But now our strength is dried up: But now introduces a strong contrast between the Israelites’ life in Egypt and their present situation. Our strength is dried up is literally “our throats are dry” (Levine), which is an idiomatic reference to dehydration. Strength renders the Hebrew word nefesh, which refers to the interior of the thorax here. We encourage translators to use an idiom for dehydration that is natural in the target language; for example, Chewa says “in our necks it has dried out.”

And there is nothing at all but this manna to look at is literally “there is nothing at all except the manna [before] our eyes.” The people complain they have only manna to eat. This is the first time manna is mentioned in Numbers, but the reader is clearly expected to know about it already. Manna was the food that God provided for the Israelites to eat during the forty years that they were in the wilderness. The biblical text introduces it for the first time in Exo 16.14-35, and this cross reference may be given here in a footnote. Good News Translation expresses well the frustrated, disgusted attitude of the people here by saying “There is nothing at all to eat—nothing but this manna day after day!” The target language will undoubtedly have a way of expressing this same connotation.

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 .