You shall not eat one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, but a whole month: This clause emphasizes that the Israelites will have to eat meat for a whole month, not just a few days.

Until it comes out at your nostrils exaggerates how much meat they will have to eat. Good News Translation uses a more natural idiom in English, saying “until it comes out of your ears.” Other languages may have equivalent idioms; for example, Chewa says “until you vomit.” New Living Translation is similar with “until you gag.”

And becomes loathsome to you may be rendered “and [you] are sick of it” (New Living Translation), “and you hate it” (similarly New International Readers Version), or “and you are disgusted with it” (similarly Bible en français courant).

Because you have rejected the LORD who is among you …: The conjunction because introduces why the people will have to eat an excess amount of meat as a punishment. It is because they doubted the LORD’s ability to provide for them and dishonored him through their continual complaining. A verb for rejected that expresses this shameful attitude and behavior is needed in the receptor language.

And have wept before him, saying may be rendered “and have complained while he was listening” (similarly New International Readers Version; see the comments on verses 4 and 18). This quote frame introduces another third-level quotation since the following words of the Israelites are quoted within the words of Moses, which the LORD instructs him to say.

Why did we come forth out of Egypt? is what the people said. Good News Translation uses indirect speech for this third-level quotation, which other languages may find helpful (so Good News Translation closes verse 20 with two quotation marks, but Revised Standard Version has three). In other languages, however, keeping this embedded quote serves to highlight the people’s sin and guilt, as it were, in their own words. Why did we come forth out of Egypt? is a rhetorical question. It may be expressed as a strong statement by saying “We should never have left Egypt!”

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 .