The accusations and denunciations in verses 16-21 reveal that that very same generation, the very people Moses will teach the song to (verse 19), will forsake Yahweh, break the covenant, and will be punished by Yahweh as soon as they cross the Jordan and settle in Canaan.

You are about to sleep with your fathers: this is a Hebrew idiom for dying, the thought being that the dead person will join his or her ancestors in Sheol. There may be some languages in which this idea will sound natural, but English is not one of them. Revised English Bible is probably the best attempt in English: “you are about to die and join your forefathers.” But even this will not sound natural to many readers. BÍBLIA para todos Edição Comum does the same: “You are going to die, you are going to join your ancestors.” In many languages the best translation will be one in which the normal term or expression for dying is used. Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version have done a good job of restructuring, with all the information included: “You will soon die….”

Will rise and play the harlot after strange gods: again the idiom play the harlot is not a natural one; the meaning is to forsake God, likening this act to a married person who leaves his or her spouse and goes off after lovers (see 4.25-28; Exo 34.15-16). So Good News Translation has “the people will become unfaithful to me,” and Contemporary English Version translates “the people will reject me.”

Strange gods of the land, where they go to be among them: strange gods are foreign gods, the gods of pagans. The Canaanites had their own gods, and for the Israelites to live in Canaan meant to live with the Canaanite gods. For gods see 4.28.

Forsake me and break my covenant which I have made with them: see verse 6 for forsake.

It will be helpful for many translators to restructure this verse. The following is a possible alternative model:

• The LORD said to Moses, “You will soon die, and the Israelites will be going into a land where the inhabitants worship other gods. So after you die they will reject [or, be unfaithful to] me and will start worshiping these false gods. In this way they will break the agreement I made with them.

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 .

I will heap evils on them: this means misfortunes, “endless disasters” (Good News Translation), or “disaster after disaster” (Contemporary English Version).

I will spend my arrows upon them: see verse 42. Here spend means to use or to use up; God will shoot all his arrows at his people. He will use up all possible disasters or calamities that are available to him. This is a vivid figure for disasters, epidemics, famines, and other misfortunes. The figure may not make sense in a culture that does not know of bows and arrows; but it would not be proper to say “shoot my bullets” as a cultural equivalent. Since arrows here refers back to evils in the first line, we may simply say “I will bring on you one disaster after another to strike you,” or “I will cause all kinds of disasters to come upon you,” or “I will cause you to experience one disaster after another,” or even “I will use up all the disasters available to me to strike you with.”

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 .

And of Levi he said: again it is better to say something like “About the tribe of Levi he said” (Good News Translation) or “About the people of the tribe of Levi….”

Give to Levi: as the Revised Standard Version footnote states, this is from the Septuagint; it is not found in the Hebrew text as we have it. New Revised Standard Version follows Revised Standard Version but adds a Qumran manuscript in support of this addition. It is recommended that it be kept in translation. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project ({C} rating) prefers the following text:
to Levi your Thummim were given,
and your Urim (to a man, your holy one).

Levi … thy godly one: the name Levi and the expression thy godly one are parallel; thy godly one may be translated “the one who is dedicated to God,” or “you people who are God’s priests.”

The Thummim and Urim were two objects (perhaps stones) used by the priest to determine God’s will (see Exo 28.30; Lev 8.8; 1 Sam 14.41-42). It is not known precisely how they were used. It may be good to give this information in a footnote, as Good News Translation does: “urim and thummim: Two objects used by the priest to determine God’s will.” Contemporary English Version leaves out the reference to Urim and Thummim; but it is recommended that translators retain it.

Thou didst test … thou didst strive: these are parallel and close in meaning. To test someone is to subject that person to hardships and difficulties in order to reveal that person’s character. Another way to express this is “You caused them to endure hardships at Massah, to see what kind of people they were” (see also 8.2). To strive is to fight against. Good News Translation “proved them true” seems too far wide of the mark.

