complete verse (1 Samuel 10:23)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 1 Samuel 10:23:

  • Kupsabiny: “People ran and brought Saul to stand in the middle of the gathering. Saul was taller than everyone.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “They went running to get him, and [as] he stood up among the people it turned out that all the people were shorter than his shoulders.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “So they ran and they took Saul. And when they had- him -stand-up in-the-middle/among (the people), he (was) taller than everyone.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “So they quickly went there and found him, and brought him in front of all the people. They could see that truly he was a head taller than anyone else.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on 1 Samuel 10:23

Then: the common Hebrew conjunction may be taken either as a temporal transition marker (Revised Standard Version, New Revised Standard Version) or as a logical connector (Good News Translation, Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). Probably the latter is the intended meaning. But in some translations the conjunction is left untranslated altogether (New International Version, Contemporary English Version, New American Bible).

The pronoun they still seems to refer to the same group that started out in search of Saul in verse 21.

When he stood among the people is left implicit by Good News Translation, but it may be better in some languages to indicate that the people “brought him into the middle of the crowd” (Contemporary English Version).

Taller … from his shoulders upward: see the similar description of Saul in 9.2. Some translations preserve the Hebrew imagery while using idiomatic English, “head and shoulders above the crowd” (New American Bible, and similarly New Jerusalem Bible).

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on the First and Second Books of Samuel, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .