Verse 48 begins the concluding subsection of chapter 31, so a paragraph break is appropriate here. The Hebrew waw conjunction rendered Then (literally “And”) may be translated “At that very time” (Chewa).

The officers who were over the thousands of the army, the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds: The Hebrew word for officers is literally “those selected” or “those enlisted,” as in verse 14 (see the comments there). The captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds, which is in apposition to the officers who were over the thousands of the army, renders the same Hebrew expression translated “the commanders of the thousands and the commanders of hundreds” in verse 14, so it should be rendered in the same way as there. For this whole part of the verse Good News Translation says simply “the officers who had commanded the army,” but this rendering loses the distinction between the larger and smaller military units here. A better model is “the officers who had commanded the army, that is, the commanders of battalions and companies.”

Came near to Moses may be rendered simply “went to Moses” (Good News Translation, 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 .