This verse explains why at the present time, in Moab, the Israelites are not following God’s laws for worship. Only after they have settled in Canaan will they be able to obey those laws.

You have not as yet come to: this is better expressed as “you have not yet arrived at,” or, to make it plainer, “you have not yet entered the land where….”

To the rest and to the inheritance: see 3.20. The two nouns are a compound phrase meaning “the inheritance where you will rest.” The land of Canaan is spoken of as an inheritance, meaning that it is God’s gift to the people. It is nearly always connected with the statement that the Israelites themselves will defeat the peoples of Canaan and take possession of their territory. In 1.39 the related verb is used, “(cause) to inherit”; in 3.28 the same verb, with Joshua as subject, is translated by Revised Standard Version “Joshua … shall put them in possession of the land” (see also 4.21, 28). A translation should not give the idea that “inherit” means that the people are going to receive the land after God dies. Good News Translation makes this clear, with “the land that the LORD your God is giving you.”

The noun rest means primarily security, safety from enemies (as the next verse makes plain). Bible en français courant has “the territory that the LORD your God will give you to possess so that you may have a peaceful life there”; Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje “the land that the Eternal, our God, is giving you, a land where you will live in peace.”

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 .