I have led you: this could be Moses speaking, but this is unlikely when we consider the clause “that I am the LORD your God” at the end of the following verse. Contemporary English Version solves this problem by saying “He has even told you, ‘For forty years, I, the LORD led you through the desert.’ ”

For wilderness see 1.1.

Clothes have not worn out upon you: this means that, after the forty years that had elapsed since leaving Egypt, they were still wearing the same clothes. The same applies to their sandals, which have not worn off your feet. In Hebrew the same verb “grow old” or “wear out” is used both for the clothes and the sandals; the Septuagint uses two different verbs, and in some languages two verbs will be necessary. However, in many modern translations we find only one verb; for example, “your clothes and sandals never wore out” (Good News Translation, similarly Contemporary English Version).

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 .