I turned and came down from the mountain: this can be expressed more naturally, “I came back down” (New International Version, Revised English Bible), or even “I took them down the mountainside” (Contemporary English Version).

And there they are: Moses is saying that the two stone tablets are still in the Box, where he had placed them some forty years earlier. Good News Translation has “and they have been there ever since”; Contemporary English Version has “and they are still there.”

As the LORD commanded me: this could go at the beginning of the sentence, “As the LORD commanded me, I placed the tablets….” For the LORD see 1.6.

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 .