23They said to me, ‘Make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’
Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)
The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).
For this verse, the Jarai and the Adamawa Fulfulde translation both use the exclusive pronoun, excluding Aaron and Moses.
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 32:23:
Kupsabiny: “You see, they told me that, ‘Prepare for us something to worship so that it will lead us, because we do not know what has happened to this man called Moses who led us all the way from Egypt.’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “They said to them, ‘Make a god that will go ahead of us, because we don’t know what happened to Moses who brought us out of Egypt (Lit: to out of Egypt having brought us Moses.)” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “They said to me, ‘Make us (excl.) a god who will-lead us (excl.), for we (incl.) do- not -know what has-happened to this man Moises who brought- us (incl.) -out of Egipto.’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Bariai: “Thy spoke to me like this, ‘Make for us (excl.) some gods to go ahead of us on our way. For Moses, the man who brought us so that we left Isip and came, we don’t know what thing has happened to him.’” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
Opo: “And they said to me with force ‹you (sing., imp.) make for us (incl.) God which will precede for us (incl.) road. Because Moses which take [this direction] us (incl.) out from Egypt, that who find him at that place, we (incl.) not it know›” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
English: “They said to me, ‘As for that man Moses, the one who brought us up here from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him. So make for us an idol that will lead us!’” (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
Aaron is still speaking. For they said to me refers to the people and introduces a quote within a quote. The rest of the verse is identical with what the people say in verse 1 (except for the word “Up”).
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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