And when Aaron … saw Moses is literally “And Aaron saw Moses.” The when makes it a temporal clause that is dependent on the second clause. And all the people of Israel is literally “and all the sons of Israel.” It is significant that Aaron is mentioned first. One may also express this as “When Aaron and all the other people saw Moses.”

Behold is the usual word used to call attention to what follows. Here it also adds a bit of suspense in the story. The skin of his face shone has the same verb as verse 29. (See the comment there.) This should not suggest that it was only when the people saw him that his face began to shine. Good News Translation is better, “his face was shining,” and New International Version has “his face was radiant.” And they were afraid to come near him is literally “and they feared to approach him.” New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “and they shrank from coming near him,” and Contemporary English Version has “and they were afraid to go near him,” which suggests that Moses approached the people, not knowing that “his face was shining” (Good News Translation), and frightened them away. The following verse supports this.

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 .