, all nineteen kings (from Jeroboam I to Hoshea) are described as being “evil” (see www.bible-history.com/old-testament/kings-israel.html). Others say God’s judgment of King Jeru can be only described as “mixed” although all of the other eighteen kings are also described as “evil” by them (see www.providenceacademy.org/wp-content/uploads /2020/01/Chart-of-the-Kings-of-Israel-and-Judah.pdf).
For 350 years prior to the Babylonian Captivity of the southern tribe of Judah in 597-586 BC, including Jerusalem, eleven of its twenty kings (from Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, to Zedekiah) are described as being “evil” (with one not described) by Bible-history.com. The eight “good” kings over the Kingdom of Judah reigned a total of 263 years (or three-fourths of the time). Others say there were only six kings in this group, with both Joash and Amaziah having done “right” in their earlier rule but were “evil” later in their lengthy reigns over Judah.
Click here (fq-30) to read some of Scripture regarding Jeroboam I, who reigned for 22 years as king of the ten northern tribes (Israel); an evil king.
Click here (fq-31) to read some of Scripture regarding King Baasha deciding to follow God’s advice to kill all the household of Jeroboam I.
Click here (fq-32) to read some of Scripture regarding Baasha, who reigned for 24 years as king of the ten northern tribes (Israel); an evil king.
Click here (fq-33) to read some of Scripture regarding Ahab, who reigned for 22 years as king of the ten northern tribes (Israel); an evil king.
Click here (fq-34)to read some of Scripture regarding Ahab who was killed in war as prophesied by Micaiah.
Click here (fq-35) to read some of Scripture regarding the widespread killing of many associates of Ahab by King Jeru.
Click here (fq-36) to read some of Scripture regarding the conquest of northern tribes of Israel by Assyria.
Click here (fq-37) to read some of Scripture regarding Ahaz, who reigned for 16 years as king of Judah; an evil king.
Click here (fq-38) to read some of Scripture regarding Manasseh, who reigned for 55 years as king of Judah; an evil king.
What can be observed from these passages above in the context of Deuteronomy’s threats to individual Israelites? Consider the following two accounts: the household of Jeroboam I killed by Baasha, and the household and associates of Ahab killed by Jeru. If the methodology is used that relies on that which has been written to see that which has not been written, then the conclusion can be reached that many people did not die who deserved the same fate as those related, in some way, to the king.
We know these two kings, and other kings of Israel, were successful in enticing the lowly people as well to follow them in their worship practices. We know Jeroboam I reigned for 22 years, and that Ahab reigned for 22 years, with both of them doing evil and breaking the first commandment. Jeroboam made two golden calves as gods, one in Bethel and the other in Dan, and told his people not to go to Jerusalem for worship. This is described as a sin, and the people worshipped these idols. Ahab was even worse; he set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria.
Although many associates and family members of these two kings were killed at the direction of a prophet of the YHWH God, due to these abominations described, the text suggests repeatedly that all the other people who also broke the first commandment did not perish as prophesied. A total mass killing did not happen even by Jeru’s commanders because the text lists the categories of those killed for the purpose of distinguishing them from the rest of the people who survived the wrath.
Therefore, it would be a misunderstanding of the “you shall surely perish” prophetic doom in Deuteronomy, as it applies to individuals, to suggest that death, either immediate or premature, must occur in this world. Rather, the curse applies to the next world, as seen after the resurrection of the individual.
Consequently, the ancient Israelites understood that their personal name would be blotted out from God’s book for disobedience—that God “may destroy them and erase their name from under heaven” (Deut 9:14), and due to God’s anger burning “to the depths of Sheol” (Deut 32:22). Death and destruction for unrepentant and unforgiven individuals of the nation of ancient Israel would happen in the next world. Those whose “name is not found written in the book of life” will be “thrown into the lake of fire, or the second death” (Rev 20:14-15).
However, most of the many children of Israel disregarded these threats of great calamity—all twelve tribes—to be potentially applied both in this world and the next one, as it effects their individual livelihood and their lives possibly, in addition to the nation itself continuing to exist, as much of the OT attests. People were evidently too busy, or too distracted, to follow only one God, to serve and to always remember the one true God.
The illusion of unaccountability every generation throughout most of the world has probably seen, at some point, in this world eventually produces an undesirable result for them because life without limits appeals to those who think they can be self-sufficient without divine guidance, and the Creator God will defeat evil, and destroy evil, as fire burns up anything combustible put into it.
For others, who have always rejected false gods throughout their life, who have never murdered anyone, who have repented of their sins—and have been divinely forgiven for them—they too are subject to emotional pain and great loss.
Why does God discipline his followers with extreme heartache during their lives in this world? “That he might humble you and test you, to do good in the end” (Deut 8:16, ESV). Click here (fq-39) to see what one expert (Wright, 1996) says regarding a perceived similarity to human parenting and agape love.
Section D: God is a consuming fire who destroys those who hate God
God describes himself as a “consuming fire” that destroys individuals due to their choices, as seen in chapters 4, 7, and 9. “The Lord your God is like a fire that burns everything up. He wants you to worship only him” (Deut 4:24, NIRV). “Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His faithfulness to a thousand generations for those who love Him and keep His commandments; But he does not hesitate to punish and destroy those who reject him” (Deut 7:9-10, NLT).“Leave Me alone, that I may destroy them and wipe out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they” (Deut 9:14, NASB). Click here (fq-40) to see some short quotes written by five experts (Tigay-1996, Lundbom-2013, Weinfeld–1991, Keil & Delitzsch-2006 (1891), and McConville-2002) regarding these three verses.
