And they set out from Oboth, and encamped at Iye-abarim: The exact location of Iye-abarim is also unknown. Good News Translation calls this place “the ruins of Abarim,” since the transliterated Hebrew word Iye (ʿiye) means “ruins” or, more precisely, “heaps of stones.” Heaps of stones in the desert mark the direction of watercourses. “Abarim” refers to the mountain range east of the Dead Sea (see 27.12; 33.47).

In the wilderness which is opposite Moab, toward the sunrise means Iye-abarim was in the desert just east of Moab. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh says “in the wilderness bordering on Moab to the east,” and Good News Translation is similar with “in the wilderness east of Moabite territory.” The Israelites did not yet enter Moab itself; rather, they were going around it along its eastern border. The country of Moab was just east of the Dead Sea. Its people were related to the Israelites since they were the descendants of Lot and his older daughter (Gen 19.37).

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 .