complete verse (Exodus 2:18)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 2:18:

  • Kupsabiny: “And/But when those girls had returned home, their father asked them that, ‘Why have you returned home so early today?’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “They returned to their father Reuel, he asked them, ‘Why are you back so quickly today?’” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “When- the women -returned-home to their father Reuel, he asked them, ‘Why have- you[pl] -come-home early now?’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “It came about that the women returned back to their father Ruel, and then he asked them like this, ‘Why is it that today you’ve returned very quickly?’” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “When women had returned place of father their namely Jethro (who they also calling Reuel), he asked them «you immediately return here thus?»” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “When the girls returned to their father Jethro, whose other name is Reuel, he asked them, ‘How is it that you were able to give water to the sheep and come home so quickly today?’” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Exod 2:18

They came to their father is better rendered as “When they returned to their father” (Good News Translation). Since the word for came also suggests entering an enclosure, the German common language version (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch) even has “they came home to their father.” Since Jethro’s family would have lived in tents, one may also express this first sentence as “When they returned to the tent of their father.”

Reuel is considered by many scholars to be another name for Jethro. Good News Translation does not use the name Reuel but always identifies him as “Jethro” (verse 16) because it is the more familiar name. (This is one of the features of translation agreed upon by the Good News Translation translators, as explained in the Preface to Good News Translation.) Translators are encouraged to follow this same principle and use “Jethro” here.

How is it translates only one word that means “Why?” The question here suggests that the daughters watered the flock every day, and on this day they had come home earlier than usual.

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 .