וּשְׁלֹמֹה֩ נָתַ֨ן לְחִירָ֜ם עֶשְׂרִים֩ אֶ֨לֶף כֹּ֤ר חִטִּים֙ מַכֹּ֣לֶת לְבֵית֔וֹ וְעֶשְׂרִ֥ים כֹּ֖ר שֶׁ֣מֶן כָּתִ֑ית כֹּֽה־יִתֵּ֧ן שְׁלֹמֹ֛ה לְחִירָ֖ם שָׁנָ֥ה בְשָׁנָֽה׃ פ
11Solomon, in turn, gave Hiram twenty thousand cors of wheat as food for his household and twenty cors of fine oil. Solomon gave this to Hiram year by year.
The Hebrew that is transliterated as “cors” in English or translated into a modern weight measure is translated in Borana-Arsi-Guji Oromo as kuntaala or “sacks” since the weight unit is thought to be the equivalent of what a mule can carry. (Source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
In the 1989 Tsonga BIBELE Mahungu Lamanene it is likewise translated into a measurement of a traditional container rather than weight: masaka or “bag.” (Source: The Bible Translator 1998, p. 215ff. )
See also homer.
The different Hebrew and Greek terms that are translated as “(olive) oil” and “(animal) fat” in English are translated in Kwere with only one term: mavuta. (Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin that is often translated as “gentiles” (or “nations”) in English is often translated as a “local equivalent of ‘foreigners,'” such as “the people of other lands” (Guerrero Amuzgo), “people of other towns” (Tzeltal), “people of other languages” (San Miguel El Grande Mixtec), “strange peoples” (Navajo (Dinė)) (this and above, see Bratcher / Nida), “outsiders” (Ekari), “people of foreign lands” (Kannada), “non-Jews” (North Alaskan Inupiatun), “people being-in-darkness” (a figurative expression for people lacking cultural or religious insight) (Toraja-Sa’dan) (source for this and three above Reiling / Swellengrebel), “from different places all people” (Martu Wangka) (source: Carl Gross).
Tzeltal translates it as “people in all different towns,” Chicahuaxtla Triqui as “the people who live all over the world,” Highland Totonac as “all the outsider people,” Sayula Popoluca as “(people) in every land” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Chichimeca-Jonaz as “foreign people who are not Jews,” Sierra de Juárez Zapotec as “people of other nations” (source of this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), Highland Totonac as “outsider people” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Uma as “people who are not the descendants of Israel” (source: Uma Back Translation), “other ethnic groups” (source: Newari Back Translation), and Yakan as “the other tribes” (source: Yakan Back Translation).
In Chichewa, it is translated with mitundu or “races.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
See also nations.
The Hebrew, Latin and Greek that is transliterated as “Solomon” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with the sign for “wise” referring to 1 Kings 3:12. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
“Solomon” in Spanish Sign Language, source: Sociedad Bíblica de España
For more information on translations of proper names with sign language see Sign Language Bible Translations Have Something to Say to Hearing Christians .
Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Solomon .
Two kinds of wild wheat have grown in the open deciduous oak woodland in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent for several thousand years: Einkorn Wheat Triticum monococcum and Emmer Wheat Triticum dicoccum. Both came into cultivation together with barley. Just before the time of the Romans, the Naked Bread Wheat or Hard Wheat Triticum durum started replacing the hulled varieties. This then became the favorite type of wheat for bread and macaroni. Spelt is a sub-member of the Triticum aestivum species.
In New Revised Standard Version, updated edition and some other versions, the generic Hebrew word bar has been rendered “wheat” in Jeremiah 23:28 et al. This is legitimate, since the grain referred to by bar was probably wheat. However, it might be better to say “grain” in these passages.
The most important early wheat for the Israelites was emmer, probably the only wheat known in Egypt, and referred to in Hebrew as chittah. However, according to Hepper (Baker Encyclopedia of Bible Plants: Flowers and Trees, Fruits and Vegetables, Ecology. Baker Book House, 1992), the seven-headed wheat of the Egyptian king’s dream (Genesis 41:5ff.) suggests that there may also have been Triticum turgidum (rivet wheat) in the emmer group. The Hebrew word kusemeth probably refers to a type of emmer wheat that the Egyptians called swt.
Wheat is a type of grass like rice and barley, growing to around 75 centimeters (2.5 feet) in height and having a head with many small grains in rows.
