The Revised Standard Version literal translation of verse 16 is strange English. There is no need in English to say had perished and were dead, and the following from among the people is simply a way of identifying them as people of Israel. Good News Translation provides all the information in modern English: “After they had all died.” Revised English Bible is more wordy but still natural: “When the last of the fighting men among the people had died.”

The LORD said to me: Yahweh is still talking to Moses alone, yet in the following verse the command is for all the people. Good News Translation has therefore translated “said to us.” Translators should follow either model, depending upon what is normal in their own language.

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 .