And they said: This quote frame interrupts the direct speech of the Gadites and Reubenites. They have built up the case for their request carefully; they have just mentioned a series of towns and said this is good land for livestock (verses 3-4). Here the quote frame they said introduces and highlights their explicit request to settle in this land east of the Jordan River. In languages where a quote frame is used to mark a change of speaker, translators may have to omit it here (so Good News Translation) or, better still, to render it with a different verb; for example, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “they continued.” Other languages may have different natural options; for example, Chewa says “So spoke the Gadites and Reubenites” at the end of this verse. The carefully built-up request here creates narrative tension. Will the large request be granted? Will it result in a conflict or the breakup of the people of Israel? (so Sherwood, page 184).

If we have found favor in your sight is literally “If we have found favor in your [singular] eyes.” This conditional clause reflects the deference of the Gadites and Reubenites as they make their request. Good News Translation says simply “Please,” which does not quite bring out the same degree of deference in English. Better models here are “If your heart is kindly toward us” (Chewa), “If you mean well by us” (Bijbel in Gewone Taal), and “If it pleases you” (New Century Version).

Let this land be given to your servants for a possession: The passive construction here in Hebrew puts forward this request in a careful manner. In some languages such a construction performs a similar pragmatic function. However, in other languages a direct, polite request in the active form will sound more natural, for example, “please give us, your servants, this land as our property” (similarly Good News Translation). For your servants, see verse 4. The Hebrew word for possession (ʾachuzzah) refers to property, particularly in the form of land, which is held in possession (see the comments on 27.4).

Do not take us across the Jordan is literally “do not make us cross the Jordan,” which is more expressive. The Gadites and Reubenites are implying that they do not want to settle west of the Jordan River; the point is not that they are afraid to cross the river, or even to fight on the other side on behalf of the other tribes (which Moses seems to assume in his response). Probably for this reason Good News Translation makes the correct implication explicit by saying “and do not make us cross the Jordan River and settle there,” and so does New Living Translation with “instead of giving us land across the Jordan River.” Some languages can avoid the implication of fear by reversing the order of the last two clauses in this verse, for example, “do not make us cross the Jordan River, but instead give us, your servants, this land as our property” (similarly Bijbel in Gewone Taal).

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 .