Paragraph 11:19
11:19a
the temple of God in heaven was opened: This clause is passive. Some languages must use an active or intransitive clause. For example:
⌊God⌋ caused his temple in heaven to open
-or-
⌊God⌋ had ⌊someone⌋ open his temple in heaven
-or-
God’s temple opened
11:19b
the ark of His covenant: Here the word ark refers to a wooden box that held things related to Israel’s covenant with God. The box was about 110 centimeters (45 inches) long, 70 centimeters (27 inches) wide and high. It was beautifully carved and covered with gold. Two gold statues of beings like angels stood upon the lid, which was also made of gold (Exodus 25:10–22).
Below is an artist’s guess of what the ark looked like. The ark has not been seen since the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem 600 years before Jesus’ time.
Other ways to translate this phrase are:
the Covenant Box (Good News Translation)
-or-
the box/chest of his covenant
-or-
the Ark that holds the agreement God gave to his people (New Century Version)
-or-
the chest that symbolized/signified God’s covenant with his people
If you have translated Hebrews 9:4, see your translation there.
covenant: This word refers to a binding agreement made between two people or groups. It establishes a relationship of peace, cooperation, or friendship between them. They promise to be faithful to this agreement.
God made an agreement with Israel. He promised to be their God and they promised to obey him. For example:
agreement (New Century Version)
-or-
treaty
If you have translated Romans 11:27, Luke 1:72, or Acts 3:25, see your translation there.
11:19c–d
there were flashes of lightning, and rumblings, and peals of thunder, and an earthquake, and a great hailstorm: The Greek clause is literally “lightning, noises, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a great hailstorm occurred.” Other ways to translate this clause are:
lightning, distant and loud thunder, an earthquake, and a great hailstorm occurred/happened
-or-
Then there were flashes of lightning, noises, thunder, an earthquake and a great hailstorm. (New Century Version)
-or-
Then lightning flashed, thunder rumbled and roared/crashed, the earth shook/quaked, and much hail fell.
11:19c
rumblings: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as rumblings is literally “sounds/voices.” Here the word probably refers to the “rolling” sound of thunder and probably the wind. See how you translated this word in 4:5 or 8:5.
peals of thunder: This phrase refers to the loud booming noises of thunder.
11:19d
earthquake: This word refers to the ground shaking strongly.
great hailstorm: The word “hail” refers to frozen rain. A piece of hail can be as small as a raindrop or bigger than a fist. Big hail falling from the sky can do much damage and even kill people. The words great hailstorm refer to a great amount of probably big hail falling from the clouds. Some languages do not have a word for hail. If that is true in your language, you may want to:
• Use a descriptive phrase. For example:
storm of frozen rain
-or-
storm of rain turned to ice
-or-
storm of balls of ice
-or-
storm of cold hard rain
• Use the major language word. If people are not familiar with this word, explain it in a footnote. An example footnote is:
The word “hail” refers to frozen rain. A piece of hail can be as small as a raindrop or bigger than a fist.
-or-
See footnote on hail at 8:7.
See how you translated the word “hail” in 8:7.
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