And the LORD said to Moses: See the comments on 1.1. This clause introduces the LORD’s response in verses 16-20 to Moses’ complaint of verses 11-15. The conjunction And may be rendered “Then” (New Living Translation). God tells Moses to bring seventy Israelite leaders, so that he can empower them to help Moses in leading the people. He also wants Moses to inform the people that they will soon have abundant meat to eat.

Gather for me seventy men of the elders of Israel: As A Handbook on Numbers explains at Exo 3.16, the elders of Israel were the senior tribesmen of Israel, clan leaders who were recognized for both their maturity and their ability to function as leaders, not necessarily because of the number of years they had lived. If in a receptor language the two ideas of leadership and authority that these people had can be combined in one term, then that term will be a good translation for elders. However, if such a term cannot be found, “leaders” is a good model. Good News Translation says “respected men,” but this rendering does not adequately express that these were people with an official position in the community.

Whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them: The Hebrew pronoun for you is singular, referring to Moses. Good News Translation renders this clause as “who are recognized as leaders of the people,” which suggests that all the people rather than Moses know the seventy men as leaders. But the singular pronoun indicates that it is Moses himself who knows this. Thus Moses had the responsibility of choosing the men who were to work with him in a loose governing, perhaps also spiritual or pastoral, capacity among the people. The Hebrew word for officers refers to people who had some type of administrative function. Traduction œcuménique de la Bible says “scribes,” which is based on the Septuagint, but all that can be said about the meaning of this word is that an overseeing, mustering, recording task is involved. The word officers may wrongly imply that these men already had some sort of an official position within an established bureaucracy. A better rendering is “overseers” or “supervisors.” De Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling provides a helpful model for this whole clause, saying “of whom you know that they fulfill their task as overseers of the people well.”

And bring them to the tent of meeting: For the tent of meeting, see 1.1.

And let them take their stand there with you implies that these leaders must await the LORD’s announcement or instructions at the Tent along with Moses.

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 .