And over the table of the bread of the Presence they shall spread a cloth of blue: The table of the bread of the Presence is literally “the table of the presence” or “the table of display” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, and many other translations include the word “bread.” The Hebrew does not mention bread here, but elsewhere the phrase “the bread of the presence” occurs in connection with this particular table. The Hebrew word translated Presence literally means “face” and is frequently used to refer to the actual person of the LORD himself. So Good News Translation renders this whole phrase as “the table for the bread offered to the LORD.” Contemporary English Version says “the table for the sacred bread” and has the following informative footnote: “This bread was offered to the LORD and was a symbol of his presence in the sacred tent. It was put out on a special table and was replaced with fresh bread each Sabbath (Leviticus 24.5-9).” See 3.31 for more discussion on this table. The pronoun they refers to Aaron and his sons. For a cloth of blue, see verse 6. The color blue marked out the holiest objects, those most closely associated with the presence of God.

And put upon it the plates, the dishes for incense, the bowls, and the flagons for the drink offering: The Hebrew word for plates is a general term for a dish that was probably deeper than the flat plates used in many places today. The Hebrew word for dishes is the same one as for the palm of the hand, so the word “bowls” (Good News Translation) expresses their hollow shape more accurately. Translators should select similarly shaped objects used in the receptor culture: the first, a shallow dish or bowl of some kind; and the second, a deeper cup-like object. Revised Standard Version has added the words for incense (similarly Good News Translation); but they are not in the Hebrew. Passages such as Num 7.14 suggest that these dishes were sometimes used for incense, but it is best to omit this idea here. It is most likely that both the bowls and the flagons (“jars” in Good News Translation) were used for the drink offering. Exo 25.29 mentions the same items in reverse order, where the Hebrew says literally “and its flagons and its bowls which it was poured out in them.” Thus the flagons were used to pour out the drink offering into the bowls. A translation should bring out that the bowls as well as the flagons (but not the plates and the dishes) were connected with the drink offering. The drink offering (“libation” in New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) is discussed in A Handbook on Numbers at Exo 29.40. It was the pouring out of wine as an offering to God. Chewa says “offering of something [generic term] to drink.” A possible rendering for these four items placed on the table for the sacred bread is “the plates and the bowls, the vessels and flagons/jugs for the drink offering” (similarly Luther, Vulgate). Exo 25.29 and 37.16 mention the same four items, so translators should refer back to those verses in order to use consistent terminology.

The continual bread also shall be on it can be expressed much more clearly by saying “The bread shall always remain on the table” (similarly Good News Translation). Bible en français courant is also clear with “they will also put on it the loaves which are to be offered to me [the LORD] permanently.”

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 .