Verses 11-15 deal with the offerings on the first day of each month. The first day of each month in the Hebrew calendar was the day of the new moon, the day when only a thin edge of the moon could be seen. The new moon was an important feature of the pagan life of the ancient Near East (so Ashley, page 565), but in the case of Israel it was clearly set within the regular worship of the one true God, Yahweh. Translators may begin a new paragraph here with a subheading (see the introductory comments on this section). Good News Translation‘s heading for these five verses is “The Offering on the First Day of the Month,” and New Living Translation has “The Monthly Offerings.”

At the beginnings of your months you shall offer a burnt offering to the LORD: For the beginnings of your months, see 10.10. Good News Translation says “the beginning of each month,” which expresses this phrase more clearly. The Hebrew pronouns for your and you are plural, referring to the Israelites. For the Hebrew verb rendered offer (hiqrib), see verse 2; for burnt offering (ʿolah in Hebrew), see verse 3.

Two young bulls, one ram, seven male lambs a year old without blemish: These were the animals the Israelites had to offer as the burnt offering on the first day of each month. For the Hebrew expression rendered young bulls (literally “young bulls, sons of cows”), see 7.15. The Hebrew word for ram refers to a male sheep, older than the male lambs (see verse 3). Ram is rendered “male sheep” in some languages (so Chewa).

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 .