The doorposts of your house and … your gates: in later times mezuzoth, small containers holding scripture verses, were fastened to the right-hand doorpost of the house. In this context gates means the city gates (homes were not surrounded by fences, so they had no gates); Traduction œcuménique de la Bible and Bible en français courant make this clear, and the translator is urged to do the same; for example, “the gates [in the walls] of your towns.”

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 .