The Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek that is translated as “cubit” or into a metric or imperial measurement in English is translated in Kutu, Kwere, and Nyamwezi as makono or “armlength.” Since a cubit is the measurement from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, one armlength (measured from the center of the chest to the fingertips) equals two cubits or roughly 1 meter. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Similarly, in Akoose, the translation is “arm distance.” (Source: Joseph Nkwelle Ngome and Marlie van Rooyen & Jacobus A. Naudé in Communicatio 2009, p. 251ff.)
In Klao it is converted into “hand spans” (app. 6 inches or 12 cm) and “finger spans” (app. 1 inch or 2 cm) (source: Don Slager) and in Bariai into leoa or “fathom,” which comprises the distance from a person’s fingertip to fingertip with arms outstretched, app. 6 feet (source: Bariai Back Translation).
The Bottle Gourd or Calabash Lagenaria siceraria was one of the first plants to be domesticated by human beings. It has been used for food, for medicine, and for various utensils and musical instruments. It is indigenous to Africa but was probably introduced into Asia and the Americas about ten thousand years ago, with or without the help of humans. The name of the genus comes from the Latin word lagoena, meaning “flask” (almost certainly the first Roman flasks were dried gourds). The species name is derived from the Latin word for “dry,” suggesting that the fruit is usable in its dried form. Although the people of the Bible lands undoubtedly used the split bottle gourds in their homes as bowls or “dippers,” as we find in Africa and Asia, the only references we have are to the image of the gourd in the artwork carved into the cedar of King Solomon’s palace (1 Kings 6:18) and in the decorating of the giant bronze basin that stood in front of the Temple (1 Kings 7:24).
The bottle gourd is a climbing vine like a cucumber or pumpkin. Its stem is square, ribbed, and hairy, and can grow up to 5 meters (17 feet) long. The leaves are heart-shaped, the size of a human hand, and slightly lobed. The flowers are yellow with five petals, giving way to fruits that may be of many different shapes depending on the variety. Most gourds are globular at one end, with a protrusion that may be elongated, making them very useful, when cut in half, as big spoons in the kitchen.
Gourds or calabashes have been used as containers, or, when split, as dipping devices, for thousands of years. They have also been used for musical instruments. The pulp of most kinds is very bitter and is poisonous in some cases. Some kinds are used in medicine in some countries, for purges, expelling worms, and for chest pains and headache. In southern Africa the leaves are eaten as a vegetable, as are the young, unripe fruits.
Translators in temperate or tropical areas of Africa and Asia will have a word for these gourds. If the only gourd people are familiar with is round like a ball, then an illustration may help in the text, or a footnote can describe the special shape of the Holy Land gourd, insofar as we know it. The bottle gourd is related to the wild gourd mentioned in 2 Kings 4:39, which poisoned a group of prophets.
In Gbaya, the notion of being full or complete (“surround,” “came together,” “all around”) is emphasized with ɗɛ́kɛ́t, an ideophone that designates that which is complete, filled to the brim; someone who lacks nothing.
Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 1 Kings 7:24:
Kupsabiny: “He engraved around the neck of that container things like gourds in two rows. Ten gourds were engraved interchanged/spaced out for a span of one and a half feet.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “All around the circumference of the outside of the rim [he] made two rows of designs of gords. Those designs were of one piece with the tank.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “It was-surrounded with two rows of decoration just below its opening/[lit. mouth]. This decoration is as-if-like vine/[lit. creeping] plants, and have six of these in every one foot (distance) around, and this was- already -formed together with the container when it was-being-made.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “Around the outer edge of the rim of the tank were two rows of gourds that were made of bronze. But the gourds were not cast separately; they were cast in the same mold as the rest of the tank. For each foot of length around the rim of the tank there were six figures of gourds.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
The various Greek, Aramaic, Ge’ez, and Latin and Hebrew terms that are translated as “sea,” “ocean,” or “lake” in English are all translated in Chichewa with one term: nyanja. Malawi, where Chichewa is spoken, has a lot of lakes but does not share a border with the ocean. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Under its brim were gourds: Under its brim means “around the outer edge of the rim of the tank” (Good News Translation). As the end of the verse makes clear, the gourds were made of bronze as was the rest of the tank. Good News Translation moves this information forward and says “bronze gourds.” These were, of course, not really gourds, but bronze figures that looked like gourds. For the word gourds, see the comments at 1 Kgs 6.18.
Thirty cubits: The Hebrew reads “ten in a cubit” or “ten cubits” (Anchor Bible). Thirty cubits is a correction of the text, based on the assumption that the gourds went all around the tank (30 cubits) and not just a third of the way (10 cubits). Other translations that correct the Hebrew to read thirty include Revised English Bible and New Jerusalem Bible. But the Hebrew makes sense when understood to mean “ten [gourds] per cubit.” New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh interprets this to mean “gourds … ten to a cubit.” Compare also “there were twenty per meter” (Bible en français courant, Parole de Vie). If this interpretation is correct, there would have been three hundred gourds around the rim of the tank, that is ten times thirty. Compare “There were about six gourds per foot” (New Living Translation). Hebrew Old Testament Text Project gives an {A} rating to the Masoretic Text and recommends a translation like that found in New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh. Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament discusses the difficulty but does not rate the Masoretic Text since the changes that some scholars suggest should be made to the Masoretic Text are based on exegetical difficulties rather than on differences in the ancient manuscripts.
Cast with it when it was cast means that these gourds were not cast separately and then fastened to the tank. Rather, the mold included the gourds with the tank as one piece. Gray says “cast in the same mould.” Others may find it necessary to say something like “made together at the same time.”
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 .
7:24a Below the rim, ornamental buds encircled it, ten per cubit all the way around the Sea,
Under the rim, there were ⌊bronze⌋ gourds all around it. There were ten gourds for every cubit. -or-
Underneath this edge he/they placed ornaments/decorations in the shape of ⌊small⌋ gourds. For every meter he/they put twenty gourds..
7:24b cast in two rows as a part of the Sea.
These ⌊metal/bronze⌋ gourds were arranged in two rows and poured in the same mold as the ⌊reservoir/tank called⌋ the Sea. -or-
He/They constructed the basin/container in one piece. It/This included the two rows of these decorative gourds.
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