★★ If you truly listen is a doubled verb, and the first place the Bible doubles it is the first law of the exodus. Shamoa tishma, listening you shall listen: spelled out in full, the doubled form stands in six verses of the Hebrew Bible, and the first is Exodus 15:26 at Marah (already on these pages) — if you will diligently listen to the voice of Jehovah your God … I will not put on you any of the diseases that I put on the Egyptians, which is the sentence v60 of this chapter will turn inside out. Then it is Sinai’s offer at Exodus 19:5, the covenant code’s at 23:22, the release year’s at Deuteronomy 15:5 (all already on these pages), this verse, and Zechariah 6:15 (not yet on these pages); 11:13 says it in the plural and spells it short. The KJV and ASV read ‘hearken diligently’, the Geneva ‘obey diligently’, the NIV and TLB ‘fully obey’, the NWT 1984 ‘without fail listen’, and the Douay ‘hear the voice’, with no doubling at all; the RV 1909 reads «oyeres diligente», the RV60 «oyeres atentamente», the NVI «realmente escuchas», the TNM 1987 «escuchas sin falta» and the TNM 2019 «de veras escuchas». What listening earns is the adjective elyon, high — the word in God’s own title, El Elyon — and high above all stands in four verses of the Hebrew Bible: 26:19 (already on these pages) and this one, where it is Israel, and Psalms 83:19 and 97:9 (neither yet on these pages), where it is Jehovah, most high over all the earth. A people is given God’s adjective twice; God keeps it in the other two.

⭐ The blessings overtake you, and overtaking is what an army does to people who run. Hissig is the pursuer’s verb: the enemy at the sea boasts I will pursue, I will overtake (Exodus 15:9), the redeemer of blood overtakes the manslayer on a long road (19:6, both already on these pages), and here what runs a man down is a blessing. V15 gives the same verb to the curses and v45 adds pursue in front of it — the Song of the Sea’s pair exactly, said of Israel — and Lamentations 1:3 (already on these pages) reports it done: all her pursuers overtook her. The NIV reads ‘accompany you’ and the NVI «te acompañarán siempre», making the pursuit a companion; the KJV, ASV, Douay and NWT 1984 all read ‘overtake’, the RV60 «te alcanzarán», and the TLB drops the verb and prints the six blessings as a list. Then the six. Blessed are you stands in six verses of the Hebrew Bible, and the first two are v3 and v6, said to a whole nation; after them Saul says it to Samuel and to David (1 Samuel 15:13, 26:25), and then David says it to God (1 Chronicles 29:10) and the psalmist after him (Psalm 119:12; none yet on these pages) — barukh attah Jehovah, the three words that open every blessing in Jewish prayer to this day. Four verses hold six blessed; v16–19 will answer them with six cursed.

★ The fruit of your belly is the phrase Elizabeth will say to Mary, and the kneading-bowl beside the basket is the one Israel carried out of Egypt on its shoulders. Peri bitnekha: this project printed the fruit of your belly at 7:13 (already on these pages) and keeps it; the phrase, with this suffix, stands in seven verses of the Hebrew Bible — 7:13, four times in this chapter (v4, v11, v18, and v53, where it is eaten), 30:9 and Psalm 132:11 (neither yet on these pages). Jacob’s who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb (Genesis 30:2, already on these pages) is the same noun without the suffix. And Luke 1:42 (already on these pages), blessed is the fruit of your womb, eulogēmenos ho karpos tēs koilias sou, is v4’s first clause said in Greek to one woman. The KJV, ASV and Geneva read ‘fruit of thy body’, the Douay and NIV ‘womb’, the NWT 1984 ‘fruit of your belly’ and the NWT 2013 ‘your children’; the RV 1909, RV60 and NVI read «fruto de tu vientre», the TNM 2019 «tus hijos». ⚠ The RV 1909 drops the fruit of your ground from v4 altogether — it reads «el fruto de tu vientre, y el fruto de tu bestia» — and the RV60 puts it back. The calving and lambing are 7:13’s pair, and one of the two words is a goddess’s name (see the dictionary). Then v5: the basket is 26:2’s, the firstfruits basket of two chapters ago, and the kneading-bowl is the exodus’s — the noun stands in four verses of the Hebrew Bible: the frogs climb into your kneading bowls at Exodus 7:28, the people carry theirs bound up in their cloaks on their shoulders at 12:34 (both already on these pages), and it is blessed here and cursed at v17. The shelf does not agree what it is: the ASV, NIV and NWT 1984 read ‘kneading-trough’, the Geneva ‘thy dough’, the KJV ‘thy store’ and the Douay ‘thy stores’ (the Vulgate’s reliquiae, leftovers) — and the RV 1909 follows the Latin into «tus sobras», your leftovers, which the RV60 corrects to «artesa de amasar». The last blessing, when you come in and when you go out, is Psalm 121:8’s pair the other way round (already on these pages): Jehovah will keep your going out and your coming in.

