Moses spoke to the people of Israel: Moses conveyed God’s message to the Israelites for them to bring a walking stick from each tribe. Good News Bible begins this clause with the conjunction “So,” which fits well here.

And all their leaders gave him rods, one for each leader, according to their fathers’ houses, twelve rods: See the comments on verse 2.

And the rod of Aaron was among their rods: See verse 3. The rod of Aaron represents the tribe of Levi, but Aaron’s priestly leadership was at issue. This rod was not one of the twelve rods, but it came in addition to them, so there were thirteen in total. In many languages the preposition “with” (Good News Bible) or “along with” (Chewa) will express this more clearly than among.

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 .