But Moses said to him: But renders well the Hebrew waw conjunction at the beginning of this verse since Moses disagrees with Joshua.

Are you jealous for my sake? is a rhetorical question. The Hebrew verb rendered jealous refers to great zeal and passion, whether positive or negative, that is felt with regard to a specific person or a certain cause. Other possible renderings for it in this context are “concerned” (Good News Translation, Bijbel in Gewone Taal), “supporting” (Willibrordvertaling, Luther), and “worried” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). This rhetorical question may be rendered “Why should you be concerned about me?” or “Don’t be concerned what this might do to me!”

Would that all the LORD’s people were prophets, that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!: The Hebrew expression here conveys a strong wish, which Good News Translation makes clear by beginning with “I wish that….” There may be a special marker in some languages to indicate this; for example, Ashley begins with “O that….” For the sense of prophets in this context, see verse 25; for the LORD would put his spirit upon them, see verse 17. Good News Translation reverses the two clauses in this wish for a chronological order, saying “I wish that the LORD would give his spirit to all his people and make all of them shout like prophets!” Other languages may prefer this reordering also.

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 .