This command is an ancient one and appears also in 27.17; Job 24.2; Pro 22.28; 23.10; Hos 5.10.

In the inheritance which you will hold in the land that the LORD your God gives you to possess: Revised Standard Version has reversed the order of the Hebrew. New Revised Standard Version, which is exactly the same as New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, is more natural: “… the property that will be allotted to you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess.” Today’s English Version has condensed the text considerably but retains the essence of the command: “established long ago in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.” For “inherit” (used twice in Hebrew) see 1.38, and for possess see 1.8.

You shall not remove your neighbor’s landmark: the landmarks were stones, or piles of stones, marking the place where one person’s property ended and another person’s began. This was a matter not of “removing” but of “moving” (Today’s English Version, New Revised Standard Version, New International Version, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) the boundary markers, in order to increase your own property by diminishing someone else’s. Since different types of boundary markers are used in some parts of the world, it will be helpful to make it clear that “stones” are involved; for example, “Do not move the stones set up to mark the property lines.” However, the form of the boundary marker is not important here. So if a culture uses some other kind of moveable boundary marker, the translator may use that marker in this context, if it is more meaningful.

The men of old have set: the original conquerors of the land divided the territory and determined the exact boundaries of each person’s property. Something like “previous generations” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) or “former generations” (New Revised Standard Version) is better; or else “your ancestors.”

An alternative translation model for this verse is:
• In the land the LORD is giving you, your ancestors set up stones to mark the property lines between fields. Do not move these stones.

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 .