And the leaders offered offerings for the dedication of the altar …: Good News Translation treats verses 10-11 as a separate paragraph; these verses no longer deal with the wagons and oxen mentioned in the previous verses. The adverb “also” in Good News Translation indicates this change of subject more clearly than the conjunction And, namely that Israel’s leaders gave other offerings in addition to the six wagons and twelve oxen (verse 3). Verses 10-11 introduce by way of summary the repeated ritual sequence of dedication offerings for the altar of sacrifice that is found in verses 12-83. For the Hebrew word rendered leaders (nasiʾ), see verse 2. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “chieftains” again. Offered renders the Hebrew verb hiqrib (see verse 3). Revised Standard Version adds the noun offerings. The Hebrew word for dedication refers to a dedication offering in this context. So New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh provides a more accurate rendering for the first clause of this verse, saying “The chieftains also brought the dedication offering for the altar.” Since this “dedication offering” consisted of many individual items, the singular word “offering” causes a problem in some Bantu languages. In these languages the plural word “offerings” must be used.

On the day it was anointed: See verse 1. The pronoun it refers to the altar.

And the leaders offered their offering before the altar: Offered renders the Hebrew verb hiqrib again and offering renders the noun qorban, which is the generic word for any kind of offering (see verse 3). As in the first clause, some Bantu languages have to say “offerings” instead of offering.

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 .