10I will provide for your servants, those who cut the timber, twenty thousand cors of crushed wheat, twenty thousand cors of barley, twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil.”
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.
Barley Hordeum distichum or Hordeum vulgare is a type of grass like wheat and rice. It has been cultivated in the Middle East for thousands of years and is now one of the most prominent seed crops grown in the world. Twenty species are known, of which eight are European. Barley needs less rain than wheat does, so in the Holy Land it was typically found in the drier areas above the coastal plain and near the desert. From 2 Kings 7:1 and Revelation 6:6 we know that barley was considered inferior to wheat and was often used to feed animals, as it is today. When the wheat supply ran out, people had to make their bread with barley. Barley was gathered before wheat, the harvest coming around March or April in the lower regions and in May in the mountains (see Exodus 9:31 et al.). In Egypt and in ancient Greece barley was used to make beer.
Barley plants look like wheat or rice. They are less than 1 meter (3 feet) tall, and have a single head on each stalk, with six rows of kernels, although the biblical kind may have had only two rows. The head bends at a down-ward angle when it is ripe.
In the story of Gideon and the Midianites in Judges 7:13, “a cake of barley” representing the (despised) Israelite army tumbles into the Midianite camp and knocks down the tent (representing the nomadic Midianites).
Barley is a plant of temperate zones, like Europe and the Near East; it does not grow well in the tropics. However, barley has been recently introduced along with wheat into many parts of the world for brewing beer and other malted drinks. It is also known to have grown in Korea as early as 1500 B.C. along with wheat and millet. It is becoming known in Malay as barli. Except for the reference in Judges, all references to barley in the Bible are non-rhetorical, so unrelated cultural equivalents are discouraged. Some receptor language speakers may coin a name for it as in Malay, or the translator can use a transliteration from Hebrew (se‘orah), Latin (horideyo), or from a major language (for example, Arabic sha’ir, Spanish cebada, French orge, Portuguese cevada, Swahili shayiri), together with a classifier, if there is one (for example, “grain of shayir”).
This verse is the end of Solomon’s message to Hiram, which began in verse 3. In Hebrew verse 10 begins with the common conjunction and the focusing particle, which are rendered “And, behold” in King James Version (similarly NASB). The focusing particle is intended to concentrate Hiram’s attention, as well as the reader of the text, on what Solomon is about to say. While it is left untranslated in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, those languages that use a similar device to focus attention may wish to use it here.
I will give for your servants, the hewers who cut timber, twenty thousand cors of crushed wheat … is literally “to the hewers to the ones cutting the trees I will give crushed wheat for your servants twenty thousand cors….” This verse is restructured by Revised Standard Version and many other versions to make it sound more natural in the receptor language. Your servants, the hewers who cut timber may be translated by a single noun phrase in many languages by saying “your woodcutters” (Contemporary English Version) or “your lumbermen” (Good News Translation, Bible en français courant).
The parallel text in 1 Kgs 5.11 says that Solomon gave “twenty thousand cors of wheat as food” (makkoleth in Hebrew) for Hiram’s men. Here in 2 Chr 2.10 the Hebrew does not have the word makkoleth, but it does have a word that looks similar in Hebrew letters. It is the word makkoth, which comes from the verb meaning “to strike,” or “to hit.” Revised Standard Version and New Revised Standard Version translate the Hebrew word here as crushed. A more natural wording in English for crushed wheat is “ground wheat” (New International Version, Dillard). Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament gives a {C} rating to the Masoretic Text here and says the meaning is “twenty thousand cors of wheat flour.” However, some translations follow the ancient versions and the parallel text in 1 Kgs 5.11, in reading “twenty thousand cors of wheat as food” (so Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, Moffatt, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Einheitsübersetzung). It is not clear whether Good News Translation follows the ancient versions here or whether the phrase “As provisions” is added for reasons of translation rather than for textual reasons.
Weights and measures differed at different times and places in the biblical world, so there is some uncertainty among scholars today regarding the precise modern equivalents of some biblical weights and measures, such as the cor and the bath. For this reason translators will find that modern versions do not always agree, but at least the modern equivalents allow the reader to understand the approximate amounts referred to by the biblical terms. If modern equivalents are not used in the text, then an explanatory footnote will be required. The cor (sometimes spelled “kor”) was a dry measure approximately equal to 6 bushels or 220 liters (58 gallons). Some scholars calculate the cor to have been equal to 6.5 bushels, so Anchor Bible renders twenty thousand cors as “one hundred thirty thousand bushels.” Other renderings are “100,000 bushels” (Good News Translation), “2,000 tons” (Contemporary English Version), and “20,000 sacks” (Berkeley). The bath was a liquid measure approximately equal to 22 liters (6 gallons). Some modern equivalents for twenty thousand baths are “110,000 gallons” (Good News Translation), “400,000 liters” (Contemporary English Version), and “20,000 barrels” (Berkeley).
For wheat see 1 Chr 21.20; for barley see 1 Chr 11.13; for wine see 1 Chr 27.27. The oil is “olive oil,” as some versions make explicit (so Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New International Version, New Living Translation, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). Olive oil was an important part of the diet of the people of Israel. Bread was often eaten with olive oil, which took the place of butter and animal fat in the diet.
The text does not say if this was a one-time payment of food or how often the payments would be made. It has been estimated that this amount of food would have fed 6,000 to 8,000 workers for a period of three years.
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 .
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