reed

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated in English as “reed” is translated in Newari as “bamboo.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)

Pharaoh

The term that is used for monarchs in ancient Egypt and is transliterated as “Pharaoh” in English is translated in Finnish Sign Language with the sign signifying the “fake metal beard (postiche)” that was word by Pharaohs during official functions. (Source: Tarja Sandholm)


“Pharaoh” in Finnish Sign Language (source )

basket (of Moses)

The Hebrew that is typically translated as “basket” in English is translated in the English translation by Everett Fox (first ed. 1983) as “little-ark.”

Fox explains (Translator’s Preface, p. XVIIIf.): “A powerful example of the (…) allusion occurs near the beginning of Exodus. Baby Moses, floating precariously yet fetus-like on the Nile, is one of the enduring images in the book, as children have long attested. Modern English readers, however, are seldom aware that the Hebrew word for Moses’s floating cradle — rendered by virtually all standard translations as ‘basket’ — is the same as the one used in Gen. 6:14ff. to describe Noah’s famous vessel (teiva). Preserving the connection between the two, as I have tried to do in the Exodus passage with ‘little-ark’ (and which, incidentally, the authors of the King James Version did with ‘ark’), is to keep open the play of profound meaning that exists between the two stories.”

Translation commentary on Exod 2:5

The daughter of Pharaoh was of course “the king’s daughter” (Good News Translation). (“King” occurs at 1.8 and Pharaoh at 1.11b.) She is referred to as “princess” by Good News Translation in the following verse. Her age is not indicated, but the context suggests that she was an adult, though possibly not yet married. The use of the definite article the in English may indicate one of two things: (1) this princess was one who was known both to the writer and the readers, and (2) it may imply that the king had only one daughter. We are not sure of either of these two facts; however, there are languages that employ numeral classifiers and do not have the equivalent of the English “the” or “a.” In such languages one may translate in a general way and simply say “Daughter of king came….” She came down to bathe at the river. This shows her intention, but the text does not say explicitly that she actually did bathe before she saw the basket. Neither does it say that she intended to bathe in the river itself, but many translations interpret the Hebrew preposition to mean stepping into the water. The river implies a known river, namely the Nile. (See the comment at 1.22.)

Her maidens were the female “servants” (Good News Translation) of the princess. The maid or “slave woman” (Good News Translation) she sent to get the basket may have been one of these “servants.” The two terms in Hebrew usually mean the same thing and suggest that they were all young mature women. They walked beside the river to make sure that the princess had privacy while she bathed. She saw the basket among the reeds: Good News Translation has “Suddenly she noticed…,” where “Suddenly” translates the common Hebrew conjunction waw according to the context, but most translations omit it. The clause she … sent her maid to fetch it may also be expressed as “The princess said to her maid, ‘Bring that basket to me.’ ”

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 .