complete verse (Exodus 5:12)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 5:12:

  • Kupsabiny: “Those people went to look for their straws from all over Egypt.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “So the people spread all over Egypt in search of straw.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “So the Israelinhon scattered over all Egipto to-gather straw.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “The Israel people heard like that and so they dispersed and went here and there in all the areas of Isip to gather the rubbish of weeds to be for their hard stones.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “Therefore, people of Israel be scattered in Egypt, go to grass seek.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “So the Israeli people went all over Egypt to find straw.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Exod 5:12

So the people were scattered abroad should not suggest that they were forcibly dispersed. It was only the required daily quota of bricks that made it necessary for them to go abroad, that is, in various directions. Good News Translation‘s “went all over Egypt” is more natural. The people here could include not only those who were making the bricks but also all the members of their families. So this term may be expressed as “The people of Israel.” Throughout the land of Egypt is probably an exaggerated statement (hyperbole) to emphasize their desperate situation. Good News Translation omits land (“all over Egypt”), and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch omits Egypt (“over the whole land”).

To gather stubble for straw suggests a difference between straw and stubble. As explained at 5.7, the straw refers to chopped pieces of grain stalks, but the stubble seems to refer to what remained of the stalks out in the fields. The Hebrew word for stubble is used elsewhere as something that burns quickly (Exo 15.7) or that is easily blown by the wind (“chaff,” Psa 83.13). Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch does not use a different term but refers to it as “straw in the fields.” Good News Translation has simply “looking for straw.” In languages where the distinction is not important, a similar translation will be the more natural rendering.

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 .