complete verse (Exodus 24:15)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 24:15:

  • Kupsabiny: “And when Moses was climbing up to the peak of the mountain, a cloud covered that mountain.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “When Moises reached the top of the mountain, the cloud covered the mountain.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “Moses talked like that and was done and then he arose and went to Sainai mountain, and yet the big cloud covered the mountain.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “Therefore, Moses climb mountaintop, and cloud cover it [completely] [body].” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “Then Moses/I went the rest of the way up the mountain. A cloud covered the mountain.” (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 24:15

Then Moses went up on the mountain is literally “And Moses ascended unto the mountain.” Durham has “So Moses climbed up higher on the mountain,” assuming from verse 9 that they were already part way up the mountain, and that he did not actually go to the top until seven days later. (See the following verses.)

And the cloud covered the mountain does not indicate whether this happened “after Moses had gone up” (New American Bible) or before. Moffatt has “which was covered with the cloud.” Either interpretation is possible, since the text does not say that the cloud of 19.16 had ever lifted.

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 .