While the meat was yet between their teeth, before it was consumed: The Hebrew here shows that the LORD’s punishment already came “while the meat was still in their mouths” (New International Readers Version, New Century Version) or “while they were still chewing” (Chewa).

The anger of the LORD was kindled against the people: For this figurative expression of the LORD’s burning anger, see the comments on verse 1.

And the LORD smote the people with a very great plague: It is implied here that the greedy and unrestrained eating of the people on top of all their former complaining brought about death due to a virulent sickness or disease (so Noth, page 91). (Exo 16.18, 21 mentions that in the case of the manna everyone gathered according to what he could eat, not more.) The LORD smote the people with a very great plague is literally “the LORD struck on the people a very great striking.” The Hebrew words for smote and plague come from the same root. In this context they refer to a deadly disease caused by the LORD. Good News Translation makes this clear by rendering this clause as “the LORD … caused an epidemic to break out among them.”

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 .