complete verse (Exodus 25:25)

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

  • Kupsabiny: “Someone make a roll/ring of metal measuring three inches and someone coat with gold along the edges throughout that roll/ring.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “To Make around it a rim 8 cm wide and also molding on the rim at gold.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Also this should-have- a rim -put on each side, which (is) four inches wide, and have- a strip of gold -put on the rim.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “And you (pl.) must affix another wide piece of gol to stand on the top of the table like a fence and so it surrounds the edge of the table’s top. The height of that piece of gol will extend approximately to the width of our (incl.) hand. And also, [you must] affix another gol fastening band onto that wide piece of gol so that it surrounds it.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “you shall carve for it wood, build it on its edge. Its length, let it be the same with belly of hand. you shall add gold red there.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “Tell them to make a rim all around it, 3 in./7.5 cm. wide, and put a gold border around the rim.” (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 .