★ One way out and seven ways back is said twice in the chapter, once each way. And by seven ways stands in two verses of the Hebrew Bible, v7 and v25, the blessing and its mirror, with only the subject changed. Struck down before you is niggafim, the verb of Leviticus 26:17 and of Deuteronomy 1:42 (both already on these pages), where it was Israel that would be struck down before your enemies; the KJV and ASV read ‘smitten’, the Douay and Geneva ‘fall’, the NIV and NWT 1984 ‘defeated’, the RV 1909 «de rota batida» and the RV60 «derrotará». V8’s barns are rarer than they look: your barns stands in two verses of the Hebrew Bible, this one and Proverbs 3:10 (not yet on these pages), your barns will be filled with plenty. The KJV reads ‘storehouses’, the ASV and NIV ‘barns’, the NWT 1984 ‘stores of supply’, the RV60 «graneros», the TNM 1987 «almacenes de abastecimiento»; the TLB reads ‘good crops and healthy cattle’ and has no building at all. Everything you put your hand to is the phrase the book first used of eating and rejoicing before Jehovah at the chosen place, 12:7 (already on these pages); at v20 the curse will be sent into the same phrase.

⭐ A name called over something is a claim of ownership, and only here is the thing owned a whole people. Shem Jehovah niqra alekha: a name is called over the ark (2 Samuel 6:2), over Solomon’s house (1 Kings 8:43, and Jeremiah 7:10–14, where it is the temple’s undoing), and, in the plainest case, by a woman asking a man to marry her — let your name be called over us (Isaiah 4:1; none yet on these pages); Amos 9:12 extends it to all the nations over whom my name is called, the verse Acts 15:17 quotes. With you as its object the clause stands in one verse of the Hebrew Bible. The KJV turns it round, ‘thou art called by the name’, as do the ASV, ‘thou art called by the name of Jehovah’, and the NIV, ‘you are called by the name’; the Geneva keeps the shape, ‘the Name of the Lord is called upon over thee’, the Douay ‘is invocated upon thee’, the NWT 1984 ‘Jehovah’s name has been called upon you’; the TLB reads ‘you belong to the Lord’, which is not the words but is what the words mean. The RV 1909 reads «el nombre de Jehová es llamado sobre ti», the RV60 «invocado sobre ti», the NVI «al reconocerte como el pueblo del Señor» and the TNM 2019 «tú llevas el nombre de Jehová». A holy people (v9) is 7:6, 14:2 and 26:19 (all already on these pages), but here for the first time it is conditional — if you keep — and sworn.

★ The heavens are a storehouse, and the lending clause of chapter 15 is said again with a different verb. His good storehouse stands in one verse of the Hebrew Bible; the noun is a treasury or a granary, the place a king keeps what he has not yet spent, and Job 38:22 asks whether a man has entered the storehouses of the snow (not yet on these pages). The KJV and ASV read ‘his good treasure, the heaven’, the Douay ‘his excellent treasure’, the NIV ‘the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty’, the NWT 1984 ‘his good storehouse’, the TLB ‘his wonderful treasury of rain’; the RV 1909 reads «su buen depósito», the RV60 «su buen tesoro», the TNM 1987 «su buen almacén». Deuteronomy 15:6 (already on these pages) promised the same thing in nearly the same English — you shall lend to many nations and you yourself shall not borrow — but its Hebrew verb was avat, to take or give a pledge, and this verse’s is lavah, the ordinary word for a loan; this clause, with this verb, stands in one verse of the Hebrew Bible, and v44 will hand the same verb to the stranger. The head and not the tail is likewise undone at v44; Isaiah 9:13 and 19:15 (neither yet on these pages) take head and tail as a phrase for everybody. And to the right or to the left (v14) is the clause the book gave its king three chapters ago — 17:20, so that he does not turn aside from the commandment, right or left (already on these pages) — now said to the nation, as Moses said it of his own road through Edom at 2:27, and as Joshua 1:7 and Josiah’s epitaph at 2 Kings 22:2 (neither yet on these pages) will repeat it. The Hebrew’s open paragraph mark falls after this verse, and the next break of any kind does not come until after v68: fourteen verses of blessing are one paragraph, and fifty-four verses of curse are one paragraph.

★★ The six curses are the six blessings word for word — except that two are swapped and one clause is missing, and the first two words have been said before, to a snake and to a murderer. Set v3–6 beside v16–19: city and field, belly and ground, basket and bowl, coming in and going out, blessed changed to cursed and nothing else — except that the blessing runs fruit (v4) then basket (v5) and the curse runs basket (v17) then fruit (v18), and the cursed fruit has lost a clause: v4 blesses the fruit of your livestock and v18 has no livestock in it at all. Cursed are you stands in four verses of the Hebrew Bible: God to the serpent (Genesis 3:14), God to Cain (4:11, both already on these pages), and v16 and v19. The sentence spoken to the snake and to the first murderer is spoken, the third and fourth time, to Israel. The Douay reads ‘cursed shalt thou be in the city, cursed in the field’, dropping the second verb; the Geneva reads ‘town’ for the city it had at v3; the TLB melts v16–19 into one list — ‘Curses in the city, Curses in the fields, Curses on your fruit and bread, The curse of barren wombs’ — and gives the four verses one number. The RV 1909 prints «Maldito serás tu» with no accent on the pronoun, which the RV60 supplies: «Maldito serás tú».

