Behold: in Hebrew the verb (literally, “See”) is the second person singular; the people are addressed as a single being. The verb functions as an attention getter and may be translated “See,” “Look,” or even “Listen,” “Pay attention.” In certain African languages an ideophone will be a good attention getter here.

I have set the land before you: the Hebrew verb means “to present,” “to offer,” “to deliver” (see 2.31), and before you means that the Israelites will possess it, conquer it. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh translates “I place this land at your disposal”; Bible en français courant “I offer you this land”; Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje “Here is the land that I am giving you,” or we can say “I give this land to you.”

Go in and take possession of the land: the verb translated “take possession of” does not say anything about whether force will have to be used to possess the land. In the context, however, the readers of the book knew that it was only by the use of force that the Israelites became the masters of the land of Canaan. If in a language there is a term for take possession that has the sense of using force, that term should be employed here.

Which the LORD swore to your fathers … to give to them: this may also be translated “that the LORD promised to give to your fathers [or, ancestors].” Since an important promise was always accompanied by a sacred vow, “to swear” means “to make a solemn promise,” and in certain languages this will be expressed as “I, Yahweh, made a strong promise to your ancestors.” In the case of Yahweh making a promise, he would “swear” by his own name that he would do what he promised to do. In many languages it will be better to use the term “ancestors” instead of fathers. Moses mentions the three great patriarchs of Hebrew history, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Other ways of expressing fathers or “ancestors” are “those who lived long ago,” “grandfathers in ancient times,” “big [or, famous] grandfathers,” and so on. In many languages translators will find it more natural style to place the clause which the LORD swore … immediately after the first sentence, I have set this land before you, as in Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, and others.

Instead of “the LORD,” New Revised Standard Version, following the Samaritan Pentateuch text and the Septuagint, has “I.” On translational grounds, however, in order to avoid the rather unnatural situation of Yahweh referring to himself in the third person, it is possible to translate “I, the LORD” (Good News Translation, Bible en français courant, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje), or “I, Yahweh.”

Your fathers: your includes Moses, of course, as Yahweh is speaking.

To give translates the same Hebrew verb translated “present” in the first part of the verse.

Their descendants after them: it is not necessary to represent the redundant “after them,” since descendants always come after their ancestors. Descendants may be variously expressed as “grandchildren and great-grandchildren,” or even “the people who follow after them [or, come down from 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 .