Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Joshua 1:2:
Kupsabiny: “‘My servant Moses is dead. So, prepare yourself together with the people of Israel and cross over the river Jordan to go to the country I shall give you (plur.).” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “My servant Moses has died. So now you and all the Israelites are to get ready to go to the other side of the Jordan river to the land that I am about to give them. ” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “‘Moises my servant is- now -dead. Therefore you (plur.) get-ready/prepare, you (sing.) and all the Israelinhon, to cross-over the River of Jordan towards the land which I will-give to you (plur.).” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “‘You know that my servant Moses is now dead. So now get ready to lead all these Israeli people across the Jordan River. Enter the land that I will soon give to you.” (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
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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.
It should be noted that here in verse 2 the Lord specifically refers to Moses as My servant Moses. The omission of the explicit identification of Moses as the LORD’s servant in verse 1 may therefore be justified, if that information is included in verse 2. In fact, the repetition the LORD’s servant (verse 1) … My servant (verse 2) may be stylistically unsatisfactory in some languages. If My servant is retained in verse 2, it may be helpful to translate “Moses served me while he lived, but he is dead now.”
Get ready translates a verb usually rendered “Arise” (Revised Standard Version [Revised Standard Version]); it occurs very often as a sort of auxiliary, expressing a sense of urgency or immediacy: “Go on and cross.” In such cases it does not imply that the subject has been sitting or lying down.
In Hebrew the two imperatives Get ready … and cross are directed first of all to Joshua, and the structure you and all the people of Israel represents a typical Hebrew structure in which the primary subject is mentioned first, then followed by the secondary subject or subjects who also participate in the same action. Since Joshua is the first subject addressed, it is possible to assume that he is to lead the others across the Jordan River. Indeed, the entire context presupposes that Joshua is now assuming the role of leadership that Moses once held, and that the manner in which he will prove his leadership is in the leading of the people of Israel across the Jordan. Therefore it is legitimate to translate “You (singular) must now enter the land that I will give you. Lead all the people of Israel across the Jordan!” This restructuring is also more natural in English, and it avoids a Hebraism such as one finds in Today’s English Version (Good News Translation).
The Jordan River translates “this Jordan” (Revised Standard Version), which does not mean that there is another Jordan somewhere else; it simply indicates the river, on whose east bank the people are camped.
That I am giving to them is literally “that I am giving to them, the sons of Israel.” The phrase “the sons of Israel” is redundant and is omitted by the Greek Old Testament. Moreover, the use of them may imply that Joshua is excluded from the promise. For languages which have a plural form of the pronoun “you,” the shift may be made from them to “you” (plural). This will leave no doubt that Joshua is included in the promise. One may also translate “you my people” or “you, the people of Israel.” The Hebrew of verse 3 is in fact “you” (plural), and the introduction of the second person pronoun in the present verse can give a consistency in the use of personal pronouns, which is an important feature of many languages. In many languages it is not natural to make changes in the persons of verbs that one frequently finds in the Hebrew Old Testament, and translators must be constantly alert to the distinctions between Hebrew and their own language.
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Newman, Barclay M. A Handbook on Joshua. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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