complete verse (Exodus 12:45)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 12:45:

  • Kupsabiny: “Even though you have stayed with foreigners or any other person whom you have hired to be doing work for you, do not allow them to eat/celebrate this festival.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “But a foreigners and laborer shall not eat of the festive meal.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “but the hired workers and the foreigners can- not -eat-(it).” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “But people who are living among you for not a long time, and people who are working [for] money for you, they aren’t able to eat this food.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “but guest or one who you will hire, let him not it eat.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “Do not let people who are living among you temporarily, or servants whom you have hired, eat the Passover meal.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Exod 12:45

Literally this verse reads “A foreigner and hired [person] will not eat in it.” The it refers to the “passover” (pesach) in verse 43, which may mean either the meal or the animal. The word for sojourner is more correctly translated as “temporary resident” or “transient alien” (New American Bible), referring to someone who would not have been as much a part of the culture as the “sojourner” in verse 19. New Revised Standard Version has “bound servant,” possibly following New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh’s “bound laborer.” This interprets the word for sojourner here as a temporary laborer who was obligated to work for a period of time without pay. The hired servant, one word in Hebrew, was a day laborer who was paid for his work. These “hired servants” were of course different from the “slaves” (verse 44), who had been bought from someone.

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 .