To keep the commandments and the statutes of the LORD: see 4.40.

This day: again the time signal is given; all this is taking place just before they are to cross the Jordan into the Promised Land.

For your good: meaning the same as “it may go well with you” in 4.40.

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 .

Stand against you: as in 7.24.

Will lay the fear of you and the dread of you upon all the land: see 2.25. Here land is used in the sense of the peoples who live in Canaan. These two words, fear and dread, do not refer to ordinary fear, but rather to extreme terror. In a number of languages they will be expressed as “will make everyone tremble with terror” or “… be so terrified that their bodies shake.”

That you shall tread: as in verse 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 is almost the same as verse 25. See also 5.16, 29; 6.18. Here the adverb for ever is added.

The verse may be restructured in the following way:

• If you carefully obey everything [the words] that I have commanded you, you will be doing what the LORD your God says is right and good. Then all will go well with you and your descendants forever [or, you and your descendants will prosper forever].

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 .

At the central sanctuary the Israelite would buy what he was unable to bring with him, and would celebrate with his family.

Oxen … sheep … wine … strong drink: instead of oxen and sheep the translation may prefer words for their meat, such as “beef” and “lamb” (Good News Translation), since it is the eating of the animals that is in focus; otherwise we can say “cattle and sheep” (New International Version, Revised English Bible).

Wine and strong drink: wine is a fermented drink made from grapes (see 7.13). Strong drink is an alcoholic beverage such as beer; it is a fermented drink, not distilled liquor (such as “scotch” and “bourbon”). New International Version has “other fermented drink,” New Jerusalem Bible “fermented liquor,” New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh “other intoxicant,” New Revised Standard Version and Revised English Bible “strong drink.” The Hebrew word is defined as “intoxicating drink, evidently a kind of beer.” It is often paired with wine (Lev 10.9; 1 Sam 1.15; Luke 1.15). So both Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version translate it as “beer.” In some languages readers have understood a literal translation of strong drink to mean “drink that makes you strong”; that is certainly not the sense of the Hebrew term.

Whatever you desire … whatever your appetite craves: this repetition may be effective in Hebrew, but it is not necessarily natural and effective in other languages. In both clauses the same Hebrew noun nefesh (“soul, appetite”) is used, with two different verbs for “crave, desire, want.”

You shall eat there … and rejoice: this can be more naturally rendered “feast with rejoicing” (Revised English Bible), or “eat and enjoy yourselves” (Good News Translation).

You and your household: as usual, the father of the family is the one being addressed, and here his family and the servants and attendants are included; thus “you, your family, and your servants” is a natural translation. In some languages there is a term that includes both family and servants; if so, that should be used here.

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 better to start a separate sentence here, and not run on from verse 10 as Revised Standard Version does.

And you shall rejoice before the LORD may also be expressed as “Your hearts will be full of joy as you celebrate the festival in the presence of Yahweh.” Before the LORD may be rendered as “in the place where Yahweh dwells.”

You shall rejoice: the festive gathering is to include everyone, starting with the man and his sons and daughters (the mother is not mentioned).

Manservant and … maidservant: the same two words used in 15.17.

The Levite who is within your towns: see 14.27.

The sojourner: see 5.14; 10.18-19.

The fatherless and the widow: see 14.29.

The place which the LORD your God will choose, to make his name dwell there: see 14.23.

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 .

Blameless: the Hebrew word (used also in God’s command to Abraham in Gen 17.1) is understood in different ways. Some take it to mean “without moral fault” (see its use in Psa 18.23, 25). Many, like Good News Translation “Be completely faithful,” take it to indicate the degree of loyalty, or devotion, to God. So New Revised Standard Version has “remain completely loyal to the LORD your God,” Revised English Bible “undivided in your service of the LORD your God,” and New Jerusalem Bible “faultless in your relationship with the LORD your God.” (The Greek word used by the Septuagint to translate this Hebrew term appears in Matt 5.48.) It is recommended that the latter meaning be expressed in translation. So another way to render this verse is “Do everything that the LORD orders you to do.” However, in the context of avoiding the abominable practices (verse 13), we may also translate “Don’t ever do any of these disgusting [or, abominable] things.”

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 .

Betrothed a wife: this means, in modern terms, to become engaged to a woman. In Hebrew culture at that time, once a man had “betrothed” a woman, she was considered to be his wife, even before they started living together (see Deut 22.23-24). And such a relationship could be broken only by a formal divorce. So betrothed was more than “engagement” is in most modern societies. The Greek verb in the Septuagint used to translate the Hebrew verb here is the one that is used in Luke 2.5 of Joseph and Mary. Deut 24.5 states that a newly-married man would be given one year’s exemption from military duty. Other ways to express this are “agreed to marry a woman” or even “Has promised to marry a woman.”

Taken: this could almost sound like forcible intercourse. It is better to say something like “married her.” New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh translates “paid the bride-price for a wife, but has not yet married her,” with a footnote to explain “the bride-price”: “Thereby making her his wife legally, even though the marriage had not yet taken place.”

This verse ends in the same way as verses 5 and 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 .

Verses 1-4 deal with a single theme: providing help to a fellow-Israelite in case his animals wander off or lie helpless on the ground (see Exo 23.4-5, where the same kind of help is to be given to an enemy). In all these verses brother (also New English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible) is a “fellow Israelite” (Good News Translation, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje), or “fellow countryman” (Revised English Bible, BÍBLIA para todos Edição Comum, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, Bible en français courant); New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh “your fellow” is not natural, and New Revised Standard Version “your neighbor” carries the wrong meaning.

If this is the beginning of a new section, Moses should be reintroduced as the speaker.

You shall not see … and withhold: it is better to structure as Good News Translation does, “If you see … do not ignore it.”

You: in the nature of the case, this is singular; so Biblia Dios Habla Hoy has “one of you.”

Ox: Good News Translation “cow” seems better in referring to cattle as a class (bovines). For “cow” see 5.14.

Sheep: the Hebrew term may apply to the young of sheep or goats; so Bible en français courant has “goat or sheep.” For sheep see 17.1.

Go astray: that is, the animal has wandered off. Contemporary English Version has “wandering around lost.”

Withhold your help: as the Revised Standard Version footnote indicates, this translates the Hebrew “hide yourself.” In English other ways to say this are “do not ignore it” (Good News Translation, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, New International Version) and “you must not disregard it” (New Jerusalem Bible); other possible translations are “don’t act as though you didn’t see it” (Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje); “don’t pass by unconcernedly” (BÍBLIA para todos Edição Comum).

Take them back: since the likelihood is that it is one animal or the other, not both an ox and a sheep, it is better to use the singular “it.”

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 .