Joshua then reads the whole Law, including the blessings and the curses. It is important to translate read aloud, as with Good News Translation, to make clear that an oral reading to the people is indicated. Revised Standard Version (“And afterward he read all the words of the law”) does not require that the reading be oral, though “before all the assembly” of the following verse does clarify the situation. Another translation may still be clearer: “Then Joshua read (aloud) the whole Law to all the people.”

As elsewhere in this book, the Law is probably part if not all of what is now the book of Deuteronomy. It is, of course, not possible to make this identity in translation. Nor would a comment of this nature be appropriate in Bible Society publications.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Newman, Barclay M. A Handbook on Joshua. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .