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Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣadबृहदारण्यक उपनिषद्

Yajnavalkya Kanda. Adhyaya 3, Brahmana 9. Sakalya: how many gods, and the one Person; neti neti

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Each mantra is given four ways: the Sanskrit in its Devanagari script, the same sounds in Roman letters, an English translation set in our own voice, and then the line once more in plain words, for a first and unhurried reading.

Not every passage is opened to the same depth. A few central mantras carry the full cross-school commentary, where the schools are set side by side. The rest are kept here whole and faithful, set in their place but not expounded, so the book stays entire and nothing is dropped for being thought minor.

Where the schools read a line differently, the difference is kept open. None is crowned and none is corrected. Each is met on its own terms, and where they contradict, the contradiction is left standing for you to sit with.

॥ 3.9.2 ॥

Thirty-three in truth

स होवाच। महिमान एवैषामेते। त्रयस्त्रिंशत्त्वेव देवा इति। कतमे ते त्रयस्त्रिंशदिति। अष्टौ वसव एकादश रुद्रा द्वादशादित्याः त एकत्रिंशदैन्द्रश्चैव प्रजापतिश्च त्रयस्त्रिंशाविति
In transliteration
sa hovāca| mahimāna evaiṣāmete| trayastriṃśattveva devā iti| katame te trayastriṃśaditi| aṣṭau vasava ekādaśa rudrā dvādaśādityāḥ ta ekatriṃśadaindraścaiva prajāpatiśca trayastriṃśāviti

In English

He said: These are but the glories of these gods, and the gods are only thirty-three. Which are those thirty-three? The eight Vasus, the eleven Rudras, and the twelve Adityas, these are thirty-one; and with Indra and Prajapati they are thirty-three.

In plain words

Yajnavalkya explains that the huge number counts only the manifested powers, the glories (mahiman), of the gods; the gods proper are thirty-three. He names them: eight Vasus, eleven Rudras, twelve Adityas, which make thirty-one, and Indra and Prajapati bring the total to thirty-three.