And Aaron said is literally “Aaron answered” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version), which is better. Let not the anger of my lord burn hot is literally “The nose of my lord should not become hot.” (See the comment at verse 10.) As a third person imperative it may also be expressed in the second person, “Don’t be angry with me” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version). My lord, ʾadoni, is a common term of respect that means “sir” (Translator’s Old Testament). It is a simpler form of ʾadonay (“Lord”), the term used in addressing God. (See the comment at 3.2a.) Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version unfortunately omit this as unnatural, since Aaron is speaking to his younger brother. In languages that normally require Aaron to maintain his position as “elder” or “elder sibling,” translators may need to use some other honorific displaying respect for Moses, even though he is younger.

You know the people, that they are set on evil is literally “you [singular], you know the people because in evil it.” (The pronoun “it” is singular, since people is singular in form.) Set on evil may also be rendered as “prone … to evil” (New International Version, New American Bible), or “bent on evil” (New Revised Standard Version). Good News Translation is clear, “you know how determined these people are to do evil.” One may also translate “You know as well as I do that they are determined to do evil” (Contemporary English Version).

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 .