Then you shall take them from their hands is again directed to Moses, with the singular you. Them refers to the parts of the ram and the bread mentioned in verses 22-23 that were to be placed in the hands of Aaron and his sons. Durham makes this more explicit: “You are then to take these gifts.” Good News Translation uses the singular “food” in verse 24, so this becomes “Then take it from them.” However, Contemporary English Version again makes the meaning of them clearer by translating “After this, the meat and the bread are to be placed….”

And burn them on the altar is identical with verse 13, with the literal meaning “turn them into smoke upon the altar” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). In addition to the burnt offering is literally “upon the burnt offering,” but the word for “upon” (ʿal) may also mean in addition to (similarly New International Version, Revised English Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, and others). Revised Standard Version properly interprets the burnt offering, or ʿolah, here to refer back to the first ram that has already been burned on the altar (verse 18). This second ram was to be a “ram of ordination” (verse 22) rather than an ʿolah, where the entire animal was always burned. New Revised Standard Version has now translated ʿal as “on top of” the burnt offering, as in Good News Translation and New Jerusalem Bible. This allows for the possibility that the first ram may still be burning, and that the meat and bread taken from Aaron and his sons are added to it. It is not clear what was to be done with the additional animal parts not mentioned in verse 22. Verses 26-28 go on to indicate that certain parts were to be eaten by Moses and the priests, but the remaining parts may have been added to the burnt offering on the altar or burned outside the camp. (Lev 8.22-36 describes how this ordination ceremony was actually carried out.) As a pleasing odor before the LORD uses the same expression as verse 18, and it is an offering by fire to the LORD is almost identical with verse 18. (See the comment there.)

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• After this, take the meat and bread from Aaron and his sons, place them on the altar on top of the first ram that was burned, and burn them as another offering to me. The smell of this offering will also please me.

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .