Thus did the people of Israel. According to all that the LORD commanded Moses: Thus is literally “And,” and the Hebrew clause rendered According to all that the LORD commanded Moses is connected to what precedes, so New Revised Standard Version is better here with “The Israelites did just as the LORD had commanded Moses” (similarly Good News Translation). This sentence is similar to 1.54 (see the comments there), thus also serving as a structural marker of the end of a major unit of discourse, namely, chapters 1–2. Within the summary of verses 32 34, verse 34 is an even more general summary than verses 32 33, so Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation begin a new paragraph here also.

So they encamped by their standards, and so they set out, every one in his family, according to his fathers’ house: Both occurrences of the connector so render the Hebrew particle ken. It is repeated in this conclusion to emphasize that the Israelites obeyed the LORD’s explicit commands. For encamped see 1.50; for standards see 1.52; and for set out, see verse 9. Family renders the Hebrew word mishpachah, which refers to a clan (see 1.2), so every one in his family, according to his fathers’ house is better rendered “everyone by clans, according to ancestral homes” (New Revised Standard Version) or “each with his clan and family” (New International Version).

A model for this verse is:

• The people of Israel did everything the LORD had commanded Moses. Indeed, they camped, each under his own banner, and indeed, they marched, each with his clan and family.

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 .