The Hebrew that is translated as “bow to the ground” or similar in English is translated in Kwere as “bowing knees and face touching the ground.” (Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
worship
The Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek terms that are often translated as “worship” (also, “kneel down” or “bow down”) are likewise translated in other languages in certain categories, including those based on physical activity, those which incorporate some element of “speaking” or “declaring,” and those which specify some type of mental activity.
Following is a list of (back-) translations (click or tap for details):
- Javanese: “prostrate oneself before”
- Malay: “kneel and bow the head”
- Kaqchikel: “kneel before”
- Loma (Liberia): “drop oneself beneath God’s foot”
- Tepeuxila Cuicatec: “wag the tail before God” (using a verb which with an animal subject means “to wag the tail,” but with a human subject)
- Tzotzil: “join to”
- Kpelle: “raise up a blessing to God”
- Kekchí: “praise as your God”
- Cashibo-Cacataibo: “say one is important”
- San Blas Kuna: “think of God with the heart”
- Rincón Zapotec: “have one’s heart go out to God”
- Tabasco Chontal: “holy-remember” (source of this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
- Bariai: “lift up God’s name” (source: Bariai Back Translation)
- Q’anjob’al: “humble oneself before” (source: Newberry and Kittie Cox in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 91ff. )
- Alur: rwo: “complete submission, adoration, consecration” (source: F. G. Lasse in The Bible Translator 1956, p. 22ff. )
- Obolo: itọtọbọ ebum: “express reverence and devotion” (source: Enene Enene)
- Ngäbere: “cut oneself down before” (“This figure of speech comes from the picture of towering mahoganies in the forest which, under the woodman’s ax, quiver, waver, and then in solemn, thunderous crashing bury their lofty heads in the upstretched arms of the surrounding forest. This is the experience of every true worshiper who sees ‘the Lord, high and lifted up.’ Our own unworthiness brings us low. As the Valientes say, ‘we cut ourselves down before’ His presence. Our heads, which have been carried high in self-confidence, sink lower and lower in worship.)
- Tzeltal: “end oneself before God.” (“Only by coming to the end of oneself can one truly worship. The animist worships his deities in the hope of receiving corresponding benefits, and some pagans in Christendom think that church attendance is a guarantee of success in this life and good luck in the future. But God has never set a price on worship except the price that we must pay, namely, ‘coming to the end of ourselves.'”) (Source of this and the one above: Nida 1952, p. 163)
- Folopa: “die under God” (“an idiom that roughly back-translates “dying under God” which means lifting up his name and praising him and to acknowledge by everything one does and thanks that God is superior.”) (Source: Anderson / Moore, p. 202)
- Chokwe: kuivayila — “rub something on” (“When anyone goes into the presence of a king or other superior, according to native law and custom the inferior gets down on the ground, takes a little earth in the fingers of his right hand, rubs it on his own body, and then claps his hands in homage and the greeting of friendship. It is a token of veneration, of homage, of extreme gratitude for some favor received. It is also a recognition of kingship, lordship, and a prostrating of oneself in its presence. Yet it simply is the applicative form of ‘to rub something on oneself’, this form of the verb giving the value of ‘because of.’ Thus in God’s presence as king and Lord we metaphorically rub dirt on ourselves, thus acknowledging Him for what He really is and what He has done for us.”) (Source: D. B. Long in The Bible Translator 1952, p. 87ff. )
- In the German New Testament translation Fridolin Stier (1989) it is consistently translated as “bow (to someone) deeply” (tief verneigen)
In Luang it is translated with different shades of meaning:
- For Mark 15:19 and Matt. 2:8 and 2:11: “uh’idma-rrama llia’ara” — “to kiss the fingernail and lick the heel”
- For Acts 16:14: ra’uli-rawedi — “to praise-talk about”
- For Acts 14:15, 15:20, 17:16, 17:25: hoi-tani — “serve right hand – serve left”
- For Acts 13:16 and 13:26: una-umta’ata — “respect-fear”
- For 2 Thess. 2:4: kola tieru awur nehla — “hold waist – hug neck”
Source: Kathy Taber in Notes on Translation 1/1999, p. 9-16.
complete verse (Exodus 34:8)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 34:8:
- Kupsabiny: “Moses bowed down/prostrated immediately while kneeling before God” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
- Newari: “Then Moses worshipped hurriedly bowing down to the ground.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
- Hiligaynon: “Then Moises knelt/(bowed) to the ground and worshiped.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
- Bariai: “God was talking like that, and quickly Moses knelt down and then put his head down to the ground.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
- Opo: “And Moses immediately hit face down, lift name of God up.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
- English: “Moses/I quickly prostrated himself/myself on the ground and worshiped Yahweh.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
Moses
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 )
It is translated in Spanish Sign Language and Polish Sign Language with a sign 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 (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).
“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 34:8
Literally the verse reads “And Moses hurried, and he bowed down earthward and worshiped.” New Jerusalem Bible seems more natural, “Moses immediately bowed to the ground in worship.” The two words for bowing down and worshiping, used together, imply kneeling down and then touching the head to the ground, or even prostrating oneself, in a posture of worship. (See the comment at 11.8.) In some languages one must supply the object or goal of worshiped and say “worshiped the LORD [or, Yahweh].”
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 .

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