Vengeance is mine: this renders the Hebrew text, “to me vengeance.” The Samaritan text and the Septuagint have “the day [of vengeance]” as a runover from verse 34. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project favors this ({C} rating), although of the modern versions only Revised English Bible, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy agree. The Handbook recommends that translators follow this. So verse 35 should begin “For the day of recompense and vengeance…” or “For the day [or, time] when I will take revenge and punish them will soon come.”

And recompense: though the enemies are God’s instrument in punishing his people, still they are responsible for what they have done, and they will be punished. The Revised Standard Version text (if followed) can be rendered “I will take revenge, I will punish.”

For the time when their foot shall slip: this can follow on from the previous line, but it seems better to make this an independent statement, as New International Version has done, “In due time their foot will slip,” or Bible en français courant “when the day of their fall arrives,” or we may even say “Suddenly they will fall!”

The day of their calamity … their doom: the next two lines have the same sense, pointing to the punishment that God will send on the enemies in the form of disasters and destruction. For calamity see 29.21.

At hand … comes swiftly: these two expressions also have the same meaning, emphasizing that the enemies will be punished very soon.

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• For the day when I will take revenge
and punish them will soon come!
Suddenly their foot will slip,
and all sorts of disasters will quickly follow.

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 .