complete verse (1 Chronicles 27:8)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 1 Chronicles 27:8:

  • Kupsabiny: “Shamhuth from the house if Izra were in charge of the fifth part who worked in the fifth month.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “For the fifth month Shamuth the Izrahite was the fifth captain. There were 24,000 men in his group.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Shamhut a descendant of Izra was the commander of the soldiers for the fifth month. There were 24,000 soldiers in his group.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “The commander for the following/fifth month was Shamhuth, a descendant of Izrah.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on 1 Chronicles 27:8

Shamhuth, the Izrahite (verse 8): Shamhuth is called “Shammoth” in 1 Chr 11.27. New Living Translation reads “Shammah” in both verses, as in 2 Sam 23.25. It is not clear whether the Izrahite (literally “the Izrah”) refers to “a descendant of Izhar” (Good News Translation, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje; similarly New Century Version) or to an unknown place named “Izrah.” The Hebrew form of this word does not have the usual ending that denotes place of origin. Instead of reading Izrahite, Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia suggests that the order of the letters in the Hebrew text be reversed to read “Zerahite” as in verses 11 and 13. Several translations follow this correction of the text (so Revised English Bible, New American Bible, La Bible Pléiade, Klein, Knoppers). While this correction of the Masoretic Text may be what the Hebrew originally read, there is no real manuscript evidence for doing so.

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Chronicles, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2014. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator’s Notes on 1 Chronicles 27:8

27:8a The fifth, for the fifth month, was the commander Shamhuth the Izrahite.

⌊The commander in charge⌋ of the fifth division was Shamhuth, a descendant of Izrah. He served in the fifth month ⌊of the year⌋ .
-or-
Shamhuth was responsible for the fifth troop during the fifth month ⌊of the year⌋ . He was from the clan/family of Izrah.

27:8b There were 24,000 men in his division.

Shamhuth supervised twenty-four thousand fighting men.
-or-
Shamhuth was the chief/leader of twenty-four thousand (24,000) soldiers.

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