17They imported from Egypt (and then exported) a chariot for six hundred shekels of silver and a horse for one hundred fifty, so through them these were exported to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Aram.
The Hebrew, Latin, Ge’ez, and Greek that is translated into English as “chariot” is translated into Anuak as “canoe pulled by horse.” “Canoe” is the general term for “vehicle” (source: Loren Bliese). Similarly it is translated in Lokạạ as ukwaa wạ nyanyang ntuuli or “canoe that is driven by horses.” (Source: J.A. Naudé, C.L. Miller Naudé, J.O. Obono in Acta Theologica 43/2, 2023, p. 129ff. )
Other translations include:
Chichicapan Zapotec: “ox cart” (in Acts 8) (ox carts are common vehicles for travel) (source: Loren Bliese)
Chichimeca-Jonaz, it is translated as “little house with two feet pulled by two horses” (source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
HausaCommon Language Bible as keken-doki or “cart of donkey” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 2 Chronicles 1:17:
Kupsabiny: “One cart was bought in Egypt for six hundred pieces of silver. One horse was bought for one hundred and fifty pieces of silver. Solomon sold half/part of those horses and carts to rulers of the Hittites and those of Syria.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “Solomon’s merchants would buy one chariot from Egypt for seven kilograms of silver, and one horse for one and a half kilograms of silver. They would also sell those chariots and horses to the Hittite and Aramean kings.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “That time the price of a chariot from Egipto was 600 pieces of silver, and the horse was 150 pieces of silver. These [as-a-matter-of-fact] were-sold by the men of Solomon to all the kings of Hithanon and Arameanhon.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “In Egypt his men paid 15 pounds of silver for each chariot and 3-3/4 pounds of silver for each horse. They also exported/sold many of them to the kings of the Heth and Aram people-groups.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
Some languages do not have a concept of kingship and therefore no immediate equivalent for the Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin that is translated as “king” in English. Here are some (back-) translations:
Ninia Yali: “big brother with the uplifted name” (source: Daud Soesilio in Noss 2007, p. 175)
Nyamwezi: mutemi: generic word for ruler, by specifying the city or nation it becomes clear what kind of ruler (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Ghomála’: Fo (“The word Fo refers to the paramount ruler in the kingdoms of West Cameroon. He holds administrative, political, and religious power over his own people, who are divided into two categories: princes (descendants of royalty) and servants (everyone else).” (Source: Michel Kenmogne in Theologizing in Context: An Example from the Study of a Ghomala’ Christian Hymn))
Faye Edgerton retells how the term in Navajo (Dinė) was determined:
“[This term was] easily expressed in the language of Biblical culture, which had kings and noblemen with their brilliant trappings and their position of honor and praise. But leadership among the Navajos is not accompanied by any such titles or distinctions of dress. Those most respected, especially in earlier days, were their headmen, who were the leaders in raids, and the shaman, who was able to serve the people by appealing for them to the gods, or by exorcising evil spirits. Neither of these made any outward show. Neither held his position by political intrigue or heredity. If the headman failed consistently in raids, he was superceded by a better warrior. If the shaman failed many times in his healing ceremonies, it was considered that he was making mistakes in the chants, or had lost favor with the gods, and another was sought. The term Navajos use for headman is derived from a verb meaning ‘to move the head from side to side as in making an oration.’ The headman must be a good orator, able to move the people to go to war, or to follow him in any important decision. This word is naat’áanii which now means ‘one who rules or bosses.’ It is employed now for a foreman or boss of any kind of labor, as well as for the chairman of the tribal council. So in order to show that the king is not just a common boss but the highest ruler, the word ‘aláahgo, which expresses the superlative degree, was put before naat’áanii, and so ‘aláahgo naat’áanii ‘anyone-more-than-being around-he-moves-his-head-the-one-who’ means ‘the highest ruler.’ Naat’áanii was used for governor as the context usually shows that the person was a ruler of a country or associated with kings.”
Many languages use a “body part tally system” where body parts function as numerals (see body part tally systems with a description). One such language is Angguruk Yali which uses a system that ends at the number 27. To circumvent this limitation, the Angguruk Yali translators adopted a strategy where a large number is first indicated with an approximation via the traditional system, followed by the exact number according to Arabic numerals. For example, where in 2 Samuel 6:1 it says “thirty thousand” in the English translation, the Angguruk Yali says teng-teng angge 30.000 or “so many rounds [following the body part tally system] 30,000,” likewise, in Acts 27:37 where the number “two hundred seventy-six” is used, the Angguruk Yali translation says teng-teng angge 276 or “so many rounds 276,” or in John 6:10 teng-teng angge 5.000 for “five thousand.”
This strategy is used in all the verses referenced here.
They imported a chariot from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty: The pronoun They refers to King Solomon’s agents mentioned in the previous verse. Bible en français courant makes this clear by rendering the pronoun as “These merchants.” Imported is literally “brought up and brought out.” Jewish Publication Version translates “fetched up, and brought out” (similarly King James Version), but Revised Standard Version‘s simple rendering expresses the meaning correctly. A chariot and a horse obviously do not mean that they imported only one chariot and one horse. Rather, the singular is used to indicate the price per item. In some languages it will be more natural to say “each chariot” and “each horse” or simply “chariots” and “horses.” Naturalness in the receptor language will be the determining factor in deciding which forms are used.
