Translation commentary on Deuteronomy 30:19

I call heaven and earth to witness against you: see 4.26.

Life and death, blessing and curse: see verse 15; the choice is theirs.

Choose life, that you and your descendants may live: nothing less than continued existence as a people is at stake; they will be a prosperous and powerful people, or else they will disappear. Both Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version (see below) have excellent alternative models. Contemporary English Version keeps the clauses in the same order as Revised Standard Version, but Good News Translation places the first clause at the end of the verse. Either model is possible.

• Right now I call the sky and the earth to be witnesses that I am offering you this choice. Will you choose for the LORD to make you prosperous and give you a long life? Or will he put you under a curse and kill you? Choose life! (Contemporary English Version)

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 .

Translation commentary on Deuteronomy 32:9

The LORD’s portion … his allotted heritage: two expressions that mean the same; see a similar thought in 7.6; 10.15. The passage must not be read as though someone else had allotted Yahweh the people of Israel as his own possession; it is Yahweh himself who does this, who decides that Israel will be his own people. The following verses 10-14 show how Yahweh did this.

His people … Jacob: these terms have the same sense; Jacob here is a way of talking about the people of Israel.

Another possible model for this verse is:

• but the LORD himself
is the God of the people of Israel
[or, is the God of Jacob’s descendants].

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 .

Translation commentary on Deuteronomy 32:42

The vivid figure of making his arrows drunk and of his sword eating flesh may be kept in certain languages. Contemporary English Version offers an alternative model using such a figure:

• My arrows will get drunk
on enemy blood

In a number of languages, however, this figure and the following one may be too strange to translate literally (see the same figures in Jer 46.10). Good News Translation offers a good model. Biblia Dios Habla Hoy has “I will drench my arrows with blood, and my sword will kill them [his enemies] off.”

The blood of the slain and the captives: this means that even the captives will be slain; the Hebrew text says “all the slain….” Bible en français courant offers a good model: “None of the enemy warriors will escape; wounded or captive, they will all be victims.”

The long-haired heads of the enemy: see Judges 5.2. When consecrated for military service, warriors would not cut their hair while at war; this is the long hair of dedicated warriors. Num 6.5 and Ezek 44.20 speak of the long hair of dedicated priests. It will be good to keep “long-haired heads” in the translation, with a footnote explaining this custom, and the last two lines may be alternatively rendered as:

• I will kill all the captives
and cut off the long-haired heads of the enemy.

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 .

Translation commentary on Deuteronomy 33:26

In verses 26-29 Moses addresses the people of Israel with a final outburst of praise to God.

For Jeshurun as a name for Israel, see 32.15.

There is none like God: the comparison is not with human beings but with the gods of other peoples, “There is no god like your God” (see Good News Translation). If “your” will be understood as not including Moses, it will be better to say “our.”

Who rides through the heavens to your help: the verb “to ride” suggests a vehicle of some sort; in this context it’s the clouds, or a cloud, on which God rides (see Psa 18.9-10; 68.4; 104.3; Isa 19.1). If needed this may be stated in the translation: “who rides the clouds across the sky like a chariot.”

Through the heavens … through the skies: these are parallel and the same in meaning; but instead of skies the Hebrew word means “clouds” (so Good News Translation, Revised English Bible; see 2 Sam 22.12).

In his majesty: here we should understand majesty in terms of strength, power. See Exo 15.7.

Good News Translation makes a slight rearrangement of the last two lines, to good effect. Contemporary English Version also rearranges the lines:

the clouds are his chariot
as he rides across the skies
to come and help us.

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 .

Translation commentary on Deuteronomy 21:10

With the beginning of a new section, it will be helpful to begin with something like “Moses said to the Israelites, ‘….’ ”

When you go forth to war against your enemies: this does not necessarily mean that the Israelites are taking the offensive; it means simply “when you are fighting your enemies.” For enemies see 1.42.

The LORD your God gives them into your hands: this is a way of saying “… gives you the victory over them,” or “helps you defeat your enemies [or, those that hate you].”

You take them captive: this does not mean taking all of them as captives; “when you take some prisoners [of war]” or “when you capture some of 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 .

Translation commentary on Deuteronomy 32:48-49

Verses 48-49 are one sentence; it may be better to break it up into two or more sentences.

That very day: the “same day” (Good News Translation) in which everything related in this part of Deuteronomy took place.

Ascend this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo: see 3.23-27. Abarim is a plural form and means the Abarim range of mountains, east of the Dead Sea. So Good News Translation has “Abarim Mountains,” and Contemporary English Version has “Abarim Mountain range.” Another possible translation is “group of mountains named Abarim.” It is possible to translate the first sentence by using two verbs instead of the single one ascend; for example, “Go up into the group of mountains named Abarim … climb to the top of Mount Nebo.” Nebo was one of the mountains of that range (see Num 27.12).

In the land of Moab, opposite Jericho: that is, the city of Jericho lay on the other side (the west side) of the Jordan River. It will be helpful in many languages to restructure the beginning of verse 49 in a similar way to Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version: “Go up into the group of mountains named Abarim here in the land of Moab across the Jordan River from the city of Jericho. Climb to the top of Mount Nebo….”

View the land of Canaan: Moses is ordered to take a good look at it, since he will not be allowed to go there. We may begin a new sentence here: “When you reach the top [of Mount Nebo], look at the land.”

Which I give to the people of Israel for a possession: see Josh 22.19. Here the word translated possession is different from the two words normally used (see 1.8, 38). It means “landed property,” but in this context it has the same meaning as the two other words.

Translation commentary on Deuteronomy 10:10

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 .