Take a census of all the congregation of the people of Israel …: The Hebrew imperative verb rendered Take is plural. God is not telling only Moses to number the Israelites. This is clear from verse 3, where he says you and Aaron shall number them, so Good News Translation begins verse 2 with “You and Aaron are to take a census….” According to 1.17, it is indeed Moses and Aaron who carry out the instructions that are given here. So in languages that lack a plural imperative form or in which a plural imperative on its own would be awkward or overly ambiguous, Good News Translation is a good model to follow. The English word census refers to the “value, total amount, sum” of items to be counted. The Hebrew expression for Take a census is literally “Lift up the head.” Some languages say “Count the heads.” Chewa has “Count up.” The Hebrew word for congregation (ʿedah) is better rendered “community” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). Good News Translation omits ʿedah, perhaps because it considered this term repetitive in combination with the word for people in the same sentence. However, this is not a good solution, if it can be avoided. The word ʿedah refers to the entire national, legal and cultic society of Israel. The people that are numbered in the census are not only a potential army but a worshiping community, people who are organized around the LORD’s Tent of Meeting (so Sherwood, page 141). The word used for “congregation/church” in the New Testament may not be satisfactory here, since it would normally refer to a much smaller group. In Chewa the vernacular word for “congregation” would also suggest wrongly in this context that a meeting for worship is taking place.
By families, by fathers’ houses: The Hebrew expressions for families and fathers’ houses (literally “house of their fathers”) are not synonymous. Families renders the Hebrew word mishpachah. This word refers to a clan, which is composed of several houses or families. Good News Translation says “by clans and families,” which brings out this difference in size between “clan” and “house” more clearly, beginning with the larger unit (compare Josh 7.14). (Even in cultures where the term “clan” is sometimes used in the context of feuds between families or factions in society, probably the nature of the subject of this chapter with reference to Israel will still allow for the term “clan” to be used without causing confusion over this.) The Hebrew word for “house” in this context refers to an extended family, which includes three or four generations. If translators can keep houses or a similar metaphorical term, then fathers’ can be understood as “ancestral” (compare New Revised Standard Version [New Revised Standard Version] with “in their clans, by ancestral houses”). The Israelite kinship system was clearly based on patriarchal lines of descent, not matriarchal. Many languages do not have separate words for families, clans, and tribes. Thus “clans” may have to be expressed as “family groups,” and “tribes” (see verse 4) as “large groups of families.”
According to the number of names, every male, head by head: The point of the phrase head by head is that no man should be left out (compare New International Version “one by one”).
From twenty years old and upward, all in Israel who are able to go forth to war: These two phrases are not to be read separately but form one requirement; once a young man was twenty he was considered mature enough to take part in military activities. This point should be clear in the translation.
You and Aaron shall number them: Number renders the Hebrew verb paqad (literally “visit”). This verb is better translated “enroll” (New Revised Standard Version), “record” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), or “muster.”
Company by company is literally “by their troops.” The Hebrew term here, which Good News Translation omits, shows that the census was primarily a military one. Only the men fit for military service were counted. The Israelites were arranged into a well-organized army in preparation for their march to take possession of the land of Canaan.
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 .