And all the congregation of the people of Israel shall be forgiven, and the stranger who sojourns among them: God will forgive both the Israelites and the foreigners living among them when they offer the sacrifices for unintentional sins. The resident aliens can receive forgiveness also; it is not reserved for the Israelites only (so Douglas, page 54). For the stranger who sojourns among them, see verse 14 and 9.14.

Because the whole population was involved in the error: Both the Israelites and the foreigners will be forgiven because they all sinned unintentionally.

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 .