Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 1 Chronicles 4:23:
Kupsabiny: “Those people made pots and lived in the cities of Netaim and Gederah and worked for the king of that country.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “They were the potters who lived at Netaim and Gederah and they stayed there and worked for the king.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “They were the potters who lived at Netaim and Gedera. They worked for the king.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “They made pottery for the king; some of them lived in Netaim town and some of them lived in Gederah town.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
Some languages do not have a concept of kingship and therefore no immediate equivalent for the Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin that is translated as “king” in English. Here are some (back-) translations:
Ninia Yali: “big brother with the uplifted name” (source: Daud Soesilio in Noss 2007, p. 175)
Nyamwezi: mutemi: generic word for ruler, by specifying the city or nation it becomes clear what kind of ruler (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Ghomála’: Fo (“The word Fo refers to the paramount ruler in the kingdoms of West Cameroon. He holds administrative, political, and religious power over his own people, who are divided into two categories: princes (descendants of royalty) and servants (everyone else).” (Source: Michel Kenmogne in Theologizing in Context: An Example from the Study of a Ghomala’ Christian Hymn))
Faye Edgerton retells how the term in Navajo (Dinė) was determined:
“[This term was] easily expressed in the language of Biblical culture, which had kings and noblemen with their brilliant trappings and their position of honor and praise. But leadership among the Navajos is not accompanied by any such titles or distinctions of dress. Those most respected, especially in earlier days, were their headmen, who were the leaders in raids, and the shaman, who was able to serve the people by appealing for them to the gods, or by exorcising evil spirits. Neither of these made any outward show. Neither held his position by political intrigue or heredity. If the headman failed consistently in raids, he was superceded by a better warrior. If the shaman failed many times in his healing ceremonies, it was considered that he was making mistakes in the chants, or had lost favor with the gods, and another was sought. The term Navajos use for headman is derived from a verb meaning ‘to move the head from side to side as in making an oration.’ The headman must be a good orator, able to move the people to go to war, or to follow him in any important decision. This word is naat’áanii which now means ‘one who rules or bosses.’ It is employed now for a foreman or boss of any kind of labor, as well as for the chairman of the tribal council. So in order to show that the king is not just a common boss but the highest ruler, the word ‘aláahgo, which expresses the superlative degree, was put before naat’áanii, and so ‘aláahgo naat’áanii ‘anyone-more-than-being around-he-moves-his-head-the-one-who’ means ‘the highest ruler.’ Naat’áanii was used for governor as the context usually shows that the person was a ruler of a country or associated with kings.”
These were the potters and inhabitants of Netaim and Gederah: It is not clear to whom the demonstrative pronoun These refers, but it should probably be seen as referring backward and not forward. It is not clear whether the pronoun includes the people mentioned in both verses 21 and 22 or only verse 22. In some languages there exists a pronoun that refers to “the ones just mentioned previously.” It would be appropriate here. Contemporary English Version begins this verse with “The members of these clans….”
The Hebrew waw translated and may also be rendered “namely.” The sense of this whole clause would then be “These were the potters, namely, the inhabitants of Netaim and Gederah.” The ancient versions and the Targums express this sense by saying “They were the potters who lived in Netaim and Gederah.” But it is also possible to understand the Hebrew to mean that even though all of the people in the previous verse were potters, only some of them were the king’s potters: those who lived in Netaim and Gederah. Revised English Bible, for example, renders this verse as “They were the potters, and those who lived at Netaim and Gederah were there on the king’s service.”
The two names Netaim and Gederah almost certainly refer to towns or villages in spite of the fact that King James Version takes the Hebrew words rendered Netaim and Gederah to mean “plants and hedges.” Jewish Publication Version and Reina-Valera revisada are similar with “plantations and hedges.” Traduction œcuménique de la Bible reads “the plantations and the enclosures” in the text and gives “Netaim and Gederah” as an alternative translation in a footnote. Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente does just the reverse of Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, translating the Hebrew as place names in the text and giving the alternative translation “the plantations and the enclosures” in a footnote. Netaim was probably a town in Judah; and, according to Josh 15.36, Gederah was a town in the foothills of Judah.
They dwelt there with the king for his work may mean that these people worked on land owned by the king as they worked for him. More likely it means that the king provided the financial support for them to make jars and other kinds of pottery for him. This statement does not mean that they lived in the royal palace. The specific work of these people was making pottery, but this was done in the service of the king. Bible de Jérusalem translates this clause as “They remained there with the king, attached to his workshop.” New Living Translation says simply “They all worked for the king.”
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 .
4:23a These were the potters who lived at Netaim and Gederah.
Those people were the potters who lived at Netaim and Gederah. -or-
These were the people who made pots. They were the inhabitants of Netaim and Gederah.
4:23b They lived there in the service of the king.
They lived in Netaim and Gederah and worked for the king. -or-
They stayed in those towns in the service of the king.
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