Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 1 Kings 4:28:
Kupsabiny: “They also brought barley and grass/pasture for feeding all the horses.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “When each of their turns came, they also sent barley and straw for the horses and the chariot horses.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “They also give barley and straw for the horses for chariot and for the other horses. They brought these to the place where- these should -be-brought during their turns.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “They also brought stalks of barley and wheat for the fast horses that pulled the chariots and for the other work horses. They brought it to the places where the horses were kept.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
Barley Hordeum distichum or Hordeum vulgare is a type of grass like wheat and rice. It has been cultivated in the Middle East for thousands of years and is now one of the most prominent seed crops grown in the world. Twenty species are known, of which eight are European. Barley needs less rain than wheat does, so in the Holy Land it was typically found in the drier areas above the coastal plain and near the desert. From 2 Kings 7:1 and Revelation 6:6 we know that barley was considered inferior to wheat and was often used to feed animals, as it is today. When the wheat supply ran out, people had to make their bread with barley. Barley was gathered before wheat, the harvest coming around March or April in the lower regions and in May in the mountains (see Exodus 9:31 et al.). In Egypt and in ancient Greece barley was used to make beer.
Barley plants look like wheat or rice. They are less than 1 meter (3 feet) tall, and have a single head on each stalk, with six rows of kernels, although the biblical kind may have had only two rows. The head bends at a down-ward angle when it is ripe.
In the story of Gideon and the Midianites in Judges 7:13, “a cake of barley” representing the (despised) Israelite army tumbles into the Midianite camp and knocks down the tent (representing the nomadic Midianites).
Barley is a plant of temperate zones, like Europe and the Near East; it does not grow well in the tropics. However, barley has been recently introduced along with wheat into many parts of the world for brewing beer and other malted drinks. It is also known to have grown in Korea as early as 1500 B.C. along with wheat and millet. It is becoming known in Malay as barli. Except for the reference in Judges, all references to barley in the Bible are non-rhetorical, so unrelated cultural equivalents are discouraged. Some receptor language speakers may coin a name for it as in Malay, or the translator can use a transliteration from Hebrew (se‘orah), Latin (horideyo), or from a major language (for example, Arabic sha’ir, Spanish cebada, French orge, Portuguese cevada, Swahili shayiri), together with a classifier, if there is one (for example, “grain of shayir”).
Barley also and straw for the horses and swift steeds they brought: The word also reflects only the common Hebrew conjunction, but the idea is clearly that the items mentioned here were provided in addition to what has already been mentioned. The structure of this verse will have to be altered in many languages since they (referring to the regional officers) is the subject. It comes in the middle of the sentence in Revised Standard Version and the Hebrew, but it will be more naturally placed at the beginning of this verse in many languages.
Barley is a kind of grain that was eaten by people as bread (2 Kgs 4.42) and also fed to animals.
Straw refers to the stalks of barley and wheat that remain after threshing. These stalks were eaten by animals since they were shredded and mixed with feed.
Swift steeds (also New Revised Standard Version) is one possible translation of the Hebrew noun here. The same word occurs in Est 8.10, where the context seems to require the sense of swiftness. Some interpreters, however, explain the meaning of the Hebrew word on the basis of an Akkadian word that means “to bind.” If this interpretation is followed, the reference is to horses that work in a team. It is not clear, however, whether they work as a team to pull chariots (“chariot-horses” in Revised English Bible; “chariot-steeds” in Gray; “chariot teams” in De Vries) or to work the fields (“work animals” in Good News Translation; “draft/draught animals” in New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, Bible en français courant, Peregrino). Rather than choose between the two possible meanings, it may be preferable to say “the horses and the [other] horses that worked in teams.”
To the place where it was required is literally “to the place where [it/he] was [or, should be] there.” The subject of the verb “was” is not clear, so the sense of this clause is not clear. The subject may be the place itself (Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation), each of the governors, or, less likely, King Solomon. Traduction œcuménique de la Bible is based on the third interpretation as follows: “to the place where the king was staying” (similarly Good News Translation footnote, Bible en français courant, Parole de Vie). It may be that the governors brought the barley and straw for the horses of the king’s troops wherever the army went with the king, but more likely it means that they brought this food for the horses to places where it could be collected and transported. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh understands this to mean to the places where the horses were, so it has “to the places where they [the horses] were stationed.”
Each according to his charge: See verse 7. The word charge renders a Hebrew noun that often means “justice” or “legal case” (see 1 Kgs 3.28). Here it seems to mean “responsibility,” “assignment” (An American Translation), or “duty” (Revised English Bible). The sense is that each of the governors did what was required of them when it was the month for them to provide supplies. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, therefore, says “each in his turn.”
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 .
4:28a Each one also brought to the required place their quotas of barley and straw
Each governor made sure that the stables received the correct amount of barley grain and straw. -or-
These men/officers also ordered/caused ⌊the servants⌋ to put the right amount of grain/meal and grass/stalks into the/its right place.
4:28b for the chariot horses and other horses.
This was to feed the horses that pulled the chariots, as well as the other horses. -or-
This food was for the king’s war horses and work horses.
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