This is the blessing with which Moses … blessed: Good News Translation “that Moses … pronounced” is the normal way in English of referring to the act of speaking a blessing (also Revised English Bible, New International Version, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). A blessing is a gift from God (see 1.11). Moses prays for, or invokes, God’s blessings on the people. Good News Translation has the plural “the blessings,” but it is better to keep the singular form if this is natural in the language of the translation.

The man of God: see also Josh 14.6. In English the meaning of man of God is in the expression as a whole rather than in its individual words. It is used of Samuel in 1 Kgs 9.6, of the prophet Shemaiah in 1 Kgs 12.22, of Elijah in 2 Kgs 1.9-13, of Elisha in 2 Kgs 5.8, of the prophet Igdaliah in Jer 35.4, and of unnamed prophets in 1 Sam 2.27 and 1 Kgs 13.1. If the phrase “the man who belonged to God” or “the man who obeyed God” is much too general, the best solution will probably be “the prophet of God,” or “the man who spoke for God”; and the first part of the verse may also be expressed as “Moses spoke for God, and before he died, he asked God to do good things for the people of Israel, saying, ‘….’ ”

The children of Israel: as elsewhere, “the Israelites.”

Before his death: or “before he died.”

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 .