10And in the days of Saul they made war on the Hagrites, who fell by their hand, and they lived in their tents throughout all the region east of Gilead.
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 1 Chronicles 5:10:
Kupsabiny: “When Saul was ruling, the clan of Reuben fought the Hagrites and defeated them. They plundered the land of those people who were on the East side of Gilead.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “When Saul was king by doing battle they defeated the Hagrites. Then they conquered their land east of Gilead.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “When Saul was the king, they fought against the Hagarnon and they defeated them. They took-jurisdiction-of the dwelling-places of the Hagarnon in the entire eastern-area of Gilead.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “When Saul was king of Israel, Bela’s clan fought against the descendants of Hagar and defeated them. After that, Bela’s clan lived in the tents that the descendants of Hagar had lived in previously, in all the area east of the Gilead region.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
According to Anne Garber Kompaoré (in Le Sycomore 3/2009, p. 34ff. ), there are 4 ways to identify cardinal directions:
1. celestial bodies, especially the sun and certain stars
2. geographical landmarks, for example a mountain, sea, or river (depending on its position or the direction in which the water flows) etc.
3. climatic phenomena, such as the wind and the direction from which rain comes
4. bodily reference points, especially front, back, left, and right, in relation to celestial bodies or geographical landmarks
Following are examples of how these are practically implemented by various languages: (click or tap here to see the rest of this insight)
Celestial Bodies
East and west are often translated by the rising and the setting of the sun (note that the origin of English and other Indo-European languages is “dawn” for “east” and “evening” [i.e. sun-down] for “west”):
Maan: “where the sun comes up” and “where the sun goes down” (source: Don Slager)
Kankanaey: “from the coming-out of the sun “and “going-away of the sun” (source: Kankanaey back-translation)
Northern Emberá: “from where the sun comes up” and “from where the sun falls” (source: Charles Mortensen)
Ejamat “the side where the sun comes from” and “the side where it sets” (source: David Frank in this blog post )
Tzeltal: “where the sun pours-out” (west) (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
Northern Ngbandi: “the sun behind the chief’s house” (east — the chief lives traditionally at the eastern side of the village, therefore he does not get the sunlight into his eyes) and “under the sun” (west)
Northwestern Dinka: “earth behind” (east — the place behind the earth, i.e. the area where the sun rises)
Jula: “salt village” (north — because salt comes from the north, from the Sahara Desert) and “kola village” (south — since kola comes from the coastal region to the south) (source: Garber Kompaoré)
Matumbi: “toward the beach” (East) (the coast is in the eastern direction in Matumbi-speaking areas), “north” and “south” can be defined as above or below another place (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
Acoli: “right” (of the local White Nile) (north) and “left” (of the White Nile) (south)
Zande: “interior (dry) land” (east); “place-inside-country” (north / south) — Zande, like a number of other languages, including Matengo and Hehe, traditionally only has three cardinal directions.
Belanda Bor: “lower place” (north) and “higher place” (south)
Turkana: “(up)stream” (north) and (down)stream (south)
Mono (DRC): “water place” (south) (source for this and five above: Mietzner / Pasch)
Climatic Phenomena
Shilluk: “opening westwind” (north) and “opening eastwind” (south)
Swahili used to have six directions. In reducing them to four, kusini and kaskazini which used to refer to south-west and north east respectively (the directions from where the two monsoons blow) have become the terms for “south” and north.” (source for this and one above: Mietzner / Pasch)
Bodily Reference Points
Nuer / Burun: “face” and “sun face” respectively (both: east)
Kalenjin: “eye sun” (east) (this and the one above indicate that the sun is “facing” the spectator from its position in the east:
Shilluk: doesn’t use a fixed position of the speaker, instead it has “eye sun morning” for east and “eye sun evening” for west
Mono (DRC): “foot-sun” (east — the start of the sun’s journey)
Burun: “sun leg” (west — the end of the sun’s journey)
Bari: “back” (north — when people are facing south, north is at their back) (source for this and above: Mietzner / Pasch)
Northern Emberá “the looking [left] hand” (north) and “the real [right] hand” (south) (source: Charles Mortensen)
Morelos Nahuatl: “from above” (north) and “from below” (south) (source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
When all four directions are mentioned, translators tend to avoid listing the four, sometimes verbose terms, and chose solutions like “all directions” (such as in Maan or Manya (source: Don Slager). Yakan has “from the four corners of the earth” (source: Yakan back-translation) and Western Bukidnon Manobo “from the four directions here on the earth” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo back-translation).
