complete verse (Exodus 38:28)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 38:28:

  • Kupsabiny: “The runners, clips/hooks for the pillars and what was used to cover the heads of those pillars were made of twenty kilos of silver.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Then from remaining 20-kilogram silver they made hooks of the pillars and ropes. And they overlaid the top of the pillars with silver.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “The remaining 30 kilos of silver was-used-to-make the hooks and rods/bars of the posts, and overlaid to the heads of the posts.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “And the other part of the silva, a worker used for the hooks and cross-pieces for the posts, and he enwrapped it onto the tops of the posts also. And the heaviness of that silva was thirty kilos.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “and they pound that which be crooked head and beam with gold white which its weight be kilo which be 30.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “Bezalel and his helpers used the 50 pounds/30 kg. of silver that was not used for the bases to make the rods and the hooks for the posts, and to cover the tops of the posts.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Exod 38:28

The thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels accounts for “the remaining 50 pounds of silver” (Good News Translation), or “30 kilograms.” (See the comment at verse 25 above.) Shekels is not in the Hebrew, but it is clearly understood. He made hooks for the pillars refers to the silver hooks that Bezalel made for the pillars of the court enclosure. (See verse 17 above.) The hooks for the pillars used for the veil and the screen in the tent itself were made of gold. (See 36.36 and 38.) Overlaid their capitals and made fillets for them uses the same terms as verse 19 above. (See the comment there.)

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 .