In the open in the first line is balanced by in the chambers in the second. The meaning is “both outdoors, in the streets of the towns, and indoors, in their houses.”

The sword shall bereave: that is, enemy warriors will kill them. There is no indication what the term terror refers to here (see Isa 24.17). But as a parallel to the sword, terror probably refers to the enemies as they invade the homes and strike terror in the hearts of their victims. But the word may refer to the terror the people feel, and which would cause them to die (so Bible en français courant, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje, Contemporary English Version). So we may say “Outdoors your enemies will kill you, and indoors you will be so frightened that you will die.”

The overall meaning is that everyone will be killed: young men and women, children and old people. The translator need not try to find the exact equivalent of virgin or the man of gray hairs; these are ways of speaking of young women and old people.

The clauses of the verse may be reordered as follows:

• Young men and women,
babies and old people
will be killed in the streets,
and die from fright in their homes.

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 .