And the rod of the man whom I choose shall sprout: The verb sprout means put out, or generate, new shoots.

Thus I will make to cease from me the murmurings of the people of Israel: More idiomatic renderings for this clause are “In this way I will put a stop to the constant complaining of the Israelites” (Good News Bible), “Then I will finally put an end to the people’s murmuring” (New Living Translation), and “so I will rid myself of the complaints of the Israelites” (NET).

Which they murmur against you: The Hebrew noun for murmurings and the verb for murmur (see 14.2) come from the same root, forming an emphatic construction. In many languages it will be more natural to combine these two words into one phrase that highlights the negative quality of this behavior; for example, New Jewish Publication Society Version says “incessant mutterings,” and Good News Bible has “constant complaining.” The Hebrew pronoun for you is plural, referring to Moses and Aaron.

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 .