angry

The Hebrew, Greek and Latin that is translated as “(was or became) angry” in English is translated in Kwere as “saw anger.” In Kwere, emotions are always paired with sensory verbs (seeing or smelling or hearing). (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

In Bariai it is “to have grumbling interiors” (source: Bariai Back Translation).

See also anger and feel (terror, pain, suffering, anxiety).

covenant (tablets)

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 English Translation for Translators it is translated as stone slabs and in the New English Bible as Tokens (source: Elizabeth Lewis).

See also 10 commandments on stone tablets (image) and ark of the covenant.

shatter

In Gbaya, the notion of being shattered (or devour/strip/torture) is emphasized with ɗɛ́sɛ́-ɗɛ́sɛ, an ideophone that expresses the action of shattering, like a glass or pane of glass.

Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)

anger

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The Hebrew, Latin and Greek that is translated as “anger” or similar in English in this verse is translated with a variety of solutions (Bratcher / Nida says: “Since anger has so many manifestations and seems to affect so many aspects of personality, it is not strange that expressions used to describe this emotional response are so varied”).

  • Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “be warm inside”
  • Mende: “have a cut heart”
  • Mískito: “have a split heart”
  • Tzotzil: “have a hot heart”
  • Mossi: “a swollen heart”
  • Western Kanjobal: “fire of the viscera”
  • San Blas Kuna: “pain in the heart”
  • Chimborazo Highland Quichua: “not with good eye”
  • Chichewa: “have a burning heart” (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation) (see also anger burned in him)
  • Citak: two different terms, one meaning “angry” and one meaning “offended,” both are actually descriptions of facial expressions. The former can be represented by an angry stretching of the eyes or by an angry frown. The latter is similarly expressed by an offended type of frown with one’s head lowered. (Source: Graham Ogden)

In Akan, a number of metaphors are used, most importantly abufuo, lit. “weedy chest” (the chest is seen as a container that contains the heart but can also metaphorically be filled with other fluids etc.), but also abufuhyeε lit. “hot/burning weedy chest” and anibereε, lit. “reddened eyes.” (Source: Gladys Nyarko Ansah in Kövecses / Benczes / Szelid 2024, p. 21ff.)

See also God’s anger and angry.

The Idolatry of the Israelites

Artwork by Sister Marie Claire , SMMI (1937–2018) from Bengaluru, India.

For more information about images by Sister Marie Claire and ways to purchase them as lithographs, see here .

For other images of Sister Marie Claire paintings in TIPs, see here.

The following artwork “The Golden Calf” is part of a series of 56 paintings on biblical themes by Kazakh artist Nelly Bube (born 1949):

Copyright by Norwegian Bible Society , used with permission.

For other images of Nelly Bube in TIPs, see here.

complete verse (Exodus 32:19)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 32:19:

  • Kupsabiny: “When Moses had approached the place he had left those people, when he glanced, he saw a thing like a calf made of gold and how people were singing (and dancing), he was very annoyed/angry and threw down those two stone tablets and they got destroyed.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “As soon as Moses came near the camp and upon seeing the bull calf and the dancing, he became very angry. Then he threw the stone tablets at the foot of the mountain and broke them.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “When Moises came-close to the camp, he saw the little-god cow and the dancing of the people, so he became very/[double emphasis marker] angry. He threw the wide stones that he was-carrying there at the foot of the mountain, and it got-broken.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “Okay, Moses went close to the camp and then saw the carving of the bulmakao and the people dancing here and there, and so he was very angry and so threw those two stones of the law so that they went down and then shattered at the base of the mountain.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “When they had arrived edge of home, they see calf which they make with gold, with dance of people. And heart of Moses heat very, he throw stone be flat down, break it [body] at bottom of Mountain of Sinay.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “As soon as Moses/I came close to the camp and saw the statue of the young bull and saw the people dancing, he/I became extremely angry. He/I threw the stone tablets that he/I was carrying down onto the ground, there at the base of the mountain.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Moses

The name that is transliterated as “Moses” in English is signed in Spanish Sign Language and Polish Sign Language in accordance with the depiction of Moses in the famous statue by Michelangelo (see here ). (Source: John Elwode in The Bible Translator 2008, p. 78ff. )


“Moses” in Spanish Sign Language, source: Sociedad Bíblica de España

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:


“Moses” in French Sign Language (source )

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 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).


“Moses” in Swiss-German Sign Language, source: DSGS-Lexikon biblischer Begriffe , © CGG Schweiz

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 Estonian Sign Language Moses is depicted with a big beard. (Source: Liina Paales in Folklore 47, 2011, p. 43ff. )


“Moses” in Estonian Sign Language, source: Glossary of the EKNK Toompea kogudus

For more information on translations of proper names with sign language see Sign Language Bible Translations Have Something to Say to Hearing Christians .

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Moses .

Translation commentary on Exod 32:19

And as soon as he came near the camp is literally “And it was as he approached unto the camp.” The he refers to Moses; nothing more is said about Joshua. One may also translate “As Moses came closer to the camp where the people were staying….” American Standard Version has “And it came to pass….” And saw the calf refers to the “bull-calf” (Good News Translation) mentioned in verse 4. And the dancing suggests a type of whirling movement, and many cultures will have dance forms using this movement. Good News Translation adds “to see the people dancing.” The same term is used of Miriam and the women in 15.20. It is associated with occasions of joy and celebration. Contemporary English Version has “dancing around.”

Moses’ anger burned hot is literally “and the nose of Moses became hot.” The same expression is used of Yahweh in verses 10-11. (See the comment at 4.14.) And he threw the tables out of his hands is literally “and he threw down from his hand the slabs.” (As in verse 15, “hand” is singular.) Since the word for threw already implies the use of the hands, Good News Translation simply has “he threw down the tablets he was carrying” (similarly New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, and Revised English Bible). However, Moses must have used great force to shatter the stones when he threw them to the ground. If translators have a word in the receptor language that implies using great force, that should be used here.

And broke them at the foot of the mountain is literally “and he shattered them under the mountain.” The word for broke has the intensive form, so New International Version has “breaking them to pieces.” Foot of the mountain refers to where the mountain begins to rise. (See the comment at 24.4.) The final part of the verse may be alternatively rendered as “What he saw [or, This] made him so angry that he threw the stones down and broke them into pieces at the foot of the mountain.”

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 .