Translation commentary on Exod 34:23

This verse is identical with 23.17 except for the final phrase, the God of Israel, which is added here. It should be noted that Revised Standard Version has “the Lord GOD” in 23.17, but here it has the LORD God. (See the comment there.) The Hebrew is the same in both places: haʾadon Yahweh, literally “the Lord Yahweh.” The difference is due to the additional phrase, which changes the emphasis, “the Lord, Yahweh God of Israel.” Good News Translation has “the LORD, the God of Israel,” and Contemporary English Version has: “the LORD God of Israel,” which really means the same thing. Revised English Bible has “the Lord, the LORD the God of Israel.” A few translations, however, still read it as “Lord Yahweh, God of Israel” (New Jerusalem Bible). New International Version and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh have “the Sovereign LORD, the God of Israel.”

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 .

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