Verses 22-29 deal with sacrifices that must be offered when people commit unintentional sins. Some languages may prefer a separate heading for these verses, such as “Sacrifices for unintentional offenses.”

But if you err, and do not observe all these commandments which the LORD has spoken to Moses, all that the LORD has commanded you by Moses …: But, which renders the Hebrew waw conjunction, wrongly suggests that there is a contrast between this subsection and the previous one. Here this conjunction simply introduces a new topic, so it is better translated “Now” (New International Version) or simply deleted (so New International Readers Version, Bible en français courant, Parole de Vie). The conjunction if (“suppose” in Good News Translation) introduces a hypothetical case of unintentional disobedience. Compare Chewa with “perhaps.” The Hebrew pronouns for you and your are plural. The unintentional sins of the community are dealt with in verses 22-26 and the unintentional sins of individuals in verses 27-29. Good News Translation‘s rendering of you as “someone” could wrongly suggest that only one person is involved. The Hebrew verb for err means “make a mistake unintentionally, unwittingly” in this context. The normal word for “sin” should not be used here. Good News Translation combines the verbs err and do not observe, saying “unintentionally fails to keep.” The Hebrew noun for commandments and the verb for commanded come from the same root (tsawah). All these commandments can be understood as referring specifically to the regulations in verses 1-21. But verse 23 says they are all that the LORD has commanded you by Moses, that is, any commandment that the LORD gave the Israelites through Moses, not just the regulations of verses 1-21. It is because of this specification in verse 23 that the regulations which follow apply to any unintentional violation of any of the commandments. By Moses is literally “by the hand of Moses,” which Good News Translation renders “through Moses.” Some languages may have an expression that is similar to the one in Hebrew, for example, “in the mouth of Moses.”

From the day that the LORD gave commandment, and onward throughout your generations specifies when unintentional sins could take place. They could take place at any time after the commandments were given. This clause may be rendered “from the day that the LORD commanded Moses and continuing through your future generations” (NET Bible). Gave commandment renders the same Hebrew verb translated commanded.

Good News Translation translates verses 22 and 23 as separate sentences, but its rendering is somewhat confusing. We recommend the following model that is based on New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible for these verses:

• 22 “If you unwittingly fail to observe any of these commandments that the LORD has spoken to Moses—23 in fact anything that the LORD has commanded you through Moses—from the day that the LORD gave you his commands, and onward throughout your generations….

In some languages it may be helpful for the sake of sentence length to combine these verses into one sentence as follows:

• 22-23 “It could happen that from the day when the LORD gave his commandments and onward through the ages, you might at times unwittingly fail to observe one of these commandments that the LORD has declared to Moses, in fact, anything that the LORD has commanded you through Moses.

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 .