anger

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The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “anger” in English in this verse is translated with a variety of solutions (Bratcher / Nida says: “Since anger has so many manifestations and seems to affect so many aspects of personality, it is not strange that expressions used to describe this emotional response are so varied).”

  • Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “be warm inside”
  • Mende: “have a cut heart”
  • Mískito: “have a split heart”
  • Tzotzil: “have a hot heart”
  • Mossi: “a swollen heart”
  • Western Kanjobal: “fire of the viscera”
  • San Blas Kuna: “pain in the heart”
  • Chimborazo Highland Quichua: “not with good eye”
  • Citak: two different terms, one meaning “angry” and one meaning “offended,” both are actually descriptions of facial expressions. The former can be represented by an angry stretching of the eyes or by an angry frown. The latter is similarly expressed by an offended type of frown with one’s head lowered. (Source: Graham Ogden)

See also God’s anger.

Aaron

The name that is transliterated as “Aaron” in English is translated in Catalan Sign Language and Spanish Sign Language as “stones on chest plate” (according to Exodus 28:15-30) (Source: John Elwode in The Bible Translator 2008, p. 78ff.)


“Aaron” in Spanish Sign Language, source: Sociedad Bíblica de España

In Colombian Sign Language, Honduras Sign Language, and American Sign Language, the chest plate is outlined (in ASL it is outlined using the letter “A”):


“Aaron” in ASL (source )

See also Moses and this lectionary in The Christian Century .

Translation commentary on Exod 32:22

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 .