Why does the LORD bring us into this land, to fall by the sword?: Good News Translation divides this rhetorical question into a question and a statement for naturalness. However, in Hebrew it is one question, so another possible model based on Good News Translation is “Why is the LORD taking us into that land, to be killed in battle?” Fall by the sword is a figurative expression for dying in battle. A sword was a large knife used as weapon for fighting. A short sword was about half a meter (1.5 feet) long, but swords could be as long as a meter (3 feet) or more. For those situations where swords are unknown, a term for a large knife, perhaps a bush knife or machete, may be used, or even a descriptive expression such as “large knife for war.” Such a knife should be at least half a meter long, not just a short dagger. The target language may also have a close functional equivalent for sword that can serve in this context and fit the biblical setting, for example, “spear” or “arrows” (or perhaps even a generic term such as “weapons”). The nonfigurative expression of Good News Translation is also possible.
Our wives and our little ones will become a prey: Instead of Our wives and our little ones, Good News Translation uses the natural English expression “our wives and children.” Translators should use the normal expression for “wives and children” in their language. The Hebrew word for prey refers to people being taken prisoner as a result of warfare. Revised English Bible translates prey as “spoils of war” and NET Bible says “plunder,” but these renderings seem to refer to non-human items captured in war. “Carried off as slaves” states the meaning of become a prey explicitly, while “captured” in Good News Translation may leave too much implicit.
Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?: As the following verse indicates, this is a rhetorical question, which may need to be marked in some way, for example, “Surely it would be better for us to return to Egypt, not so?”
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 .