You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory: or “Olive trees will grow everywhere in your land” (Good News Translation).

You shall not anoint yourself with the oil: this is the use of olive oil in normal daily body care (see Ruth 3.3; 2 Sam 12.20; 14.2); it does not refer to its use in the ordination of kings or priests. Another way to express this is “You shall not have any of the oil to put on your bodies.”

Your olives shall drop off: because the olive trees are not healthy, and the olives drop off before they mature.

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 .