And all the congregation brought him outside the camp, and stoned him to death with stones: See the previous verse. And stoned him to death with stones is literally “and they stoned him with stones, and he died.” Good News Translation says simply “and stoned him to death.”

As the LORD commanded Moses: Good News Translation omits the reference to Moses here, perhaps in order not to suggest that it was Moses’ responsibility alone to see that this man was executed. Rather, it was the duty of the community as a whole to execute this judgment from the LORD.

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 .