Command the people of Israel, that they give to the Levites … and you shall give to the Levites …: The verbal sequence of this verse is rather complex. A minor chiastic construction is present here in the Hebrew, perhaps to distinguish the two things given to the Levites—first the cities to live in, and then the pasture lands round about the cities. The Hebrew pronouns for they and you both refer to the Israelites. For naturalness Good News Translation uses only third person pronouns to refer to them. In some languages the second half of this verse is better expressed as a separate sentence, especially if the original shift in pronouns is retained (so NET Bible).

The inheritance of their possession: As mentioned at 16.14, the Hebrew term for inheritance (nachalah) refers to inherited property that must not be sold or taken away. In some languages (like Chewa), since this inheritance has been mentioned before in the narrative and is therefore known information, it must be marked by an appropriate back-referencing demonstrative pronoun. As mentioned at 27.4, the Hebrew word for possession (ʾachuzzah) refers to property, particularly in the form of land, which is held in possession.

The Hebrew word for pasture lands refers to open land normally used as places where cattle and flocks of sheep and goats could feed on the grass. Some languages will have a single word to express pasture lands, as in Hebrew. Otherwise, some sort of descriptive expression will needed, for example, “grazing land” (NET Bible) or “land for livestock.”

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 .