And if his father has no brothers: The conjunction And may be omitted again for naturalness, as in verses 9-10.

Then you shall give his inheritance to his kinsman that is next to him of his family: The Hebrew pronoun for you is plural again, referring to the Israelites. His kinsman is literally “his flesh.” An equivalent idiom in English is “his blood relative” or even “his own flesh and blood.” Family renders the Hebrew word mishpachah, so it is better translated “clan” (New Revised Standard Version; see 1.2). New Revised Standard Version provides a good model for this clause, saying “then you shall give his inheritance to the nearest kinsman of his clan.”

And he shall possess it may be rendered “It will belong to him” (New International Readers’ Version). Contemporary English Version and New Living Translation leave this clause implied, which other languages may find helpful.

And it shall be to the people of Israel a statute and ordinance: The Hebrew expression rendered And it shall be marks this as another official divine ruling. There should be some way of indicating such legal language in translation. Since the people of Israel are the addressees here, some languages may say “you, Israelites.” As mentioned at 9.3, the Hebrew word for statute (chuqqah) can mean “task,” “obligation” or “law,” and the word for ordinance (mishpat) can mean “legal decision/judgment” or “established custom.” These terms may be combined here by saying “legal requirement” (Good News Bible, New International Version, New Living Translation) or “legal precedent” (Revised English Bible). In any case, such fixed expressions should be rendered consistently.

As the LORD commanded Moses: In Good News Bible the LORD is still speaking here to Moses, so Good News Bible renders this clause as “just as I, the LORD, have commanded you,” which other languages may find helpful. However, if translators keep the embedded speech in verses 8b-11, then it may be better to say “It is just as the LORD commanded me” (New International Readers’ Version).

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 .