Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? is another rhetorical question. With this question Moses exclaims that he is unable to find enough meat for all the people. Good News Translation provides a good model here.
For they weep before me and say, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat’: See verse 4. As in the previous verse, there is a quote within a quote here. Good News Translation uses indirect speech for the embedded quote, but some languages may be able to keep the direct speech. The Hebrew particle ki rendered For emphasizes Moses’ emotive reaction to the people’s complaint, so this whole sentence may be translated “Indeed, they keep whining at me, saying, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ ”
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 .
