I will heap evils on them: this means misfortunes, “endless disasters” (Good News Translation), or “disaster after disaster” (Contemporary English Version).

I will spend my arrows upon them: see verse 42. Here spend means to use or to use up; God will shoot all his arrows at his people. He will use up all possible disasters or calamities that are available to him. This is a vivid figure for disasters, epidemics, famines, and other misfortunes. The figure may not make sense in a culture that does not know of bows and arrows; but it would not be proper to say “shoot my bullets” as a cultural equivalent. Since arrows here refers back to evils in the first line, we may simply say “I will bring on you one disaster after another to strike you,” or “I will cause all kinds of disasters to come upon you,” or “I will cause you to experience one disaster after another,” or even “I will use up all the disasters available to me to strike you with.”

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 .

They shall be wasted … and devoured: the two verbs have the same meaning, complete destruction; the first verb is found only here in the Old Testament. Other ways to translate this are “They [or, You] will die from…” (Good News Translation) or “They [or, You] will be destroyed by….”

Hunger … burning heat … poisonous pestilence: it is not at once apparent what burning heat and poisonous pestilence stand for; they may be ways of speaking of droughts and poisonous snakes, or of fevers and deadly plagues. There is no way to be sure (see 28.21-22; Psa 78.49). Good News Translation is a good model to follow.

The teeth of beasts … the venom of crawling things in the dust: these are wild animals that will devour them, and poisonous snakes that will kill them. Again Good News Translation has a good alternative model.

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 open in the first line is balanced by in the chambers in the second. The meaning is “both outdoors, in the streets of the towns, and indoors, in their houses.”

The sword shall bereave: that is, enemy warriors will kill them. There is no indication what the term terror refers to here (see Isa 24.17). But as a parallel to the sword, terror probably refers to the enemies as they invade the homes and strike terror in the hearts of their victims. But the word may refer to the terror the people feel, and which would cause them to die (so Bible en français courant, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje, Contemporary English Version). So we may say “Outdoors your enemies will kill you, and indoors you will be so frightened that you will die.”

The overall meaning is that everyone will be killed: young men and women, children and old people. The translator need not try to find the exact equivalent of virgin or the man of gray hairs; these are ways of speaking of young women and old people.

The clauses of the verse may be reordered as follows:

• Young men and women,
babies and old people
will be killed in the streets,
and die from fright in their homes.

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 .

Verses 26-27 are a turning point in the song; from his threats to destroy the people, the LORD turns to a promise to forgive and restore them.

Here Yahweh quotes himself, and this is in a song that Moses is reciting. In verse 20 Moses starts quoting Yahweh—a quotation that goes to the end of verse 42. Here in verse 26 it may be awkward and most unnatural to try to imitate the Hebrew structure, and the translator may choose to bypass the quotation, as Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version do; see also New Revised Standard Version. So verse 26 can begin, with Yahweh as speaker, “I thought I would scatter them…, 27 but I feared provocation….” New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “I might have….” Contemporary English Version has “I wanted to scatter you.”

I would have said: as the context shows, the consequence of his possible declaration keeps Yahweh from saying this; so the meaning is, “I could have said … but I didn’t, because….” See in 9.25-29, where Moses makes the same kind of plea to God. In some languages it will be necessary to state clearly that Yahweh is speaking; for example: Yahweh says, “I might have said, ‘I will scatter…,’ ” or “Yahweh says, ‘I might have scattered….’ ”

I will scatter them afar: there is some doubt about the form of the Hebrew text, but the sense of dispersion is what the Septuagint has (see the same verb in 4.27), and this is what most translations say. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “reduced them to naught,” New Jerusalem Bible has “crush them to dust,” and Good News Translation “destroyed them completely,” the sense of which more closely parallels the next line. It is recommended that translators follow this model.

I will make the remembrance of them cease from among men: see the similar statement in 25.19; see also Num 14.12. God would have destroyed them so completely that in the future people would not even remember that they had existed.

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 .

