This verse is clear and unambiguous, as it makes the most depressing statement in the whole book about Yahweh, who will take delight in punishing, destroying, wiping out his people.

Take delight means “is very happy to” or “his heart is glad.”

Doing you good: or “making you prosper [or, be successful].”

Multiplying you: other ways to express this are “making you increase in number” (Good News Translation) or “help your nation grow” (Contemporary English Version).

Be plucked off the land: this is good, vivid language and should be retained unless it becomes ridiculous. Good News Translation, New International Version, and Revised English Bible have “uprooted,” and Contemporary English Version has “pull you up by the roots.”

The land which you are entering to take possession of it: repeating a statement often made (see 1.8).

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 verse predicts the same disasters and uses the same vocabulary as in verse 36.

Will scatter you may also be rendered as “will cause you to scatter,” or even “will cause your enemies to take you away to every nation on earth.”

All peoples, from one end of the earth to the other: the exaggerated language should not be softened in translation.

Gods, of wood and stone: see the comment at 4.28.

Which neither you nor your fathers have known: this may also be expressed as “neither you nor your ancestors have ever worshiped before” (Good News Translation).

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 .

No ease: that is, no peace or security, no safety (see 3.20; 12.9).

No rest for the sole of your foot: no permanent residence, no place to call their own.

A trembling heart: fear or anxiety.

Failing eyes: this seems to mean blindness, which does not fit in with the other two expressions in this group; perhaps it means a loss of hope and cheerfulness (Good News Translation has “hopelessness”).

A languishing soul: despair, discouragement (see 6.9).

Good News Translation offers a good model for all three expressions: “anxiety, hopelessness, and despair.”

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 .

Your life shall hang in doubt before you: the following statements clarify the meaning of this. Things will be so bad that there is no assurance of a return to normal conditions in the future. So Good News Translation has “Your life will always be in danger”; or we may say “You will always be in danger of people killing you.”

Night and day you shall be in dread: fear will be their constant companion. Other ways to express this are “All the time you will be terribly afraid,” or “… your hearts [or, liver] will fall completely.”

No assurance of your life: they will have absolute despair as they look to the future. This repeats the information in the first sentence. Good News Translation omits the repetition, and some translators will find that model helpful.

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 .

Would it were evening! … Would it were morning! Or “I wish it were day … I wish it were night” (Contemporary English Version). See similar statements in Job 7.4.

The dread which your heart shall fear: they will be filled with fear, with no relief as they look to the future. The vivid language in Good News Translation, “Your hearts will pound with fear,” will be a good model for many translators.

The sights which your eyes shall see: all about them they will see the terrible conditions to which all the Israelites have been subjected.

Translators are urged to examine Good News Translation as a possible model. Contemporary English Version also has a good model:

• Every morning you will wake up to such terrible sights that you will say, “I wish it were night!” And at night you will be terrified and say, “I wish it were day!”

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 verse speaks of the great reversal of fortune, when Yahweh will take his people back to Egypt as slaves.

Bring you back: “take you back” is better in English.

In ships to Egypt: a word that means “sailing ships” or “ships with sails” must be used. The phrase is strange, since people living in Canaan could travel to Egypt by land.

A journey which I promised that you should never make again: this promise is referred to also in 17.16, but the promise itself is not recorded. Here I promised refers to God, not to Moses; see Good News Translation “he said” and “I said” in the footnote as an alternative rendering.

You shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves: this is the ultimate degradation. The Israelites will ask the Egyptians to buy them as slaves, but no one will want 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 .

In the Hebrew text this is verse 69 of chapter 28; consequently Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation have 29 verses in chapter 29, whereas the Hebrew text has 28 verses; some modern translations, such as Bible en français courant, New Jerusalem Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, follow the Hebrew text (see the same thing at 12.32 and 22.30). A translator must weigh various options before deciding whether to follow the verse numbering of the Hebrew text or the numbering of Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation.

The most important factor will be whether there is already a tradition with which the readers are familiar, or which is commonly followed in the region where the translation is to be used. If the translation is the first one in that region or in that language, it seems better to follow the verse numbering of Revised Standard Version. This Handbook will follow the Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation numbering. Whatever is done about the numbering, this verse begins a new section of the book.

These are the words of the covenant: words is not simply the text (whether oral or written) of the covenant, but “the terms” (Good News Translation, New International Version, Revised English Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), “the conditions” (Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje), or “the things they had to do in order to keep the covenant [or, agreement].” Bible en français courant has “This is how Moses drew up a covenant with the Israelites”; or we may say “The following are the things that the Israelites had to do in order to keep the agreement that Yahweh was making with them.” For covenant see 4.13.

The land of Moab: see 1.5.

Besides the covenant which he had made with them at Horeb: the subject he is not Moses but Yahweh. Besides the covenant means “This was in addition to the covenant” (Good News Translation). Bible en français courant puts this whole comment within parentheses: “(This covenant is different from the one that was drawn up at Mount Horeb.)” Other possible models are “This agreement is distinct from [or, in addition to] the one that Yahweh made with them at Mount Sinai,” or even “These terms [or, conditions] were added to those that were in the agreement that Yahweh made….” For Horeb see 1.6. The translator should be careful not to say “This agreement replaces the one….”

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 .

Moses summoned all Israel: Moses called all the people to gather to listen to him. In Deuteronomy statements like this typically indicate the opening of a new discourse or speech.

And said: at this point Moses is clearly identified as the speaker. But whether Yahweh or Moses is speaking needs to be kept quite clear as the chapter progresses.

You have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes: this means “You saw all the things that Yahweh did in your presence” or “… as you were watching.” In some languages this will be rendered as “You saw with your own eyes all the things that the LORD did…,” while in other languages we may simply say “You saw the LORD perform all…,” as the phrase before your eyes repeats the information already given in the clause you have seen. As a matter of fact, most of the Israelites standing in front of Moses hadn’t really seen all these things, but Moses is including them with their parents (see also 4.34, where Moses uses the inclusive pronoun “we”).

Pharaoh: this is a title, not a name; however, in 7.8 and 11.3 it appears as a proper name (so Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version there).

His servants: this means his officials, especially the court officers.

All his land: not simply the country as such, but all the people of Egypt. So Contemporary English Version has “everyone else in the country.”

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 .