The Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, Ge’ez, and Latin that is translated as “enemy” or “foe” in English is translated in the HausaCommon Language Bible as “friends of front,” i.e., the person standing opposite you in a battle. (Source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
In North Alaskan Inupiatun it is translated with a term that implies that it’s not just someone who hates you, but one who wants to do you harm (Source: Robert Bascom), in Tarok as ukpa ìkum or “companion in war/fighting,” and in Ikwere as nye irno m or “person who hates me” (source for this and one above: Chuck and Karen Tessaro in this newsletter ).
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 32:25:
Kupsabiny: “Moses realized that Aaron had made the people to go out of control like dripping honey and (they) had become fools in the eyes of their enemies.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “Moses saw that the people did whatever they wanted. Aaron without controlling them had allowed them to do whatever they wanted – to the point even of becoming a laughingstock in front of their enemies.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “Moises saw that the people were-acting-out-of-control, and Aaron just let them be. Because of-this they become a-laughing-stock to their enemies around (them).” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Bariai: “Okay, Moses saw that the people were running here and there, and Aron wasn’t able to make them stop. Therefore Moses spoke in his interior like this, ‘[It’s] no good [if] our (excl.) enemies see [it] and then laugh badly about us.’” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
Opo: “When Moses had seen it that children of Israel be doing evil things, and Aaron not them warn, and that which they be doing be that which enemies their will mock for it them,” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
English: “Moses/I saw that Aaron had allowed the people to become completely out of control and to do things that would make their enemies think the Israeli people were foolish.” (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 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
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