Then Moses brought out all the rods from before the LORD to all the people of Israel: New International Version renders from before the LORD as “from the LORD’s presence,” and De Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling has “out of the holy place of the LORD.” Good News Bible omits this phrase, which we do not recommend, unless it would make the text overly repetitive in the target language.

And they looked: The Hebrew verb here does not have an object. Good News Bible provides an object by saying “They saw what had happened,” which is a helpful model for languages that require an object.

And each man took his rod: Aaron and the twelve tribal chieftains took back their staffs. Good News Bible renders each man as “each leader,” but based on verse 2, it would be better to say “each chieftain.”

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 .