And the LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai: See the comments on 1.1.

In the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt: This clause refers to the same month and year as in 7.1 (see the discussion on chronology there), though not necessarily the same day. The first month in the Hebrew calendar corresponds to mid-March to mid-April. Hebrew months are determined by the moon, so their calendar months constantly change with respect to our modern calendar (see the comments on 1.1).

Saying: In many languages it is better to start a new sentence at this point; for example, Good News Translation has “He said….”

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 .