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.
The Hebrew and Greek that is transliterated as “Saul” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with the sign that depicts “sword in chest” (referring to 1 Samuel 31:4 and 1 Chronicles 10:4) and also “self-centered.” (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
The cardinal directions “east” and “west” are easy to translate into Maan here since the language uses “where the sun comes up” and “where the sun goes down.” For “north” the translator had “facing toward the sun rising to the left,” and for “south” she had “facing toward the sun rising to the right.” So the listener had to think hard before knowing what direction was in view when translating “to the north and south, to the east and west.” So, in case all four directions are mentioned, it was shortened by saying simply “all directions.” Manya uses a similar nomenclature for the cardinal directions. (Source: Don Slager)
Likewise, Yakan has “from the four corners of the earth” (source: Yakan back-translation) or Western Bukidnon Manobo “from the four directions here on the earth” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo back-translation).
Kankanaey is “from the coming-out and the going-away of the sun and the north and the south” (source: Kankanaey back-translation), Northern Emberá “from where the sun comes up, from where it falls, from the looking [left] hand, from the real [right] hand” (source: Charles Mortensen), Amele “from the direction of the sun going up, from the direction of the sun going down, from the north and from the south” (source: John Roberts), Ejamat “look up to see the side where the sun comes from, and the side where it sets, and look on your right side, and on your left” (source: David Frank in this blog post ).
In Lamba, only umutulesuŵa, “where the sun rises” and imbonsi, “where the sun sets” were available as cardinal directions that were not tied to the local area of language speakers (“north” is kumausi — “to the Aushi country” — and “south” kumalenje — “to the Lenje country”). So “north” and “south” were introduced as loanwords, nofu and saufu respectively. The whole phrase is kunofu nakusaufu nakumutulesuŵa nakumbonsi. (Source C. M. Doke in The Bible Translator 1958, p. 57ff. )
“West” is translated in Tzeltal as “where the sun pours-out” and in Kele as “down-river” (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel).
In Morelos Nahuatl, “north” is translated as “from above” and “south” as “from below.” (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
In Matumbi cardinal directions are defined as in relation to another place. “East” for instance typically is “toward the beach” since 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)
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.”
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)
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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