Whither are we going up? New Revised Standard Version is more natural with “Where are we headed?” New Jerusalem Bible brings out even better the intent of the question: “What kind of place are we going to?”

Our brethren have made our hearts melt: in the context these brethren are the twelve Israelites chosen to spy out the land, and a translation should make this clear. So Good News Translation has “the men we sent,” and Contemporary English Version has “the men who explored the land.” To “melt the heart” means to cause people to lose all courage, to fill them with fear with the report they brought back, that the people were bigger and stronger than the Israelites themselves, and their cities were fortified and heavily defended.

The people are greater and taller than we: instead of taller than we, as in the Masoretic text (the standard Hebrew text that translators normally follow), the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project (Hebrew Old Testament Text Project) prefers “more numerous than we” (a {C} decision), which is found in a few Hebrew manuscripts. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project says the Masoretic reading is due to assimilation to parallel passages (see 2.10, 21). However, no major modern translation has “more numerous,” and a translator should feel free to follow the Masoretic text. Greater refers to physical strength. The order of the words greater and taller may be reversed in some languages to “taller and stronger.”

The expression fortified up to heaven indicates the height of the walls that surrounded the cities (“towns,” see verse 22); this is a typical exaggeration not to be taken literally. The translation may say “their towns are strongly defended, and the walls that surround them reach as high as the sky.” A town with walls was considered a city even though it may have been very small. In languages that don’t distinguish between cities, towns, and even villages, we may say “a very large place with walls [or, with a high fence] around it.”

The sons of the Anakim: the Anakim and others (see 2.10-11, 20-21) were the legendary original inhabitants of the land, famous for their size. Sons of the Anakim will be expressed in many languages as “people who are descended from the giant Anak.”

It is possible to reorder the clauses from the people are greater on as follows:

• … the towns are strongly defended, and the walls that surround them reach up to the sky. The people who live there are taller and stronger than we are, and some of them are the descendants of the giant Anak.

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 .

Let me pass through: Moses, as leader, speaks for all the Israelites. In most languages it will be better to use the plural, “Let us [exclusive] pass through” (also in verses 48-49).

I will turn aside neither …: Moses promises that the Israelites will go straight through Sihon’s country, staying on the main road and not stopping to plunder or pillage. It will be an entirely peaceful passage through his country. In some languages the last part of the verse may be expressed as “We will keep to the road, and we will go straight through.”

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 .

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 .