The hand of the LORD was against them: this is a vivid way of saying that Yahweh kept punishing them and killing them, until all who belonged to the adult generation that left Egypt had died.

To destroy them from the camp, until they had perished: here the camp stands for the people themselves, the community, and God is portrayed as rooting them out and killing them.

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• Yahweh kept punishing them until they were all dead.

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 .