And there shall be with you a man from each tribe: The Hebrew pronoun for you is plural, referring to Moses and Aaron. Israel consisted of twelve tribes. A tribe (matteh in Hebrew) was the largest social unit in the nation. It was composed of several clans, which, in turn, were composed of several families (see the comments on verses 2-3). The renderings in a translation may not exactly correspond in size with these terms, but they should at least reflect these increasingly smaller units of organization; they should also fit in a verse like Josh 7.14, where tribes, clans and families are distinguished from each other. Having a representative from each tribe involved in making the census would help to ensure its fairness, hence also its credibility and legitimacy.

Each man being the head of the house of his fathers: Each tribal representative had to be the head of a family before he was selected to help Moses and Aaron. Good News Translation says “clan chief,” but it is more accurate to say “family chief” in light of the framework of kinship terms noted above.

Verses 4 and 16 provide a frame around the actual listing of the leaders’ names in verses 5-15.

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 .