A. D. Mayes sees verses 1-25 of the song as a charge that God brings against his people in a court of law, and finds the following structure:

(1) Introduction: witnesses are summoned (verses 1-3);

(2) Introductory statement of the issue at hand (verses 4-6);

(3) Presentation speech, recalling Yahweh’s good actions on behalf of the people (verses 7-14);

(4) Indictment: Israel is charged with apostasy (verses 15-18);

(5) Declaration of guilt and threat of punishment (verses 19-25).

Translators should be aware of this and should divide the text into paragraphs in such a way as to reflect this structure.

Give ear, O heavens … and let the earth hear: both heavens and earth are addressed as living beings and are summoned as witnesses (see 30.19). Unless absolutely necessary, the simple “heaven” and “earth” should be used; to say “inhabitants of heaven” and “inhabitants of earth” diminishes considerably the force and beauty of the text. Instead of heavens many languages will prefer “sky” (so Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version).

I will speak … the words of my mouth: these expressions mean exactly the same thing. The translator must determine in every instance whether the use of pairs of expressions like this makes for an effective style; in some languages the constant use of this device sounds unnatural and makes the text less appealing. Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version put heavens and earth together in the first line, and Contemporary English Version combines the two lines as follows:

• Earth and sky,

listen to what I say!

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 .