complete verse (Exodus 11:6)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 11:6:

  • Kupsabiny: “Wailing will be much throughout the land of Egypt, a horrible crying that has never been heard before and it will never happen like that again.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “All over Egypt there will be wailing. The land of Egypt will be terrified. This kind of (incident) has neither already happened nor will it ever happen again.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “The/A very loud cry will-be-heard throughout the-whole-of Egipto that has- never -happened from time-past, and nothing again will-happen like this.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “[When] it’s like that then the Isip people will make a very great crying. No great crying like this [has] happened before in the Isip area, and later it won’t be possible for great crying like this to happen [again] either.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “On that hour, Egyptians all will say shout weeping. Weeping which they will weep, there is no one who before has heard it, and there is no one which again will hear it.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “When that happens, people all over Egypt will wail loudly. They have never wailed like that before, and they will never wail like that again.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Exod 11:6

A great cry means “loud crying” (Good News Translation), used here in a collective sense and suggesting “loud wailing” (New American Bible) at the same time. The word for cry means a “cry of anguish” (New English Bible), the same word used in 2.23 and 3.7 for the cry of the oppressed Israelites. Throughout all the land of Egypt suggests that the cry will come from every Egyptian family. An alternative model for this first clause is “Everywhere in Egypt people will wail loudly.” Such as there has never been may be understood as either a louder cry or greater anguish than ever before, or perhaps both. Some translations helpfully add the word “heard” (Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible, Revised English Bible), but this may be understood in both ways. (Revised English Bible has “the like of which has never been heard before.”) Nor ever shall be again may also need to have the word “heard” added; for example, “and will never be heard again.”

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 .