Now the LORD said to Moses and to Aaron: See 1.1. The adverb Now renders the Hebrew waw conjunction (literally “And”), which is omitted by Good News Translation. Perhaps Revised Standard Version uses this adverb to indicate that chapter 19 did not necessarily happen after chapter 18, but has been placed here to fit a certain literary arrangement. As mentioned in the introductory comments above, the text gradually moves from a focus on priests in chapter 17, to priests and Levites in chapter 18, to lay people in chapter 19. The verb said may be rendered “commanded” (Good News Translation) to indicate the nature of the speech that follows.

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 .