Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 40:31:
Kupsabiny: “That is where Moses, Aaron and his sons washed their hands and legs” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “Then Moses, Aaron and his sons used to wash their hands and feet in it.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “Aaron and his sons washed their hands and feet there.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Bariai: “And then Moses and Aron and Aron’s male children washed their hands and their feet with it.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
Opo: “That is what be water which Moses and Aaron and his children wash foot and hand with it.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
English: “Every time Moses/I and Aaron and his sons went into the Sacred Tent or went to the altar, they/we washed their/our hands and feet ritually, exactly as Yahweh had commanded Moses/me.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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 )
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 (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).
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 Korean Sign Language it is translated with the sign that depicts the arms held up by Moses to assure the Israelites victory over the Amalekites (see Exodus 17:11).
With which Moses and Aaron and his sons washed is obviously a continuation of verse 30 in Revised Standard Version. Literally the Hebrew says “and Moses and Aaron and his sons washed from it.” The word for “from it” refers to the washbasin mentioned in verse 30, not to the water. Good News Translation translates this as “there” (similarly New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). Their hands and their feet indicates the extent of their washing, and this became the usual ceremonial washing for all priests. (This contrasts with the washing discussed at 29.4.)
When they went into the tent of meeting is literally “in their entering unto [the] ʾohel moʿed.” The infinitive form of the verb “to enter” gives the idea of when, but this should not be understood as a single event. Good News Translation has “whenever,” which really means “each time before entering the tent” (Contemporary English Version). The idea of repeated action comes from the verb they washed, which should be understood in the frequentative sense. And when they approached the altar, literally “and in their approaching unto the altar,” uses the same infinitive form of the verb “to draw near.”
As the LORD commanded Moses is the seventh and last time this formula is used in this chapter. The Hebrew is identical in each case, but Revised Standard Version does not use the word “had” here as in the previous examples. (See the comment at verse 19 above.) New Revised Standard Version has corrected this.
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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