And he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah: It may be helpful to state the pronominal referents explicitly here by beginning this clause with “So Balak took Balaam…” (New Living Translation). In some languages it will be better to render the verb took as “led” to avoid the misunderstanding of physical carrying. A literal rendering of field could be misleading here, implying a cultivated garden for growing crops. New Living Translation says “plateau.” Zophim, which means “lookouts” in Hebrew, may a proper name or a common noun, so possible models for the field of Zophim are “the Lookouts’ Field” (Alter), “Lookout Plateau” (Levine), “the Field of the Watchers” (Revised English Bible, Nouvelle Bible Segond, RSO), “an observation post” (PV, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible), and “a place for spying.” For Mount Pisgah, see 21.20.

And offered a bull and a ram on each altar: See verses 1-2.

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 .