Section E: Trying to contact the dead is despicable to God
“When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, don’t follow the disgusting practices of the nations that are there. Don’t sacrifice your children in the fires on your altars; and don’t let your people practice divination or look for omens or use spells or charms, and don’t let them consult the spirits of the dead. The Lord your God hates people who do these disgusting things, and that is why he is driving those nations out of the land as you advance. Be completely faithful to the Lord.” Then Moses said, “In the land you are about to occupy, people follow the advice of those who practice divination and look for omens, but the Lord your God does not allow you to do this (Deut 18:9-14, GNT). Click here (fq-41) to read five experts (Christensen-2001, Tigay-1996, Nelson-2002, Merrill-1994, and McConville-2002) related to this passage.
Section F: Death as a sleep — in the presence of your ancestors
We read that Yahweh God appeared to Moses as a “pillar of cloud” one day at the door of his tent, and he told him his time to die had arrived. “You are about to sleep with your ancestors” (Deut 31:16, CJB). Click here (fq-42) to see what two experts (Christensen, 2002 and Tigay, 1996) wrote about the nature of death—that the “sleeping in Sheol” reference refers to something before burial but after dying. I take “Sheol/Hades/gravedom” to be an actual reality—not an underground myth—that exists in heaven (as did Luther who clearly asserted this view). See Death until Resurrection: An Unconscious Sleep According to Luther (Wipf and Stock, 2020).
Section G: Yahweh is the only God that controls life and death
“I am the only God. There are no others. I kill, and I make alive. I wound, and I heal, and no one can rescue you from my power” (Deut 32:39, GW).
Just prior to hearing that same day that he would die soon, Moses proclaimed in the “Song of Moses” that Yahweh God is the only true god, with attributes of supreme authority and mercy, and the others are impotent. It is possible this verse above also refers to the resurrection power of God given the order and arrangement of the four verbs: healing normally follows wounding, and this phrase is parallel with the previous phrase. Thus, “I kill, and I make alive” could have been originally meant as meaning that “making alive” follows death similarly as does healing follow wounding. Click here (fq-43) to see what two experts (Chase, 2014 and Bronner, 2002) wrote about this interpretation.
In the next verse, we see that just as a person needs food to remain alive, they need to follow God in order to also remain alive through Sheol/gravedom.
“The Lord was teaching you that people need more than food to live—they need every word that the Lord has spoken” (Deut 8:3, CEV).
Section H: Moses spoke about the world of the dead—Sheol
The concept of the “world of the dead” (i.e., Sheol) was first identified in the Pentateuch through quotes of Jacob (as seen in Genesis multiple times). On the day that Moses gave his final sermon to his people (i.e., the Song of Moses), we see Yahweh saying to Moses the following. “For a fire has flared in My anger, And it burns to the lowest part of Sheol, And devours the earth with its yield” (Deut 32:22, NASB).“I will make an end of them and blot out their name from human memory” (Deut 32:26, NABRE). “Go up this mountain … which is in the land of Moab … view the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel as a possession; and die on the mountain which you ascend, and be gathered to your people [fn: join your ancestors], just as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people” (Deut 32:50, NKJV). Click here (fq-44) to see what three experts (Tigay-1996, Nelson-2002, and Lundbom-2013) have written about these three passages. Regarding the divine description of death as God first described it to Abraham—that is, being “gathered to the presence of your ancestors in death”—see my study on Genesis.
Ω Ω Ω
This concludes my study of Deuteronomy. The use of a large variety of Bible translations here, rather than one of two versions as is typical, follows from the idea that a thorough and comprehensive investigation of a mysterious and controversial subject requires a different method of using biblical sources.
The purpose of presenting a widely-sourced collection of scriptural passages, rather than a narrow set of Scripture translations or just one version, is to increase the chances of not overlooking a more accurate or better translation of the given passage.
This collection of versions is divided into two groups: a primary group of eight translations of Scripture (below) which consists of 80% of the total for the entire OT/NT study, and a secondary group consisting of the remaining 20%.
Primary group (80%):
NASB (2020) New American Standard Bible
NRSV (1989) New Revised Standard Version
NIV (2011) New International Version
NKJV (1982) New King James Version
KJV (1611) King James Version
GNT (1976) Good News Translation
CSB (2017) Christian Standard Bible
MLV (2020) Modern Literal Version
The number of English translations used here in the first five books of the Bible is 21 (13 in the secondary group and 8 in the primary group). The number of Bible verses and verse groupings used here for Genesis through Deuteronomy is 163. The number of verses (and verse groupings) for all 8 of the primary translations for all five books so far is 129. The actual percentage for them is 79% which is very close to the target usage rate of 80% (129 / 163 = 0.791). The identification of the 13 secondary translations (in order of usage) are as follows: ESV, NLT, CVOT, CEV, TLB, AMP, WYC, YLT, ABP, GW, OJB, LEB, and VOICE. Other secondary translations will be added to this list as more studies are done. The table below shows the breakdown for the 8 primary translations. The KJV was used at a much higher rate in Deuteronomy compared to the other biblical books because it is one of the few translations that distinguishes between a singular “you” and a plural “you” in English as was required in the Deuteronomy study.
- NASB NRSV NIV NKJV KJV CSB GNT MLV
- Genesis 7 7 8 5 4 3 2 4
- Exodus 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
- Leviticus 4 3 4 4 1 1 1 2
- Numbers 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0
- Deuteronomy 6 5 6 5 14 7 4 8
- Total number 19 17 20 16 21 13 8 15
- Total % 12 10 12 10 13 8 5 9
Quoted Passages in Deuteronomy (28 total / 13 highly rated verses):
Each verse (or verse grouping) below has been rated by me for its potential relevancy and importance to answering the main question: what happens when people die? The range of 1 to 6 applies to the entire group of passages (which includes the OT and NT) with just one verse being given a rating of 6 due to the explicit nature of it (on the matter of immortality in 2 Timothy). The verses with a rating of 1 have been separated out from the list below and do not appear in the text above.
