complete verse (Exodus 8:14)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 8:14:

  • Kupsabiny: “The frogs heaped in piles until the whole land smelled.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “The Egyptians collected the frogs and piled them up. The land reeked of them.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “The Egiptohanon gathered them and their piles were very high, and the whole-of Egipto stank.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “And so they were heaping the frogs’ corpses in heaps and heaps in every area of Isip, and those areas smelled very badly.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “And they gathered it [body] heaped at many places. Therefore it smelled bad very in country.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “The people gathered together all the dead frogs into big piles, and the land stank from the smell.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Exod 8:14

And they gathered them together in heaps is literally “and they piled them heaps heaps.” They, of course, refers to “the Egyptians,” and them refers to the frogs. The manner in which the frogs were gathered … together is not specified, but it may have been by sweeping with brooms (so Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). The meaning of the literal “heaps heaps” may be understood either as “great heaps” or “countless heaps” (New English Bible). Childs has “one heap after another”; Durham has “pile after pile.”

And the land stank really means that the odor from the dead frogs was everywhere. It may be better to say “the land reeked of them” (New International Version), or “the stench of them was everywhere” (Translator’s Old Testament), or “they made the whole country stink.”

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 .