⭐ Three nouns for ruin, one of them a word in one verse — and the verse ends with two words that will be said once more in the Bible, from a cross. Ha-me’erah, ha-mehumah, ha-mig’eret: the KJV reads ‘cursing, vexation, and rebuke’, the ASV ‘cursing, discomfiture, and rebuke’, the Geneva ‘cursing, trouble, and shame’, the NIV ‘curses, confusion and rebuke’, the NWT 1984 ‘the curse, confusion and rebuke’ and the NWT 2013 ‘punishment’ for the third; the Douay reads ‘famine and hunger, and a rebuke’, after the Vulgate’s famem et esuriem, and the TLB ‘his personal curse’. The RV 1909 and RV60 read «la maldición, quebranto y asombro», the NVI and TNM 1987 «maldición, confusión y reprensión». Me’erah is a different noun from the cursed of v16, and Malachi 2:2 (not yet on these pages) sends it with this verse’s own verb — I will send the curse among you. Mehumah is 7:23’s great panic (already on these pages), the thing God was to throw the Canaanites into, and the thing the ark throws the Philistine cities into at 1 Samuel 5:9 (not yet on these pages); here it is sent into Israel’s own work. Mig’eret stands in one verse of the Hebrew Bible; its root is ga’ar, to rebuke, the verb of Jehovah rebuke you, Accuser at Zechariah 3:2 (already on these pages). The evil of your deeds, roa ma’alalekha, is a phrase the prophets will wear out — Isaiah 1:16, Jeremiah 21:12, 26:3 (all already on these pages) — and this is where it starts. And azavtani: you have forsaken me stands in two verses of the Hebrew Bible. Here God says it of Israel. The other is Psalm 22:2 (not yet on these pages), My God, my God, why have you forsaken me — the psalm Jesus says from the cross at Matthew 27:46 (already on these pages). It is also one of only two places in the chapter where the speaker slips into God’s own first person; the other is v68, the way of which I said to you.

★ The pestilence clings with the verb the book uses for clinging to God, and the sky and the earth are Leviticus 26’s two metals the other way up. Davaq stands in eight verses of this book: five of clinging to Jehovah (4:4, 10:20, 11:22, 13:5, all already on these pages, and 30:20), one of the devoted thing that must not cling to your hand (13:18), and two of disease clinging to you — v21 and v60. V22 lists seven. The first two are Leviticus 26:16’s pair, wasting disease and fever (already on these pages), and shachefet stands in two verses of the Hebrew Bible, that one and this; dalleqet and charchur, inflammation and burning heat, are each a noun in one verse. The fifth is the disputed one: the Masoretes point cherev, sword, and the KJV, ASV, Geneva and NWT 1984 read ‘the sword’, the TNM 1987 «la espada», the TLB ‘war’, the RV 1909 «cuchillo»; the NIV reads ‘drought’, the RV60 «sequía» and the NVI «sequía», repointing the same three letters as chorev, dryness — a sword among diseases or a drought among them, and the difference is one vowel; the Douay reads ‘corrupted air’, the Vulgate’s aere corrupto. The last two are crop diseases, and shiddafon, blight, stands in five verses of the Hebrew Bible — here, Solomon’s prayer at 1 Kings 8:37 with its parallel at 2 Chronicles 6:28, Amos 4:9 and Haggai 2:17 (none yet on these pages) — always with yeraqon, mildew, beside it; yeraqon alone is the yellow-green of a sick leaf, and Jeremiah 30:6 (already on these pages) puts it on men’s faces: every face turned pale. The NWT 1984 reads ‘tuberculosis’ for the first disease and the TLB ‘tuberculosis, fever, infections, plague, and war’, modern diagnoses for words no one can diagnose. Then v23: Leviticus 26:19 (already on these pages) made your sky like iron, and your land like bronze; this verse puts the bronze above and the iron below, and drops the like — Leviticus compared, Deuteronomy states. Nechoshet stands in three verses of this book: the copper Israel would quarry from the hills of the good land at 8:9 (already on these pages), this sky, and Asher’s bars of iron and bronze at 33:25. The KJV, ASV, Geneva and Douay read ‘brass’, the NIV and TLB ‘bronze’, the NWT 1984 ‘copper’; the RV 1909 reads «de metal», any metal at all, the RV60 «de bronce», the TNM 1987 «de cobre». V24’s rain is powder and dust, avaq ve-afar, two words for the same thing; the Douay reads ‘dust for rain … and let ashes come down’, the Geneva ‘dust and ashes’, the RV 1909 and RV60 «polvo y ceniza» — the Vulgate’s cinis — and the Hebrew has no ash in it. 11:17 (already on these pages) had shut the heavens so that there would be no rain; here the heavens stay open and what falls is the ground.

