complete verse (Numbers 2:32)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Numbers 2:32:

  • Kupsabiny: “The counting of all the people of Israel who were registered according to their houses and their clans is/was 603,550.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “These are the ones who were numbered according to the Israelites’ own households. The sum total [of] those numbered by their sections camp by camp [lit.: in camp camp] was 603,550 [men].” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “The total number of the Israelinhon which were-listed according to their tribe, 603,550 all.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “So there were 603,550 Israeli men who were able to fight who were listed according to their families’ ancestors.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

large numbers in Angguruk Yali

Many languages use a “body part tally system” where body parts function as numerals (see body part tally systems with a description). One such language is Angguruk Yali which uses a system that ends at the number 27. To circumvent this limitation, the Angguruk Yali translators adopted a strategy where a large number is first indicated with an approximation via the traditional system, followed by the exact number according to Arabic numerals. For example, where in 2 Samuel 6:1 it says “thirty thousand” in the English translation, the Angguruk Yali says teng-teng angge 30.000 or “so many rounds [following the body part tally system] 30,000,” likewise, in Acts 27:37 where the number “two hundred seventy-six” is used, the Angguruk Yali translation says teng-teng angge 276 or “so many rounds 276,” or in John 6:10 teng-teng angge 5.000 for “five thousand.”

This strategy is used in all the verses referenced here.

Source: Lourens de Vries in The Bible Translator 1998, p. 409ff.

See also numbers in Ngalum and numbers in Kombai.

Translation commentary on Numbers 2:32

Verses 32-34 function as a summary that brings the tribal census and location reports of chapters 1–2 to a close (compare 1.44-47, 54). They are no longer part of the LORD’s direct speech. Many languages will have a way of indicating this shift from direct speech to a summary at this point. Helpful models that do this for verse 32 are “These are the Israelites, counted according to their families. All those in the camps, by their divisions, number 603,550” (New International Version), “Those are the enrollments of the Israelites by ancestral houses. The total enrolled in the divisions, for all troops: 603,550” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), and “Now [discourse shift marker] these ones [just mentioned] they are the [people of] Israel as [he/they] counted them…” (Chewa). In spite of what Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation suggest, the Hebrew of this verse shows no indication of any past tense at all. (This is different from 1.46, where a past tense form occurs in the Hebrew.) In some languages the use of a present tense in the context of what is expected to be a summary of a historical narrative (and thus set in the past) would be taken literally as switching to something that is actually happening currently. In these languages a past tense may be unavoidable.

These are the people of Israel as numbered by their fathers’ houses …: The Hebrew verb rendered numbered twice in this verse is the same one translated “number” in 1.3 (see the comments there). It is better rendered “enrolled” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), “registered,” or “recorded.” For fathers’ houses, see 1.2.

All in the camps who were numbered by their companies were six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty: The camps are the tribal campsites of the Israelites (see 1.52). For by their companies (literally “by their troops”), see 1.3; for six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty, see the comments on 1.20-46.

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 .