Now the booty remaining of the spoil that the men of war took was is literally “And the booty the remainder of the plunder that the people of the war [or, army] plundered was.” What this sentence means is not entirely clear. Good News Translation believes it refers to all the war booty that was left over after the Israelite soldiers had taken their share by saying “The following is a list of what was captured by the soldiers, in addition to what they kept for themselves.” For booty see verse 11; for the Hebrew root meaning “plunder” and “plundered,” see verse 9, where it is translated “took as booty”; and for the Hebrew word rendered war (tsavaʾ), see verse 3.

Six hundred and seventy-five thousand sheep, seventy-two thousand cattle, sixty-one thousand asses, and thirty-two thousand persons in all: The numbers given here refer to the total booty of domestic animals and virgins, not just to the half that the soldiers received (verse 27). Since this is a list, in many languages Good News Translation‘s use of numbers in figures will be easier to read than writing out the numbers fully as in Revised Standard Version. In connection with these numbers, NET Bible makes the helpful comment: “Here again we encounter one of the difficulties of the book, the use of the large numbers. Only twelve thousand soldiers fought the Midianites, but they brought back this amount of plunder, including 32,000 girls. Until a solution for numbers in the book can be found, or the current translation [of the Hebrew text] confirmed, one must remain cautious in interpretation.” Translators should also remain cautious when rendering these figures.

The Hebrew word for sheep (tsʾon) is the same one translated “flocks” in verse 28, so it is better rendered “sheep and goats” (Good News Translation). For the generic Hebrew word rendered cattle (baqar), see verse 28, where it is translated “oxen.” For asses see verse 28; for the generic Hebrew word rendered persons (ʾadam), see verse 28.

All these persons were the Midianite women who had not known man by lying with him (see verse 18). New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh expresses this by saying “human beings, namely, the women who had not had carnal relations” (similarly De Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling). New International Version has “women who had never slept with a man,” and Good News Translation says simply “virgins.”

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 .