The LORD said to me, ‘You have been going…’: Yahweh is speaking to Moses, but in the statement You have been going the second person plural is used, referring to the Israelites. The necessary change must be made to avoid making it seem that Yahweh is giving instructions only to Moses and no one else. Ways to express this are: “The LORD said to me, ‘The people of Israel had wandered [or, walked aimlessly]…,’ ” or we may use indirect speech in verses 2-3 as follows: “The LORD told me that we had spent enough time wandering…” (Good News Translation). Here the pronoun “we” is inclusive.

You have been going around: here the same verb is used that appears in verse 1, and it should be translated the same way; for example, “wandering around outside the hill country of Edom” or “skirting the hill country of Edom.” Instead of using the direct form, as Revised Standard Version does, Good News Translation uses indirect discourse, which continues through verse 7.

Turn northward: “Go north,” “Head north,” “Start marching north.”

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 .