A new paragraph begins at verse 17. Moses and Aaron carry out God’s instructions given in the preceding verses. The time and setting given in verses 18 and 19 repeat the information of verse 1 in reverse order.

Moses and Aaron took these men who have been named: A literal translation of the verb took may suggest that Moses and Aaron carried these men off somewhere. If so, it will be more natural to use the verb “called.” These men who have been named refers back to the men listed in verses 5b-15. Good News Translation says simply “these twelve men.”

And on the first day of the second month: As in verse 1 (see the comments there), the first day of the second month is still in the second year since the Exodus from Egypt. The Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation, makes this explicit by saying “the first [day] of the month of the second year.”

They assembled the whole congregation together: It is not immediately clear who is the referent for the pronoun they. Did only Moses and Aaron assemble the congregation, or did the twelve tribal representatives do this, or all fourteen of them? In line with verses 4-5 the twelve representatives did not have more than an assisting role, so Good News Translation renders this clause and verse 17 as “With the help of these twelve men Moses and Aaron called together the whole community,” which is a good model. For congregation see verse 2.

Who registered themselves by families, by fathers’ houses, according to the number of names from twenty years old and upward, head by head: This rendering brings out much more accurately than Good News Translation the reflexive character of the Hebrew verb here; the verb’s subject is all the men twenty years old or older in the community. In some languages a passive verb will be more natural; for example, this clause may be rendered “and the names of all the men twenty years old or older were registered [or, recorded] by clans and families.” If a passive construction is not available either, then Good News Translation provides an acceptable model by having the same subject for “called together” and “registered.”

For by families, by fathers’ houses, see verse 2. The Hebrew here is better rendered “by clans and families.”

For from twenty years old and upward, see verse 3.

For head by head, see verse 2. Not a single man was left out, so Good News Translation says “all the men.” Another possible model is “each one of the men.”

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 .