Let me alone: God is telling Moses to stand back or step aside, not to get in his way; “Don’t try to stop me…” (Good News Translation). Apparently Yahweh regards Moses as a person with considerable authority.

That I may destroy them: the whole statement could be rephrased: “Step aside and let me wipe them out” or “Don’t interfere while I get rid of them.”

Blot out their name from under heaven: see similar language in 7.24.

I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they: God proposes to exterminate the Israelites and make Moses the ancestor of a people that eventually will outnumber the Israelites and be more powerful than they are. This should be spelled out clearly in translation. The contrast between them in the first sentence and you (Moses) in this sentence should be emphasized if possible; a possible model is “I will make a larger and more powerful nation out of you instead [of them].” Good News Translation “the father of a nation” may not be the best way of saying of you a nation in some languages. Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje has “Of you and your descendants I will make….”

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 .