It will be helpful as at the beginning of other sections to begin with “Moses said to the people of Israel” or something similar.

A crime punishable by death: in today’s English jargon this is styled “a capital offense” (New Jerusalem Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Revised English Bible).

He is put to death: the text does not say how. Presumably it is by stoning. In languages that do not use the passive voice, we may translate “they [people not named] put him to death.” However, in some languages the passive may be avoided through the use of a verb similar to “suffer”; for example, “If a man suffers death for….” It is possible to avoid the repetition in the Hebrew of this first sentence, with something like “If they have put to death [or, executed] a man who has committed a crime” (see Good News Translation).

Hang him on a tree: this can mean that he is hung by his neck to a tree. The Hebrew word may mean either “tree” or “wood” (that is, a stake, or a pole); see Josh 8.29; 10.26-27; 2 Sam 4.12. Probably impalement is meant; the dead body was fixed to a stake, or pole, driven into the ground. Good News Translation here is quite unsatisfactory.

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 .