Bread made from wheat was the staple food for the people of ancient Israel, so God punished them by breaking “the staff of bread” (see, for example, Ezekiel 4:16).
If wheat is unfamiliar, translators can transliterate from a major language in non-rhetorical contexts (for example, English witi, Portuguese trigo, French ble or froment, Swahili ngano, Arabic kama/alkama). The transliteration may add a generic tag such as “grain.” The New Testament passages are mostly rhetorical, opening the possibility for a metaphorical equivalent.
Source: Each According to its Kind: Plants and Trees in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 1 Kings 5:11:
Many languages use a “body part tally system” where body parts function as numerals (see body part tally systems with a description). One such language is Angguruk Yali which uses a system that ends at the number 27. To circumvent this limitation, the Angguruk Yali translators adopted a strategy where a large number is first indicated with an approximation via the traditional system, followed by the exact number according to Arabic numerals. For example, where in 2 Samuel 6:1 it says “thirty thousand” in the English translation, the Angguruk Yali says teng-teng angge 30.000 or “so many rounds [following the body part tally system] 30,000,” likewise, in Acts 27:37 where the number “two hundred seventy-six” is used, the Angguruk Yali translation says teng-teng angge 276 or “so many rounds 276,” or in John 6:10 teng-teng angge 5.000 for “five thousand.”
This strategy is used in all the verses referenced here.
Source: Lourens de Vries in The Bible Translator 1998, p. 409ff.
See also numbers in Ngalum and numbers in Kombai.
The common Hebrew conjunction is rendered literally as “and” in Good News Translation and by the word while in Revised Standard Version. But since this introduces the statement about what Solomon gave to Hiram in exchange for the timber, some may find the following Contemporary English Version and New Living Translation model appealing: “In return….”
Twenty thousand cors of wheat as food for his household, and twenty thousand cors of beaten oil: Regarding the size and translation of cor, see the comments on 1 Kgs 4.22. Since the size is only approximate, translations will vary somewhat on the size in modern equivalents. For the two amounts here, Good News Translation has “100,000 bushels” and “110,000 gallons.” The footnote in Good News Translation, which gives the reading of the Masoretic Text, states the equivalent of twenty cors as 1,100 gallons. International Children’s Bible has “about 125,000 bushels” and “about 115,000 gallons.” Bible en français courant says “six thousand tons” and “eight thousand liters.”
For his household Good News Translation says “his men,” but see the comments on verse 9.
The reading twenty thousand cors of beaten oil is not what is found in the Masoretic Text, which reads “twenty cors” for the amount (so New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Nouvelle Bible Segond). But since the Septuagint text here reads 20,000 baths and the Syriac reads 20,000 cors, a number of interpreters have corrected the Hebrew of this verse to read 20,000 instead of 20. Gray and De Vries both translate “twenty thousand baths.” A “bath” is a liquid measure equal to one-tenth of a cor and is the equivalent of about 21 liters (5.5 gallons). The reading “110,000 gallons” (420,000 liters) in Good News Translation is based on the Septuagint reading “twenty thousand baths.” This corrected reading here in 1 Kings brings the text into agreement with the parallel text in 2 Chr 2.10, which also reads “twenty thousand baths.” Other translations, based on a different correction of the Hebrew text, read “twenty thousand cors” (so New Jerusalem Bible).
Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament gives a {C} rating to the Masoretic Text. It seems fairly certain that the Hebrew originally read “twenty” and not twenty thousand. But it is less certain whether the Hebrew originally read “twenty cors” (about 4,200 liters) or “twenty baths” (about 420 liters). De Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling has “twenty donkey-burdens.”
Beaten oil refers to olive oil that had been produced by pounding the olives in a hand mortar rather than by pressing them in a wine vat. This process produced a “pure olive oil” (Good News Translation) that did not contain pieces of crushed olive pits. Other translations include “fine oil” (New Revised Standard Version), “oil of pounded olives” (Revised English Bible), “pure oil” (New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible), and “olive oil of first quality” (Bible en français courant).
Year by year is “every year” or “yearly” (Revised English Bible). The text does not say for how many years Solomon continued to provide this produce to Hiram, but it no doubt continued at least as long as Solomon was receiving timber from King Hiram. According to 1 Kgs 6.38 and 7.1, it took seven years to build the Temple and thirteen years to build the palace.
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 .
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