If you will not obey my voice: In many languages this will be simply “If you do not obey me” (Good News Translation) or “If you refuse to obey me” (Contemporary English Version). As noted in the comments on the previous verse, Good News Translation adds “you said” to remind the reader that Baruch is here quoting what God said to Moses.

This very great multitude: Good News Translation has omitted this phrase, which is picturesque enough in Greek to be considered important. The translational problem is that God is addressing Israel in the second person (you), but then issues a threat against what sounds like a third party (this very great multitude) when actually the multitude in question is Israel. For the rest of this passage in Greek, through verse 35, God continues to speak of Israel in the third person (so Revised Standard Version), but Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version change this to the second person. The phrase in question here is important, though; we don’t want to lose it. The adjectives are emphatically placed, and the Greek noun rendered multitude means “buzzing,” and is used of swarms of insects. (In all fairness, the Hebrew behind the Greek term here may well have been a more ordinary word for a crowd.) Moore translates “this large, swarming crowd,” New English Bible has “this great swarming multitude,” and Contemporary English Version uses “this mighty nation of yours.” One way to solve the problem regarding the references to Israel is to reword the beginning of this verse in the following way: “ ‘You are now a huge swarm of people,’ you told us, ‘but if you do not obey me….’ ” Another possible approach is “ ‘If you do not obey me,’ you said, ‘the whole swarming number of you will be reduced….’ ” Still another alternative would be: “You told us, ‘If you Israelites will not obey me, the whole swarming number of you will be reduced to no more than a handful….’ ” Whatever solution the translator comes to, it must fit well with the way the quotation is introduced; see the comments on “saying” in verse 28.

Will surely turn into a small number is a literal translation. “Will be reduced to a handful” (Good News Translation) and “will be nothing but a handful of people” (Contemporary English Version) are simply idiomatic English equivalents. The word surely is present in Greek, but not expressed in Good News Translation. This idea could be retained by saying “will be reduced to no more than a handful.”

Among the nations, where I will scatter them: See the comments on “scattered” at verses 4-5.

An alternative translation model for verses 27b-29 is:

• and have shown us great mercy, just as you promised your servant Moses when you said to him that you would be patient and kind. You caused him to announce this on the day when you commanded him to write down your Law while the people of Israel watched. You said, “You are now a huge swarm of people, but if you do not obey me, I will let your enemies take you as captives to live among all the other nations, and they will reduce you to no more than a handful.”

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Shorter Books of the Deuterocanon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2006. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.