Verse 27 is an initial summary statement concerning the division of the war booty between the soldiers who fought and the rest of the Israelites. Verses 28-29 explain the amount of tax to be raised for the LORD from the booty of each group.

And divide the booty into two parts: Clearly, a new sentence should begin here (so Good News Translation). Good News Translation renders this clause as “Divide what was taken into two equal parts,” which expresses more precisely the meaning of the Hebrew verb here.

Between the warriors who went out to battle and all the congregation: The warriors is literally “those who took/bore the battle,” so NET Bible says “those who took part in the war,” and King James Version has “them that took the war upon them.” Who went out to battle (literally “who went out to the war”) repeats the idea of the previous expression. The Hebrew word for battle is tsavaʾ (see the comments on verse 3). Good News Translation renders all the congregation as “the rest of the community,” which clearly expresses the sense of the Hebrew phrase here.

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 .