He has filled them with ability is literally “He filled them [with] wisdom of heart.” (See the comment at 28.3.) To do every sort of work done by, literally “to do all work of,” introduces the list of four skills. The word for craftsman is a general term that refers to one who is skilled in different crafts, such as carpentry, masonry, or metalworking. New Revised Standard Version has “artisan,” but Durham has “metal-worker,” and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “carver.” Good News Translation and others limit this to “engravers,” since the word is used in this sense in 28.11. Another form of the same word is translated as “craftsmanship” in 31.3, so it is better to use the more general term here, such as craftsman or “artisan.”

The word for designer comes from the verb “to think,” which also means to invent as well as create artistic things. The word for embroiderer refers to one who works with colored fabrics, so the familiar list of yarns is mentioned again, in blue and purple and scarlet stuff. (See the comment at 25.4.) The fine twined linen should be simply “fine linen” (Good News Translation), as explained at 25.4.

The word for weaver is the participle of the verb that means specifically “to weave.” Most translations list this as the fourth skill, but Good News Translation considers this to have the same meaning as embroiderer and translates “weavers” for both. It is better, however, to list four different terms for these skills in the receptor language, if this is possible. By any sort of workman or skilled designer is added in order to include all other skills not already mentioned. Repeating some of the terms already used, the Hebrew literally says “a doer of all work and a designer of designs.”

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 .