And the priest shall take the shoulder of the ram …: Verses 19-20 deal with those parts of the peace offering and the food that belong to the priest. As in the comments on the previous verse, this distinction may have to be made explicit in order to avoid confusion; for example, this verse may begin with “And the priest’s portion of the ram for a peace offering shall be its shoulder…” or “And the shoulder of the ram of the fellowship offering will belong to the priest….” If this translation gets too complicated, then a less explicit rendering may be used and a footnote supplied to provide the necessary explanation.

The Hebrew expression rendered the shoulder of the ram, when it is boiled shows that the shoulder (that is, the front leg) of the ram is already boiled when the priest takes it. Good News Translation expresses this more clearly by saying “when the shoulder of the ram is boiled.”

And one unleavened cake out of the basket, and one unleavened wafer: See verse 15.

And shall put them upon the hands of the Nazirite: The priest must put the ram’s boiled front leg, the unleavened thick bread and the unleavened thin bread in the hands of the Nazirite.

After he has shaven the hair of his consecration is literally “after he himself has shaved his consecration.” See verse 18. Revised Standard Version adds the implied idea of hair. It seems Good News Translation has not translated this clause, but in fact it has referred to this essential activity with the connector “Then” at the beginning of the verse, which implies everything that was mentioned in the preceding verse. This makes the whole procedure easier to follow. If this clause is kept, it must be specified that it is the Nazirite who does the shaving, as indicated in verse 18.

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 .