Then if it was done unwittingly without the knowledge of the congregation is literally “and it will be if it was done from the eyes of the community to inadvertence,” which means a person or some people unwittingly failed to keep a certain command and the whole community did not know about the sin at the time it was committed. The pronoun it refers to the unintentional sin, which may need to be specified in some languages. Good News Translation specifies this pronoun as “the mistake,” which is rather weak in English. Better models are “the offense” and “the error.” The Hebrew noun in the expression rendered unwittingly comes from the same root as the verb translated “err” in verse 22 (see the comments there). As noted at 1.2 (see the comments there), the Hebrew noun for congregation (ʿedah) is better rendered “community” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh).

All the congregation shall offer one young bull for a burnt offering: For one young bull, which is literally “one young bull, son of a cow,” see 7.15. For burnt offering, see 6.11.

A pleasing odor to the LORD: See verse 3.

With its cereal offering and its drink offering: A grain offering and a libation had to accompany the sacrifice burnt whole. For cereal offering, see verse 4 and 4.16; for drink offering, see verse 5 and 4.7.

According to the ordinance: These offerings had to be done according to the established custom. For the Hebrew word rendered ordinance (mishpat), see verse 16 and 9.3.

And one male goat for a sin offering: For male goat, see 7.16; for sin offering, see 6.11. In some languages it may be helpful to render this whole phrase as a separate sentence; for example, Good News Translation has “In addition, they are to offer a male goat as a sin offering.”

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 .