Do not contend with them: the Hebrew verb is different from the one used in 1.30, but in this context it has essentially the same meaning: wage war against, fight, attack.

For I will not …: the reason the Israelites are not to fight the Edomites—even though the Edomites are afraid of them—is that Yahweh will not allow the Israelites to win.

The exaggerated figure not so much as for the sole of the foot to tread on is better rendered in English by “not … so much as a square foot” (Good News Translation) or, even more idiomatically, “not even an inch [of their land].” New International Version has “not even enough to put your foot on.”

I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession: another way to express this is “I have given the region [or, territory] of Edom to the descendants of Esau as their own land.” Mount Seir is the hill-country region of Seir, better known as Edom. So it may be better here to say “Edom.” (See Gen 36.6-8 for an account of Esau’s separating from Jacob to settle in Edom.) To use simply the proper name Esau here (New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, New Jerusalem Bible) is to raise unnecessary difficulties for the reader. The active I have given must not be disregarded, as done by Biblia Dios Habla Hoy.

It should be noted that the same language is used of Edom being the God-given heritage of the Edomites as is used of Canaan being the heritage of the Israelites.

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 .