And when the jubilee of the people of Israel comes: The jubilee refers to “the Year of Jubilee” (TNIV), which was the fiftieth year after a forty-nine year cycle (see Lev 25.8-55). During that year land that had been sold was supposed to revert to its original owners. However, this was not the case for inherited land. Thus, if Zelophehad’s daughters were to marry outside their own tribe, the land inherited by them would still remain attached to their husbands’ tribes, even after the Year of Jubilee (so Alter, page 865; Levine, page 578). This point can be highlighted by translating And when as “And even when” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). The rule of the Year of Jubilee applied only to the restoration of lands to former owners, not to inherited land. We advise translators not to use the word jubilee (which transliterates the Hebrew word meaning “ram’s horn”) but to look for a term in their own language that expresses the idea of “restoration,” “liberation,” or “giving back.” Chewa has “Israel’s celebration of the fiftieth year.” Good News Translation translates “Year of Restoration,” but adds the long explanatory clause “when all property that has been sold is restored to its original owners” (which misses the point that inherited land fell outside the scope of this rule). Since the Hebrew text does not have this clause, it may be better to put such an explanation in a footnote; for example, Contemporary English Version has the following footnote on “Year of Celebration”: “This was a sacred year for Israel, traditionally called the ‘Year of Jubilee.’ During this year, all property had to go back to its original owner. But here, the property was not sold; it became part of the other tribe’s land when the daughter who owned it married into that tribe. So the property could not be returned even during this year.”

Then their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe to which they belong: See verse 3. The pronoun their refers to the daughters of Zelophehad, which Good News Translation makes clear by rendering their inheritance as “the property of Zelophehad’s daughters.” Good News Translation renders added as “permanently added” to highlight that the daughters’ inheritance would be added to the property of the tribes into which they married. Instead of the tribe to which they belong, Reina-Valera Contemporánea and Reina-Valera revisida say “the tribe of their husbands,” while NET Bible and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh translate again “the tribe into which they marry.”

And their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers: See verse 3. This sentence highlights what the situation will mean for the Gileadites if the daughters of Zelophehad marry men from other tribes. However, after the previous sentence (will be added to), this sentence (will be taken from) may seem like a chronological step back in some languages. Good News Translation avoids the problem by concluding this verse with “and will be lost to our tribe,” which may be a more natural way of highlighting the outcome in a number of languages. La Biblia: Traducción en Lenguaje Actual is similar to Good News Translation with “And our tribe will lose part of the territory that was hers.” NET Bible renders this outcome as “So their inheritance will be taken away from the inheritance of our ancestral tribe.”

The speech of the Gileadite leaders contains a lot of repetition. Perhaps the repetition indicates that they are nervous about the substance of their request: they seem anxious that part of their tribal inheritance might slip away from them and be annexed by another tribe unless Moses takes immediate steps to rectify the situation (so Alter, pages 864-865). Alternatively, this repetition may simply be a stylistic feature that is characteristic of such formal public negotiation in Hebrew discourse, especially where a legal precedent is being discussed.

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 .