The people of Israel shall pitch their tents is literally “And the people of Israel will encamp [or, settle their camp].” This action is repetitive and the camp is temporary. The target language may require a different verb form to indicate this fact. Instead of The people of Israel, Good News Translation has “The rest of the Israelites” to help mark the contrast between the Levites in verse 53 and the other Israelites here.

For by their companies, which is literally “by their troops,” see verse 3. Israel is arranged into a well-organized army.

Every man by his own camp is rendered “each man with his own group” by Good News Translation. Since man in this context refers to any person (male or female) and camp points to the specific tribal group to which the person belongs, a better model is “each person by the campsite of his or her tribe.”

And every man by his own standard: The Hebrew word translated standard seems to involve something visible that marked off one group of tribes from another (so Budd, page 18). This understanding justifies the traditional renderings standard and “banner” (Good News Translation). Other possible models are “[visible] sign-marker” and “[tribal] flag.” There are only four banners, one for each three tribes. This becomes clear in chapter 2.

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 .