The Hebrew text that gives instructions where to place items in the tabernacle with the help of cardinal directions (north and south) had to be approached in the Bambam translation specific to spacial concepts of that culture. Phil Campbell explains: “There are no words in Bambam for north and south. In Exodus 26:35, God instructs that the table is to be placed on the north side and the lamp on the south side inside the tabernacle. The team wants to use right and left to tell where the lamp and table are located. In many languages we would say that the table is on the right and the lampstand is on the left based on the view of someone entering the tabernacle. However, that is not how Bambam people view it. They view the placement of things and rooms in a building according to the orientation of someone standing inside the building facing the front of the building. So that means the table is on the left side and the lampstand is on the right side.”
Good News Translation and New Jerusalem Bible add a paragraph break here, which may be helpful in other languages.
And in the days of Saul may be translated “During the reign of Saul” (Moffatt). Saul may be identified more precisely as “King Saul” (Good News Translation, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente). For this whole phrase Contemporary English Version has “When Saul was king.”
They made war on the Hagrites: The pronoun they clearly refers to the descendants of Reuben. Good News Translation makes this clear by saying “the tribe of Reuben,” and Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente is similar with “the Reubenites.” However, New Century Version translates more specifically, saying “Bela’s people” as in verse 9. The Hagrites were a nomadic tribe east of the Jordan River (see also the comments on verse 19). They are listed in Psa 83.6 among the enemies of the Israelites.
Who fell by their hand means the Hagrites were defeated by the Reubenites. A literal rendering of this clause may be misleading or unnatural. Some other possible models are “whom they conquered” (Revised English Bible) and “whom they defeated.” New American Bible turns this relative clause into a temporal clause to introduce the statement that follows, saying “when they had defeated them.” New Living Translation combines this clause with the previous one, saying “the Reubenites defeated the Hagrites in battle.”
And they dwelt in their tents is understood by most versions to mean that the Reubenites lived in the tents that had previously belonged to the Hagrites. Good News Translation says simply “and occupied their land.” Revised English Bible stays closer to the strict sense of the Hebrew by saying “occupying their encampments.” But it is also possible to understand the subject of the verb dwelt as the Hagrites (so New Jerusalem Bible, which reads “and who were then living in their tents”).
Throughout all the region east of Gilead is literally “on all the face east of Gilead.” This phrase refers to the land east of Gilead. The region of Gilead was on the eastern side of the Jordan. It was only about 40 kilometers (25 miles) wide with a desert on its eastern side. Good News Translation says “in the eastern part of Gilead,” but New Century Version is more accurate with “in all the area east of Gilead.”
Moffatt translates this verse as follows: “During the reign of Saul the Reubenites attacked the Hagrites and cut them to pieces, occupying all their territory east of Gilead.”
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 .
5:10a During the days of Saul they waged war against the Hagrites,
When Saul was king, the Reubenites fought against the Hagrites -or-
In the time of King Saul, the tribe of Reuben attacked the Hagrite people.
5:10b who were defeated at their hands,
and defeated them. -or-
They killed them in battle,
5:10c and they occupied the homes of the Hagrites throughout the region east of Gilead.
Afterwards they lived where the Hagrites used to live in the region east of Gilead. -or-
and took over their land in the east, outside of ⌊the region of⌋ Gilead.
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