These verses underline that the priests play a crucial part in restoring the ceremonial purity of the people. In this way, the livelihood of the priests is also secure.

And every offering, all the holy things of the people of Israel, which they bring to the priest, shall be his: The Israelites’ special offerings to the LORD will belong to the priests. Offering renders the Hebrew word terumah, which has the wide, general meaning of contribution (Good News Bible), gift or donation, especially those that go to the priests. Holy things are holy in the sense that they are offered or dedicated to the LORD. New International Version renders every offering, all the holy things as All the sacred contributions. Good News Bible makes it clear that the pronoun his refers to the priest by rendering shall be his as belongs to the priest.

And every man’s holy things shall be his; whatever any man gives to the priest shall be his: These two sentences repeat the idea of the previous verse for emphasis. Every man and any man refer to any Israelite, not just men. The pronoun his refers to the priest both times. New International Version interprets verse 10 differently than Revised Standard Version and Good News Bible, saying Each man’s sacred gifts are his own [that is, each man’s], but what he gives to the priest will belong to the priest. New International Version‘s reference to each man (as opposed to the priest) in the first sentence (also New Revised Standard Version) and the contrastive conjunction but are not in Revised Standard Version and Good News Bible. The Hebrew text does not indicate any contrast either, and the idea that each man can keep his own gifts does not seem to fit the context. PV expresses the Hebrew well by saying When someone makes an offering to the LORD, he hands it over to the priest. Whatever someone gives to a priest belongs to the priest.

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 .