Also one male goat for a sin offering to the LORD: During each New Moon Festival one adult billy goat also had to be sacrificed. For the Hebrew expression rendered male goat, see 7.16; for sin offering, see 6.11. This offering was for the forgiveness of the unintentional offenses of participants, thus safeguarding the purity of the Holy Place (so Levine, page 379). So NET Bible and Ashley say “purification offering.”

It shall be offered besides the continual burnt offering and its drink offering: As in verse 4 (see the comments there), the Hebrew verb for offered has a more generic meaning, which is literally “made” or “done.” So a specific verb such as “sacrificed” (Revised English Bible) is not necessary. In languages that do not use passive verbs, it shall be offered may be rendered “you [plural] shall offer it [the goat].” According to most translations, the pronoun its refers to the continual burnt offering, that is, the offering by fire (verses 3-8), with which the drink offering was combined (verses 7-8); for example, New Living Translation renders this sentence as “This is in addition to the regular burnt offering and its accompanying liquid offering.” However, SPCL and Bijbel: Vertaling in opdracht van het Nederlandsch Bijbelgenootschap understand the pronoun its to refer to the offering of the goat. Bijbel: Vertaling in opdracht van het Nederlandsch Bijbelgenootschap translates this whole verse as “And one goat will be prepared for the LORD as a sin offering with the accompanying libation besides the daily burnt offering.” We prefer the first understanding (so also Rashi, who notes that drink offerings did not accompany sin offerings).

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 .