The Hebrew and Greek that is transliterated as “Saul” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with the sign that depicts “sword in chest” (referring to 1 Samuel 31:4 and 1 Chronicles 10:4) and also “self-centered.” (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 1 Samuel 25:44:
Kupsabiny: “Saul had given his daughter Michal that one who was a wife to David away to be married. She got married to Palti the son of Laish who hails from the city of Gallim.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “By that time, Saul had already given his daughter, Michal, David’s wife, to Palti, son of Laish of Gallim.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “His former wife Mical had-been-caused-to-marry/given-as-a-wife to Paltiel who came-from-Galim, the child/(son) of Laish.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “King Saul’s daughter Michal was also David’s wife, but Saul had given her to Laish’s son Paltiel, who was from Gallim town.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
The Hebrew text of this verse begins with the common conjunction, and it is translated in a variety of ways in different versions: “for” (Moffatt, Fox); “but” (New American Bible, Anchor Bible, Klein); “meanwhile” (Revised English Bible, Good News Translation). New Jerusalem Bible and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh leave it untranslated. It is not clear how the writer intended verse 44 to be connected to the previous verse. Perhaps the writer simply wanted to remind the reader that David and Saul were still enemies. Those translations that begin with the word “for” suggest that this verse gives the reason for David’s action in verse 43. If indeed Ahinoam was Saul’s wife, then this verse explains why David took Saul’s wife—because Saul had taken away David’s wife Michal.
Once again the verb at the beginning of this verse in Hebrew is perfect in form, so it also seems to represent something that had happened prior to the events just mentioned.
The text does not state why Saul took his daughter Michal from David and gave her to another man; and translators should not, of course, include such information. Probably Saul did not want David to claim that, since he was Saul’s son-in-law, he had the right to become the next king. Later, in 2 Sam 3.13-16, David takes back Michal as his wife.
Palti the son of Laish is mentioned only here in the Old Testament and again in 2 Sam 3.15, where he is called “Paltiel.” These two forms of the name may be harmonized, since they clearly refer to the same person. Laish, which means “lion,” almost certainly is the father of Palti, and not his mother.
Gallim is probably the town north of Jerusalem mentioned in Isa 10.30. The classifier “town” should be added in the receptor language, if that is the normal way to identify the place.
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 .
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.