How can I bear alone the weight…? This is what is called a rhetorical question; that is, Moses does not want an answer to his question (as though someone could tell him how he could bear the weight alone), but he is declaring, emphatically, that it is not possible for him to bear the weight alone. So in languages that would not use a rhetorical question in this context, we may translate, for example, “But I cannot alone bear the heavy responsibility…” or “But I cannot take care of all your problems … alone” (Contemporary English Version), or else “There is no way I could bear….”

The weight and burden of you and your strife: this translates the Hebrew “the-load-of-you and the-burden-of-you and your-strife.” The first two nouns have the same meaning, and it may be that they function as a phrase, “heavy burden” or “heavy load.” The noun translated strife means more precisely “complaints” and here refers to the complaints the people made against Moses, accusing him of being a failure and of making them suffer (see Exo 17.7; Num 14.1-4). See Revised English Bible “and put up with your complaints.” This seems preferable to Good News Translation “disputes” and Revised Standard Version strife.

It is possible that all three nouns go together in one phrase: “the heavy load of your complaints” or “your continual [or incessant, or unending] complaining.” And the entire verse may be alternatively expressed as:

• But I cannot alone bear [or, put up with] your unending complaints against me.

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 .