Each book of the Bible will have two numbers associated with it that refer to this group of passages: the first one is a total number of potentially relevant or important verses, and the second one is the number of passages that have been rated four or higher. For example, there are three verse groupings seen below with a rating of 5 and another ten with a rating of 4, giving a sub-total of thirteen highly rated verses out of twenty-eight total passages.
Rating of 5:
Deut 4:26
Deut 8:19-20
Deut 30:18
Rating of 4:
Deut 7:9-10
Deut 7:24
Deut 9:13-14
Deut 25:19
Deut 29:19-21
Deut 30:19
Deut 30:20
Deut 32:22
Deut 32:26
Deut 32:50
Rating of 3:
Deut 4:24
Deut 6:12-15
Deut 8:3
Deut 18:9-14
Deut 30:6
Deut 31:16
Deut 32:39
Rating of 2:
Deut 1:1
Deut 1:3
Deut 4:1
Deut 4:10
Deut 4:12
Deut 4:13
Deut 8:16
Deut 34:10
Quoted Passages Not in Deuteronomy:
Exod 17:14
Exod 32:32-33
Josh 17:15
2Kgs 14:27
Neh 13:14
Ps 51:2
Ps 51:9
Ps 73:27-28
Ps 69:28
Isa 65:17
Isa 66:22
Jer 18:23
Ezek 18:20
Ezek 18:30
Rev 20:15
Footnoted Quotes from Scholarly Commentators of Scripture:
SEE WHAT SOME EXPERTS HAVE WRITTEN (foot-quote number 1): “Deuteronomy has been aptly described as the heartbeat of the OT. Feel the pulse of Deuteronomy and you are in touch with the life and rhythm of the whole Hebrew Bible. Indeed, if we add the influence of the book on Jesus, Paul, and the early NT church, it is a profoundly significant book in the whole Christian canon of scripture” (Wright, 1). Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 2: “There are so many different possible conclusions to be drawn from all this conflicting data that the safest conclusion is that we cannot date the exodus with certainty, though a majority of scholars who engage with this discussion tend to place it in the thirteenth century” (Drane, 55). In his graphical timeline of the events between Abraham and Moses (on p. 34), Drane has selected 1250 BCE as the approximate year that Moses spoke to Israel shortly before they first crossed the Jordan River. NOTE: Although the date of the exodus is controversial (with 166 years being a typical difference), Drane’s conclusion generally agrees with the “corrected” date seen in “When Was the Exodus?, Aaronson, June 29, 2006, https://www.ou.org/ holidays/when_was_the _exodus. See also “Fixing the History Books – Dr. Chaim Heifetz’s Revision of Persian History,” in the Spring 199.1 issue of Jewish Action. Aaronson has collaborated with Heifetz on a book covering ancient history. Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 3: (1) “The promise of reward and threat of punishment, so prominent in Wisdom literature, is a motif running all through Deuteronomy” (Lundbom, 824). (2) “For the demand for covenant loyalty is a central theme in Deuteronomy. Covenant fidelity is contrasted with the dangers and consequences of unfaithfulness to the covenant throughout the book of Deuteronomy” (Christensen (a), 175). (3) “A basic theme of Deuteronomy is the demand for covenant allegiance, and always this is contrasted with the danger of unfaithfulness to the covenant God and following other gods” (Craigie, 189-190). (4) “The life theme in these verses culminates in a strong appeal to choose life. … Israel’s life is the goal of the covenant” (McConville, 430). (5) “This [to choose life] is the high point of Moses’ Third Discourse [including Deut 30], and perhaps the high point of all Deuteronomy” (Lenchak, 113). Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 4: The sermon of Moses in “chapter 8 actually overlaps the sermon in 6:10-19, which contains the same motifs as chap. 8 … The second part of chap. 8 corresponds to the first part of the sermon in chap. 6:10-19 … Afterward comes the warning not to forget YHWH (compare 6:12 with 8:11). Both sermons culminate with the threat of annihilation in the event that they worship foreign gods (compare 6:14-15 with 8:19-20)” (Weinfeld, 396). Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 5: (1) Deut 8:20 (MLV) – a plural you is designated with an asterisk, and a singular you has none (within the text of the MLV): “As the nations that Jehovah makes to perish before you*, so will you* perish, because you* would not listen to the voice of Jehovah your* God.” Summary of the above: the pronoun you appears three times with each of them shown as plural. (2) Deut 8:20 (MTT) – a plural you is designated “mp” and a singular you is designated “ms”: like~the~NATION[301] {כַגוֹיִםka’go’yim} WHICH[2589] { אֲשּ רa’sher} YHWH[he~will~BE(V)] { יּהוָהYHWH} make~PERISH(V)[98] ~ing(ms) { מַ אֲבִ ידma’a’vid} from~FACE[1815]~s~you(mp) { מִ פּ נֵיכּםmi’pe’ney’khem} SO[968] { כֵןkeyn} you(mp)~will~PERISH(V)[98]~must {תֹאבֵדוּןto’vey’dun} SINCE[1615] { עֵקּ בey’qev} NOT[1051] { לֹאlo} you(mp)~will~HEAR(V) [2527]~must { תִ שּ מּ עוּןtish’me’un} in~VOICE[2085] { בּ קוֹלbê’qol} YHWH[he~will~BE(V)] {יּהוָהYHWH} Elohiym[POWER~s] ~you(mp) { אֱלֹהֵ יכּםe’lo’hey’khem} Summary of the above: the pronoun you appears four times with each of them shown as plural. (3) Deut 8:20 (KJV) – by convention the KJV uses thou as a singular subject pronoun and ye as plural: “As the nations which the Lord destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish; because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the Lord your God.” Summary of the above: the pronoun ye appears two times (“ye perish; because ye”) with each of them being plural. (4) Deut 8:20 (ASV) – by convention the ASV uses thou as a singular pronoun and ye as plural: “As the nations that Jehovah maketh to perish before you, so shall ye perish; because ye would not hearken unto the voice of Jehovah your God.” Summary of the above: the pronoun ye appears two times (“ye perish; because ye”) with each of them being plural. Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 6: (1) Deut 6:15 (MLV): – a plural you is designated with an asterisk, and a singular you has none (within the text of the MLV): “Because Jehovah your God in the midst of you is a jealous God, lest the anger of Jehovah your God be kindled against you and he destroy you from the face of the earth.” Summary of the above: the pronoun you appears three times with each of them shown as singular. (2) Deut 6:15 (MTT) – a plural you is designated “mp” and a singular you is designated “ms”: GIVEN.THAT [940] { כִיki} MIGHTY.ONE[25] { אֵ לeyl} ZEALOUS[2106] { קַ נָאqa’na} HWH[he~will~BE(V)] { יּהוָהYHWH} Elohiym[POWER~s]~you(ms) { אֱלֹהּ יךָe’lo’hey’kha} in~INSIDE[2204]~you(ms) { בּ קִ רּ בּךָbê’qir’be’kha} OTHERWISE[1812] { פּןpen} he~will~FLARE.UP(V)[815] { יּחֱרּ הye’hhe’reh} NOSE[59] { אַףaph} YHWH[he~will~BE(V)] { יּהוָהYHWH} lohiym[POWER~s] ~you(ms) {אֱלֹהּ יךָ e’lo’hey’kha} in~you(fs) { בָךְbakh} and~he~did~make~DESTROY (V)[2520]~you(ms) { וּ הִ שּ מִ ידּ ךָwê’hish’mid’kha} from~UPON[1616] { מֵ עַלmey’al} FACE[1815]~s { פּ נֵיpê’ney} the~GROUND[425] { הָ אֲדָ מָ הha’a’da’mah} Summary of the above: the pronoun you appears four times with each of them designated as singular.