Translation commentary on Deuteronomy 30:17

If your heart turns away, and you will not hear: that is, if they defect, or they abandon their loyalty and devotion. To hear is to obey. Good News Translation translates “If you disobey and refuse to listen,” while Contemporary English Version has “you might choose to disobey and reject the LORD.”

Are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them: see 4.19. In languages that do not have the passive voice, translators may say, for example, “and they [other people, foreigners] entice you into bowing down to other gods [or, false gods] and worshiping 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 .

Translation commentary on Deuteronomy 30:18

I declare to you this day: these words introduce a formal, important statement. They may also be rendered as “I am warning you today.”

You shall perish; you shall not live long in the land: this means that they as individuals and as a nation will soon disappear; see 8.19. The phrase you shall perish is emphatic in Hebrew and may also be expressed as “you will be destroyed”; but in languages that do not use the passive, we may say, for example, “your enemies [or, those that hate you] will destroy you.”

Going over the Jordan: from east to west.

Contemporary English Version has an excellent model, combining and restructuring the clauses in verses 16-18 as follows:

• I am commanding you to be loyal to the LORD, to live the way he has told you, and to obey his laws and teachings. You are about to cross the Jordan River and take the land that he is giving you. If you obey him, you will live and become successful and powerful. On the other hand, you might choose to disobey the LORD and reject him. So I’m warning you that if you bow down and worship other gods, you won’t have long to live.

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 .

Translation commentary on Deuteronomy 30:19

I call heaven and earth to witness against you: see 4.26.

Life and death, blessing and curse: see verse 15; the choice is theirs.

Choose life, that you and your descendants may live: nothing less than continued existence as a people is at stake; they will be a prosperous and powerful people, or else they will disappear. Both Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version (see below) have excellent alternative models. Contemporary English Version keeps the clauses in the same order as Revised Standard Version, but Good News Translation places the first clause at the end of the verse. Either model is possible.

• Right now I call the sky and the earth to be witnesses that I am offering you this choice. Will you choose for the LORD to make you prosperous and give you a long life? Or will he put you under a curse and kill you? Choose life! (Contemporary English Version)

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 .

Translation commentary on Deuteronomy 30:20

Revised Standard Version has this verse as a continuation of verse 19, with the verbal phrases loving … obeying … cleaving as the means by which the people will choose life. But in many languages it is better to follow Good News Translation and others and begin a new sentence here, with the verbs in the imperative.

Loving the LORD your God: see the comment in verse 16.

Cleaving to him: see 10.20; this is “loyalty,” “love,” “faithful obedience.” This is part of what loving means, and Contemporary English Version combines the first and third commands as “Be completely faithful to the LORD….”

Means life to you and length of days: that is, “this is how you will have a long and prosperous existence as a nation.” Contemporary English Version begins a new sentence here: “The LORD is the only one who can give life, and he will let you live a long time in the land.”

The LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them: 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 .

Translation commentary on Deuteronomy 31:1

Moses continued to speak: this translates the Masoretic version of the Hebrew text, which says literally “Moses went and spoke”; the Qumran Hebrew manuscript and the Septuagint have “Moses finished speaking.” There are several factors that must be considered in deciding which one to follow. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project (decision {C}) prefers the Masoretic text, citing factors 5 (assimilation to parallel passages) and 4 (easier reading). If the Masoretic text is followed, it can be understood in two different ways: (1) “Moses went and spoke,” indicating movement on Moses’ part (so New Jerusalem Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, New International Version); or (2) “Moses continued to speak” (Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, Bible en français courant, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje, BÍBLIA para todos Edição Comum). If the translator wishes to follow the other text, as do New Revised Standard Version and Revised English Bible, a footnote should be added, indicating the source of this wording. This Handbook recommends that translators follow Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation.

All Israel: that is, “all the people of Israel.”

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 .

Translation commentary on Deuteronomy 31:2

A hundred and twenty years old: the text states that Moses is 120 years old; it is not saying that this is his 120th birthday. In the book itself this is the day when Moses was giving this speech to the Israelites in the plains of Moab. Moses began the first of his addresses on the first day of the eleventh month of the fortieth year after the Israelites left Egypt (1.3, 5).

I am no longer able to go out and come in: that is, “to lead an active life” or “to get about” (New Revised Standard Version). Some, like Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version, take it in the more restricted sense of “to lead,” but the broader sense seems preferable (see 28.6, 19).

You shall not go over this Jordan: this Jordan is natural style in Hebrew, but in many other languages translators will prefer something like “the Jordan River” or even “the Jordan River here in front of you.” This decision by the LORD is referred to in 1.37; 3.27; 4.21-22; and see Num 20.12 for the occasion when the LORD took this decision.

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 .

Translation commentary on Deuteronomy 31:3

The LORD your God himself will go over: it is God who will lead the people across the river and into the land of Canaan. It will be helpful in many languages to make it clear that go over means “go over the Jordan River”; so we may say “The LORD your God himself will go before you across the Jordan River.”

Before you means that Yahweh will lead them as they conquer the land.

He will destroy these nations before you: for this declaration see 1.23; 2.12. These nations are the peoples that the Israelites will encounter in the land of Canaan, namely, “the nations that live on the other side of the Jordan” (Contemporary English Version).

You shall dispossess them: for this verb see 9.1; 11.23; 12.2, 29.

Joshua will go over at your head: indeed it will be Yahweh who will take them into the Promised Land, but Joshua will go in front of them and lead them there.

As the LORD has spoken: in certain languages that do not use indirect speech, it is possible to begin the verse with this clause; for example,

• For Yahweh said, “I will go before you across the Jordan River, and will destroy the nations on the other side so that you can occupy their land. Joshua will be your leader, as I have said.”

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 .

Translation commentary on Deuteronomy 31:4

For the defeat of Sihon and Og, see 29.7-8; Num 21.21-35.

He destroyed them: not only the two kings as such, but their armies as well. Some translators will prefer to continue using direct speech with Yahweh as the speaker through verse 6. In such cases it will be helpful to begin this verse with “The LORD went on to say, ‘I will destroy those people….’ ”

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 .