Go to the top of Pisgah: in some languages the equivalent of “Climb [up] to the top of Mount Pisgah” will be more natural style.

Lift up your eyes … and behold it with your eyes: this literal word-for-word equivalence of the Hebrew text is quaint and unnatural. Something like “take a good look … look all around” is normal English. In certain languages this will be expressed as “look out over….” (See also I lift up my eyes to the hills)

Westward … northward … southward … eastward: languages usually have a standard order or pattern for referring to the four points of the compass. In English and many other languages it is “north, south, east, and west.” In some languages something like “Look in all directions” or “Look all around you” will be used. Translators should use the patterns followed in their languages. (See also cardinal directions (north, south, east, west)

You shall not go over this Jordan: the literal translation “this Jordan” makes it sound like there is some other Jordan elsewhere. Contemporary English Version has a good model: “but you are not going to cross the Jordan River.”

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 .

Verses 33-34 are two rhetorical questions, each expecting a negative answer. It may be better to express them as emphatic statements, even though this may result in a loss of stylistic beauty. Verse 34 especially is much too long and complex to be read as a single question.

Did any people ever hear…? Israel’s experience with its God is unique; no other people had had Israel’s experience of being chosen by a god to receive special treatment. The question has to do not only with the people hearing a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, but of their having lived after hearing that god speak. Good News Translation provides a good model for restructuring the verse; see also Bible en français courant: “Is there any other people who has heard a god speak to them out of the midst of the fire and has survived, as has happened with you?” This refers to Mount Sinai (see verse 12).

Translators must take care to translate the general term “a god,” not “God” in particular. For god see 3.24.

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 .

This commandment, unlike the others, deals with an inner motivation, not with an action. By forbidding the motivation, the resultant action is also forbidden. All the people and things included in the list belong to a person’s male fellow Israelite: they are his property, his cattle, and his slaves. In Exo 20.17 the all-inclusive “your neighbor’s household” comes first, and then the items belonging to that household.

You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife: obviously what can be prohibited and punished is not the desire as such but the attempt to satisfy that desire. The verb covet here is different from the verb translated desire in the following clause, but the two have almost the same meaning (the Septuagint translates both by the same Greek verb). Neighbor here meant “a fellow Israelite,” and as applied to people today it means “a fellow human being,” not just the person living next door. So Good News Translation has “Do not desire another man’s wife.”

After the list of particular items, home, ox … ass (see verse 14), comes the final inclusive summary: or anything that is your neighbor’s.

Here ends the direct quotation of Yahweh’s words that began in verse 6.

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 .

It will be righteousness for us: the noun righteousness here can be understood in two different ways (note the alternative translation given in Good News Translation):
(1) The people’s merit, God’s approval of them. So Good News Translation has “God will be pleased with us,” New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh “it will be to our merit before the LORD our God,” Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje “our lives will be pleasing to him,” and New Revised Standard Version “we will be in the right.”
(2) The people’s conduct. New Jerusalem Bible has “For us, right living will mean this,” Bible en français courant “our conduct will be according to God’s will,” and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible “We will be righteous if we…” (with a footnote indicating that this is the kind of conduct that leads God to approve the person and receive that person as his friend).

It is hard to decide which of these is the better rendering; a translator should feel free to choose either one, and perhaps include an alternative rendering in a footnote.

All this commandment: see 5.31.

For the rest of the verse, see 6.1.

Alternative models illustrating interpretation (2) are as follows:

• We will live [or, walk] our lives according to God’s will, if we faithfully obey everything that he has commanded us.

• If we faithfully obey everything that God has commanded us, we will be living our lives as he wants us to.

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 .

Verses 7-9 are one sentence in Hebrew, long but not complex, that describes the excellencies of the Promised Land.

Is bringing you: in some languages this will be expressed as “is taking you.”

A good land: see 1.25.

Brooks of water, fountains, and springs: some languages may not have three different words for free-running springs and brooks. New Revised Standard Version is better than Revised Standard Version: “a land with flowing springs, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills” (Revised English Bible is similar; see also Good News Translation). Streams are normally formed from the water produced by springs up in the mountains. This seems to be what this passage is speaking about. Contemporary English Version brings this idea out, with “streams that flow from springs in the valleys and hills.” In dry areas or small flat islands in the ocean, “springs” may not exist. In such a case translators will need to use a descriptive phrase; for example, “places where water flows out of the ground [or, rock].”

We may translate this verse as:

• The LORD your God is bringing [or, taking] you into a fertile land. It’s a land that has streams that are formed by water pouring out of places in the mountains.

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 .

Remember thy servants: the verb Remember is used in the sense of recalling how faithfully God’s servants (the patriarchs) had obeyed God, and the promises that God had made to them. Here servants, as elsewhere, means people who willingly do what God commands, and who obey his laws. So we may translate “Remember [or, Think about] how Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob obeyed you faithfully.”

Do not regard: here Moses is asking God not to keep thinking about the stubbornness (see verse 6), the wickedness (see verse 4), and the sin (see verse 16) of the people of Israel. Note Good News Translation “do not pay any attention to….”

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 .

He will give the rain: Yahweh is the source of all that the people need (verses 14-15). In a number of languages this will be expressed as “He will cause the rain to fall.”

The rain … in its season: that is, the rain comes at the right times of the year, in the fall (October), ending the summer drought, preparing the fields for sowing, and in the spring (April), the last rain before the dry season (see Jer 5.24). In some languages these are referred to as “autumn rains” and “spring rains” respectively. In cultures where rains normally fall during a monsoon season, we may say “He will cause the seasonal rains to fall” or “he will send rain on your land when it is needed” (Good News Translation).

Grain … wine … oil: this includes all cereals, especially wheat and barley, the grape orchards, and the olive trees. For comments on these three terms, see 7.13.

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 .

The thought or presupposition underlying this command is that the act of slaughtering animals at home, and not at the central sanctuary, is not a religious act, but a purely secular act. So the ritual rules do not apply. Everyone, whether ritually pure or impure, is free to eat the meat of these animals.

You may slaughter and eat flesh within any of your towns: this refers to domestic animals, not wild game. Good News Translation is very clear: “But you are to kill and eat your animals wherever you live.”

As of the gazelle … the hart: being wild animals, deers and antelopes (Good News Translation) were not subject to the ritual rules that applied to sacrificial animals, and everyone could eat their meat. In cultures where these animals are unknown, we may use a more general translation, as the actual animals are unimportant: “just as you would eat the meat of wild animals [or, animals of the forest, or jungle].”

As much as you desire: this is meant to say “as often as you wish” (New Revised Standard Version “whenever you desire”).

According to the blessing of the LORD your God which he has given you: this means, depending on the number of animals that God has blessed them with. Their prosperity is due to God’s blessing. Good News Translation has “as many as the LORD gives you.” For the LORD your God see 1.6.

The unclean and the clean: this means people who are ritually impure and pure; it does not mean actual bodily filth. The main effect on a person who became ritually impure was that such a person could not take part in community worship until the proper ritual had been performed to remove that person’s impurity. This was ritual impurity, not a moral lapse. In some languages a lot of information understood by the original readers of the text must be included in order to allow the reader to understand the meaning of these terms. For unclean Good News Translation has “ritually impure,” while Contemporary English Version has “all those people who are unclean and unfit for worship.” Another way to express unclean is “religiously impure [or, unacceptable].” Some languages will render the unclean and the clean as “people with bad taboo and those with good taboo.” Most translators will need to provide a detailed note in the Glossary on these terms.

The gazelle … the hart: in more modern terms, “the meat of deer or antelope” (Good News Translation).

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 .