★ A horror to all the kingdoms of the earth is a sentence Jeremiah says four times, and in every one of them the scribes wrote the word one way and read it another. Le-za’avah stands in seven verses of the Hebrew Bible: this one; Jeremiah 15:4, 24:9 and 29:18 (both already on these pages, a horror on each) and 34:17, all four with this verse’s whole phrase, to all the kingdoms of the earth; Ezekiel 23:46; and 2 Chronicles 29:8 — and in all six of the others the written text has ze’vah and the margin says to read za’avah. This verse alone spells the word the way it is read. The KJV reads ‘removed into all the kingdoms of the earth’, taking the word as motion rather than terror, the Douay and Geneva ‘scattered’, the ASV and TLB ‘tossed to and fro’; the NIV reads ‘a thing of horror’, the NWT 1984 ‘a frightful object’, the NWT 2013 ‘an object of horror’. The RV 1909 reads «sacudido», shaken, the RV60 «vejado», the NVI «sentirán horror al verte», the TNM 1987 «objeto aterrador» — so seven of the thirteen read motion or ill-treatment and six read terror. Then v26, and its last three words began as a blessing. And there is no one to frighten stands in twelve verses of the Hebrew Bible, and the first is Leviticus 26:6 (already on these pages): you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. Here the one whom no one frightens is the bird on your body. Jeremiah 7:33 (not yet on these pages) repeats this verse almost whole; Jeremiah 19:7 (already on these pages) gives their corpses as food for the birds of the heavens; and Jeremiah 30:10 (already on these pages) hands the three words back as a promise — Jacob will return, and be quiet and at ease, with no one to make him afraid. The KJV reads ‘no man shall fray them away’ and the Geneva ‘none shall fray them away’, fray being the old verb inside afraid.

⭐ The boil of Egypt, and a tumour whose written form and read form are two different words — the same two words the Philistines suffer under the captured ark. The boil of Egypt is the sixth plague, Exodus 9:9–11 (already on these pages), the one the magicians could not stand up under; 7:15 (already on these pages) promised that Egypt’s diseases would fall on all who hate you, and here they fall on you. Then a word that is written one way and read another: the text has ofalim, swellings, and the margin directs the reader to say techorim. The written word stands in four verses of the Hebrew Bible, this one and three in 1 Samuel 5 (verses 6, 9 and 12; not yet on these pages), where the cities that hold the captured ark are struck with it — and in all four the read word is substituted, the word 1 Samuel 6 then uses for the golden tumours the Philistines send back with the ark. The shelf translates guesses: the KJV and ASV read ‘emerods’, the Geneva ‘hemorrhoids’, the NIV and TLB ‘tumors’, the NWT 1984 ‘piles’, and the Douay ‘the part of thy body, by which the dung is cast out’; the RV 1909 reads «almorranas», the RV60 «tumores», the TNM 1987 «hemorroides» — and none of the thirteen prints both the written word and the read one. The scab, garav, is the blemish that bars a priest from the altar at Leviticus 21:20 and an animal from it at 22:22 (both already on these pages); the itch, cheres, is spelled exactly like the potsherd and the sun, and is neither. V28: shiggaon, madness, stands in three verses of the Hebrew Bible — here, 2 Kings 9:20, where Jehu drives madly, and Zechariah 12:4 (neither yet on these pages), where all three of this verse’s nouns are laid on cavalry: I will strike every horse with bewilderment and its rider with madness … every horse of the peoples with blindness. The Geneva reads ‘atoning of heart’, an old spelling of astonying, the KJV ‘astonishment of heart’, the Douay ‘fury of mind’, the NWT 1984 ‘bewilderment of heart’, the NIV ‘confusion of mind’; the RV 1909 reads «pasmo de corazón» and the RV60 «turbación de espíritu», losing the heart the Hebrew keeps. V29: mashash, to grope, stands in five verses of the Hebrew Bible — Laban feeling through all the tent for his gods (Genesis 31:34, 37, already on these pages), this verse twice, and Job 5:14 and 12:25 (neither yet on these pages), the first of them they grope at noon as in the night; let the darkness be felt at Exodus 10:21 (already on these pages) is the same root in another form. And no one to save: ve-ein moshia, with its and, stands in three verses of the Hebrew Bible — the betrothed girl who cried out in the field at 22:27 (already on these pages), and there was no one to save her; this verse; and Psalm 18:42. The Geneva reads ‘be powled evermore’ — polled, shorn like a sheep.

★ Three things chapter 20 sent a man home to keep, with the other man now arrived — and the verb of the first of them is one the Masoretes replaced. 20:5–7 (already on these pages) dismissed from the army the man who had built a house and not dedicated it, planted a vineyard and not put it to use, betrothed a wife and not taken her — each lest he die in the battle and another man do it. V30 is those three with the other man present. Chalal is 20:6’s verb, and Jeremiah 31:4 (already on these pages; 31:5 in English numbering) undoes it: the planters will plant, and will enjoy the fruit. But the wife: what is written in the text is yishgalennah, and what the margin tells the reader to say is yishkavennah, lie with her. The written verb stands in one verse of the Torah, and wherever it is written in the Bible — here, Isaiah 13:16, Jeremiah 3:2, Zechariah 14:2 (none yet on these pages) — the reader is directed to shakhav instead; the Talmud (Megillah 25b) is reported to list it among the words read euphemistically, a tradition noted here and not verified beyond that reference. Its noun is a king’s consort (Psalm 45:10, Nehemiah 2:6). The shelf splits exactly along the seam: the KJV, ASV and Geneva read ‘lie with her’, the Douay ‘sleep with her’, the RV 1909 and RV60 «dormirá con ella» — the read word; the NIV, NWT 1984 and NWT 2013 read ‘rape her’, the NVI and TNM 2019 «la violará», the TNM 1987 «la forzará» — the written word’s violence. This translation prints what is read and keeps what is written here. V31–32 have no main verbs, only participles — your ox, slaughtered; your donkey, robbed; your sons and daughters, given — and the NWT 1984 keeps the fragments with dashes where every other version supplies shall be. In the power of the hand stands in five verses of the Hebrew Bible: Laban’s threat, it is in the power of my hand to do you harm (Genesis 31:29, already on these pages), this verse, Micah 2:1, Proverbs 3:27, and Nehemiah 5:5 (none yet on these pages) — where fathers forcing their own sons and daughters into slavery say it is not in the power of our hand, this verse’s situation in Nehemiah’s Jerusalem. V33’s oppressed and crushed is Hosea 5:11’s pair, Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment (not yet on these pages); v29’s oppressed and robbed are the two words of the king’s duty at Jeremiah 21:12 and 22:3 (already on these pages), rescue the robbed from the hand of the oppressor. V34: meshugga stands in five verses of the Hebrew Bible — here; David feigning it at Gath, am I short of madmen (1 Samuel 21:16); the officer’s word for Elisha’s prophet (2 Kings 9:11); Jeremiah 29:26 (already on these pages), every madman who prophesies; and Hosea 9:7, the man of the spirit is mad — after this verse the word is mostly what people call prophets. And v35 is Job’s verse before Job: he struck Job with a malignant boil from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head (Job 2:7, not yet on these pages) — this verse’s verb, this verse’s boil, this verse’s phrase. From the sole of the foot stands in four verses of the Hebrew Bible: here, Job, Absalom in whom there was no blemish from sole to crown (2 Samuel 14:25), and Isaiah 1:6 (already on these pages), from the sole of the foot to the head there is nothing sound.

