A merciful God: compassionate, tenderhearted; the same God described so harshly in verse 24. In many languages there will be idiomatic expressions using the heart, liver, or even bowels (or, intestines) that mean merciful; for example, “He [God] cries in his heart for you,” or “His bowels yearn for you.”

He will not fail you: he will not abandon, leave, forsake, desert.

Destroy: a different verb is used in verses 3, 26, but the meaning is the same (the Septuagint translates both verbs with the same Greek verb).

Forget the covenant: see verse 23. In some languages it will be more natural style, or even obligatory, to state this positively; for example, “He will remember the agreement he made with….”

With your fathers, which he swore to them: see 1.8. This covenant is the one that God made with the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

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 .