complete verse (Exodus 25:24)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 25:24:

  • Kupsabiny: “Someone cover it with pure gold and then someone fix a band of gold round the edges.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Overlay it with pure gold and make a gold molding around it.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Cover/Overlay this with pure gold and have- a gold strip/molding -put on the sides of-it.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “And you (pl.) must enwrap this table with wide pieces of good gol. And affix a long piece of gol to be for the table’s fastening band which goes around it.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “Apply it with gold red, and add gold red at its side.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “Tell them to cover it with pure gold and put a gold border around it.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Exod 25:24 - 25:25

You shall overlay it with pure gold is identical with verse 11. And make a molding of gold around it is almost identical with verse 11. See the discussion there on molding.

And you shall make around it a frame is literally “and you [singular] shall make for it a rim encircling.” The word for frame means something that encloses, like a “border” (Durham, Fox), but it is to be a handbreadth wide. This would be approximately “3 inches wide,” or “75 millimeters.” Translator’s Old Testament interprets this as “a strip of wood” that goes around the table, and New Jerusalem Bible pictures it as “struts,” or braces to make the legs sturdy. It may be thought of as a structural support connecting the legs about half-way down and extending all around the table.

And a molding of gold around the frame uses the same word as verse 11. This molding was probably just a decorative “gold border” (Good News Translation) that was added to the three-inch frame, or “rim” (Good News Translation). So one may say, for example, “Make a strip [or, frame] of wood 3 inches wide to go around the table and fasten it to the legs. Then place a gold border around the strip.”

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 .