The first part of this verse may have to be restructured so that it is more natural in the receptor language. One way to do this may be to follow Good News Translation. Another possibility is to say “If any of them dies and falls on anything…” or “If, after having died, they fall….” Presumably death occurs before the fall and is not caused by it.

An article of …: or “any object” (New Jerusalem Bible), or “anything” (New English Bible). In some languages it may be necessary to say “a thing made of….”

Of the four kinds of material, wood and skin are probably easier to translate, although wood may be the same as the word for “tree,” and skin may have to be specified as “animal skin” to distinguish it from human skin or the bark of a tree. The word for “cloth” refers to something worn as a garment or used to cover an object. In the receptor language it may be a borrowed term or a relatively recently coined word. The fourth term is the same one that is used for “sackcloth” in other contexts. Here it refers to a coarse material made of goat or camel hair, or of flax, hemp, or cotton. It is distinguished from ordinary cloth by its coarseness and its use as a kind of sack. So one may have to say simply “coarse cloth” or “cloth used for sacks.”

Put into water: in this context the verb probably refers to the washing of the object, but it must be remembered that ritual rather than physical cleanness is of primary importance. The Good News Translation rendering “dipped in water” (also New Jerusalem Bible) is more precise than Revised Standard Version put …, which seems to imply that the object remains in the water. In some languages it may be better to translate “washed” (Knox and Bible en français courant) or “immersed” (New Jerusalem Bible).

Quoted with permission from Péter-Contesse, René and Ellington, John. A Handbook on Leviticus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1990. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .