And they shall put on it all the utensils of the altar, which are used for the service there: A natural target language style for instructions should determine whether the conjunction and is needed or not (so Good News Translation). In any case, it may be necessary to specify that the pronoun it refers to the “purple cloth,” mentioned in the previous verse. All the utensils of the altar is repeated in this verse. Some languages may prefer to render this phrase only once (so Good News Translation). Which are used for the service there is literally “with which they [Aaron and his sons] serve at it [the altar].”

The utensils used at the altar were the firepans, the forks, the shovels, and the basins. Firepans renders the same Hebrew word as “trays” in verse 9 (see the comments there). Here this word refers to an instrument for turning the hot coals of the altar and carrying them. The Hebrew word for forks (“hooks” in Good News Translation) may be translated more specifically as “flesh hooks” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) or “meat forks” (Contemporary English Version). These forks were used to turn sacrificial victims on the altar or to remove them. The Hebrew word for shovels refers to instruments that were used to remove the refuse from the altar after a victim had been burned. The Hebrew word for basins refers to bowls that were used to hold the blood of the animals that had been killed for sacrifices. Since the blood in these bowls was sprinkled on the altar, Contemporary English Version calls them “sprinkling bowls.” A Handbook on Numbers discusses these terms at Exo 27.3, where they occur as well, though in a different order.

And they shall spread upon it a covering of goatskin: See verse 6.

And shall put in its poles: Like the sacred chest, the table for the sacred bread and the incense altar, the altar of sacrifice had rings on its sides through which poles were placed to carry it (see Exo 27.4-7; 38.5-7). Good News Translation renders poles as “carrying poles” to express more clearly that they were used to carry the altar.

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 .