But truly renders the waw conjunction and a strong contrastive conjunction in Hebrew (ʾulam; compare Exo 9.16). These two conjunctions are better rendered “Nevertheless” or “On the other hand.” The LORD had forgiven his people (verse 20), but they still had to bear the punishment for their rebellious attitude and behavior.
As I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD is literally “[by] the life of me and all the earth will be filled with the glory of the LORD,” which marks the LORD’s words as an oath. The oath itself starts in verse 22. Good News Translation makes it clearer that these emphatic words introduce an oath by saying “I promise that as surely as I live and as surely as my presence fills the earth.” Some African languages render as I live as “I swear by myself” for naturalness. The glory of the LORD may refer to “the dazzling light of the LORD’s presence,” as in verse 10 (see the comments there). Since the LORD is speaking here, in some languages it will be awkward to refer to him in the third person. Good News Translation solves this problem by replacing of the LORD with the first person pronoun “my.” Another possible model is “of me, the LORD.”
None of the men who have seen my glory and my signs which I wrought in Egypt and in the wilderness …: Good News Translation begins this clause with “none of these people will live to enter that land….” By including the phrase “will live to enter that land,” Good News Translation can introduce a sentence break in verse 22. (Verses 21-23a form a very long sentence in Revised Standard Version and New International Version, too long to be natural in most languages, including English.) The Hebrew word for men refers to both males and females in this context, so Good News Translation says “people” and Contemporary English Version has “Israelites.” Signs may be rendered “miracles” (Good News Translation), as in verse 11 (see the comments there).
And yet have put me to the proof these ten times: Put me to the proof may be rendered “tested me” (Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation) or “challenged me” (Revised English Bible, Levine). The Hebrew verb here (nasah) is used in a bad sense, so this phrase may also be translated “provoked me” or “had doubts about me” (Chewa). The phrase these ten times implies “too many times” (Contemporary English Version) or “over and over again” (Good News Translation), but there is no reason to leave out the number ten. Early Jewish commentators made various suggestions concerning the ten specific acts of rebellion that might be implied here.
And have not hearkened to my voice may be rendered “and have refused to obey me” (Good News Translation) or simply “and have disobeyed me” (similarly Contemporary English Version).
Shall see the land: Because of its restructuring, Good News Translation can begin a new sentence here, saying “They will never enter the land.” The negative oath formula here in Hebrew makes this a very strong assertion, which should be expressed somehow in translation. The people had rejected the land that God had promised them, so now he declares that they will never see it at all.
Which I swore to give to their fathers: See the comments on 11.12.
And none of those who despised me shall see it: Since this sentence repeats what the LORD has just said, it emphasizes his oath. Good News Translation expresses this emphasis well by saying “None of those who have rejected me will ever enter it.” For the Hebrew verb rendered despised, see verse 11.
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 .