Good News Translation shows how the first and second parts of this verse hang together; the Levites showed greater loyalty and dedication to Yahweh than to their parents, siblings, and children. Simply to translate all lines as complete, independent statements fails to bring out the meaning of the verse.

Who said of his father and mother, ‘I regard them not’: in many languages there is no need to reproduce the direct speech of the Hebrew text; in a number of cases it will be better to use indirect discourse (see Good News Translation). In all cases the plural forms should be used: “fathers and mothers [or, parents], brothers and sisters [or, siblings], sons and daughters [or, children].” The background for this appears to be the incident narrated in Exo 32.35-39, in which the Levites slaughtered their own people at the command of Yahweh. To regard is to have feeling for, or to be concerned with. In idiomatic English this may be expressed as “They mean nothing to me.” Biblia Dios Habla Hoy preserves the same structure for all three, to good effect:

Who said to his parents: “I have never seen you,”
and to his brothers: “I don’t know you,”
and to his children: “I don’t know who you are.”

Either this or Good News Translation can serve as a good model for the translator. In English brothers is exclusive, so “brothers and sisters” should be used. New Revised Standard Version “his kin” includes all relatives, and not simply blood brothers and sisters.

Disowned … ignored: these terms have the same meaning.

They observed thy word: a reader of Revised Standard Version does not know who they are. It refers, of course, to the Levites.

Observed … kept: these terms have the same meaning.

Thy word … thy covenant: these are parallel but not identical; word is a general term for God’s message, God’s laws and commands, and covenant refers to the special relationship between Yahweh and the people of Israel.

We may reverse the order of the clauses in this verse and translate as follows:

• Obeying the LORD’s commands and keeping the agreement that he made with Israel was more important to you than the life of your father or mother, or brothers or sisters, or your own children.

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 .