The LORD said to Moses: See 1.1. This quote frame introduces what the LORD said to Moses after the census was taken, so the Hebrew waw conjunction (literally “And”) at the beginning of this verse may be rendered “Then” (New Living Translation). Like Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, most other translations omit it.

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 .