Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Deuteronomy 1:5:
Kupsabiny: “While they were East of the river Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses showed/explained to the people the teachings of God saying,” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “In the land of Moab, east of the Jordan, Moses started to explain this law clearly, like this.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “Therefore Moises told them the laws of the LORD there east of the River of Jordan, in the territory of Moab. He said,” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “Moses/I told them these things while the people were in the Moab region, on the east side of the Jordan River. He/I explained to them/enabled them to understand God’s laws. This is what he/I said to them:” (Source: Translation for Translators)
The Hebrew, Greek and Ge’ez that is translated as “Jordan” means “descending (rapidly),” “flowing down.” (Source: Cornwall / Smith 1997 )
In Hungarian Sign Language it is translated with the sign for the river bordering Jordan and Israel, along with the general sign for river. (Source: Jenjelvi Biblia and HSL Bible Translation Group)
“Jordan river” in Hungarian Sign Language (source )
The Greek, Hebrew, and Ge’ez that is translated in English as “Law” or “law” is translated in Mairasi as oro nasinggiei or “prohibited things” (source: Enggavoter 2004), in Noongar with a capitalized form of the term for “words” (Warrinya) (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang), in Yucateco as “ordered-word” (for “commandment,” it is “spoken-word”) (source: Nida 1947, p. 198), and in Central Tarahumara it is “writing-command” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
McKnight’s English translation (publ. 2023) has it as Covenant Code. He explains (p. 301): “The law of Moses was a covenantal arrangement by God with the people of Israel. This code of conduct expected of them was not the same as law in the Roman world or what law means to us today. It is a revelation of God’s will for God’s covenant people but requires ongoing interpretation and adjustments.”
American Sign Language also uses the sign depicting the horns but also has a number of alternative signs (see here ).
In French Sign Language, a similar sign is used, but it is interpreted as “radiance” (see below) and it culminates in a sign for “10,” signifying the 10 commandments:
The horns that are visible in Michelangelo’s statue are based on a passage in the Latin Vulgate translation (and many Catholic Bible translations that were translated through the 1950ies with that version as the source text). Jerome, the translator, had worked from a Hebrew text without the niqquds, the diacritical marks that signify the vowels in Hebrew and had interpreted the term קרו (k-r-n) in Exodus 34:29 as קֶ֫רֶן — keren “horned,” rather than קָרַו — karan “radiance” (describing the radiance of Moses’ head as he descends from Mount Sinai).
In Swiss-German Sign Language (and Hungarian Sign Language) it is translated with a sign depicting holding a staff. This refers to a number of times where Moses’s staff is used in the context of miracles, including the parting of the sea (see Exodus 14:16), striking of the rock for water (see Exodus 17:5 and following), or the battle with Amalek (see Exodus 17:9 and following).
In Vietnamese (Hanoi) Sign Language it is translated with the sign that depicts the eye make up he would have worn as the adopted son of an Egyptian princess. (Source: The Vietnamese Sign Language translation team, VSLBT)
“Moses” in Vietnamese Sign Language, source: SooSL
In Korean Sign Language it is translated with the sign that depicts the arms held up by Moses to assure the Israelites victory over the Amalekites (see Exodus 17:11).
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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between. One way to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. When the referent is God, the “divine” honorific prefix mi- (御 or み) can be used, as in mi-oshie (みおしえ) or “teaching (of God)” in the referenced verses.
Moses undertook to explain this law: the Hebrew verb translated undertook can be taken to mean “decided,” “resolved” (Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible), or “began” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New International Version [New International Version], Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje). The verb translated explain is found elsewhere in the Bible only in Deut 27.8 and Hab 2.2, in both of which passages it means “write.” But no translation referred to in this Handbook has that meaning here. It is usually rendered “explain” or “make plain.” This law seems to refer to what follows, perhaps what is found in chapters 5–26 (Mayes). It seems probable that the reader would understand this law to mean the Torah, as given in the three speeches of Moses. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “the law of the LORD,” and Bible en français courant “the law of God.” This may be a good model to follow if the word law carries the idea of legal enactments, in the modern sense of the word.
It is regrettable that the Hebrew torah is uniformly translated in English Bibles by “law” or “Law,” which is due to the translation of the Hebrew word into nomos (“law”) by the Greek of the Septuagint, and the use of the same Greek word in the New Testament to refer to the Old Testament torah. The Hebrew word means rather what would be called “instruction” or “teaching” (as New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has it, “this Teaching”). Translators may consider the possibility of using something other than “law” or its equivalents and say something like “teaching” or “instruction” throughout the Bible. Notice that Good News Translation translates as “God’s laws and teachings,” in an effort to include all the material that Moses talks about in his speeches.
Saying: this comes at the end of the verse and is the link to what follows. But since a new section will begin with the next verse (as was suggested in the introduction to this chapter), it is recommended that the translation of this word be placed at the beginning of verse 6, “Moses said” or its equivalent. However, if translators follow Contemporary English Version and begin a new section at 1.5, the translation of saying may be placed at the end of this verse as in Revised Standard Version; for example, “Moses began explaining those laws [or, instructions] by saying….”
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Deuteronomy. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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