Now comes the answer to the prayer of God’s people (8.3-4).

A voice from the four horns of the golden altar: this is like 6.6, in that the location of the speaker is given, but the speaker is not identified. This is the gold altar of incense (8.3). The four corners were four projections in the shape of horns, one on each end of the four top corners of the altar (see Exo 30.1-3). Some ancient manuscripts do not have four (so An American Translation, Barclay, Revised English Bible, Bible en français courant, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible); in any case the number is quite redundant. If a translator wishes to keep the figurative language found in the Greek, and it seems natural in the receptor language, the following is a possible translation model that avoids redundancy: “a voice coming from the projections shaped like horns on the corners of the altar.”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Revelation to John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .