Teach … diligently: this translates a Hebrew word that seems to mean “repeat,” or “say again and again”; this meaning is reinforced by the following shall talk of them. New Revised Standard Version translates “Recite them … and talk about them”; Revised English Bible has “repeat them … and speak of them,” New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh “tell them … and keep on telling them.” Any of these is a good model for the translator to follow.

When you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way: this means while at home or away from home, which includes, of course, the whole time. The following when you lie down and when you rise is also a way of including the whole day, either “when you are asleep and when you are awake” or Good News Translation “when you are resting and when you are working.” (These two constructions are a figure of speech called “merism,” in which the two opposites include the whole subject.) Provided that such repetition is good style in a language, the translator should certainly follow the Hebrew.

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 .