Moses said to the heads of the tribes of the people of Israel: This verse begins with the Hebrew waw conjunction (literally “And”). Both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation omit it since the instructions found in this chapter do not necessarily follow after those given in the previous one. The heads of the tribes refers to the tribal leaders. For the Hebrew word rendered tribes (matteh), see 1.4.

This is what the LORD has commanded: Good News Translation omits this clause, perhaps attempting to combine it with the notion of “instructions.” However, in Good News Translation‘s model it sounds as if Moses himself is giving these instructions, which is a rather serious distortion. Among translations that similarly remove the direct speech here are the following more helpful models for this verse: “Then Moses communicated to the chiefs of the tribes of Israel other commands of the Lord” (Bible en français courant) and “The LORD told Moses to say to Israel’s tribal leaders” (Contemporary English Version).

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 .