Verse 4 in Hebrew gives first the instruction for the people to stay a certain distance away from the Covenant Box, after which comes the explanation of why they were to follow the Box. For clarity and ease of understanding, Good News Translation and Revised Standard Version have reversed the order. The priests carrying the Covenant Box would lead the way, and the people were to follow at a distance of 2,000 cubits, about 3,000 feet (a little more than half a mile) or 914 meters (almost one kilometer). This care was needed because of the holiness of the Box; it was dangerous for ordinary people to be exposed to its holiness (see 2 Sam 6.6-7).

It may make a more natural arrangement if the two clauses in the first sentence of this verse are inverted. For example, “3 … and follow them. 4 They will show you the way to go, since you have never been here before.” Show you the way to go may be translated, “lead you where you are to go,” since show you might imply that the priests are standing along the road and pointing the way.

About half a mile may be rendered “about a kilometer” or even “about a thousand steps.” Many languages have idiomatic ways of expressing distance (for example, “the distance that one can walk in the time it takes a pot of bananas to boil”), and the translator should look for a term that is neither a modern term not appropriate for that time, nor a term outside the cultural expectations of the readers.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Newman, Barclay M. A Handbook on Joshua. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .