But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you …: As explained above, verses 55-56 form the negative counterpart of verses 51b-54. In some languages it may be helpful to mark this contrast by starting a new paragraph here. These verses mark a climactic moment in the book of Numbers: the Israelites had to expel the present inhabitants to take possession of the land that the LORD had graciously provided for them. If they failed to do that, they would “inherit” great troubles instead! For drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, see verse 52.

Then those of them whom you let remain shall be as pricks in your eyes and thorns in your sides: Good News Translation renders those of them whom you let remain as “those that are left” (similarly New Living Translation), which omits an important nuance in the Hebrew text here. This clause refers to the pagans whom the Israelites will deliberately allow to remain in the land. A better model for it is “those whom you allow to remain” (NET Bible). Shall be pricks in your eyes and thorns in your sides is figurative language that means the remaining pagans will continually attack the Israelites. The danger of the Canaanite presence is described here in terms of military harassment, rather than cultic temptation as expressed elsewhere (see, for example, Exo 34.11-13; Deut 7.4; Josh 23.7, 12-13). The Hebrew word for pricks refers to a type of thorny plant and so does the word for thorns. Like Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation changes the first image of a thorn in the eye, but keeps the second one of a thorn in the side by saying “will be as troublesome as splinters in your eyes and thorns in your sides.” In some languages other figures of speech may be available to graphically express the intended meaning here.

And they shall trouble you in the land where you dwell: Instead of and, another conjunction may be necessary in order to bring out the LORD’s concluding contrastive prediction here; for example, Chewa has “In this case.” The Hebrew verb for trouble can mean “treat with hostility,” “attack,” or “harass” (see 25.17, where it is rendered “Harass”). Good News Translation says “fight against,” which is a good model in this context.

And I will do to you as I thought to do to them is literally “And it will be just as I intended to do to them, I will do to you.” Good News Translation uses the specific verb “destroy” to translate do, but in some languages a generic verb may be kept here; for example, Contemporary English Version, Bible en français courant, La Bible de Jérusalem Nouvelle, and Reina-Valera Contemporánea use the verb “treat.” This final utterance of the LORD is expressed with terse poetic forcefulness, which should be matched in translation. NET Bible does this by saying “And what I intended to do to them I will do to you.”

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 .