And the LORD said to Moses: See 1.1.

The man shall be put to death renders an emphatic construction in Hebrew, which is literally “To die the man shall be put to death.” King James Version keeps the emphasis here by saying “The man shall be surely put to death.” Other English versions underline the certainty of this punishment by using the auxiliary verb “must” (Good News Translation). Other languages may say “There is no doubt that the man will be executed.” Of course, the translation should indicate that this was a just and lawful “killing” (that is, execution), in case several words for “kill” exist in the language.

All the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp: The LORD tells the people to stone the man to death. Stone him with stones is a redundant expression in English, so Good News Translation says “stone him to death” (see 14.10). Other possible models are “kill him by throwing stones on him” and “throw stones at him until he dies.” If translators must chose between smaller stones and larger rocks in their language, the latter is probably more likely, although the Hebrew does not specify this. They had to stone the man outside the camp. If they stoned him inside the camp, his dead body would make the camp unclean. For camp see 1.50.

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 .