Beyond the Jordan: see verse 1.

Moses undertook to explain this law: the Hebrew verb translated undertook can be taken to mean “decided,” “resolved” (Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible), or “began” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New International Version [New International Version], Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje). The verb translated explain is found elsewhere in the Bible only in Deut 27.8 and Hab 2.2, in both of which passages it means “write.” But no translation referred to in this Handbook has that meaning here. It is usually rendered “explain” or “make plain.” This law seems to refer to what follows, perhaps what is found in chapters 5–26 (Mayes). It seems probable that the reader would understand this law to mean the Torah, as given in the three speeches of Moses. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “the law of the LORD,” and Bible en français courant “the law of God.” This may be a good model to follow if the word law carries the idea of legal enactments, in the modern sense of the word.

It is regrettable that the Hebrew torah is uniformly translated in English Bibles by “law” or “Law,” which is due to the translation of the Hebrew word into nomos (“law”) by the Greek of the Septuagint, and the use of the same Greek word in the New Testament to refer to the Old Testament torah. The Hebrew word means rather what would be called “instruction” or “teaching” (as New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has it, “this Teaching”). Translators may consider the possibility of using something other than “law” or its equivalents and say something like “teaching” or “instruction” throughout the Bible. Notice that Good News Translation translates as “God’s laws and teachings,” in an effort to include all the material that Moses talks about in his speeches.

Saying: this comes at the end of the verse and is the link to what follows. But since a new section will begin with the next verse (as was suggested in the introduction to this chapter), it is recommended that the translation of this word be placed at the beginning of verse 6, “Moses said” or its equivalent. However, if translators follow Contemporary English Version and begin a new section at 1.5, the translation of saying may be placed at the end of this verse as in Revised Standard Version; for example, “Moses began explaining those laws [or, instructions] by saying….”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Deuteronomy. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .