complete verse (1 Samuel 31:10)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 1 Samuel 31:10:

  • Kupsabiny: “Those Philistines took Saul’s weapons and put them in the house of their idol/god called Ashtoreth and attached Saul’s corpse on the wall of Beth-shan city.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “They took Saul’s armor along and put it in the temple of the goddess Ashtaroth, and hung his corpse, nailing [it] on the wall of Beth-shan.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “They placed the weapons-of-war/armor of Saul in the temple of their goddess Ashtoret and nailed his corpse/dead-body on the stone-wall of the town/city of Bet Shan.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “They put Saul’s weapons in the temple of their goddess Astarte. They also fastened the bodies of Saul and his sons to the wall that surrounded Beth-Shan city.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on 1 Samuel 31:10

Ashtaroth: since the goddess is elsewhere named “Astarte,” many translations (New Revised Standard Version, New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible) keep that name here rather than using the pejorative Hebrew form (see the comment on 7.3). Good News Translation makes explicit the fact that the reference is to a “goddess” and not to a human being.

Fastened: this is the verb used of driving tent pegs into the ground. Good News Translation and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible attempt to show this sense of the verb, but the verb “nailed” probably does not capture the action as well as the verb “impaled” (New American Bible, An American Translation, Fox). Some languages will have specific verbs for attaching something to a wall or tree by means of large sticks or stakes. Such a verb is appropriate here.

Since Saul is dead, it may be preferable to say that they fastened Saul’s “corpse” (so Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente and Bible en français courant) or his “dead body” to the wall. See the comments on verse 8.

A literal translation of to the wall of Beth-shan will be meaningless in many languages. This phrase contains the following implicit information: (1) Beth-shan was a city, and (2) like many other ancient cities it was surrounded by a wall for protection. Some languages have a technical term for a wall built for protection; Traduction œcuménique de la Bible says “rampart” here and in verse 12.

Beth-shan was located where the Jezreel and Jordan valleys meet (see Josh 17.11-13; Judges 1.17). During the New Testament period this city was called Scythopolis and was the most important city of the Decapolis region. It was the only one of the ten cities of the Decapolis to be located on the west side of the Jordan.

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 .