Since this verse is a summary (see verses 14-16), it may be appropriate in some languages to make it a separate paragraph (so New International Version).

All who were numbered of the Levites, whom Moses and Aaron numbered …: Both occurrences of the verb numbered render the Hebrew word paqad, which is better translated “recorded” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) or “enrolled” (New Revised Standard Version; see the comments on 1.3). Good News Translation omits and Aaron. In the traditional Hebrew text “and Aaron” does occur, although in that text it has been marked with dots (so Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia). The dots may possibly indicate that the scribes of the original manuscripts intended to omit it (so Tov, page 56). Indeed, the name is lacking in some manuscripts of the traditional Hebrew text, in the Samaritan Pentateuch, and in the Peshitta, the ancient Syriac translation. Also, numbered renders a singular verb in the Hebrew. On the other hand, there are reasons to accept the Hebrew reading “and Aaron.” The name occurs in the Septuagint and the Vulgate. Also, the meaning of the dots in the Hebrew text is not quite certain. Furthermore, in Hebrew a singular verb can precede a subject such as Moses and Aaron without any problem. Finally, the text with “and Aaron” is the harder, less likely reading and so more likely to have been changed by scribes (see verses 14 and 16, where Aaron is not mentioned). Therefore we encourage translators to keep “and Aaron” (so also Hebrew Old Testament Text).

At the commandment of the LORD is literally “upon the mouth of the LORD” (see the comments on verse 16).

By families is better rendered “by clans” (Good News Translation) since families renders the Hebrew word mishpachah (see the comments on 1.2)

All the males from a month old and upward: See verse 15.

Were twenty-two thousand: The Hebrew lacks a verb here, although the verse is bound to refer to the past. In some languages it may be possible to express the list character of the text by not having a verb (so Buber). On the basis of verse 22 (7,500), verse 28 (8,600; see the comments there), and verse 34 (6,200), we would expect a total of 22,300 male Levites here. However, the text unambiguously reads 22,000. (According to Rashi and his grandson Rashbam, who were rabbis and commentators during the Middle Ages, the subtotals in verses 22, 28, and 34 include 300 firstborn male Levites. But these are not included in the total figure of 22,000 since a firstborn Levite could not serve as ransom for another firstborn.)

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 .