complete verse (Exodus 36:3)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 36:3:

  • Kupsabiny: “After that, he gave those people all the things which the Israelites had given to be used for making the Tent of God. People proceeded bringing things each day in the morning.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “They receive through all the offerings through Moses’ hand that Israelites brought for making the Tent of Meeting. But the people again kept bringing freewill offering in every morning.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Moises gave them everything the Israelinhon had-offered for the cause-to-stand of the Tent. And the people continued to bring their willing/(free-will) offerings each/every morning.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “Therefore Moses brought all the things which the Israel people had gathered to do that offering work, and so he put it into the hands of the workers. And in the morning day after day, the people were bringing their things to be their offering to God. And they didn’t cease from the bringing of things.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “And that which people of Israel first brought to Moses for work of making of Dwelling-Tent-of-God, Moses give it to them all. In the morning in the morning, people of Israel still be present bringing gift(s) other to Moses as a man desired.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “Moses/I gave them all the things that the people had brought as offerings to Yahweh for making the Sacred Tent. But the people continued bringing more things every morning.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

sanctuary

The Hebrew, Greek and Latin that is translated as “sanctuary” in English is translated in the Contemporary Chichewa translation (2002/2016) with opatulika or “separated place.” This is understood in a religious setup as a place designated for worship. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

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 36:3

And they received from Moses is literally “and they took from the face [the presence] of Moses.” This suggests that all the construction materials were with Moses. These were all the freewill offering which the people of Israel had brought. The word for freewill offering in this first instance should be only offering, or “contributions” (Revised English Bible), without freewill. New Jerusalem Bible has “everything.” A different word is used in the second sentence. This offering includes all the materials listed in 35.22-28. (See the comment on offering at 25.2.) People of Israel, literally “sons of Israel,” can also be rendered as “Israelites” (Good News Translation). For doing the work on the sanctuary is literally “for the task of the service of the holy [place],” as in verse 1.

They still kept bringing him freewill offerings every morning is literally “and they, they caused to enter [or, brought] unto him still a voluntary gift by morning by morning.” In this second instance the word for “freewill offering” is the same as that used in 35.29. The emphatic They refers to the people of Israel, not to the special workers whom Moses had called. Good News Translation repeats “people of Israel” to make this clear (similarly New International Version, Revised English Bible, and New American Bible).

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 .