Not in heaven: that is, not beyond normal human capacity to acquire and understand. In many languages heaven will be expressed as “the sky.”

The rhetorical question Who will go up for us to heaven? is a vivid way of saying that such an idea is foolish. The Contemporary English Version model is a good one: “How can we obey the LORD’s commands? They are in heaven and no one can go up to them.”

That we may hear it and do it: the opposite of this is an unreal possibility. We may also say “So that we may hear them and obey them.”

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 .