This verse, the final clause in particular, marks the climax at the end of Moses’ speech.

For if you turn away from following him …: The Hebrew particle ki rendered For appears to mark the conclusion of Moses’ address, so it may also be translated as an emphatic marker by saying “Indeed” or “Surely,” or it may be omitted (so Good News Translation). The Hebrew pronoun for you is plural, referring to the Gadites and Reubenites, which Good News Translation makes explicit by saying “you people of Reuben and Gad.” If translators follow this model, it would be better to say “you people of Gad and Reuben” for the same order as in verses 2 and 6. For turn away from following him, see 14.43, where a similar expression occurs. Contemporary English Version says simply “reject the LORD.” A model that keeps the imagery here is “turn your backs on him.”

He will again abandon them in the wilderness is literally “he will add still to abandon him in the wilderness.” The singular Hebrew pronoun for “him” refers to the people of Israel as a whole. At the end of his speech as at the beginning, Moses emphasizes the unity of Israel as a nation that either fights or falls together. The example of what had happened to the former generation should have served as an obvious warning to anyone in the present generation who desired to break ranks and rebel against the LORD (or so it seemed to Moses). Good News Translation renders this clause as “he will once again abandon all these people in the wilderness,” but a better model showing the unity of Israel is “he will again abandon this whole people in the wilderness” (Revised English Bible). For wilderness see verse 13.

And you will destroy all this people: Moses uses a hyperbole here. He does not mean that the Gadites and Reubenites will literally destroy or kill all their fellow Israelites. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh provides a helpful model here, saying “you will bring calamity upon all this people” (similarly Bijbel: Vertaling in opdracht van het Nederlandsch Bijbelgenootschap). New International Version and Revised English Bible are even clearer with “and you will be the cause of their destruction,” and so is Good News Translation with “and you will be responsible for their destruction.” New Living Translation and Nueva Traducción Viviente are similar to Good News Translation, but they keep the theme of Israel’s unity by saying “you will be responsible for destroying this entire nation!”

Quoted with permission from de Regt, Lénart J. and Wendland, Ernst R. A Handbook on Numbers. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .