This verse functions as a summary of for either verses 17-19 or, more likely, verses 2-19. The Leningrad Codex, on which the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia edition is based, has a minor break in the text between verses 19 and 20. This would suggest that verse 19 is not the introduction to verse 20.

As the LORD commanded Moses. So he numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai: In both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation the clause as the LORD commanded Moses is connected with what precedes. Although this is often the case with this clause in the Hebrew, such a connection seems unlikely here. By way of a summary, the text explicitly returns to Moses as the central figure and to the verb numbered. Traduction œcuménique de la Bible renders this verse as follows: “As the LORD had commanded him, Moses numbered them in the desert of Sinai.” Reversing the order of these clauses will bring out even more clearly that this verse is a summary; for example, La Nouvelle Bible Segond has “Moses numbered them in the desert of Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him.” In some languages an introductory conjunction or transitional expression may help to indicate a summary statement, for instance, “And so” or “In this way.”

Good News Translation renders commanded as “had commanded.” Although, unlike English, Hebrew has no separate verb form to express that something already took place earlier, that is, before a certain point in the past, here it is clear that the verb refers back to the LORD’s commands in verses 2-15. This distinction in time should be indicated in translation. Good News Translation leaves commanded without an object, but in the Hebrew Moses is mentioned directly after this verb.

Numbered renders the same Hebrew verb (paqad) translated “number” in verse 3 (see the comments there). It is better rendered “registered” (Good News Translation), “enrolled” (New Revised Standard Version), or “recorded” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh).

For the wilderness of Sinai, see verse 1.

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 .