And the head of the fathers’ house of the families of Merari was Zuriel the son of Abihail: See the comments on verses 24 and 30. It remains valid to interpret fathers’ house (literally “father’s house”) in the same way as in 1.2, which is “family.” As in the previous verses, the Hebrew word for families (mishpachah) is better translated “clans” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). Again, the singular word “clan” in Good News Translation is misleading. The Hebrew phrase for the head of the fathers’ house of the families of Merari is more accurately rendered “the family leader for the clans of Merari” (similarly Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). According to this interpretation, Zuriel was one of several family chiefs, the one who led the Kohathites. In the end, however, the complications that go with fathers’ house at this point may have to be avoided in translation. A good model that does this for this clause is “The chief of the clans of Merari was Zuriel, the son of Abihail.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch is even less complicated with “Their chief was Zuriel, the son of Abihail.”

They were to encamp on the north side of the tabernacle: For the Hebrew verb rendered were to encamp, see the comments on verse 23. As there, King James Version, Russian Synodal Orthodox Version and Luther use non-past tense verbs to translate it. On the north side of the tabernacle does not contradict 2.25, which speaks about the camp of Dan being on the north side of the Tent of Meeting. According to 2.17, the camp of the Levites was closer to the Tent than any other tribe’s camp. The camp of Dan was south of the Tent, but not as close as the camp of the Merarite clans. This phrase may be rendered “very close to the Tent of Meeting on its northern side.” For tabernacle see 1.50; for north see 2.25.

In the Hebrew and Revised Standard Version the order of the two sentences in this verse is the reverse of the order in verses 23-24 and 29-30. Perhaps the reversal was intended to overtly mark this information as pertaining to the third and final Levite division. Good News Translation changes the order here in verse 35 to follow the order in those earlier verses.

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 .