The word shekels is not in the Hebrew text, but this is what is clearly implied. 1 Chr 21.25 refers of “shekels of gold” (see the comments there), but the text here says shekels of silver. The shekel was the standard unit of weight in the Old Testament. The name comes from the Hebrew root meaning “to weigh.” The modern equivalent of a shekel is 11.4 grams (.4 ounces). Here the expression six hundred shekels of silver refers to an amount of money, so Good News Translation and Bible en français courant say “600 pieces of silver.” Contemporary English Version expresses this amount in terms of weight, saying “about fifteen pounds of silver.” This would be a little less than seven kilograms in the metric system. Contemporary English Version translates a hundred and fifty as “almost four pounds,” which would be nearly two kilograms. Translators should not use the names of modern currency since their values change from time to time and place to place. Berkeley, for example, says “400 dollars in silver” and “100 [dollars],” and Peregrino has “six hundred pesos” and “a hundred and fifty pesos.”
Likewise through them these were exported to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Syria: Likewise renders the common Hebrew conjunction and the adverb meaning “in like manner.” Revised English Bible translates “in the same way,” and La Bible du Semeur has “under the same conditions.” New International Version says simply “also.” Through them these were exported is literally “by their hands they brought out.” The passive expression in Revised Standard Version may be rendered actively by saying “they [the king’s traders] exported them [horses and chariots].” The Hittites had a kingdom that was located between the Orontes and Euphrates rivers, in what is now modern Turkey. But some small groups of Hittites settled in Israel. At the time of Solomon their empire was at the height of its power although it was eventually overcome by the Assyrians. Syria is literally “Aram” (New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible; see the comments on 1 Chr 18.5). Aram consisted of several city-states and kingdoms, such as Aram-naharaim, Aram-zobah, Aram-maacah, and Damascus. Some versions render kings of Syria as “kings of the Arameans” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) or “Aramean kings” (New American Bible), but it will probably be best to use the modern name Syria (so Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, Bible en français courant, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch) since Aram corresponds to that same area. The meaning of this last half of the verse is expressed clearly in New Jerusalem Bible as “They [King Solomon’s dealers] also supplied the Hittite and Aramaean kings, who all used them as middlemen.” New Living Translation also clearly expresses the meaning with “Many of these were then resold to the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Aram.”
The Hebrew of this verse allows for several rather different interpretations, including the following:
• (1) According to one interpretation, the Israelite traders paid 600 silver shekels of silver for each chariot and 150 silver shekels for each horse that they imported, but the amount paid by the Hittite and Syrian kings is not stated (so Revised Standard Version).
• (2) Others understand the Hebrew to mean that Solomon’s traders paid the same price for horses and chariots that were imported and kept in Israel by the king and for the horses and chariots that were imported and then sold to the Hittite and Syrian kings. Probably they sold the horses and chariots to the Hittites and the Syrians for a profit. God’s Word, for example, translates the end of this verse as “For the same price they obtained horses to export to all the Hittite and Aramean kings.”
• (3) However, according to Good News Translation, the amounts listed in this verse are not the price that Solomon’s traders paid for the horses and chariots but rather the prices at which they sold chariots and horses to the Hittite and Syrian kings. New American Bible also expresses this sense by rendering verses 16-17 as “16 Solomon also imported horses from Egypt and Cilicia. The king’s agents would acquire them by purchase from Cilicia, 17 and would then bring up chariots from Egypt and export them at six hundred silver shekels, with the horses going for a hundred and fifty shekels. At these rates they served as middlemen for all the Hittite and Aramean kings.”
• (4) Yet other interpreters understand the Hebrew to mean that Solomon’s agents charged the Hittite and Syrian kings the same amount that they paid, so that the agents were not making a profit on the horses and chariots sold to the Hittites and Syrians. Anchor Bible, for example, says “They imported a chariot from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver and a horse [from Cilicia] for one hundred and fifty shekels and thus [at that price] they conveyed them through their agents to the kings of the Hittites and to the kings of Aram” (similarly BTI).
In most English versions verse 17 is the final verse of chapter 1. In other translations (such as New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, and most French versions, which follow the verse numbering in Hebrew), chapter 1 continues through verse 18, which is the first verse of chapter 2 in Revised Standard Version. Therefore there is a difference of one verse throughout chapter 2 between the different versions. This Handbook follows the commonly used system of the majority of English versions. Beginning in chapter 3, the verse numbers in English and the Masoretic Text are the same again.
Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Chronicles, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2014. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
1:17a A chariot could be imported from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver,
They bought chariots from Egypt for six hundred (600) pieces of silver, -or-
These traders bought war carts from Egypt for about seven (7) kilograms of silver/fifteen (15) pounds of silver.
1:17b and a horse for a hundred and fifty.
and horses for a hundred and fifty (150) pieces of silver. -or-
and horses for about two (2) kilograms of silver/four (4) pounds of silver.
1:17c Likewise, they exported them to all the kings of the Hittites and to the kings of Aram.
They also resold them to all the kings of Heth and Aram. -or-
The traders also sold them again to the kings of the Heth people and kings of the Aram people.
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