Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 18:17:
Kupsabiny: “His father-in-law replied that, ‘What you doing is not good.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “Jethro answered him, ‘what you are doing is not good’.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “Jetro said, ‘The way you (sing.) do this is- not -right.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Bariai: “And Moses father-in-law answered his talk like this, ‘The way you (sing.) are following to do this work, it’s not good.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
Opo: “Jethro answered for him it «That which you are doing not be good.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
English: “Jethro said to him/me, ‘What you are doing is not good for you or for the people.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
American Sign Language also uses the sign depicting the horns but also has a number of alternative signs (see here ).
In French Sign Language, a similar sign is used, but it is interpreted as “radiance” (see below) and it culminates in a sign for “10,” signifying the 10 commandments:
The horns that are visible in Michelangelo’s statue are based on a passage in the Latin Vulgate translation (and many Catholic Bible translations that were translated through the 1950ies with that version as the source text). Jerome, the translator, had worked from a Hebrew text without the niqquds, the diacritical marks that signify the vowels in Hebrew and had interpreted the term קרו (k-r-n) in Exodus 34:29 as קֶ֫רֶן — keren “horned,” rather than קָרַו — karan “radiance” (describing the radiance of Moses’ head as he descends from Mount Sinai).
In Swiss-German Sign Language it is translated with a sign depicting holding a staff. This refers to a number of times where Moses’s staff is used in the context of miracles, including the parting of the sea (see Exodus 14:16), striking of the rock for water (see Exodus 17:5 and following), or the battle with Amalek (see Exodus 17:9 and following).
In Vietnamese (Hanoi) Sign Language it is translated with the sign that depicts the eye make up he would have worn as the adopted son of an Egyptian princess. (Source: The Vietnamese Sign Language translation team, VSLBT)
“Moses” in Vietnamese Sign Language, source: SooSL
Moses’ father-in-law said to him is again repeating more than is necessary, so Good News Translation simply has “Then Jethro said.” What you are doing is not good is literally “not good the davar [thing, deed] that you are doing.” Durham translates “It is not good, the procedure you are following.” The word for good has a broad meaning that needs to be narrowed by the context. So Good News Translation has “You are not doing this right.” Revised English Bible has “This is not the best way to do it,” Translator’s Old Testament has “You are not acting wisely,” and Contemporary English Version has “That isn’t the best way to do it.”
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 .
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