complete verse (Exodus 21:31)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 21:31:

  • Kupsabiny: “That law is also maintained/followed if that bull pierces a boy or girl.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “The same law holds if the ox gores a boy or girl.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “It is- also the same rule/(that-which-is-to-be-followed) if the bull/(cow) gores a child, male or female.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “And if the bulmakao strikes a male or female child, then you (pl.) will follow this same law also.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “If cow your will butt child your, your son or your daughter, this law not [body] be divided.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “If someone’s bull attacks and gores another person’s son or daughter, you must treat the bull’s owner according to that same rule.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Exod 21:31

If it gores a man’s son or daughter is not an exception but a further provision of the law. If it gores here means, as Good News Translation expresses it, “If the bull kills.” (See the comment on “gores” at verse 28.) And a man’s son or daughter (Contemporary English Version‘s “someone’s son or daughter”) may also be translated as “a boy or a girl” (Good News Translation). The point here is that the law applies even when children have been killed. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “a minor, male or female.” However, the more general “a boy or girl” or “children” is the more likely interpretation.

He shall be dealt with according to this same rule is literally “this judgment [or decision] shall be done to him.” The word for rule is mishpat, the same word translated “justice” in verse 9. (See the introduction to 20.22-26.) Good News Translation translates the meaning in a simpler way: “the same rule applies.” This final clause may be placed at the beginning of the verse as in Contemporary English Version: “This same law applies if the bull gores someone’s son or daughter.”

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 .