These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel: this can be rendered “This is a [written] report [or, record] of what Moses said to all the people of Israel.” The pronoun These must, of course, point forward, not backward. So the sentence may begin “What follows is…,” or even “In this book are the words…” (Good News Translation, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje, German common language version [Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch]); Bible en français courant has “This book reports…,” and Contemporary English Version has “This book contains the speeches that Moses made….” And instead of the literal words, it will be better for translators to have something similar to “the long speeches” (Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje, Bible en français courant), or even “the discourses.”

To all Israel means, of course, “to all the people of Israel,” “to all the Israelites.” However, in some languages simply translating “to the Israelites” or “to the people of Israel” will mean that “all” are included.

Beyond the Jordan: the point of view of the writer is the land of Israel, so that “the other side of the Jordan River” means the east side, that is, Transjordan. More precisely Moses and the people of Israel are in the plains of Moab (Num 33.48; 36.13). Contemporary English Version makes this clear with “while Israel was in the land of Moab.” Jordan may be translated as “Jordan River” or “the river named Jordan.”

In the wilderness: this was an area without permanent human habitation, usually dry and rocky, unfit for cultivation of crops, but with occasional patches of moisture and vegetation. Translations have often used the term “desert” for wilderness, meaning that it had only sand; but this is not accurate, as this wilderness did have vegetation of various kinds. In cultures where very dry areas like this are unknown, we may translate wilderness with a descriptive phrase; for example, “rocky region with little vegetation,” “place where people don’t settle,” “a place where no house is,” and so on.

In the Arabah over against Suph: the Arabah is the deep depression that makes for the Jordan Valley, running to the Dead Sea and further south as far as the Gulf of Aqaba. Good News Translation “the Jordan Valley” accurately names the part of the Arabah that is spoken of here. The phrase against Suph modifies the Arabah, that is, “that part of the Arabah that faces [or, is opposite] Suph.” We do not know exactly what “opposite Suph” means, since the identity and location of Suph are unknown. The Hebrew preposition means “in front of”; in more general terms the phrase can be represented by “near a place named Suph.” New Jerusalem Bible has “facing Suph.” In languages that will have difficulty expressing “Jordan Valley,” it will be possible to combine the two phrases beyond the Jordan in the wilderness and in the Arabah over against Suph, and translate the first part of this verse as follows:

• This book contains the long speeches that Moses spoke to the Israelites while they were in the land of Moab. They were camped near the place called Suph in the wilderness east of the river named Jordan.

Between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab: Good News Translation and the Revised English Bible (Revised English Bible) make it clear that Paran is on one side, and the other four towns are on the other side of the Jordan. None of these localities has been identified. Since it is not clear whether Paran was to the west and the other towns to the east, translators should leave this ambiguous. Another way to express this is “The town of Paran was on one side of them and the towns of … on the other side.” Contemporary English Version resolves this problem with “The town of Paran was in one direction from their camp, and the towns of … were in the opposite direction.” In cultures where the only large human settlements are villages surrounded by fences, translators will need to use descriptive phrases for “towns”; for example, “large villages with high fences around them,” and in the case of “cities,” when this term occurs later in Deuteronomy (see 1.22), we may say “very large villages…” or something similar.

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 .