And the people rose all that day, and all night, and all the next day, and gathered the quails: The sequence of the time phrases all that day, and all night, and all the next day helps to give an impression of the great amount of birds that were collected. Contemporary English Version collapses these time phrases, saying simply “for two days,” which is not recommended. In many languages it will be more natural to put the verbs rose and gathered more closely together; for example, New International Version renders this sentence as “All that day and night and all the next day the people went out and gathered quail.” Good News Translation renders gathered as “worked catching” because of its interpretation of the last phrase of the previous verse. If translators follow the other interpretation, it is better to say gathered or “picked up” (Contemporary English Version).

He who gathered least gathered ten homers: A homer was a large, dry measure. Estimates of its quantity vary, so a translation should not give the impression that an exact equivalent in liters or bushels can be given for ten homers. At the same time it should be clear that this amount of quails was enormous. The derivation of the Hebrew word for homer suggests that it originally indicated the quantity of grain which was carried by a donkey, so Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch and De Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling render ten homers as “ten donkey loads.” Another good rendering is “ten large baskets” (Contemporary English Version). Meaningless transliterations are not recommended.

And they spread them out for themselves all around the camp to let them “dry” (Good News Translation) as a means of preserving the meat, which was an Egyptian custom.

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 .