You shall not listen to …: the Israelites are to refuse any appeal to abandon their God, Yahweh, and worship other gods. Other ways to express this are “do not pay any attention to them” (Good News Translation) or “If the prophet says this, don’t listen!” (Contemporary English Version).

The LORD your God is testing you: the same verb occurs in Gen 22.1; it refers to an experience that reveals a person’s character, motives, or integrity.

To know: the meaning of this is that God has to test them before knowing whether they love him. The translation should not try to disguise or modify the vivid human way of speaking about God. The LORD your God is testing you, to know … may also be expressed as “the LORD your God is using him [that prophet] to test you, to find out if….”

You love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul: see 6.5.

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 .