In the same way you shall offer daily, for seven days, the food of an offering by fire, a pleasing odor to the LORD: In the same way is literally “Like these [offerings].” The same sacrifices specified in verses 19-22 had to be offered on each of the seven days of the Festival of Unleavened. As in verse 4, offer renders the generic Hebrew verb meaning “do” or “make.” For the food of an offering by fire, a pleasing odor to the LORD, see verse 2. As noted there, offerings constituted the daily symbolic “meals” of the LORD that were essential for maintaining his presence among the Israelites. The Hebrew construction here allows for De Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling‘s rendering, which is “this food as an offering, a sweet odor pleasing to the LORD.” Nueva Traducción Viviente is similar with “the food which you will present as a special offering, an agreeable aroma to the LORD.” The Hebrew construction also allows for the following renderings: “the food of an offering by fire as a pleasing odor to the LORD” (similarly Herziene Statenvertaling), “the food for the offering made by fire … as an aroma pleasing to the LORD” (New International Version), “as a nourishment consumed by fire, an odor pleasing to the LORD” (La Nouvelle Bible Segond), and “as food, an offering by fire of pleasing odor to the LORD” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). All these renderings underscore in varying degrees the anthropomorphic notion that sacrifices were actually food for God himself and that the smoke from the altar was a pleasing odor in his nostrils.

It shall be offered besides the continual burnt offering and its drink offering: This sentence makes the same point as verse 23, applying it to each of the seven days of the Festival of Unleavened Bread. In Hebrew this sentence is literally “Besides the regular burnt offering it shall be done, and its drink offering.” If the passive verb form is considered awkward, it is helpful to translate “You [plural] shall add these [offerings] to the daily sacrifice and the wine which they offer with it” (Parole de Vie). As in verse 15, the pronoun its refers to the continual burnt offering, that is, the offering by fire (verses 3-8), with which the drink offering was combined (verses 7-8).

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 .