I will send my terror before you really means “Terror of me I will send ahead of you [singular].” This is the same word used in 15.16, but here Yahweh is calling it my terror. Good News Translation says it clearly: “I will make the people who oppose you afraid of me.” Contemporary English Version has “I will terrify those nations,” with “nations” referring back to all the peoples mentioned in verse 23. And I will throw into confusion is the same word used in 14.24, where Revised Standard Version translates it as “discomfit.” It really means to “throw into panic” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, New American Bible, Revised English Bible).

All the people against whom you shall come is literally “all the people whom you [singular] enter among them.” Good News Translation interprets this as “people against whom you fight,” since the words for terror and confusion are terms that suggest the idea of “holy war.” (See the comment on “holy war” at 14.14.) But this may be too strong a statement, for the Israelites were not necessarily the ones who started a fight. New Jerusalem Bible has “all the peoples you encounter,” and Translator’s Old Testament has “all the people whom you meet.” Contemporary English Version has “and make your enemies so confused that….”

And I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you is an idiomatic expression. Literally it says “and I will give all your [singular] enemies unto you the back of neck.” This does not mean that the enemies will ignore or snub them, but rather that they will “turn and run from you” (Good News Translation). New American Bible has “turn from you in flight.” Translator’s Old Testament suggests that this can mean “submit” in the sense of bowing low and showing their backs. But this not a widely-held view. The word for enemies is the same word used in verses 4 and 22.

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• I will make those nations terrified of you, and cause those who hate you to become so confused that they will run away.

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .