When the people heard these evil tidings is literally “And the people heard this evil word.” New Revised Standard Version has “these harsh words,” and New American Bible has “this bad news.” Good News Translation simply has “When the people heard this.” They mourned really means to observe mourning rites for the dead, but here it shows the extent of their remorse. Durham has “they plunged themselves into deep mourning,” but this may be too strong. Revised English Bible has “they went about like mourners,” which may be closer to the intended meaning. In some languages it will be necessary to say something like “When the people heard what Yahweh had said, they began to weep, showing their sorrow.”

And no man put on his ornaments is literally “and they did not put a man his ornament[s] upon them.” Ornaments comes from the verb meaning “to adorn oneself,” so New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “none put on his finery,” and Durham has “not one of them wore his festive dress.” Good News Translation has “they … did not wear jewelry any more,” but this is not the usual word for “jewelry.” These ornaments may have included both fancy clothing and the “jewelry” not included in the gold earrings that were used to make the golden bull-calf. So one may say “they stopped wearing their beautiful clothes and ornaments.”

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 .