The name that is transliterated as “Haran” in English is translated in Libras (Brazilian Sign Language) with a sign that depicts two hills that are at that location. (Source: Missão Kophós )
The Hebrew, Latin, and Greek that is transliterated as “Jacob” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with a sign that signifies “lentil,” referring to the soup he gave his brother in exchange for his birthright (see Genesis 25:34). Note that another Spanish Sign Language sign for Jacob also users the sign for Jewish. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
In Finnish Sign Language it is translated with the signs signifying “smooth arm” (referring to the story starting at Genesis 27:11). (Source: Tarja Sandholm)
There is nothing in the Hebrew text to mark a resumption of the story of Jacob’s journey or to make a transition from the statement in verse 5 that “he [Jacob] went to Paddan-aram.” In some languages, however, it will be necessary to indicate the relationship of verse 10 to verse 5 at this point. The transition may be indicated in two ways for the text as we have it:
(1) We may regard verse 5 as the brief statement of Jacob’s journey, and then 28.10–29.14 as telling in more detail what happened on that journey. In this case we may add at the beginning of verse 10 something like “Now this is the story of what happened to Jacob as he traveled to Paddan-aram [Mesopotamia].”
(2) We may regard the verbs “sent” and “went” in verse 5 as referring to the beginning of Jacob’s journey, and verse 10 as continuing the action from Gen 28.5. In this case we may translate in verse 5 “Isaac sent Jacob away; and he set out for Paddan-aram…” or “Isaac sent Jacob away to go to Paddan-aram….” Then, if necessary, we may begin verse 10 by saying “When Jacob left Beersheba he went….”
Jacob left Beer-sheba, and went toward Haran: Beer-sheba is the last mentioned location of Isaac in 26.23.
Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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