Had I not feared provocation from the enemy: this verse explains why Yahweh did not destroy his people as he had considered doing. The provocation here, as the rest of the verse shows, would be the enemy’s boast that they, not Yahweh, had defeated the Israelites. So New International Version “but I dreaded the taunt of the enemy” is good, as is New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh “… the taunts.” The expression feared, as Yahweh speaks about himself, should not be disregarded (as Good News Translation does). Provocation or “taunt” may also be expressed by something like “the sound of your enemies saying” (Contemporary English Version), or “… your enemies jeering at you, saying.”

Lest their adversaries should judge amiss: the two nouns enemy and adversaries mean exactly the same thing. Lest is rarely used in modern English; the meaning of the construction is that Israel’s enemies would not understand correctly what had happened; so New Revised Standard Version has “for their adversaries might misunderstand.” The first two lines may be combined as follows:

• But I was afraid that your enemies would misunderstand and boast,

Lest they should say: here Yahweh quotes what the enemies of Israel would have said if he had destroyed his people. It is not necessary in translation to keep direct speech, and indirect speech may be better: “and say [or, boast] that they had defeated my people, and not I, the LORD.” But the direct speech is more vivid.

Our hand is triumphant: that is, “we defeated them.”

The LORD has not wrought all this: it was not Yahweh who caused their total destruction—this is what Israel’s enemies would have said. Contemporary English Version has a good model for the final two lines:

• ‘We defeated Israel
with no help from the LORD.’

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 verses 28-33 it is not at once clear whom Yahweh is speaking about. It may be the people of Israel, or their enemies (so New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible). Or it is possible that verses 28-31 are about Israel, and verses 32-33 about their enemies (Good News Translation, Bible en français courant, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje, BÍBLIA para todos Edição Comum, Pléiade). There is no way to be sure, but it seems best to follow the lead of Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, and others; and this is what the following comments will do. Again, it is possible that in verses 28-31 the speaker is Moses, and God resumes as speaker in verse 32 (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh introduces Yahweh as speaker in verse 34). It is recommended that translators who must identify the speaker should pick Moses; for example, “Moses said,” or “Moses continued to speak, saying, ‘….’ ”

They are a nation: Moses is speaking about the people of Israel, and the translation should make this clear.

There is no understanding in them: or “they have no wisdom at all,” “they don’t think very clearly.” The whole verse may be also expressed as “The people of Israel are a nation that have no wisdom at all. They don’t think very clearly.”

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 .

If they were wise, they would understand this: this refers to the punishment that their evil behavior brought upon them, as described in verses 20-25 (see Good News Translation). See the similar passage in 5.20.

Discern their latter end: they would see beforehand what was going to happen to them; see verse 20.

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 .

The Israelites had been defeated in war by an enemy army much smaller than theirs; so the ironic question points out that this incredible defeat—one enemy soldier routing a thousand Israelites—could happen only because the LORD was no longer fighting for them.

The verse is in the form of a rhetorical question, which may be effective in some languages; in many, however, if not in most, a rhetorical question may be misunderstood and should thus be translated as a strong statement.

How should one chase a thousand: that is, “How could one [enemy] soldier put to rout [or chase, or put to flight] one thousand [Israelite] soldiers?” or, as a statement, “The only reason why one enemy soldier defeated one thousand Israelite soldiers was….” Good News Translation offers another good model.

Two put ten thousand to flight: or “two enemies defeated ten thousand.” This is parallel, but it heightens the sheer absurdity of the matter.

Their Rock had sold them: see verse 4; sold means that Yahweh sold (or, abandoned) them to the enemy (see Judges 2.14; 3.8; 4.2; 10.7).

The LORD had given them up: that is, he had abandoned them (see 23.15).

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• One enemy soldier defeated a thousand Israelite soldiers,
and ten thousand Israelites were defeated by two of their enemies.
This is because Yahweh, their mighty protector [or, Rock],
has abandoned them to their enemies,
and has let their enemies defeat them.

However, in some languages it may be better to reverse the order of the lines as follows:

• The Mighty God sent his people away,
the LORD abandoned them.
That is why one enemy [soldier] routed a thousand [Israelites],
two enemy soldiers put ten thousand Israelites to flight.

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 .