All these were cities: for the sixty fortified towns, see 2.36.

The Hebrew word translated gates appears in its dual form, which explains New Revised Standard Version “double gates,” and the footnote in New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh “double-leaf doors.” This is quite possible, because the metal bars (usually bronze) were normally laid across the inside of a pair of double gates to keep them from being pushed open by enemies. Most translations, though, have simply “gates.” The phrase gates and bars means “gates with bars,” “barred gates” (Revised English Bible), and may be also rendered as “gates with metal bars across them on the inside,” or even “double gates locked with bars.”

Many unwalled villages: these were small farming villages not big enough or wealthy enough to have walls or strong fences around them. In case of war the villagers would go to the nearest fortified town. The Hebrew word translated unwalled villages appears in the Septuagint as a proper name, “the Perizzites,” which is what New Jerusalem Bible has. Other translations have “villages without walls” or the like; Revised English Bible has “open settlements.” This Handbook prefers the Hebrew text.

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• They had protected these towns with high walls [or, fences] and double gates locked with bronze bars. There were also many villages with no walls [or, fences].

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 .