The anger of the LORD was kindled: this is a common figure of speech; anger is spoken of as fire. In a number of languages it will be possible to use similar figurative expressions to describe God’s anger becoming hot. An example is “Yahweh’s heart [or, liver] became hot with anger, just like burning with fire.”

Against this land: in Revised Standard Version the foreigners who are saying all this are pictured as being on or near the devastated land of Israel. But the Hebrew does not necessarily mean that, and New Revised Standard Version renders it “against that land,” as does Revised English Bible.

All the curses: in Hebrew this is the same noun used in 27.13; 28.15.

Written in this book: this is strange, because the foreigners are talking about this book, that is, Deuteronomy (see 28.58), which they could hardly be expected to know about. Contemporary English Version attempts to deal with the difficulty by saying “The Book of God’s Law.”

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 .