★ The king goes too, and the sentence on the nation is the sentence God will pass on Solomon’s temple. 17:15 (already on these pages) allowed a king, you shall surely set over yourself a king; v36 uses that permission’s own words — your king whom you set up over you — and sends him into exile with you. Wood and stone is 4:28’s (already on these pages), gods, the work of human hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear; the pair stands in seven verses of the Hebrew Bible — 4:28, this verse, v64, 29:16, Hezekiah’s prayer at 2 Kings 19:18 and Isaiah 37:19, and Ezekiel 20:32 (none of the last four yet on these pages). V37: a byword and a taunt stands in four verses of the Hebrew Bible — this one; 1 Kings 9:7, God’s warning over the temple Solomon has just finished, Israel will become a byword and a taunt among all peoples, with its parallel at 2 Chronicles 7:20 (neither yet on these pages); and Jeremiah 24:9 (already on these pages), which sets this chapter’s horror beside them. The first noun, shammah, is what a ruin makes a passer-by feel: the KJV and ASV read ‘astonishment’, the Geneva ‘a wonder’, the Douay ‘lost’, the NIV ‘a thing of horror’, the NWT 1984 ‘an object of astonishment’; the third, sheninah, is a sharpened saying — the KJV reads ‘byword’, the Geneva ‘a common talk’, the NWT 1984 ‘a taunt’, the NIV ‘an object of ridicule’. The RV 1909 reads «por pasmo, por ejemplo y por fábula», the RV60 «motivo de horror, y servirás de refrán y de burla».

⭐ Five curses of futility, in which a verb that shook the nations loose now shakes your olives off, and the last pest is named for its noise. Haggai 1:6 (already on these pages) is v38 in a prophet’s mouth: you have sown much, and brought in little; Micah 6:15, Amos 5:11 and Zephaniah 1:13 (none yet on these pages) say the vineyard and the house the same way. V38’s verb consume, chasal, stands in one verse of the Hebrew Bible; the locust species named from it, chasil, is the finisher of Joel 1:4 (already on these pages). V40’s drop off is nashal, and this book has used it of larger things: Jehovah your God will shake those nations loose from before you at 7:1 and 7:22, and the axe-head that slips from the wood and kills a man at 19:5 (all already on these pages); it is the root of take off your sandals at the bush (Exodus 3:5). What the conquest’s verb now removes is your olive. The anoint is sukh, to rub oil on oneself after washing — the NWT 1984 reads ‘you will rub yourself with no oil’, the KJV ‘anoint thyself’, the TLB ‘there won’t be enough olive oil to anoint yourselves’. Then v42: tzelatzal stands in five verses of the Hebrew Bible and this is the only insect among them — twice it is a cymbal (2 Samuel 6:5 and Psalm 150:5, loud cymbals), once the land of whirring wings (Isaiah 18:1), once a fish-harpoon (Job 40:31; none yet on these pages): a thing named by the sound it makes. The KJV reads ‘locust’ and the Geneva ‘grasshopper’, both guesses from the context, the Douay ‘the blast’ (the Vulgate’s rubigo, rust), the NIV ‘swarms of locusts’, the NWT 1984 ‘whirring insects’; the RV60 reads «la langosta», the TNM 1987 «insectos zumbadores». This translation prints the whirring swarm and leaves the species open.

