So the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben …: So renders well the Hebrew waw conjunction (literally “And”) since it introduces a result here. The sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben presumably refers to the tribal representatives of the Gadites and Reubenites, so Chewa says “the leaders of Gad and Reuben.” The repetition of the names Gad and Reuben from verse 1 creates a certain emphasis in the Hebrew; these two tribes in the dialogue of confrontation with Moses and the other leaders of Israel are in focus throughout most of the chapter. Unlike in verse 1, the sons of Gad are mentioned before the sons of Reuben in the rest of this chapter. Perhaps these phrases are reversed here because verse 3 first mentions cities for the Gadites, as is clear from verses 34-36; or perhaps they were the primary initiators of the request in verses 3-4. There seems to be no reason to put the sons of Reuben before the sons of Gad, as in the Septuagint and the Peshitta. In some languages the pronoun “they” (Good News Translation) may be sufficient and more natural to render these two phrases.

Came and said to Moses and to Eleazar the priest and to the leaders of the congregation: In some languages it may be more natural to connect the phrase to Moses and to Eleazar the priest and to the leaders of the congregation directly to the first verb came (so Good News Translation, Revised English Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) instead of to the second verb said. It may then also be more natural to start a new sentence with the second verb (so New Living Translation, Parole de Vie, Bijbel in Gewone Taal). Came may be rendered “went” (Good News Translation) or “approached.” For Eleazar the priest, see 26.1. The Hebrew expression for the leaders of the congregation is better rendered “the chiefs of the community” (Revised English Bible; see the comments on 4.34).

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 .