Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 18:27:
Kupsabiny: “And thereafter, Moses escorted his father-in-law on the way. Jethro went back to his own land.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “Then Moses sent his father-in-law on his way, and Jethro returned to his own country.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “Sometime later, Moises had-/let- his father-in-law -return to his nation.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Bariai: “And when it was done, then Moses brought his father-in-law Ietro to go to the path, and so he returned back and went to his village.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
Opo: “Afterwards, Moses said to father-in-law [that] he go with peace, and father-in-law again left.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
English: “Then Moses/I said goodbye to his/my father-in-law, and Jethro returned home.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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 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
Then Moses let his father-in-law depart is literally “And Moses let go his father-in-law.” The same verb was used in the demand to the Pharaoh to “let my people go” (5.1), but the context here is quite different. There is no suggestion in the Hebrew that “Jethro” was not free to go until Moses gave him permission. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh and others have “Then Moses bade his father-in-law farewell,” which may mean more than simply “said good-bye to Jethro,” as Good News Translation expresses it. New International Version has “Then Moses sent his father-in-law on his way.” (See a similar context in 4.18.)
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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