A parapet for your roof: a parapet is a railing placed at the edges of the flat roof. The roof was reached by outside steps, and people would gather there to relax and visit; see Josh 2.6; 2 Kgs 4.10. In some languages a parapet will be expressed as “a low wall.”

The guilt of blood: responsibility for someone’s death (see 19.10; 21.8). Good News Translation has “then you will not be responsible if….”

If any one fall from it: that is, “… fall to his or her death”; in this context the word blood carries the sense of a violent death. The last part of the verse may also be expressed as “Then if someone falls off the roof and is killed, it won’t be your fault” (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 .