Footnotes

1. Deuteronomy 25:1 tn Heb “men.”
2. Deuteronomy 25:1 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the judges) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
3. Deuteronomy 25:1 tn Heb “declare to be just”; KJV, NASB “justify the righteous”; NAB, NIV “acquitting the innocent.”
4. Deuteronomy 25:1 tn Heb “declare to be evil”; NIV “condemning the guilty (+ party NAB).”
5. Deuteronomy 25:2 tn Heb “and it will be.”
6. Deuteronomy 25:2 tn Heb “if the evil one is a son of smiting.”
7. Deuteronomy 25:2 tn Heb “according to his wickedness, by number.”
8. Deuteronomy 25:3 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the judge) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
9. Deuteronomy 25:3 tn Heb “Forty blows he may strike him”; however, since the judge is to witness the punishment (v. 2) it is unlikely the judge himself administered it.
10. Deuteronomy 25:3 tn Heb “your brothers” but not limited only to an actual sibling; cf. NAB) “your kinsman”; NRSV, NLT “your neighbor.”
11. Deuteronomy 25:4 tn Heb “an.” By implication this is one’s own animal.
12. Deuteronomy 25:5 tn Heb “take her as wife”; NRSV “taking her in marriage.”
13. Deuteronomy 25:5 sn This is the so-called “levirate” custom (from the Latin term levir, “brother-in-law”), an ancient provision whereby a man who died without male descendants to carry on his name could have a son by proxy, that is, through a surviving brother who would marry his widow and whose first son would then be attributed to the brother who had died. This is the only reference to this practice in an OT legal text but it is illustrated in the story of Judah and his sons (Gen 38) and possibly in the account of Ruth and Boaz (Ruth 2:8; 3:12; 4:6).
14. Deuteronomy 25:6 tn Heb “and it will be that.”
15. Deuteronomy 25:6 tn Heb “the firstborn.” This refers to the oldest male child.
16. Deuteronomy 25:7 tn Heb “want to take his sister-in-law, then his sister in law.” In the second instance the pronoun (“she”) has been used in the translation to avoid redundancy.
17. Deuteronomy 25:9 sn The removal of the sandal was likely symbolic of the relinquishment by the man of any claim to his dead brother’s estate since the sandal was associated with the soil or land (cf. Ruth 4:7-8). Spitting in the face was a sign of utmost disgust or disdain, an emotion the rejected widow would feel toward her uncooperative brother-in-law (cf. Num 12:14; Lev 15:8). See W. Bailey, NIDOTTE 2:544.
18. Deuteronomy 25:9 tn Heb “build the house of his brother”; TEV “refuses to give his brother a descendant”; NLT “refuses to raise up a son for his brother.”
19. Deuteronomy 25:10 tn Heb “called,” i.e., “known as.”
20. Deuteronomy 25:10 tn Heb “house.”
21. Deuteronomy 25:10 tn Cf. NIV, NCV “The Family of the Unsandaled.”
22. Deuteronomy 25:11 tn Heb “a man and his brother.”
23. Deuteronomy 25:11 tn Heb “shameful parts.” Besides the inherent indelicacy of what she has done, the woman has also threatened the progenitive capacity of the injured man. The level of specificity given this term in modern translations varies: “private parts” (NAB, NIV, CEV); “genitals” (NASB, NRSV, TEV); “sex organs” (NCV); “testicles” (NLT).
24. Deuteronomy 25:13 tn Heb “a stone and a stone.” The repetition of the singular noun here expresses diversity, as the following phrase indicates. See IBHS 116 §7.2.3c.
25. Deuteronomy 25:13 tn Heb “a large and a small,” but since the issue is the weight, “a heavy and a light one” conveys the idea better in English.
26. Deuteronomy 25:14 tn Heb “an ephah and an ephah.” An ephah refers to a unit of dry measure roughly equivalent to five U.S. gallons (just under 20 liters). On the repetition of the term to indicate diversity, see IBHS 116 §7.2.3c.
27. Deuteronomy 25:15 tn Or “just”; Heb “righteous.”
28. Deuteronomy 25:16 tn The Hebrew term translated here “abhorrent” (תּוֹעֵבָה, toʿevah) speaks of attitudes and/or behaviors so vile as to be reprehensible to a holy God. See note on the word “abhorrent” in Deut 7:25.
29. Deuteronomy 25:17 tn Heb “what Amalek” (so NAB, NRSV). Here the individual ancestor, the namesake of the tribe, is cited as representative of the entire tribe at the time Israel was entering Canaan. Consistent with this, singular pronouns are used in v. 18 and the singular name appears again in v. 19. Since readers unfamiliar with the tribe of Amalekites might think this refers to an individual, the term “Amalekites” and the corresponding plural pronouns have been used throughout these verses (cf. NIV, NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).
30. Deuteronomy 25:18 sn See Exod 17:8-16.
31. Deuteronomy 25:19 tn Heb “ the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.
32. Deuteronomy 25:19 tn The Hebrew text includes “to possess it.”
33. Deuteronomy 25:19 tn Or “from beneath the sky.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.
34. Deuteronomy 25:19 sn This command is fulfilled in 1 Sam 15:1-33.