Sight translates an unusual word which may include reference to other senses, as in verses 18-19. The sight was so terrifying may be expressed as “What the people experienced frightened them so much” or “What happened there at Mount Sinai frightened people so much” or “… caused them to be so terrified.”

I am trembling is quoted out of context from Deuteronomy 9.19; the writer adds and afraid for emphasis. The addition is intended as part of the quotation, not as in Jerusalem Bible, “Moses said: ‘I am afraid,’ and was trembling with fright.” It is doubtful whether the addition of a synonym really increases the impact; in English, at least, it may produce an anticlimax. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch and Translator’s New Testament have simply “I tremble with fear.” Barclay puts the quotation into indirect speech: “The sight was so terrible that Moses said that it left him trembling and afraid,” but this sentence is too long and complicated to make a strong impact on the average reader.

Something of the impact of I am trembling and afraid may be expressed as “I am so afraid as to tremble.”

Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Letter of the Hebrews. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .