complete verse (Exodus 19:25)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 19:25:

  • Kupsabiny: “Moses went down and told the people the words/things that God had said.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Then Moses went to the People and told them what God had said” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “So Moises went-down and told the people.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “Okay, therefore Moses descended and went and then informed them of all this talk.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “Therefore, Moses climb down, went told it for people of Israel.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “So Moses/I went down the mountain again and told the people what Yahweh had said.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Moses

The name that is transliterated as “Moses” in English is signed in Spanish Sign Language and Polish Sign Language in accordance with the depiction of Moses in the famous statue by Michelangelo (see here ). (Source: John Elwode in The Bible Translator 2008, p. 78ff. )


“Moses” in Spanish Sign Language, source: Sociedad Bíblica de España

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:


“Moses” in French Sign Language (source )

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).


“Moses” in Swiss-German Sign Language, source: DSGS-Lexikon biblischer Begriffe , © CGG Schweiz

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 Estonian Sign Language Moses is depicted with a big beard. (Source: Liina Paales in Folklore 47, 2011, p. 43ff. )


“Moses” in Estonian Sign Language, source: Glossary of the EKNK Toompea kogudus

For more information on translations of proper names with sign language see Sign Language Bible Translations Have Something to Say to Hearing Christians .

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Moses .

Translation commentary on Exod 19:25

So Moses went down to the people completes the third round trip up and down the mountain in this chapter. (A fourth round trip may be implied in verse 9. See the comments at 9b.) So is the usual conjunction waw.

And told them is literally “and said to them.” In Hebrew this is an incomplete sentence, for what Moses said to the people is missing. Most scholars believe that the rest of the sentence has either been lost or intentionally dropped in order to lead into chapter 20. Most translations cover this up as in Revised Standard Version and New Revised Standard Version, and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “and spoke to them.” Moffatt, however, translates more literally in order to show an incomplete sentence: “So Moses went down and said to them…” The three dots, or ellipsis points, are in the translation. (Similar are Jerusalem Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, and Durham.) Good News Translation completes the sentence with what the context implies: “and told them what the LORD had said” (so also Contemporary English Version). Translators are urged to do this too.

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 .