15Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain, carrying the two tablets of the covenant in his hands, tablets that were written on both sides, written on the front and on the back.
The Greek and Hebrew that is typically translated as “covenant” or “testimony” in English and refers to the stone tablets that Moses brought down from Mount Sinai are translated in Kupsabiny as “two stones (that are flat-and-thin) on which the law is written,” in Hiligaynon as “the wide stone on which is-written the Law.” (Source: Kupsabiny and Hiligaynon Back-Translations), and in the interconfessional Chichewa translation (publ. 1999) as miyala iŵiri ija yolembedwapo mau a chipangano or “those two stones on which are written the words of the agreement” (Source: Wendland 1998, p. 110).
In the EnglishTranslation for Translators it is translated as stone slabs and in the New English Bible as Tokens (source: Elizabeth Lewis).
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 32:15:
Kupsabiny: “Moses accepted to go down while carrying the two stones which had the commandments written on both sides.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “Then Moses holding the 2 stone tablets of the covenant in his hands, went down from the mountain. The tablets were written on both sides.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “Then Moises went-down the mountain carrying the two wide stones which were-written-upon the commands of God. It was-written on front and back of these-particular stones.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Bariai: “It came about that Moses took those two stones of the law and then descended the mountain and climbed down. Those two stones, God wrote the law onto the front and back.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
Opo: “And Moses climb [this direction] down from top of mountain, carrying stone be flat two in hand. Rock that have writing of remembrance of covenant of God on its face and its back.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
English: “Moses/I turned away from God and went down the mountain, carrying in his hands the two stone slabs on which Yahweh had engraved his commandments. He had written on both sides of the slabs.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
The name that is transliterated as “Moses” in English means “taken out of the water,” “saved out of the water,” “a son.” (Source: Cornwall / Smith 1997 )
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).
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