And the LORD’s anger was kindled on that day: The Hebrew waw conjunction rendered And may be translated “Then” (New Living Translation) or omitted (so Good News Translation). For the idiomatic Hebrew expression rendered anger was kindled, see 11.1.

And he swore, saying: This quote frame introduces an embedded quotation in verses 11-12. Good News Translation translates swore as “made a promise,” but in some languages this rendering will suggest that something positive is coming. The LORD’s oath in verses 11-12 is not positive toward the Israelites at all, so Chewa is better with “swore an oath” (which can be negative or positive in Chewa, according to the context).

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 .