Take the count of the booty that was taken: Take the count is literally “Take up the head,” which means “count the totals” (NET Bible footnote) in this context (see the comments on 1.2, where the same idiom is rendered “Take a census”). A possible model that is close the Hebrew idiom here is “Take a head count.” It may also be rendered simply “Total up.” For booty see verse 11. The booty that was taken is literally “the booty of the captured.” New Revised Standard Version says “the booty captured [in war].”

Both of man and of beast: See the comments on verse 11. Here the generic Hebrew word for man refers to the Midianite virgins whose lives had been spared (verse 18), so La Biblia: Traducción en Lenguaje Actual says “the women,” but this rendering may be misleading. For this reason we recommend a generic rendering for this phrase, such as “including the people and animals” (New Living Translation).

You and Eleazar the priest and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the congregation are the people who are to total up the booty. The pronoun you refers to Moses. For Eleazar the priest, see verse 6. The Hebrew expression for heads of the fathers’ houses (literally “heads of the fathers”) refers to leaders of extended families, which include three or four generations (see the comments on 1.2). New Revised Standard Version has “heads of the ancestral houses.” Good News Translation says simply “leaders,” but better models are “family heads” (New International Version, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Herziene Statenvertaling, Bijbel: Vertaling in opdracht van het Nederlandsch Bijbelgenootschap) and “family leaders” (New Living Translation). The Hebrew word for congregation (ʿedah) is better rendered “community” (Good News Translation), as in 1.2 (see the comments there).

The following model based on New Living Translation reorders this verse:

• “You and Eleazar the priest and the family leaders are to make a list of all the plunder taken in the battle, including the people and animals.

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 .