And they will tell the inhabitants of this land: The pronoun they refers to the Egyptians, and the inhabitants of this land are “the people of Canaan” (Contemporary English Version).

They have heard that thou, O LORD, art in the midst of this people: The pronoun They refers to the people of Canaan, not the Egyptians, which Levine makes clear by saying “They, in turn.” Contemporary English Version is even clearer with “Those Canaanites.” That, which renders the Hebrew particle ki, introduces what the Canaanites heard about the Israelites. Thou … art in the midst of this people means the LORD is with his people, protecting them. This people refers to the Israelites again (see verse 13).

For thou, O LORD, art seen face to face: For renders the Hebrew particle ʾasher, which may also be translated “who” (New American Bible [New American Bible]). Here it introduces how the LORD is close to the Israelites. The Hebrew expression for face to face is literally “eye to eye.” This phrase with the verb for seen only occurs here and in Isa 52.8. Thou … art seen face to face refers to very close contact between God and his people. Good News Translation says “you appear in plain sight,” which seems a flat translation. It is recommended to use a more idiomatic expression. Some languages will have almost the same idiom as in Hebrew.

And thy cloud stands over them: For the cloud of the LORD’s presence, see 9.15-23. Good News Translation makes this clause subordinate to the previous one, saying “that you appear in plain sight when your cloud stops over us.” But these are coordinate clauses in the Hebrew text. It is also better to render the Hebrew particle translated “that” by Good News Translation as for or “who” in this context (see the comments above). What difference does it make how these clauses are connected? In this verse Good News Translation and many other translations do not distinguish between the Hebrew particles ki and ʾasher by rendering them both as “that.” For the last half of this verse Good News Translation has “These people have already heard that [ki] you, LORD, are with us, that [ʾasher] you appear in plain sight when your cloud stops over us, and that [simply ‘and’ in Hebrew] you go before us….” This rendering suggests that the Canaanites heard about everything that is mentioned in the rest of the verse. But the connections between the clauses in Revised Standard Version here (that … for … and … and; also New Revised Standard Version, Alter) resemble the Hebrew more closely: the Canaanites heard that the LORD is close to his people since they see him face to face, his cloud is over them, and he goes before them in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. Translators may still feel that Good News Translation is easier to work with as a model here in their language. If so, it will still be important to correct its translation of ʾasher, to bring out the emphasis underlying the threefold repetition of thou (referring to the LORD) and to relate the clauses properly. A model based on Good News Translation that does this for the last half of this verse is:

• These people have already heard that you, LORD, are with us—you, LORD, whom we see eye to eye, and your cloud stops over us, and you yourself go before us in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

And thou goest before them, in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night: The pronoun them refers to the Israelites. Perhaps to avoid confusion with the Canaanites, Good News Translation uses the first person pronoun “us.” For cloud and fire, see 9.15-16; for a pillar of cloud, see 12.5. In a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night may be rendered “in a cloud that looked like a column during the day and in fire that looked like a column during the night.” In cultures where “pillars” or “columns” are unknown, a possible model is “in a visible cloud by day and in a visible fire by night.” Of course, both a cloud and fire are naturally visible, but by stating the obvious explicitly, the translation can highlight the extraordinary character of each divine manifestation.

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 .