★ The stranger climbs, the two blessings of v12 and v13 are undone word for word, and the signs and wonders of Egypt are laid on Israel. The stranger is this book’s protected man — fed at the third-year tithe (14:29, 26:12), given the forgotten sheaf (24:19), seated at the feast (16:14, all already on these pages) — and at v43 he rises over you by two doubled adverbs, ma’lah ma’lah, mattah mattah; the first pair stands in one verse of the Hebrew Bible. The KJV reads ‘very high … very low’ and loses the climbing, the NWT 1984 ‘keep ascending higher and higher … keep descending lower and lower’. V44 then takes v12’s lending and v13’s head and tail and gives both to him. V45 repeats v15 with pursue added, the enemy’s pair from the sea (Exodus 15:9), and v46 makes the curses themselves a sign and a wonder — the pair this book keeps for what Jehovah did to Egypt (4:34, 6:22, 7:19, 26:8) and for a false prophet’s credentials (13:2, all already on these pages). With these prepositions the phrase stands in one verse of the Hebrew Bible. Egypt was the wonder; now Israel is.

★ The reason given is not disobedience but joylessness, and the yoke that follows is the one Jeremiah will wear. And you shall rejoice stands in eight verses of this book — 12:7, 12:12, 12:18, 14:26, 16:11, 16:14, 26:11, 27:7 (all already on these pages) — the command the code repeated at every feast and every tithe; and with joy stands in one verse of this book, this one, as the thing not done. Out of the abundance of everything, me-rov kol, is otherwise Tyre’s (Ezekiel 27:12, 18, not yet on these pages). V48 answers abundance with four wants and then a yoke: a yoke of iron stands in two verses of the Hebrew Bible — here, and Jeremiah 28:14 (already on these pages), I have put a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations, to serve Nebuchadnezzar, the answer to Hananiah breaking the wooden one. Leviticus 26:13 (already on these pages) had described the exodus as a yoke taken off, I broke the bars of your yoke, and made you walk upright; this verse puts one back, in iron.

⭐ A nation from the end of the earth, as the eagle swoops — Habakkuk watches it come, Jeremiah quotes the verse, and its fierce face is Daniel’s king. Yid’eh, swoops, stands in three verses of the Hebrew Bible: this one, and Jeremiah 48:40 and 49:22 (neither yet on these pages), both like the eagle he swoops and spreads his wings, over Moab and over Bozrah. Habakkuk 1:8 (already on these pages) sees the Chaldean horsemen come from afar, they fly like a vulture swooping to devour — the prophet describing this verse arriving — and Jeremiah 5:15 (not yet on these pages) quotes it, a nation from afar … a nation whose language you do not know. Whose tongue you will not hear uses shama for understand, as Babel does (they will not understand one another’s speech, Genesis 11:7) and as Joseph’s brothers do (they did not know that Joseph was listening, 42:23, both already on these pages). Fierce of face stands in two verses of the Hebrew Bible: this nation, and a king of fierce face at Daniel 8:23 (not yet on these pages). It will not lift the face of an old man, and 10:17 (already on these pages) said God does not lift the face: the same idiom for impartiality, in God a virtue and in this army the absence of mercy. The KJV reads ‘shall not regard the person of the old’, the Douay ‘shew no regard to the ancients’, the NWT 1984 ‘will not be partial to an old man’, the NIV ‘without respect for the old’; the RV60 reads «no tendrá respeto al anciano». V51 eats 7:13’s triad, grain, new wine and fresh oil, and v4’s calving and lambing. And v52’s high and fortified walls in which you trust are the walls the spies were afraid of at 1:28 and 9:1 (both already on these pages), cities great and fortified up to the heavens: the walls Israel thought it could never take, it will trust, and lose.

★★ The flesh of your sons and daughters is Leviticus 26:29 with the blessing’s own phrase for it, Jeremiah 19 quotes the verse, and the tender man and the delicate woman carry three earlier verses of this book and one of Isaiah. Leviticus 26:29 (already on these pages) says it flat: you shall eat the flesh of your sons; and the flesh of your daughters you shall eat. V53 says it with v4’s blessing, the fruit of your belly. In the siege and in the distress stands in four verses of the Hebrew Bible — v53, v55, v57, and Jeremiah 19:9 (already on these pages), which quotes v53 nearly whole and adds each will eat the flesh of his friend. Lamentations 2:20 (already on these pages) asks it as a question, should women eat their own offspring; 2 Kings 6:28–29 tells it of two mothers in besieged Samaria, Lamentations 4:10 and Ezekiel 5:10 repeat it (none yet on these pages), and Josephus is reported to tell it of a woman in Jerusalem under Titus — reported here, not verified beyond the report. V54’s tender man is 20:8’s tender of heart (already on these pages), sent home so as not to melt his brothers; his eye will be evil toward his brother is 15:9 (already on these pages), your eye be evil toward your needy brother — the miser’s eye of the release-year law become a starving man’s; and the wife of his bosom is 13:7’s (already on these pages), the wife who might entice you in secret: the phrase stands in two verses of the Hebrew Bible, hers and his. V56’s woman is rakkah va-anuggah, and the adjective anog stands in three verses of the Hebrew Bible: v54, this verse, and Isaiah 47:1 (not yet on these pages), where the daughter of Babylon will no longer be called tender and delicate — this verse’s two adjectives in this verse’s order, applied to the empire that will do this. The sole of her foot is the dove’s (Genesis 8:9, already on these pages); kaf raglah stands in two verses of the Hebrew Bible, the dove’s and this woman’s, and v65 will take the dove’s whole clause. V57’s shilyah, afterbirth, stands in one verse of the Hebrew Bible: the KJV and ASV read ‘her young one’, the Douay ‘the filth of the afterbirths’, the Geneva, NIV and NWT 1984 ‘afterbirth’, the TLB ‘the afterbirth and the new baby’; the RV 1909 reads «su chiquita», her little girl, the RV60 «al recién nacido», the NVI «placenta», the TNM 1987 «secundinas». And in secret: ba-seter stands in four verses of this book — the enticer of 13:7, the idol set up at 27:15, the neighbour struck at 27:24 (all already on these pages), and a mother eating.

