12:4a
His tail swept a third of the stars from the sky, tossing them to the earth: These clauses probably refer to the great power of the dragon. There are many interpretations of these clauses, so you should not explain their meaning in your translation.
His tail swept a third of the stars from the sky: The word swept refers to gathering a third of the stars. The motion of the dragon’s tail caused the stars to move.
In some languages it is more natural to make the dragon itself the subject of the clause. For example:
With his tail he dragged a third of the stars out of the sky (Good News Translation)
a third of the stars: Here the word third means “one out of every three.” For example, in a group of three thousand stars, one thousand stars fell to earth. Other ways to translate this phrase are:
one part in three ⌊parts⌋ of the stars
-or-
one of every three stars
-or-
one part of the stars and two parts not
tossing them to the earth: The word tossing means “throwing.” After the dragon gathered a third of the stars with his tail, he threw them to earth. For example:
threw them down to the earth (Good News Translation)
12:4b
And the dragon stood before the woman: The Greek grammar probably indicates that after the dragon threw the stars to the earth he stood before the woman and remained there waiting for some time. For example:
the dragon stopped in front of the woman (New Jerusalem Bible)
the dragon: The Berean Standard Bible translates the Greek literally here. But the previous sentence and this sentence are both about the dragon. In some languages a pronoun would be more natural. For example:
He
12:4c
devour: This word refers to eating something completely. For example:
eat the whole child
-or-
consume
her child: The word child does not indicate whether the child is male or female. But some languages must explicitly say “male-child” or “female-child.” If that is true in your language, you should say “male-child” (12:5a).
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