While the people of Israel were in the wilderness …: The specific time of the shocking incident in verses 32-36 is not given, so the translation should not imply that it took place immediately after the LORD gave the instructions recorded in verses 1-31. This is why Good News Translation begins with the indefinite time marker “Once.” New Living Translation is similar with “One day.” For the Hebrew word rendered wilderness (midbar), see 1.1.

They found a man gathering sticks on the sabbath day: Sticks is literally “woods,” referring to pieces of wood. Good News Translation says “firewood” to make it explicit that the man wanted to make a fire with it. The Hebrew term for sabbath comes from a verb meaning “to rest” or “to cease from work.” It is similar to the word for “seven,” and it was on the seventh day that the LORD rested, following the work of creation (Gen 2.2-3). Most modern translations use the traditional word sabbath or “Sabbath” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version). However, Reina-Valera Contemporánea renders sabbath day as “day of rest,” which may be a more meaningful rendering in some languages. If translators transliterate the word sabbath due to church tradition, a footnote and a note in the glossary should be included. On this holy day the Israelites were forbidden to do any work (Exo 20.10; 31.14) or even to light a fire (Exo 35.3). The man deliberately did not follow this absolute commandment.

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 .