You shall have no other gods before [or, besides] me: this may be expressed “You shall [or, must] not worship any other god except me,” or “Do not worship any god but me.” New Jerusalem Bible translates “You will have no gods other than me.” It is better to use the verb “worship” or “obey,” rather than “have.”

This commandment does not deny the existence of other gods; it demands of the Israelites that they acknowledge only Yahweh as their god. Psa 81.9-10 has a good statement of this first commandment. The you is singular as mentioned in the introduction to this chapter. But many translators will wish to use a plural pronoun here and throughout the rest of the chapter.

See the comment on gods at 3.24.

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 .