All the holy offerings which the people of Israel present to the LORD I give to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a perpetual due: This first half of the verse is very similar to verse 8, so it may function as a final boundary (inclusio) for verses 8-19. The LORD’s direct speech to Aaron now ends the way it started in that verse. This verse also appears to summarize verses 8-18. For the Hebrew words rendered holy (qodesh) and offerings (terumah), see verse 8. The Hebrew noun for offerings and the verb for present come from the same root (see 15.19). Since the LORD is speaking here, Good News Translation refers to him in the first person (using the pronoun “me”), which other languages may find helpful. For your sons and daughters, see verse 11; for perpetual due, which Good News Translation renders “for all time to come,” see verse 8.

It is a covenant of salt for ever before the LORD for you and for your offspring with you: In the Old Testament the phrase a covenant of salt occurs only here and in 2 Chr 13.5. For covenant see 10.33. According to Lev 2.13, every offering that was a grain offering was to be salted. Salt preserved and purified (see 2 Kgs 2.19-22). A covenant of salt means the covenant was unbreakable. Good News Translation uses a nonfigurative expression, saying “an unbreakable covenant,” and so does Bible en français courant with “an irrevocable covenant.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch keeps the idea of salt but explains what it represents by rendering it is a covenant of salt for ever before the LORD as “These privileges apply forever. In my eyes they are as irrevocable as a covenant that is affirmed by eating salt together.” If the meaning of this expression is not made clear in translation, an explanatory footnote stating that it refers to a very solemn and unchangeable promise will be necessary. The Hebrew word for offspring is literally “seed” (see 5.38, where it is rendered “children”). Some languages have a similar singular noun with a collective sense. Good News Translation says “descendants.”

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 .