complete verse (Deuteronomy 6:8)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Deuteronomy 6:8:

  • Kupsabiny: “Tie these laws to your hand/arm and forehead so that (it) can remind you.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Bind those commands and laws as a sign on your hands and forehead.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Tie them on your (plur.) shoulders or place/put on your (plur.) foreheads as a reminder to you (plur.).” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Write them on tiny scrolls and fasten them to your arms/wrists, and write them on bands that you fasten to your foreheads to help you to remember them.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Deuteronomy 6:8

And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand and as frontlets between your eyes: see 11.18-20. This command was later kept by writing scripture verses on pieces of parchment and placing them in small leather pouches, called tefilin (“phylacteries”), on the forehead and the left forearm (see Matt 23.5). Contemporary English Version has “Write down copies and tie them….” This will be a good model for many translators. However, in languages that must indicate the kind of material that these laws were to be written on, we may say, for example, “Write these laws on parchment and….”

The word frontlets, which means a band or ornament on the forehead, has a meaning parallel to sign here. The two terms have the sense of “sign and symbol,” a public demonstration of the person’s commitment to God’s Law. Good News Translation uses only one phrase, “as a reminder”; New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “as a sign … as a symbol”; New Revised Standard Version “as a sign … as an emblem.” The literal between your eyes means on the forehead.

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• Write down copies of these laws and tie them on your wrists and foreheads to help you remember 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 .