(3) Deut 6:15 (KJV) – by convention the KJV uses thee as a singular object pronoun and ye as plural:“For the Lord thy God is a jealous God among you lest the anger of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth.” Summary of the above: the pronoun thee appears two times (“against thee, and destroy thee”) with each of them (including thy) being singular. (4) Deut 6:15 (ASV) – by convention the ASV uses thee as a singular object pronoun and ye as plural: “For Jehovah thy God in the midst of thee is a jealous God; lest the anger of Jehovah thy God be kindled against thee, and he destroy thee from off the face of the earth.” Summary of the above: the pronoun thee appears three times (“against thee, and he destroy thee”) with each of them (including thy) being singular. Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 7: “Ever wonder what the rules were for when to use thou, thee, ye, or you in Shakespeare or the King James Bible? … The latest episode of The History of English Podcast (historyofenglishpodcast.com /2014/12/12/episode-54-pronoun-pros-and-cons/) explains what the rules were and how they came to be. … The singular subject form was thou and the singular object form was thee. For example, the opening lines of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate” (Cook, www.johndcook.com/ blog/2014/12/17/thou-thee-ye-you/). However, according to the Middle English Dictionary (from the Regents of the University of Michigan, 2014), starting in the fourteenth century—which was well before the KJV (1611) was written, and over a hundred years before William Tyndale produced his first-into-English Bible version (of which much of his material, perhaps 75%, worked its way into the KJV)—ye began to be also used in the singular and not exclusively in the plural) especially when formally addressing inferiors, younger persons, and others. However, regarding Tyndale’s use of thou, he used it nearly exclusively for the singular sense regardless of the status of the speaker compared to the person(s) being addressed. Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 8: “Steuernagel and Staerk first suggested that the differences in the second person singular and plural passages could serve as a criterion to separate layers of a text … It is believed that changes in the form of address in a text are signs of different origins and authors. … One theory sees in the present Dt the product of a combination of two or more originally separate editions of the work, one using the singular and the other using the plural forms. The second theory is a kind of supplementary hypothesis, for it holds that an original book grew through various additions and expansions until it became what we have today. Only this second theory is still accepted by modern scholars. … [Some scholars point out] that in 1891 C.H. Cornill first tried to demonstrate that some laws were secondary on account of their use of the plural instead of the singular. … The use of singular and plural forms of address as a criterion to find original and later segments of Dt has been questioned and challenged by many scholars. … This notion of variation because of style and emphasis has been resurrected in the past thirty years. … Every change of number is a new form of address, and every new address forces the listener to pay attention. … So it is a question of style, not of sources or redaction” (Lenchak, 13-14, 16). Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 9: Lundbom names a couple writers from 1894 who performed source-critical studies on Deuteronomy, and who “attempted to show that the sudden and frequent changes between second singular and second plural forms of the verb in the speeches of Moses (the so-called Numeruswechsel) were an indication of sources. But these sources failed to gain acceptance. … G. Ernest Wright says: ‘Hebrew writers have the disconcerting habit of completely disregarding consistency in the use of pronouns … and he discounts attempts to find different sources in the singular and plural use of pronouns’” (Lundbom, 9). Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 10: (1) “Verse 1 [of chapter 8] begins in the second person singular, then quickly shifts to plural, and that the same quick transition takes place between v. 19a and vv. 19b-20 (Nelson, 110).” (2) “Why does Moses sometimes address the people in the singular and at other times in the plural? Why does he sometimes change abruptly from one to the other?” … In the plural then the community is no longer addressed as an entity but as a collection of individuals. Thus in the plural form the individual Israelite is emphasized and the approach is more personal” (Lenchak, 12-13). Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 11: “There is one or the other scholar, however, who seems to take exception to this view of the singular and plural.” [The particular view he was referring to is seen above in his quote (i.e., the singular you means the larger entity of individuals, the plural means the individuals themselves).] “D. Knapp (1987) points out [on p. 37 of Deuteronomium 4] that 4:19 is in the singular but is meant for the individual Israelite, while on p. 71 he hints that the plural is used when it concerns all Israel. Thompson, Deuteronomy, 288, claims that the singular forms in Dt 30:19 refer to the individual” (Lenchak, fn 57, p. 13). (Another author, Breit, may also be in this same category as Knapp and Thompson, but Lenchak is unsure.) Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 12: “The singular you perhaps addressing the people as a whole, and the plural you addressing each person individually and emphatically (“each and every one of you”). Shalom Paul (1991, 150) [in his commentary on Amos] sees the shift from the plural to singular in Amos 4:12 to be just the reverse, saying that with the singular in 4:12 ‘the impending chastisement is now addressed individually to each member of the nation.’ Tigay (1996, 62) says the same with regard to Deuteronomy: the singular emphasizes the responsibility of each individual, and the plural is used to emphasize Israel’s collective responsibility (Lundbom, 10). Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 13: Miller assesses Lundbom’s 2013 commentary on Deuteronomy (as seen in his endorsement appearing on its back cover) as an “exhaustive work … that is at last the successor to S.R. Driver’s 1895 ICC commentary on Deuteronomy.” Miller continues to say that it “includes a fresh translation [of Deuteronomy] kept close to the Hebrew so as to bring out rhetorical structures lost in English since the King James Version.” Lundbom also had previously produced a three-volume commentary on Jeremiah for the highly respected Anchor Bible commentary series. Lundbom’s impressive commentary on Jeremiah is ranked number 2 (out of about 80). Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 14: Because of this tremendous respect for McConville’s Deuteronomy commentary (published under the Apollos Old Testament Commentary series), it seems appropriate here to show parts of two quotes that provide advance praise of the goals of the series (as seen in the endorsement section of this book). Bartholomew writes that “this series [AOTC] rightly insists on rigorous scholarship.” Block writes the following: “At last! A commentary series that combines the best of biblical scholarship with a passion for the message of the text. The series by the finest evangelical scholars is designed for students and pastors who are serious about understanding the Old Testament in its context.” Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 15: (1) “Once more Moses warned that forgetting and disobeying the Lord and turning to follow other Gods to worship and bow down before them would mean the destruction of Israel as a nation [emphasis mine] as surely as those who followed other gods were destroyed by the Israelites as they displaced the inhabitants of Canaan” (Kalland, 77). (2) “If Israel fails to obey the voice of Yahweh, it stands to suffer the same fate as nations currently being thrust out of Canaan. … If Israel forgets Yahweh and goes after other gods to worship and serve them, which has happened before, the nation will surely perish [emphasis mine]. It will become like the nations Yahweh is destroying so Israel could be given their land. … If people do not obey Yahweh’s voice and do his commands, they will perish off the face of the earth” (Lundbom, 355-356). (3) “As always in Deuteronomy, the feared result of this arrogant forgetfulness is idolatry, and ultimately Israel’s own destruction (vv. 19-20). Israel must always “heed the voice of YHWH.” Otherwise, Israel [emphasis mine] becomes indistinguishable from the Canaanites whom YHWH condemned for their abominable idolatry, and it will suffer the same fate” [emphasis mine] (Biddle, 153). (4) “Moses stood as the representative of the Lord to swear that Israel’s covenant [emphasis mine] infidelity would surely result in their destruction. They would be just like the Canaanite nations [emphasis mine] (7:1), who, subject to the herem of God’s holy wrath, had to be rooted out (cf. 7:4). As he had warned previously (7:25-26), for Israel to participate in pagan ways was to invite the doom reserved for pagan practice” (Merrill, 188). (5) “If Israel could not take note of the message inherent in the basic traditions about its own past, [emphasis mine]it would have to learn more fearful and destructive lessons within its own history in the present. It was not as if there was not ample evidence in all that Israel knew of its own past [emphasis mine] to take the solemn warning [in v. 20] to heart: “Evidently, this was not yet a catastrophe [emphasis mine] that had actually come to pass. Yet it was an imminent possibility that the deuteronomic author recognized and strove with great rhetorical artistry to impress upon the reader” (Clements, 356). Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 16: “All because Israel did not listen, did not acknowledge its contingent status; by refusing to listen, Israel imagined it was not addressed but was autonomous. Autonomy produces death, because the self-sufficient think they live without limit, without accountability. That illusion in the long run is not sustainable.” (Brueggemann, 110). Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 17: (1) “It is clear that this reprobate is laying claim to blessing and security in spite of disobedient conduct and in spite of having heard the curse. In contrast to the outcome of vv. 22-28, Yahweh isolates this offender, and the people as a whole remain unscathed. The lawbreaker cannot hide within the larger obedient community” (Nelson, 342). (2) “This term [single … out] is ironic here since it usually refers to choosing for a positive purpose, as in 10:8. Here Moses means that the would-be sinner should not imagine that God only deals with the community as a whole and that individuals can escape punishment so long as the community is virtuous” (Tigay, 280). Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 18: “While Deuteronomy is firmly grounded in the past events of election and redemption, it is predominantly a future-orientated book. It looks not only to the immediate future—the crossing over to the promised land—but also to the long-term future of Israel in relation to God and of both Israel and God in relation to the nations (Wright, 14-15).” Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 19: (1) “Afterward comes the warning not to forget YHWH (compare 6:12 with 8:11). Both sermons culminate with the threat of annihilation in the event that they worship foreign gods (compare 6:14-15 with 8:19-20)” (Weinfeld, 396). (2) “The warning that rebellion will have consequences in severe punishment” (McConville, 172). Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 20: “Chapter 8 began with the command to keep carefully ‘all the commandment’ in order ‘that you may live’ (v 1). It ends with the warning that ‘you shall surely perish’ (v 19). … One of the most difficult lessons to learn in spiritual matters is the complete dependence on the word of God and God’s ability and faithfulness to provide our essential needs” (Christensen (a), 175). Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 21: “The Lord’s response was, “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book” (Exod 32:33). The ‘book’ here is clearly that of covenant relationship though elsewhere it refers as well to the ‘book of life’ in which the names of all believers are recorded (cf. Ps 69:28; Dan 12:1; Mal 3:16; Rev 13:8; 17:8; 20:12,15; 21:27) (Merrill, 193-194).” Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 22: “Close your eyes to my sins and wipe out all my evil.” (Ps 51:9, GNT). In another one of David’s psalms, he refers to this record in heaven using the phrase, “book of life.” We read, “Let them be erased from the book of life and not be recorded with the righteous” (Ps 69:28, CSB). The next verse quotes Jeremiah in his conversation with Yahweh. It is an example of an opposite request regarding this divine editing process compared to that above in Psalms. Rather than asking that some action be removed from the record, he asks that some action committed by his enemies not be erased from the book of life. “But you, LORD, know all their plots to kill me. Do not forgive their crimes or blot out their sins from your sight” (Jer 18:23, NIV). We know from Nehemiah’s request that the book of life records both good and bad actions. He asks that Yahweh not blot out those actions that were done by Nehemiah that faithfully showed his love for the Lord. “Remember me for this, my God, and do not blot out what I have so faithfully done for the house of my God and its services” (Neh 13:14, NIV). The next verse by the writer of Second Kings shows that their understanding of the book of life was such that entire nations could be blotted out somehow (although this cannot be confirmed here since it is in the negative sense). “But the LORD had not said that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, so he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash” (2Kgs 14:27, ESV). Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 23: The particular usage of ‘bd at the end of chapter eight (in Hebrew) probably means to “exterminate, eradicate” and its “hi” category refers to a causative action into the future, rather than the more common “pi” category which refers to a state or condition, although it also means “exterminate, destroy.” This would suggest that “you shall perish” specifically means that an action will happen to cause someone or something to become eradicated. This is in distinction to the more usual meaning of it being in the condition of destroyed. The final outcome of a person in the afterlife, following God’s judgment of their lives, can be referred to with this Hebrew word meaning destroyed. Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 24: “Tigay calls attention to the fact that the biblical phrase here has been adapted in the evening liturgy in Judaism as ‘For they [God’s commandments and the words of his Torah] are our life and the length of our days’ (Tigay [1996] 288)” (Christensen (b), 748). Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 25: (1) “He had set before them this day life and good (‘good’ = prosperity and salvation), as well as death and evil (in, adversity and destruction), by commanding them to love the Lord and walk in His ways. … Expounding the law was setting before them life and death, salvation and destruction, because the law … namely, to love the Lord is thy life, that is, the condition of life, and of long life” (Keil & Delitzsch, 977). (2) “Acceptance and obedience would bring life and prosperity, but rejection and/or disobedience would result in death and destruction. In this succinct manner Moses challenged the nation to both the blessings inherent in undertaking the privileges and responsibilities of the covenant relationship and the curses that must inevitably follow should that gracious offer be rejected (Merrill, 392).” Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 26: “Forgetfulness is a mortal sin. The great seriousness of Moses’s testimony formula suggests a foreshadowing of future judgment upon the present generation. … Deaf and blind Israel will still be among the “you” of Moses’s whole audience, but fatally unaware of it. … God’s ignorant, idolatrous people will be capable of only resurrection or destruction” [Work, 116]. Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 27: (1) “To ‘blot out the name’ is, in the context of covenant disloyalty, tantamount to the Lord’s termination of his relationship with his people {fn: Thompson. Deuteronomy, 140} (Merrill, 193).” (2) “God threatens to destroy the people utterly, to blot out all memory of them – and to start over again, from Moses alone (v. 14) (Christensen (a), 190).” Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 28: “In light of the formal solemnity of covenant transaction, then, Moses set before Israel ‘life and death,” that is, the blessings or curses that follow covenant obedience or disobedience. Obedience brings life in all its fullness whereas disobedience causes the greatest curse of all, death now and forever (v. 19). The appeal, therefore, was to choose life so that life might result. Underlying this rather cryptic way of expressing the matter is the expanded idea of choosing to obey God. for doing that brings the greatest of all blessings, life itself. One cannot choose life (or even death), but he can choose a path that will lead to one or the other (cf. Matt 7:13). … The nub of the matter is at the end of the passage—‘the LORD is your life’ (v. 20), in terms both of mere existence and of longevity in the land” (Merrill, 393-394). Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 29: “‘If you do forget the LORD your God and follow other gods … you will surely perish’ (v. 19). … These words of Deuteronomy can serve as a wake-up call for contemporary Christians today” (Thompson, 94). Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 30: “The king consulted, and he made two golden calves; and he said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold your gods, Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt. And he set up one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan. … Jeroboam also instituted a feast in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast that is in Judah, and he went up to the altar. So he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves which he had made. And he stationed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made” (1 Kings 12:28-30, 32, NASB). Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 31: “This happened during the third year of the reign of King Asa of Judah. And so Baasha succeeded Nadab as king of Israel. At once he began killing all the members of Jeroboam’s family. In accordance with what the Lord had said through his servant, the prophet Ahijah from Shiloh, all of Jeroboam’s family were killed; not one survived. This happened because Jeroboam aroused the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, by the sins that he committed and that he caused Israel to commit” (1 Kings 15:28-30, GNT). Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 32: “There was war between Asa and King Baasha of Israel all their days. In the third year of King Asa of Judah, Baasha son of Ahijah began to reign over all Israel at Tirzah; he reigned twenty-four years. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, walking in the way of Jeroboam and in the sin that he caused Israel to commit” (1 Kings 15:32-34, NRSV). Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 33: “In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria over Israel twenty-two years. Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the LORD than any of those before him. He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him. He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to arouse the anger of the LORD, the God of Israel, than did all the kings of Israel before him” (1 Kings 16:29-33, NIV). Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 34: “So now the LORD has put a deceiving spirit in the mouths of these prophets of yours. The LORD has decreed disaster for you. … But someone drew his bow at random and hit the king of Israel between the breastplate and the scale armor. The king told the chariot driver, “Wheel around and get me out of the fighting. I’ve been wounded. All day long the battle raged, and the king of Israel propped himself up in his chariot facing the Arameans until evening. Then at sunset he died” (2 Chron 18:22,33-34, NIV). Click here to go back.
Foot-quotes 35: “The prophet Elisha summoned a man from the company of the prophets … When you get there, look for Jehu … Then the prophet poured the oil on Jehu’s head and declared, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anoint you king over the LORD’s people Israel. You are to destroy the house of Ahab your master, and I will avenge the blood of my servants the prophets and the blood of all the LORD’s servants shed by Jezebel. The whole house of Ahab will perish … I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah. … There were in Samaria seventy sons of the house of Ahab. … These men took the princes and slaughtered all seventy of them. They put their heads in baskets and sent them to Jehu in Jezreel. … So Jehu killed everyone in Jezreel who remained of the house of Ahab, as well as all his chief men, his close friends and his priests, leaving him no survivor. … When Jehu came to Samaria, he killed all who were left there of Ahab’s family. … Then he sent word throughout Israel, and all the servants of Baal came; not one stayed away. They crowded into the temple of Baal until it was full from one end to the other. … As soon as Jehu had finished making the burnt offering, he ordered the guards and officers: “Go in and kill them; let no one escape.” So they cut them down with the sword. The guards and officers threw the bodies out and then entered the inner shrine of the temple of Baal” (2 Kings 9:1,2,6,7,8,9; 2 Kings 10:1,7,11,17,21,25, NIV). Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 36: “The king of Assyria went throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria and besieged it for three years. … For so it was that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God … they had feared other gods. … They set up for themselves sacred pillars and wooden images on every high hill and under every green tree. … They did wicked things to provoke the LORD to anger, for they served idols, of which the LORD had said to them, ‘You shall not do this thing.’ Yet the LORD testified against Israel and against Judah, by all of His prophets, every seer, saying, ‘Turn from your evil ways, and keep My commandments and My statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by My servants the prophets.’ Nevertheless they would not hear, but stiffened their necks, like the necks of their fathers, who did not believe in the LORD their God. And they rejected His statutes and His covenant that He had made with their fathers … they followed idols, became idolaters … They … worshiped and served Baal” (2 Kings 17:5,7,10-16, NKJV). Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 37: “Ahaz the son of Jotham, king of Judah, began to reign … and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and he did not do what was right in the sight of the LORD his God. … He walked in the way of the kings of Israel … He sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree. … And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the LORD … and sent it as a present to the king of Assyria” (2Kings 16:1,2,3,4,8, NKJV). Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 38: “Manasseh … reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. … And he did evil in the sight of the LORD … for he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; he raised up altars for Baal, and made a wooden image, as Ahab king of Israel had done; and he worshiped all the host of heaven [footnote: the gods of the Assyrians] and served them. … And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. Also he made his son pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft, and consulted spiritists and mediums. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger. … But they paid no attention, and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than the nations whom the LORD had destroyed before the children of Israel. And the LORD spoke by His servants the prophets, saying, ‘Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations … I am bringing such calamity upon Jerusalem and Judah … So I will forsake the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become victims of plunder to all their enemies, because they have done evil in My sight, and have provoked Me to anger … Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides his sin by which he made Judah sin, in doing evil in the sight of the LORD. … So Manasseh rested with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza” (2 Kings 21:1-3,5-6,9-12,14-16,18, NKJV). Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 39: “The beneficial effect of God’s discipline in the wilderness is highlighted: so that in the end it might go well with you (v. 16b), just as parents may say, as they punish a child, ‘You’ll thank me for this someday!’” [Wright, 127]. Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 40: (1) “A consuming fire: God’s fiery destructive power, which had struck the Exodus generation several times. This metaphor is especially suitable here because it also alludes to God’s fiery appearance at Mount Sinai, which so terrified the people (see 5:5, 22-23; Exod. 24:17 describes God’s appearance atop Mount Sinai with the same phrase)” (Tigay, 51). (2) “The ‘consuming fire’ metaphor may derive from the Song of Moses (Deut 32:22). It is picked up later by Isaiah (Isa 29:6; 30:27, 30) and by Jeremiah (Jer 5:14, 17). ‘He himself will completely destroy them, and he himself will subdue them.’ The verb [in Heb. often translated as destroy], which occurs 6 times in the chapter vv. 3, 8, 14, 19, 20, 25), is an internal H-stem with intensive meaning: “completely destroy.” Supplemental pronouns for both verbs give added emphasis” (Lundbom, 362). (3) “The root qn’ denotes not only jealousy but also zeal (“ jealousy” in English is derived from Latin zelus) and means intolerance of rivalry or unfaithfulness” (Weinfeld, 208). (4) “He would hide His face from them, i.e., withdraw His favour from them, so that they would be destroyed” (Keil & Delitzsch, 981). (5) “Three times the emphatic subject pronoun ‘he’, referring to Yahweh, introduces clauses with imperfect verbs. This departure from the usual sequence of waw-consecutive with pf. for future acts stresses that it is Yahweh who will act, rather than the action itself. … ‘and I will destroy… [I will] blot out … I will make…’: these verbs are all impf. following simple waw, a construction that expresses purpose. Therefore one might translate ‘that I may destroy’, etc. The force seems to be closer to cohortative, however, which can be translated with an emphatic future” (McConville, 176-177). Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 41: (1) “The list reads as though it was intended to include all known designations of occult activities. … To be ‘blameless before YHWH your God’ means to have undivided loyalty to God, relying upon him alone. … Pagan forms of divination are forbidden not because they do not work but because they rely on powers other than God” (Christensen (a), 408-409). (2) “These practices are techniques for invoking occult powers. The eight listed here constitute the longest list in the Torah of such practices. The precise differences between some of them are not clear. It is possible that some of the terms are synonymous and were included so as to leave not the slightest room for thinking that some of these practices are permitted. … As Ramban notes, the final phrase, ‘or one who inquires of the dead,’ means ‘one who performs necromancy by any other means.’ … ‘One who consults ghosts or familiar spirits, or one who inquires of the dead’ are mediums, practitioners of necromancy, which rests on the assumption that the spirits of the dead know hidden things and the future and can reveal them to those who know how to contact them. ‘Ghost’ is the normal meaning of ’ov” (Tigay, 172-173). (3) “The list intends to be exhaustive in order to emphasize a complete prohibition of every conceivable sort of such practices. … These verses seek to restrict attempts to learn about the divine will, the future, and hidden mysteries. They also serve as a rhetorical prelude to the command to listen to the divinely chosen prophet (v. 15). Israel should rely on true prophets and not utilize other sources of information. … “The subject pronoun ‘you’ in v. 14 is emphatic and stresses the opposition between // Israel and the nations. The second and third items from the list (v. 10) are repeated and inverted. To seek out these channels would be to deny that Yahweh has provided a sufficient way to find out such information through the legitimate prophet and to assert that there are effective powers outside the sphere of Yahweh’s activity, especially in the realm of the dead” (Nelson, 232-234). (4) “The ways of the prophets of Canaan are described as “detestable,” a favorite term in Deuteronomy to express all that is repulsive to a holy God. … Such practices were detestable as were those who engaged in them. Indeed, it was because the nations of Canaan were involved in such nefarious behavior that they would be expelled from the land (v. 12)” (Merrill, 270, 272). (5) “And here, as elsewhere, the whole ethic of Deuteronomy is put in relational terms: the right way is a commitment of the whole self to Yahweh; the wrong way is the opposite commitment, to the ways of the nations and their gods. … The specific context may be the cult of the god Molek, the god of the dead. … With sorcery and the casting of spells, we move from seeking guidance to the attempt to exercise control by supernatural means. … The casting of spells is based on a word meaning ‘bind’, which presumably relates to the intended effect on another person” (McConville, 300-301). Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 42: (1) “The idiom ‘to sleep with your fathers’ means to die. As Milgrom demonstrates, the ‘idiom is found only in the Pentateuch – in connection with the deaths of Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and Aaron. … Its meaning becomes clear in the stories of the patriarchs: It is the act that takes place after dying but before burial. Thus it can neither mean to die nor to be buried in the family tomb. Rather, it means ‘be reunited with one’s ancestors’ and refers to the afterlife in Sheol. Hence, the opposite term, ‘be cut off from one’s ancestors,’ means to be denied any afterlife [Milgrom, Numbers (1990), 169-70]” (Christensen (b), 772). (2) “‘Lie with your fathers’: The idiom stands for ‘die and lie with one’s fathers.’ It refers specifically to the reunion of one’s spirit after death with those of one’s ancestors in Sheol, as in the phrase ‘be gathered to one’s kin’ in 32:50” (Tigay, 293). Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 43: (1) “The claim to ‘kill’ and ‘make alive’ is parallel with the claim to ‘wound’ and ‘heal.’ The order is significant because wounding comes before healing, so the previous pair should be understood as killing and then making alive after death” (Chase, 23). (2) “The arrangement of the key words … suggests that they are dealing with a resurrection motif” (Bronner, 145). Click here to go back.
Foot-quote 44: (1) “Sheol is the netherworld. The use of the past tense implies that once God has resolved upon the punishment it is as good as done. Fire is a metaphor for God’s anger (cf. 4:24), and burning to the bottom of Sheol and to the foundations of the mountains is a picturesque description of its power” (Tigay, 308). (2) “Yahweh’s plan for the destruction of Israel is described using the language of the Divine Warrior. … This conflagration extends to the deepest level of the cosmos, even to the world of the dead” (Nelson, 374). (3) “Sheol is one of several OT names for the realm of the dead” (Lundbom, 888). Click here to go back.