complete verse (Exodus 28:16)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 28:16:

  • Kupsabiny: “All the four sides should be of the same size and overlap them to be two and each having a width of nine inches.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “This must be of square and double folded. And its length and width must be of one-one span.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “This like-pocket(s) on the chest should be be-folded double and square — nine inches long and wide.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “Make this small cloth’s length to extend 18 inches (lit. our[incl] elbow’s bending), and its width to extend eight inches (lit. our[incl] wrist’s bending). Fold this cloth down the middle, so that its length and its width appear the same, and then this fold will be for placing two things.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “Let it be square which they fold [mouth], in order that its width it be the same with fingers.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “It is to be square, and the material must be folded double, so that it is 9 in./22 cm. on each side.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Exod 28:16

It shall be square and double is literal, but the word for double also means “folded double” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version). It is not clear here whether it was to be square and then “folded double” (New International Version), or whether it was to be “square when folded double” (Revised English Bible). Most probably it was “folded double to make a square bag” (Translator’s Old Testament). This is made a bit clearer in 39.9. (See the comment there.)

A span its length and a span its breadth is about “9 inches long and 9 inches wide” (Good News Translation), or “nine inches square” (Contemporary English Version), or “22 centimeters square.” The span represents the distance from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the little finger when the fingers are stretched wide.

A possible alternative translation model for this verse is:

• They shall fold it double and make it nine inches square.

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 .