altar

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The Greek, Latin and Hebrew that is translated as “altar” in English is translated in a number of ways:

  • Obolo: ntook or “raised structure for keeping utensils (esp. sacrifice)” (source: Enene Enene)
  • Muna: medha kaefoampe’a or “offering table” (source: René van den Berg)
  • Luchazi: muytula or “the place where one sets the burden down”/”the place where the life is laid down” (source: E. Pearson in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 160ff. )
  • Tzotzil: “where they place God’s gifts” (source: John Beekman in Notes on Translation, March 1965, p. 2ff.)
  • Tsafiki: “table for giving to God” (source: Bruce Moore in Notes on Translation 1/1992, p. 1ff.)
  • Noongar: karla-kooranyi or “sacred fire” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “offering-burning table” (source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “place for sacrificing” (source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “burning-place” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tibetan: mchod khri (མཆོད་​ཁྲི།) or “offering throne” (source: gSungrab website )
  • Bura-Pabir: “sacrifice mound” (source: Andy Warrren-Rothlin)
  • Kalanga: “fireplace of sacrifice” (source: project-specific notes in Paratext)
  • Cherokee: “fire nurturing place” (source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 26) (note that the Jewish priest is “fire feeder” in Cherokee)
The Ignaciano translators decided to translate the difficult term in that language according to the focus of each New Testament passage in which the word appears (click or tap here to see the rest of this insight

Willis Ott (in Notes on Translation 88/1982, p. 18ff.) explains:

  • Matt. 5:23,24: “When you take your offering to God, and arriving, you remember…, do not offer your gift yet. First go to your brother…Then it is fitting to return and offer your offering to God.” (The focus is on improving relationships with people before attempting to improve a relationship with God, so the means of offering, the altar, is not focal.)
  • Matt. 23:18 (19,20): “You also teach erroneously: ‘If someone makes a promise, swearing by the offering-place/table, he is not guilty if he should break the promise. But if he swears by the gift that he put on the offering-place/table, he will be guilty if he breaks the promise.'”
  • Luke 1:11: “…to the right side of the table where they burn incense.”
  • Luke 11.51. “…the one they killed in front of the temple (or the temple enclosure).” (The focus is on location, with overtones on: “their crime was all the more heinous for killing him there”.)
  • Rom. 11:3: “Lord, they have killed all my fellow prophets that spoke for you. They do not want anyone to give offerings to you in worship.” (The focus is on the people’s rejection of religion, with God as the object of worship.)
  • 1Cor. 9:13 (10:18): “Remember that those that attend the temple have rights to eat the foods that people bring as offerings to God. They have rights to the meat that the people offer.” (The focus is on the right of priests to the offered food.)
  • Heb. 7:13: “This one of whom we are talking is from another clan. No one from that clan was ever a priest.” (The focus in on the legitimacy of this priest’s vocation.)
  • Jas. 2:21: “Remember our ancestor Abraham, when God tested him by asking him to give him his son by death. Abraham was to the point of stabbing/killing his son, thus proving his obedience.” (The focus is on the sacrifice as a demonstration of faith/obedience.)
  • Rev. 6:9 (8:3,5; 9:13; 14:18; 16:7): “I saw the souls of them that…They were under the table that holds God’s fire/coals.” (This keeps the concepts of: furniture, receptacle for keeping fire, and location near God.)
  • Rev. 11:1: “Go to the temple, Measure the building and the inside enclosure (the outside is contrasted in v. 2). Measure the burning place for offered animals. Then count the people who are worshiping there.” (This altar is probably the brazen altar in a temple on earth, since people are worshiping there and since outside this area conquerors are allowed to subjugate for a certain time.)

See also altar (Acts 17:23).


In the Hebraic English translation of Everett Fox it is translated as slaughter-site and likewise in the German translation by Buber / Rosenzweig as Schlachtstatt.

complete verse (1 Kings 12:33)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 1 Kings 12:33:

  • Kupsabiny: “Jeroboam set aside the fifteenth day of the eighth month to become a feast day like the festive day in Judah. He also called the priests whom he had chosen to go to Bethel. But on the feast day which he had arranged, he went to Bethel. Then, he went up to the altar and burnt sweet-smelling things. Then, sacrifices were burnt to that idol which was worshipped.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “So on the 15th day of the 8th month, the day he himself had chosen, he went to Bethel to offer sacrifices on the altar he had built there. He started a festival for the Israelites, and he went to offer sacrifices on the altar.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “On that day that he sacrificed on the altar that he had-made at Betel, he started the feast for the Israelinhon. He himself chose the 15th day of the eight month for this feast.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Jeroboam went up to that altar on that day in October which he himself had chosen. There on that altar he burned incense to be a sacrifice. And he declared that the people should celebrate that festival on that same day every year.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on 1 Kings 12:33

He went up to the altar which he had made … on the fifteenth day in the eighth month: On the fifteenth day in the eighth month goes with the verb went up and not the verb made. This is more clearly expressed in Good News Translation

As noted in the previous verse, the Hebrew verb rendered went up is the same as the one translated “offered sacrifices” there. Altars were sometimes built on a platform, so the person offering a sacrifice would literally “go up” to the altar.

In the month which he had devised of his own heart: The translation of his own heart follows the reading in the margin of the Masoretic Text. The text itself reads “separately” and this seems to be the basis for the New Revised Standard Version rendering “in the month that he alone had devised.”

These words are intended as a criticism of Jeroboam. They suggest that when he established this particular date for the festival he was not following God’s will but only his own thoughts. Compare “by his own pleasure” (Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente), “a month of his own choosing” (New International Version), “the month in which he arbitrarily chose” (New American Bible), and “a month he had chosen out of his own head” (Moffatt).

New Jerusalem Bible says “the month which he had chosen deliberately,” but this does not seem to capture the negative criticism that the Hebrew words express. And the Good News Translation rendering “the day that he himself had set” may suggest only that as king he had the authority to set the date for this festival.

Ordained a feast: See the comments on the previous verse, where this same phrase in Hebrew is rendered “appointed a feast.”

To burn incense: Regarding the uncertainty of knowing whether this means to burn incense (Revised Standard Version, Peregrino) or “to offer sacrifice” (Anchor Bible; similarly New Jerusalem Bible), see the comments on 1 Kgs 3.3.

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator’s Notes on 1 Kings 12:33

12:33a On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, a month of his own choosing,

On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, a month which he himself had chosen,
-or-
The fifteenth day of the eighth month of the year arrived. This was the month that Jeroboam had picked/selected.

12:33b Jeroboam offered sacrifices on the altar he had set up in Bethel.

he/Jeroboam offered sacrifices on the altar that he had built at Bethel.
-or-
Jeroboam ⌊came to Bethel and⌋ sacrificed animals on the place/table of sacrifice that he had caused to be built there.

12:33c So he ordained a feast for the Israelites,

Thus he established/appointed a ⌊new⌋ festival/feast for the Israelites.
-or-
In this way he started a special/holy day for Israelites ⌊of the northern tribes⌋.

12:33d offered sacrifices on the altar, and burned incense.

He ⌊himself⌋ offered sacrifices on the altar.
-or-
He ⌊himself⌋ burned animals on the place for sacrificing.

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