complete verse (Exodus 18:26)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 18:26:

  • Kupsabiny: “They were all the time counseling/guiding the people all the days and took hard cases/things to Moses and/but the simple ones they would solve those.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “From that day they served as judges for the people. The difficult cases they brought to Moses, but the simple cases they solved themselves.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “They served the people as judges at all times. They settled the simple cases, but the hard cases they brought to Moises.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “They straightened disputes for the people all the time. And so they alone ended (lit. killed) the small disputes. But the big disputes, they let them go to Moses.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “By day by day, be they that judge people. That which be small, they decided it amongst themselves, and that which be hard, they took it for Moses.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “They were appointed permanently to make decisions about the people’s disputes. They brought the difficult cases to Moses/me, but they decided the matters that were not difficult by themselves.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Moses

The name that is transliterated as “Moses” in English is signed in Spanish Sign Language and Polish Sign Language in accordance with the depiction of Moses in the famous statue by Michelangelo (see here ). (Source: John Elwode in The Bible Translator 2008, p. 78ff. )


“Moses” in Spanish Sign Language, source: Sociedad Bíblica de España

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:


“Moses” in French Sign Language (source )

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).


“Moses” in Swiss-German Sign Language, source: DSGS-Lexikon biblischer Begriffe , © CGG Schweiz

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

In Estonian Sign Language Moses is depicted with a big beard. (Source: Liina Paales in Folklore 47, 2011, p. 43ff. )


“Moses” in Estonian Sign Language, source: Glossary of the EKNK Toompea kogudus

For more information on translations of proper names with sign language see Sign Language Bible Translations Have Something to Say to Hearing Christians .

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Moses .

Translation commentary on Exod 18:26

And they judged the people at all times is identical to verse 22, but here the tense of the verb must be changed. Hard cases means “the difficult cases” (Good News Translation). Hard is not the same word as “great” in verse 22, but davar is still used for cases. (See verse 16.) But any small matter they decided themselves is the same as verse 22.

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 .