This verse is placed within parentheses by New Revised Standard Version (New Revised Standard Version), Revised English Bible, Bible en français courant, Good News Translation, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, since its relation to what comes before and what follows is unclear. See verse 19. A translator must be aware of what parentheses mean in a given language. In English (such as Good News Translation) they mean that the statement inside them interrupts the flow of the discourse, which goes directly from what comes before them to what follows them. In some languages parentheses indicate that the material enclosed is not very important and can be overlooked.

It is eleven days’ journey: this converts into something like 250-270 kilometers (160-170 miles). In some languages we may express this clause as “It takes only eleven days to walk from Mount Sinai…,” or “A person needs only eleven days to….”

Horeb is the area in which Mount Sinai is located, and the word often functions as the name of the mountain itself (as Good News Translation translates).

By the way of Mount Seir: this means the road that runs through the mountainous region of Seir, better known as Edom. Another way to express this phrase is “by way of [or, through] the area with many hills [or, hilly area] named Edom.”

Kadesh-barnea is an oasis in the desert (that is, the Negev), some 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Beersheba (see map, page xi).

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• A person needs only eleven days to walk from Mount Sinai to Kadesh Barnea through the hilly area named Edom.

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 .