★ The Name, bare, is what the blasphemer cursed in Leviticus 24, and this book is the first time Deuteronomy calls itself one. The Name with the object marker and nothing after it stands in two verses of the Hebrew Bible: Leviticus 24:11 (already on these pages), where the son of Shelomith blasphemed the Name, and here, where it is to be feared. Glorious is nikhbad, the participle of kavod, weighty; fearsome is 10:17’s word (already on these pages), the great God, the mighty and the fearsome. The KJV and Geneva set the name and title in capitals as the thing being feared, the ASV ‘JEHOVAH THY GOD’, the RV 1909 and RV60 «JEHOVÁ TU DIOS»; the Douay reads ‘that is, The Lord thy God’, the NWT 1984 ‘even Jehovah, your God’. In this book stands in four verses of the Hebrew Bible: here, 29:19 and 29:26 (not yet on these pages), and Jeremiah 25:13 (already on these pages), everything written in this book. Deuteronomy has not called itself a book before: 17:18 (already on these pages) had the king write his copy on a scroll, and 31:24–26 will finish the writing and put the scroll beside the ark. V61 is the first book of this law: sefer ha-torah stands in ten verses of the Hebrew Bible — this one, 29:20, 30:10, 31:26, Joshua 1:8 (already on these pages, this book of the instruction shall not depart from your mouth) and 8:34, the scroll Hilkiah finds in the temple (2 Kings 22:8, 11; 2 Chronicles 34:15), and the one Ezra reads from dawn to noon (Nehemiah 8:3; none of the last four yet on these pages).

⭐ Plagues made extraordinary with the verb for God’s wonders, and lasting with the word this book used for a faithful God. Hifla is the causative of pala, the root of is anything too wondrous for Jehovah (Genesis 18:14) and of the case too extraordinary for a village court at 17:8 (already on these pages); what God did with wonders in Egypt he will do with plagues here. The plagues are makkot, blows — the noun 25:2–3 (already on these pages) used for a judge’s strokes, counted and stopped at forty; makkot stands in two verses of this book, here and 29:21. And ne’emanot, lasting, is the passive participle of aman: 7:9 (already on these pages) called Jehovah the faithful God, ha-El ha-ne’eman, and here his plagues are faithful too — what can be relied on to stay. The KJV, ASV and Geneva read ‘make thy plagues wonderful’, the Douay ‘increase thy plagues’, the NIV ‘fearful plagues’, the NWT 1984 ‘especially severe’, the RV 1909 and RV60 «aumentará maravillosamente»; for the adjective the KJV reads ‘of long continuance’, the Douay ‘lasting’ and ‘perpetual’, the NIV ‘prolonged’ and ‘lingering’, the NWT 1984 ‘long-lasting’, the RV 1909 «estables», the RV60 «permanentes», the NVI «persistentes». Then v60: madveh stands in two verses of the Hebrew Bible, 7:15 (already on these pages) — all the evil diseases of Egypt that you knew, he will not put on you — and this one, where he brings them back; behind both stands Marah, Exodus 15:26 (already on these pages), with v1’s doubled verb and the same promise. Three times the Bible says this sentence, and this is the time it is negative.

★ Few in number is the creed’s phrase for the father, the stars are the book’s boast about itself, and God rejoices in both directions. Bimtei me’at stands in two verses of the Hebrew Bible: 26:5 (already on these pages), where the wandering Aramean went down to Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and this one, where his descendants are few again; 4:27 (already on these pages) had said it with a different word, metei mispar. And like the stars of the heavens for multitude stands in three verses of the Hebrew Bible, all of them this book: 1:10 and 10:22 (both already on these pages), where it is what Jehovah has made you, and here, where it is what you were. V63’s verb is sus, to exult, and it is used twice, once each way — as Jehovah rejoiced over you to do you good … so Jehovah will rejoice over you to make you perish; 30:9 will turn it back a third time, Jehovah will again rejoice over you for good, as he rejoiced over your fathers, and Jeremiah 32:41 promises I will rejoice over them to do them good (neither yet on these pages). The KJV and ASV read ‘rejoiced’, the NWT 1984 ‘exulted’, the NWT 2013 ‘delighted’, the NIV ‘it pleased the Lord’; the RV60 reads «se gozaba … se gozará», the NVI «le agradó … le agradará». Torn up is nasach, and the verb stands in four verses of the Hebrew Bible: here, and three in the wisdom books where it is what God does to the wicked man’s tent and the proud man’s house (Psalm 52:7, Proverbs 2:22, 15:25; none yet on these pages). These two verses are also where the chapter turns plural — you in the singular for forty-seven verses, then you all at v62 and 63, as at v14 and again at v68.

