This is another rhetorical question, whose answer is “No.” Since it is so long and complex, it may be well to translate it as a statement; for example, “No other god ever dared [or, tried] to go and take a group of people….”

Attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation: the verb attempted may be translated “dared” (see its use in 28.56, where Revised Standard Version has “venture”). For go and take a nation, see verse 20. Here Yahweh is portrayed as forcibly going to Egypt and seizing the Israelites to be his own people. If take a nation for himself … is too difficult to translate, we may say “Yahweh your God dared to go and take you out of Egypt; no other god has ever done something like this.”

Yahweh did this by using trials, signs, wonders, war, and great terrors. All these events refer to the plagues God sent on the Egyptians to force the king to let the Israelites leave the country (Exo 7.14–12.36). In a series like this the precise meaning of each term is not as important as the cumulative effect of all of them used together:

• trials refer to the sufferings inflicted on the Egyptians;

• signs were the plagues themselves, seen as demonstrations of God’s power;

• wonders means miraculous events in general; in this context they are bad, not good;

• war seems to refer to what happened to the Egyptians as they chased the Israelites across the “Red Sea” (Exo 14.14; 15.3-4; Deut 11.4);

• great terrors were terrifying events, unspecified.

Good News Translation may serve as a good model for this list: “plagues and wars … miracles and wonders, and … terrifying things.” See the similar list in 26.8.

By a mighty hand and an outstretched arm: a vivid metaphor for great power, mighty strength; so “used his great power and strength” (also 5.15; 7.19; 11.2; 26.8). An alternative translation model for by trials … great terrors may be:

• He used his great power and strength and caused the Egyptians to suffer terribly. He did amazing and dreadful things that terrified the Egyptians, and he fought against them for you.

According to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt: the initial according to is a poor rendering of the Hebrew in English; it should have been “as”: “as the LORD your God did for you in Egypt” (New Revised Standard Version).

Before your eyes: that is, “in your presence.” These were public, not private, displays of Yahweh’s power. Time is shortened, and Moses’ addresses his audience, forty years after the exodus, as the very people who left Egypt. Another way of saying this is “You actually saw.”

It is possible to combine verses 32-34, putting the order of events in a more logical sequence:

• When the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt and made you his own people, you yourselves actually saw how he used his great power and strength and caused the Egyptians to suffer terribly. He did amazing and dreadful things that terrified them, and he fought against them for you. Later at Mount Sinai you heard him talking to you out of the fire. And yet you are still alive! Has anything like this ever happened since the time God created human beings? Even if you search the entire earth you will find that no one has heard of another god who did such things as the LORD your God has done for you.

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 .