And a basket of unleavened bread: The Nazirite must also bring unleavened bread as an offering. Unleavened bread refers to “bread made without yeast” (Good News Bible). It was baked quickly from wheat flour and water. Yeast is the substance that causes bread to rise. In cultures where yeast is unknown, unleavened bread may be rendered “bread that does not rise.” Chewa says “non-puffed-up bread,” and Tonga has “bread without fermented grain.” The Hebrew word for basket refers to a container made of woven material, usually grass or reeds.

Two forms of bread without yeast are mentioned here: cakes of fine flour mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers spread with oil. The Hebrew word for cakes probably refers to ring-shaped loaves, and the word for wafers refers to flat loaves of bread still eaten in the Middle East today. As A Handbook on Leviticus mentions at Lev 2.4, translators should use two rather general expressions for these types of bread, for example, “thick bread” and “thin bread” respectively. However, it is important that the expressions used both designate kinds of bread that are made without yeast. The Hebrew word for fine flour refers to coarsely milled wheat flour (thus not the finely milled barley flour mentioned in 5.15). This coarser wheat flour was considered a more sumptuous kind of flour than the finely milled flour, and it was used primarily in ritual offerings. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh renders fine flour as “choice flour,” which reflects the high quality of this particular kind of flour. Mixed with oil means the choice flour of the thick bread was kneaded in olive oil before it was baked. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh says “with oil mixed in.” Spread with oil (literally “anointed in the oil”) means olive oil was “smeared” (Revised English Bible) or “brushed” (Good News Bible) on the thin bread after it was baked. This phrase may be rendered “coated with olive oil.”

And their cereal offering and their drink offerings: For cereal offering, see 4.16. Here this offering has a plural sense, so New International Version says “grain offerings.” For drink offerings (“libations” in New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), see 4.7. Both occurrences of the pronoun their probably refers to the three animal sacrifices mentioned in verse 14. Grain offerings and libations usually accompanied animal sacrifices. Good News Bible renders this whole phrase at the end of the verse, saying “and in addition the required offerings of grain and wine.” New International Version places this phrase at the beginning of the verse to make it clear that these offerings accompanied the animal sacrifices, saying “together with their grain offerings and drink offerings.” Contemporary English Version is similar by beginning this verse with “Wine offerings and grain sacrifices must also be brought with these animals.” Some languages may find it helpful to follow what New International Version and Contemporary English Version have done here.

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 .