I was afraid of the anger and the hot displeasure: God’s anger is described in terms of fire and heat, a common enough way of talking about anger.

Which the LORD bore against you: to “bear anger” means to have it, to feel it, to nurture it. We may restructure the first sentence as follows: “The LORD was terribly angry with [or, his heart, or nose, burned fiercely against] you and I was afraid of him. He was so angry with you that he wanted to….”

The LORD hearkened to me that time also: this probably refers back to 5.23-28, where Moses interceded successfully with Yahweh. Good News Translation has “but once again the LORD listened to me.”

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 .