For Massah see 6.16; 9.22; Exo 17.7; for Meribah see 32.51; Exo 17.7.

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 sentence structure of Revised Standard Version is not good; the translator should follow Good News Translation, using two or more complete sentences for verses 11 and 12.

None like him for all the signs and the wonders: that is, there was no one who performed the signs and the wonders he performed. See 4.34; 26.8.

The LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt: this is a reference to the ten plagues (Exo 7.14–12.26).

To Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land: see 29.2.

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 fathers shall not be …: instead of fathers the language used should include both sexes (see Good News Translation). New Revised Standard Version has at the end “only for their own crimes may persons be put to death.” In languages that do not use the passive voice, we may say, for example, “You must not put parents to death for crimes that their children have committed, and you must not put children to death for crimes that….”

In this context sin has the sense of some crime that calls for the death penalty. So we may say “Don’t put anyone to death for someone else’s crime” (Contemporary English Version; similarly Good News Translation).

scv 24:17

Pervert the justice due: see 16.19. Here the sense is “deprive of their rights,” or “deny justice.” The command may also be stated in a positive manner: “Make sure they get their rights,” or “… they are treated fairly” (Contemporary English Version).

Sojourner: see 1.16.

In to the sojourner or to the fatherless, the Masoretic form of the Hebrew text has no “and” before the second noun. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project recommends “the fatherless sojourner”; but this is a very strange phrase and occurs nowhere else in the Old Testament. New Jerusalem Bible and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible have “the sojourner or the fatherless,” stating that instead of the Hebrew text they are following ancient versions. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has a note, and all other major translations consulted (New International Version, New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje, BÍBLIA para todos Edição Comum, Bible en français courant) follow the same text, but without a footnote. This will make the verse agree with the following verses, where the three categories “foreigners, orphans, and widows” are mentioned in that order in each verse. Translators are urged to do the same. For orphans see 10.18.

Take a widow’s garment in pledge: as in the parallel case in verse 6. She needs her clothes.

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 command is an ancient one and appears also in 27.17; Job 24.2; Pro 22.28; 23.10; Hos 5.10.

In the inheritance which you will hold in the land that the LORD your God gives you to possess: Revised Standard Version has reversed the order of the Hebrew. New Revised Standard Version, which is exactly the same as New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, is more natural: “… the property that will be allotted to you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess.” Today’s English Version has condensed the text considerably but retains the essence of the command: “established long ago in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.” For “inherit” (used twice in Hebrew) see 1.38, and for possess see 1.8.

You shall not remove your neighbor’s landmark: the landmarks were stones, or piles of stones, marking the place where one person’s property ended and another person’s began. This was a matter not of “removing” but of “moving” (Today’s English Version, New Revised Standard Version, New International Version, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) the boundary markers, in order to increase your own property by diminishing someone else’s. Since different types of boundary markers are used in some parts of the world, it will be helpful to make it clear that “stones” are involved; for example, “Do not move the stones set up to mark the property lines.” However, the form of the boundary marker is not important here. So if a culture uses some other kind of moveable boundary marker, the translator may use that marker in this context, if it is more meaningful.

The men of old have set: the original conquerors of the land divided the territory and determined the exact boundaries of each person’s property. Something like “previous generations” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) or “former generations” (New Revised Standard Version) is better; or else “your ancestors.”

An alternative translation model for this verse is:
• In the land the LORD is giving you, your ancestors set up stones to mark the property lines between fields. Do not move these stones.

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 may be helpful to start verse 10 with something like “Moses continued to speak to the Israelites.”

Moses tells of another forty days and forty nights he stayed on the mountain (see 9.9).

The LORD hearkened to me at that time also: again the LORD answered his prayer. And as a consequence of Moses’ prayer, the LORD was unwilling to destroy you (see 9.26 and similar passages). This can be rendered “the LORD agreed not to destroy you,” or “the LORD decided not 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 .