mercy seat

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “mercy seat,” “cover of the ark” or similar in English is translated by the interconfessional Chichewa translation (publ. 1999) as or “the cover of that box which was the place for forgiving sins upon” (source: Wendland 1998, p. 110) and in the German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) with Sühnedeckel or “atonement cover.”

complete verse (Leviticus 16:14)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Leviticus 16:14:

  • Kupsabiny: “He shall take the blood of the bullock he has slaughtered and immerse his finger (in it) and sprinkle (it) on the east side of the Box and then he shall sprinkle the front of that Box seven times.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Then, taking with his fingers a little of the blood of the bull, he must sprinkle it on the east side of the atonement cover. He must sprinkle it in front of the atonement cover seven times.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “He is-to-take some of the blood from the cow/bull and he is-to-stand in-front-of the Box of the Agreement facing east. And by-means-of his finger he is-to-sprinkle its cover seven times.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Then he must dip his finger into the basin and sprinkle some blood on the lid of the sacred chest, and also sprinkle some blood seven times against the front of the chest.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Leviticus 16:14

On the front of … before: some commentators take these two prepositional phrases to be synonymous expressions describing a single action. Others see them as separate actions. One commentator (Keil) indicates that on the front means “not upon the top of the capporeth [mercy seat], but merely upon or up against the front of it.” Several reliable modern versions, however, translate the first of these two expressions as “on the east side of” or “eastward” (New Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible, An American Translation, New Jerusalem Bible, Traduction oecuménique de la Bible, and Moffatt). The Israelites faced eastward when talking about directions, so the east side would be the front of the mercy seat and would be the same as before it. A good model for the two expressions in many languages is therefore “on the sunrise (or, east) side of the Covenant Box, that is, in front of it.” The action was probably a scattering or sprinkling of the blood in the air immediately in front of the Covenant Box, with some of the blood falling on the front part of the box itself and some on the ground in front of it.

Seven times: see 4.6.

Quoted with permission from Péter-Contesse, René and Ellington, John. A Handbook on Leviticus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1990. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .