complete verse (Exodus 18:3)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 18:3:

  • Kupsabiny: “her two sons. The big/elder son is/was Gershom, the name that Moses gave him meaning that he was foreigner/alien in that country,” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “and his two sons. One son was named Gershom, for Moses said, ‘I have become an alien in a foreign land’” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “At-that-time back-then Moises had- Zipora his wife and their two male children -sent-home there to Jetro his father-in-law. The name of the first was Gershom, for when he was-born Moises said, ‘I (am) a stranger in another/(foreign) land.’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “Those two children of Moses’, one was named Gersom, because previously Moses said, ‘I’m a man from another area, yet I’ve come to live in this land.’” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “with male children two his one, they called him Gershom, because Moses said «I be foreigner at place of nation other.»” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “bringing Zipporah and their/our two sons. One son was named Gershom, which sounds like the Hebrew word that means ‘foreigner’, because he/I had said, ‘I have been a foreigner living in another land.’” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Exod 18:3

And her two sons agrees with the plural “sons” in 4.20. Note that the text uses her instead of “his,” but this should not suggest they were not Moses’ sons. (See verse 5.) Of whom the name of the one was Gershom is awkward to handle in one sentence along with the name of the other son. It is better to place a full stop after her two sons and then explain their names along with the meaning. Gershom was the older of the two. (See 2.22.) In some languages it will be helpful to begin a new sentence here; for example, “He also brought Gershom and Eliezer….”

For he said is placed in parenthesis in Revised Standard Version, since it introduces a flashback within a flashback. He refers to Moses, who had named him Gershom, literally “an alien there.” (See the discussion at 2.22.) Note that Good News Translation restructures verses 3 and 4 in order to combine the explanation of the two names in one parenthetical statement.

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 .