The instructions are clear, the vocabulary is simple.

A stick: the Hebrew word is used in this sense only here; elsewhere it means a pin or a tentpeg. For this kind of task a stick would be used. New International Version “something to dig with” is satisfactory.

Your weapons: or, more generally, “your equipment” (Good News Translation, New International Version, Revised English Bible); New Revised Standard Version has “your utensils.” New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh “gear” is the proper military term in English.

You sit down … dig a hole … turn back and cover up your excrement: in the nature of the case, first the man would dig a hole and then squat over it and relieve himself, after which he would cover up the excrement.

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 .

Set it down before the altar of the LORD your God: here your is singular again, but this time it refers to the man who is making the offering.

In verse 10 it is the man himself, and not the priest, as here, who places the basket in front of the altar. For altar see 7.5.

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 rule does not appear elsewhere in Deuteronomy; see Lev 18.23; 20.15. In cultures where people may occasionally lie with animals to keep warm, a literal translation of lies with will convey the wrong meaning. The curse in this verse is directed against “sexual relations with an animal.”

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 .

So that you shall be driven mad by the sight which your eyes shall see: the cruel actions of their enemies will make them go crazy. New Jerusalem Bible has “you will be driven mad by the sights you see,” Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “when you see these things you will go crazy”; or we may say “when you [plural] see all these terrible things, you will go insane [or, lose your minds].”

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 have led you: this could be Moses speaking, but this is unlikely when we consider the clause “that I am the LORD your God” at the end of the following verse. Contemporary English Version solves this problem by saying “He has even told you, ‘For forty years, I, the LORD led you through the desert.’ ”

For wilderness see 1.1.

Clothes have not worn out upon you: this means that, after the forty years that had elapsed since leaving Egypt, they were still wearing the same clothes. The same applies to their sandals, which have not worn off your feet. In Hebrew the same verb “grow old” or “wear out” is used both for the clothes and the sandals; the Septuagint uses two different verbs, and in some languages two verbs will be necessary. However, in many modern translations we find only one verb; for example, “your clothes and sandals never wore out” (Good News Translation, similarly 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 .

Make you abundantly prosperous: this is emphatic language, and the exaggerated style should be respected. In certain languages the picture of fruit may be used; for example, “cause you to be very fruitful in everything you do: having many children [the fruit of your body]” and so on.

The work of your hand: see 28.12.

The fruit of your body … your cattle … your ground: see 28.4, 11.

Will again take delight in prospering you: or “will be happy to do good things for you” (Contemporary English Version). See 28.63 for the opposite.

Your fathers: “your ancestors.”

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 .

After my death you will surely act corruptly: as in 4.16, 25, this refers to idolatry (see the context of the phrase in verses 9, 12, 16). The general expression “become wicked” of Good News Translation is not satisfactory. The rendering of Contemporary English Version, “You will stop caring about what is right and what is wrong,” is better.

Turn aside from the way which I have commanded you: see 11.28.

The days to come: see 4.30.

Evil will befall you, because you will do what is evil: the first use of evil is in the sense of “disaster,” “punishment,” “ruin,” or “terrible things will happen to you” (Contemporary English Version). In the second case evil is “sin,” or “doing what he [God] has forbidden” (Good News Translation). In very few languages will the same word be a satisfactory translation for the same Hebrew word, used with two different meanings.

Provoking him to anger: see 4.25.

The work of your hands: this can be taken in the limited sense of “what you have made,” that is, idols, as in 4.28; so New International Version has “what your hands have made.” But it seems more likely that this is a general way of speaking about their wicked behavior or deeds, as a whole.

Contemporary English Version has an excellent alternative translation model for this verse:

• I am going to die soon, and I know that in the future you will stop caring about what is right and what is wrong, and so you will disobey the LORD and stop living the way I told you to live. The LORD will be angry, and terrible things will happen to you.

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 .