17:27a–b
People were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage: The verbs eating, drinking, marrying, and being given in marriage refer to normal activities. People ate and drank every day, and it was common to have weddings. In some languages it may be necessary to indicate in some way that this is a list of normal activities. For example:
People were ⌊doing the same things they always did,⌋ eating, drinking, marrying…
17:27a
People were eating and drinking: The phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as were eating and drinking refers to normal daily eating and drinking. It does not imply that the people were eating and drinking too much or becoming intoxicated. They were doing what they usually did.
In some languages it may be natural to express these two actions with one word or phrase. For example:
People were eating their dinners/meals
People were: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as People were is more literally “they were.” It refers generally to the people who were alive in Noah’s time. Refer to the people in a natural way in your language.
17:27b
marrying and being given in marriage: The phrase marrying and being given in marriage indicate that men and women were getting married. This statement has two parts:
(a) marrying, which refers to men seeking wives and marrying them;
(b) being given in marriage, which refers to women being given to men to marry.
These two parts have almost the same meaning. In some languages it may be good to state the meaning only once. For example:
men and women married (Good News Translation)
-or-
they were marrying (NET Bible)
-or-
getting married (Contemporary English Version)
being given in marriage: This phrase refers to a custom that was common in Jewish culture. A father arranged a marriage for his daughter. If a man had other female relatives who were dependent on him, he could also arrange marriages for them.
In cultures where this custom is well known, there may be a special way to speak about it. Consider whether you can use this way in your translation.
The phrase being given in marriage is passive. In some languages it may be necessary to make it active. For example:
fathers were giving their daughters in marriage
17:27c
up to the day Noah entered the ark: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates literally as the day here refers to the time that Noah (and his family) went into the ark. The context of the flood implies that the people stopped doing what they normally did because the rains came and prevented them. Other ways to translate this are:
right up to the time Noah entered his boat (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
until Noah entered the ark
the ark: The ark was the large wooden boat that Noah built. It saved Noah and his family from the flood. Refer to your translation of Genesis 6:14.
17:27d
Then: The Greek conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Then introduces what happened after Noah entered the ark. Introduce this event in a natural way in your language.
the flood came: The phrase the flood refers to the flood that is described in Genesis 7. Heavy rain caused deep water to flow over the whole earth. Some languages do not have a single word for flood, and in other languages people do not say that a flood “comes.” Describe the flood in a natural way in your language. Some ways to do this are:
waters flooded the earth
-or-
big water happened everywhere
-or-
rains came too much and covered everything
-or-
it rained heavily and water surged over the whole earth/ground
and destroyed them all: In this context the phrase them all refers to all the people who were not in the ark. Noah and his family were safe in the ark.
The word destroyed is used both here and in 17:29. Here it indicates that the flood killed all the other people except the ones in the ark with Noah.
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