Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 24:18:
Kupsabiny: “After that, Moses moved up until he entered into that cloud. He stayed in that mountain for forty days.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “So Moises entered the cloud as he climbed-up the mountain. He stayed there on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights. For the Israelinhon there at the bottom, the powerful presence of the LORD on top of the mountain looked-like a burning fire.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Bariai: “It came about that Moses climbed and ascended to the top of the mountain, and he entered the interior of the cloud. And then Moses stayed living there on the mountain for a duration of forty days and nights.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
Opo: “Moses go enter inside of cloud, go climb top of mountain. And he stay there during daytime and night with day which be 40.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
English: “Moses/I went into the cloud on top of the mountain. He/I was there for 40 days and nights.” (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 (and Hungarian 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
In Korean Sign Language it is translated with the sign that depicts the arms held up by Moses to assure the Israelites victory over the Amalekites (see Exodus 17:11).
And Moses entered the cloud is literally “And Moses entered in the middle of the cloud.” And went up on the mountain seems to repeat what has been said in verses 13 and 15, but Durham has “climbing up higher on the mountain.” This suggests, in keeping with the context, that Moses was climbing only so far at a time, advancing from one level to a higher level.
And Moses was on the mountain may seem like unnecessary repetition, so Good News Translation has “There he stayed” (similarly Revised English Bible, New American Bible, and New International Version). Forty days and forty nights may be reduced to “forty days and nights” (Good News Translation). This period covers the setting for the next seven chapters of Exodus. Moses does not come down from the mountain until 32.15.
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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