But Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said: It may be useful to use the conjunction But if it makes the translation more coherent by indicating the contrast between the report of the majority of the spies (verses 28-29) and what Caleb is about to say. On the other hand, it may not be necessary to use this conjunction, since the text has not yet mentioned how the Israelites reacted. If a transition to Caleb’s words is needed, a simple temporal conjunction such as “Then” (New International Version, New Century Version) may be sufficient. In any case, it seems more logical to use the conjunction “But” at the beginning of verse 31, at the point where the spies emphasize their fears and explicitly contradict Caleb’s proposal. Caleb (see verse 6) is the only spy in view here as opposing the others; Joshua is not mentioned until 14.6. The Hebrew verb for quieted (hasah) probably resembles the sound that would be used in urging others to be silent. In a number of languages translators may be able to use a similar sounding onomatopoetic verb; for example, many Bantu languages can use an ideophone here, such as chete in Chewa. Quieted the people (“silenced the people” in Good News Translation) implies that they must have reacted in some vocal way. But the text does not specify exactly how the people reacted and leaves this to the reader’s imagination. It does not say that they “were complaining against Moses” (Good News Translation), which renders before Moses, so it is better to say “as they stood before Moses” (New Living Translation) or “who were gathered around Moses” (Good News Translation footnote). Alter renders this whole sentence well, saying “And Caleb silenced the people around Moses and said.” Contemporary English Version has simply “Caleb calmed down the crowd and said.”

Let us go up at once renders an emphatic Hebrew expression, which is literally “To go up let us go up.” The Hebrew verb for go up occurs twice here, first as an infinitive absolute and then as a finite verb. It is the same verb used in verse 17 (see the comments there), but this time it refers to military action, meaning “attack” (Good News Translation). A good model for this clause is “Indeed, let us attack now.”

And occupy it may be rendered “and conquer/capture the land.”

For we are well able to overcome it renders another emphatic Hebrew expression that uses an infinitive absolute and finite form of the same verb. The Hebrew particle ki rendered for is an emphatic marker here. This clause is literally “indeed to overcome we will overcome it,” which may be translated “We are surely strong enough to conquer it.”

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 .