But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in: See verse 3. The Hebrew puts emphasis on the little ones, contrasting them with the adults. God will allow the children to enter Canaan. Good News Translation adds “into the land” to the phrase I will bring in. In view of the importance of this land in the Old Testament, this is a helpful addition.

And they shall know the land which you have despised: Good News Translation expresses the sense of the clause they shall know the land by saying “it will be their home.” However, Bijbel in Gewone Taal provides a more helpful model for this whole sentence as follows: “In that land, which you rejected, they will feel at home.” This model shows the contrast between the two generations and between despised and know more clearly than Revised Standard Version or Good News Translation. A similar rendering is “They will fully enjoy the land that you have rejected.” Despised renders a different Hebrew verb than the one in verse 11, but the sense is similar.

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 .