★★ The scattering is Babel’s verb, and the words for having nowhere to stand are the dove’s, from the ark. Hefitz: 4:27 (already on these pages) said Jehovah will scatter you among the peoples, and the verb is the one Genesis uses of Babel — Jehovah scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth (Genesis 11:8, 9, already on these pages); Nehemiah 1:8 (already on these pages) quotes this sentence back to God as Moses’ own. From the end of the earth to the end of the earth is 13:8’s phrase (already on these pages) for where the gods you were warned of come from; here it is where you will go to serve them. Then v65: a resting place for the sole of the foot stands in two verses of the Hebrew Bible. The first is Genesis 8:9 (already on these pages) — the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned to him, to the ark — and the second is this one, where there is no ark to return to. Lamentations 1:3 (already on these pages) reads the verse fulfilled: she sits among the nations; she has found no rest. The first verb, targia, is the one Jeremiah 31:1 (already on these pages; 31:2 in English numbering) uses of God going to give him rest, and the one Isaiah 34:14 (not yet on these pages) gives Lilith, who finds rest in Edom’s ruins — the night-creature finds what Israel will not. The three afflictions are Leviticus 26:16’s (already on these pages), which had fevers that consume the eyes and cause the soul to languish — the same two roots, kalah and da’av, made into nouns here; da’avon stands in one verse of the Hebrew Bible, and kilyon, failing, is also a man’s name — Chilion, Naomi’s second son, who goes to Moab and dies there (Ruth 1:2, 5, already on these pages). The KJV reads ‘a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind’, the NIV ‘an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart’, the Geneva ‘looking to return till thine eyes fall out’, the TLB ‘trembling hearts, darkness, and bodies wasted from sorrow and fear’; the RV60 reads «corazón temeroso, y desfallecimiento de ojos, y tristeza de alma».

⭐ Your life hanging is the hanged man’s participle from chapter 21, and if only is a wish God made in chapter 5. Telu’im is the passive of talah, to hang: 21:23 (already on these pages), one who is hanged is a curse of God, and the five kings on five trees (Joshua 10:26), Absalom hanging in the oak (2 Samuel 18:10), a thousand shields hung on a tower (Song of Solomon 4:4; none yet on these pages). The Douay reads ‘thy life shall be as it were hanging before thee’, the Vulgate’s quasi pendens, and several early Christian writers are reported to have quoted this verse with the words on a tree added and read it of the crucifixion — reported here; the Hebrew has no tree. The KJV and ASV read ‘hang in doubt’, the NIV ‘constant suspense’, the NWT 1984 ‘in the greatest peril for your life’; the RV60 reads «como algo que pende delante de ti». You will not be sure of your life is lo ta’amin, the root of amen: you will not believe in your own life. Then v67. Mi yitten, who will give — the Hebrew for if only — stands in two verses of this book: 5:25 (already on these pages; 5:29 in English numbering), where it is God who wishes, oh, that they had such a heart as this, and here, where Israel wishes for the other half of the day. The KJV and Geneva read ‘Would God it were even’, the Douay ‘Who will grant me evening?’, the literal shape, the NIV ‘If only it were evening’; the RV 1909 and RV60 read «¡Quién diera…!», the TNM 2019 «¡Ojalá…!».

★★ Back to Egypt in ships, by the way God said you would never see again, to a market with no buyer — and then the verse that English Bibles number 29:1. Egypt is named three times in the chapter and each is an undoing: its boil (v27), its diseases (v60), and the return (v68). The way of which I said to you, You shall never see it again is two verses at once: Exodus 14:13 (already on these pages), the Egyptians whom you see today, you will never see again, ever, and the king law, 17:16 (already on these pages), Jehovah has said to you, You shall not go back that way again — and the I is the chapter’s second slip into God’s own voice, after v20. Ships stand in two verses in the Torah: Zebulun’s shore for ships at Genesis 49:13 (already on these pages) and this one. Offer yourselves for sale is hitmakker, the reflexive of makar, to sell, and the reflexive stands in three verses of the Hebrew Bible: here, and twice of Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the eyes of Jehovah (1 Kings 21:20, 25; not yet on these pages). The KJV reads ‘ye shall be sold’ and the Douay ‘set to sale’, as if someone else did it; the ASV, Geneva and NWT 1984 read ‘sell yourselves’, the NIV ‘offer yourselves for sale’; the RV 1909 and RV60 read «seréis vendidos», the NVI «te ofrecerás», the TNM 1987 «venderse» — four of the thirteen make it passive and nine keep the reflexive. Nobody sells them; they sell themselves, and nobody buys. And there is no buyer stands in one verse of the Hebrew Bible, and it is the fifth and there is no of the chapter, after no one to frighten the birds (v26), no one to save (v29, v31) and nothing in the power of your hand (v32). Josephus is reported to write that Titus sent his prisoners over seventeen in chains to the works in Egypt — reported, not verified here. Then v69. The Hebrew closes the chapter with it and sets its open paragraph mark after it; the chapter division English Bibles inherit opens chapter 29 with it instead, so every English Bible on this shelf has sixty-eight verses here and reads this one as 29:1. These are the words are the book’s own first three words, elleh ha-devarim (1:1, already on these pages), and the covenant that he made with them at Horeb is 5:2–3 (already on these pages), Jehovah our God made a covenant with us at Horeb … not with our fathers, but with us; besides the covenant stands in one verse of the Hebrew Bible. Fifty-four verses of curse are, by their own last sentence, the words of the covenant.