For the western boundary, you shall have the Great Sea and its coast means the coast of the Mediterranean Sea will be the western boundary. The Great Sea refers to “the Mediterranean Sea” (Good News Translation).

This shall be your western boundary: Good News Translation omits this repetitive clause, which other languages may find helpful.

Even though there is only one verse for the western border, it may be helpful to set off verse 6 as a separate paragraph since it constitutes a distinct subunit within the overall description of Israel’s land (so Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation). Both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation omit the Hebrew waw conjunction (literally “And”) at the beginning of this verse as well as in verses 7 and 10. This conjunction simply marks the start of a subunit in the discourse. Translators may omit it unless this type of connector is natural in the receptor language.

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 .