But if the manslayer shall at any time go beyond the bounds of his city of refuge to which he fled: A contrastive conjunction such as But (literally “And”) is necessary for naturalness in many languages here (so New Living Translation, NET Bible, Chewa). For the manslayer, see the previous verse. New International Readers Version says “the one who has been charged with murder,” and Chewa has “the person who killed his/her fellow accidentally.” Shall at any time go beyond renders an emphatic Hebrew expression, which is literally “to go out he shall go out.” The Hebrew verb for “go out” occurs twice here, first as an infinitive absolute and then as a finite verb. In many languages at any time or “ever” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) expresses the emphasis well. The bounds of is literally “the boundary of” (NET Bible). For city of refuge, see verse 6. His city of refuge to which he fled may be rendered simply “the city to which he has escaped” (similarly NET Bible).

And the avenger of blood finds him outside the bounds of his city of refuge, and the avenger of blood slays the manslayer: For the avenger of blood, see verse 12.

He shall not be guilty of blood is literally “there is not to/on him blood.” Some languages say “he has no bloodguilt” (Alter; similarly Herziene Statenvertaling, De Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling). It should be clear in the translation that the pronoun he refers to the avenger of blood. Good News Translation renders this clause as “this act of revenge is not murder.” The phrase “act of revenge” seems unnecessary; in fact, in English the word “revenge” has a negative connotation. Better models are “it will not be considered murder” (New Living Translation), “he does not become guilty of murder” (Chewa), and “then it is not murder” (Bijbel in Gewone Taal).

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 .