19Then some Ziphites went up to Saul at Gibeah and said, “David is hiding among us in the strongholds of Horesh, on the hill of Hachilah, which is south of Jeshimon.
Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)
The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).
For this verse, the Jarai and the Adamawa Fulfulde translation both use the exclusive pronoun, excluding Saul.
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 1 Samuel 23:19:
Kupsabiny: “Then the people of Ziph made an agreement (held council) and went to tell Saul in Gibeah that, ‘Sir, the place where David has hidden himself is near. He is in a place called Hores in Hakilah hill on the south side of Jeshimon.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “Some people of Ziph in Gibeah went to Saul and spoke like this, "David has been hiding in our area in Horesh of the hill of Hakilah. This is in an area towards the southern part of the desert of Jeshimon.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “Now, there-were ones who came-from-Zif that went to Saul at Gibea and said, ‘David is-hiding among us (excl.) there at Horesh, in the hills/mountains of Hakila, south of Jeshimon.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “Some people from Ziph went to Saul when he was at Gibeah, and they told him, ‘David and his men are hiding in our land ! They are hiding in places at Horesh on Hakilah Hill, south of a place named Jeshimon.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
The cardinal directions “east” and “west” are easy to translate into Maan here since the language uses “where the sun comes up” and “where the sun goes down.” For “north” the translator had “facing toward the sun rising to the left,” and for “south” she had “facing toward the sun rising to the right.” So the listener had to think hard before knowing what direction was in view when translating “to the north and south, to the east and west.” So, in case all four directions are mentioned, it was shortened by saying simply “all directions.” Manya uses a similar nomenclature for the cardinal directions. (Source: Don Slager)
Likewise, Yakan has “from the four corners of the earth” (source: Yakan back-translation) or Western Bukidnon Manobo “from the four directions here on the earth” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo back-translation).
Kankanaey is “from the coming-out and the going-away of the sun and the north and the south” (source: Kankanaey back-translation), Northern Emberá “from where the sun comes up, from where it falls, from the looking [left] hand, from the real [right] hand” (source: Charles Mortensen), Amele “from the direction of the sun going up, from the direction of the sun going down, from the north and from the south” (source: John Roberts), Ejamat “look up to see the side where the sun comes from, and the side where it sets, and look on your right side, and on your left” (source: David Frank in this blog post ).
In Lamba, only umutulesuŵa, “where the sun rises” and imbonsi, “where the sun sets” were available as cardinal directions that were not tied to the local area of language speakers (“north” is kumausi — “to the Aushi country” — and “south” kumalenje — “to the Lenje country”). So “north” and “south” were introduced as loanwords, nofu and saufu respectively. The whole phrase is kunofu nakusaufu nakumutulesuŵa nakumbonsi. (Source C. M. Doke in The Bible Translator 1958, p. 57ff. )
“West” is translated in Tzeltal as “where the sun pours-out” and in Kele as “down-river” (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel).
In Morelos Nahuatl, “north” is translated as “from above” and “south” as “from below.” (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
In Matumbi cardinal directions are defined as in relation to another place. “East” for instance typically is “toward the beach” since the coast is in the eastern direction in Matumbi-speaking areas. “North” and “south” can be defined as above or below another place. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
The Hebrew text that gives instructions where to place items in the tabernacle with the help of cardinal directions (north and south) had to be approached in the Bambam translation specific to spacial concepts of that culture.
Phil Campbell explains: “There are no words in Bambam for north and south. In Exodus 26:35, God instructs that the table is to be placed on the north side and the lamp on the south side inside the tabernacle. The team wants to use right and left to tell where the lamp and table are located. In many languages we would say that the table is on the right and the lampstand is on the left based on the view of someone entering the tabernacle. However, that is not how Bambam people view it. They view the placement of things and rooms in a building according to the orientation of someone standing inside the building facing the front of the building. So that means the table is on the left side and the lampstand is on the right side.”
The title of Psalm 54 links that psalm with this incident. The events related in 23.19–24.22 have parallels with chapter 26.
The question that the Ziphites address to Saul is rhetorical. In fact the Hebrew particle that introduces the question has a certain exclamatory nuance. The beginning of the question may be rendered “Look! David is hiding among us.”
The Ziphites: the inhabitants of the town of Ziph (see verse 14). It seems most unlikely that all of the Ziphites went to see Saul. Good News Translation therefore adds the qualifier “some.”
Went up, that is, up into the higher ground where Saul was located. The words come down in the following verse confirm this meaning, but it may not be natural in some languages to emphasize the difference in elevation.
Strongholds: see the comments on verse 14.
Horesh: see verse 15.
Hachilah: the exact location of this hill is unknown. The English word “hill” may incorrectly suggest a small elevation. The Hebrew word rendered hill covers a range of heights, but it generally refers to a lower elevation than the Hebrew noun translated “mountain.” Hachilah was large enough to have the city of Horesh located on it. According to 26.1, the hill of Hachilah is east of Jeshimon. It is possible, however, to translate 26.1 as “facing Jeshimon” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), “opposite Jeshimon” (New Revised Standard Version), or “overlooking Jeshimon” (Revised English Bible).
South: literally “from the right.” Hebrew expresses “north” and “south” in relation to the speaker, who is assumed to be facing east. Sometimes, however, the direction is relative to the real direction that the speaker is facing. Here and in verse 24 it is not possible to know whether “right” is used in a relative sense or in an absolute sense, that is, “south.”
Jeshimon: refers to the rugged, desolate land parallel to the Dead Sea in the east Judean hill country. It is also known as the Judean Wilderness (Good News Translation).
Translators must decide whether to transliterate the word, giving the impression that it is intended merely as a name, or translate the presumed meaning, “the wasteland(s)” (New American Bible and New Jerusalem Bible) or “the Desolate Waste” (An American Translation). Knox (“the desert”) follows theVulgate, which also translates the meaning. Translation is recommended. The same problem occurs again in verse 24 and in 26.1, 3.
As already mentioned above, the question of the Ziphites is really an emphatic way of informing Saul that David was hiding in their area, and in fact they give rather definite details about precisely where he is located. For this reason the question will probably be better translated as a statement, as a number of modern English versions do (New Revised Standard Version, New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible and New Century Version, as well as Good News Translation). Revised English Bible converts the direct quotation into indirect discourse, translating the whole verse as follows: “The Ziphites brought to Saul at Gibeah the news that David was in hiding among them in the fastnesses of Horesh on the hill of Hachilah, south of Jeshimon.”
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 .
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