Verses 32-34 function as a summary that brings the tribal census and location reports of chapters 1–2 to a close (compare 1.44-47, 54). They are no longer part of the LORD’s direct speech. Many languages will have a way of indicating this shift from direct speech to a summary at this point. Helpful models that do this for verse 32 are “These are the Israelites, counted according to their families. All those in the camps, by their divisions, number 603,550” (New International Version), “Those are the enrollments of the Israelites by ancestral houses. The total enrolled in the divisions, for all troops: 603,550” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), and “Now [discourse shift marker] these ones [just mentioned] they are the [people of] Israel as [he/they] counted them…” (Chewa). In spite of what Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation suggest, the Hebrew of this verse shows no indication of any past tense at all. (This is different from 1.46, where a past tense form occurs in the Hebrew.) In some languages the use of a present tense in the context of what is expected to be a summary of a historical narrative (and thus set in the past) would be taken literally as switching to something that is actually happening currently. In these languages a past tense may be unavoidable.

These are the people of Israel as numbered by their fathers’ houses …: The Hebrew verb rendered numbered twice in this verse is the same one translated “number” in 1.3 (see the comments there). It is better rendered “enrolled” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), “registered,” or “recorded.” For fathers’ houses, see 1.2.

All in the camps who were numbered by their companies were six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty: The camps are the tribal campsites of the Israelites (see 1.52). For by their companies (literally “by their troops”), see 1.3; for six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty, see the comments on 1.20-46.

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 .