If you had walked in the way of God: The unstated sense of this is that Israel did not walk in the way of God, that is, live according to God’s commandments. Instead, they abandoned that way. Contemporary English Version says “If you had followed the ways of God.”

You would be dwelling in peace for ever: The choice was Israel’s to make. They chose to leave God’s way and finished up exiled in a foreign country. But if they had followed God’s Law, they could have lived in their own land for all time, in peace. Peace represents the Hebrew word shalom, which means not only peace as opposed to conflict, but also prosperity, health, and general well-being. In some languages it will be necessary to use more than one expression; for example, “health and prosperity [or, happiness].” There is no conflict between Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation in the use of the tenses you would be dwelling and “you would have lived.” The idea here is that if the people had obeyed God they would have lived in peace in the past and would still be living in peace.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Shorter Books of the Deuterocanon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2006. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.