I took hold … and cast them: this sounds as though Moses had laid the stone tablets down and then picked them up again. Or else it means that he took a firm grip on the tablets and threw them violently to the ground. This was a deliberate action, not an impulsive act. If translators have a word in their language that means using great force, that term should be used here. It was a way of showing that the covenant between Yahweh and Israel was no longer in existence; by building the idol the Israelites had canceled the covenant, and Moses, representing Yahweh, breaks the tablets of the covenant. No longer is there a covenant between Yahweh and Israel.

And cast them … and broke them: that is, “I threw them down and broke them” This does not describe two separate actions but one—the act of throwing them to the ground broke them into pieces.

Before your eyes: Moses did this as a public gesture, so that all the Israelites could see that the covenant with Yahweh had been canceled. Other ways of saying this are “There right in front of you” or “right before your eyes” (Contemporary English Version). In some languages this phrase may be placed at the beginning of the verse, as in Good News Translation.

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 .