10He built towers in the wilderness and dug out many cisterns, for he had large herds, both in the Shephelah and in the plain, and he had farmers and vinedressers in the hills and in the fertile lands, for he loved the soil.
Low German translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1933, republ. 2006: “steppe”
Yakan: “the lonely place” (source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “a land where no people lived” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “the place with no inhabitants” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Cherokee: inage or “far away downstream” (source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 16)
Matumbi uses various term: lubele (desert, sandy place without water) — used in John 11:54, lupu’ngu’ti (a place where no people live, can be a scrub land, a forest, or a savanna) — used in Mark 1:3 et al.), and mwitu (a forest, a place where wild animals live) — used in Mark 1:13 et al.) (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
Chichewa Contemporary translation (2002/2016): chipululu: a place uninhabited by people with thick forest and bush (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Adioukrou: loj or “savannah” — “land that is not village, nor forest, nor field (source: Hill 2006)
Note that in Luke 15:4, usually a term is used that denotes pastoral land, such as “eating/grazing-place,” in Tagbanwa (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation).
In Gbaya, the notion of flat, level land (tableland, beach, plain) is emphasized with the ideophone tɔyɛɛ.
Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 2 Chronicles 26:10:
Kupsabiny: “He also built things from which one can see far in the wilderness and many water holes. He did like that because he had many animals that were in the slopes and the plain. He had farmers and people who took care of vine plants in the hill and where the soil was fertile because he liked farming.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “Because he had many cows and oxen in the territory located below him and in the open fields, he also built towers in the wilderness, and he dug many wells. He liked field work, and he encouraged people to prepare grape vineyards in the mountains and to do field work in fields that would bear much fruit.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “He also built towers at the desolate-place and had-dug many holes/(cisterns) for storing of water because he had many animals in the hills in the west and in the valley. He was also fond of farming. He has men who take-care of his farm and vineyards in the hills and in the fertile lands.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “They also built watchtowers in the desert and dug many wells. They did that to provide water for a lot of the king’s cattle that were in the foothills and in the plains. Uzziah liked farming, so he also stationed workers to take care of his fields and vineyards in the hills and in the fertile areas.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
The Hebrew, Greek, Ge’ez, and Latin that is translated in English typically as “vine” is translated in Lak as къюмайтӀутӀул мурхьра: “the (grape-) cluster tree.”
Vitaly Voinov tells this story: “Laks (who live in the mountainous regions of Dagestan) historically have had no experience with planting and tending vineyards. They buy grapes at the market or the store, but that’s about all they know of grape growing. Thus, in field testing, none of the readers could picture the primary image of this chapter. The translator’s initial attempt of rendering ‘vine’ as ‘grape stalk’ met with complete non-understanding. After much discussion of the problem and potential solutions, we settled on what one of the field testing respondents suggested to remedy the problem: ‘vine’ was rendered as ‘the (grape-)cluster tree’ (къюмайтӀутӀул мурхьра). Technically grapes of course don’t grow on trees, but something had to be put in the text, and it had to be said in a way that the average reader/hearer could understand it. The Lak team could have borrowed the Russian word for ‘vine’ (лоза), but since this is a very low-frequency word in the Russian language, it’s likely that many Laks wouldn’t know the Russian word either. So the team settled for a reduction of accuracy in order to achieve greater clarity. After all, the primary point of importance in this passage is not a horticultural analysis, but a metaphorical comparison to the spiritual world, to the relationship between the Father, His Son, and the followers of Jesus. This rendering allows readers to get to the core of this meaning without getting tangled up in unknown terms.”
The Common Grape Vine Vitis vinifera is mentioned more often than any other plant or tree in the Bible. Excavations in Greece have discovered grape seeds dating to 4500 B.C. Egyptian records document the existence of cultivated vines in Canaan as early as 2375 B.C., and subsequent records report trade in vine products around 1360 B.C. and many times thereafter.
The vine is a creeping plant that develops a woody stem when it matures. It grows along the ground until it finds a tree or other object to climb, using tendrils. It bears bunches of small round fruit that are sweet and juicy. Today farmers grow them commercially throughout the Mediterranean area, in South Africa, in North America, and in many other countries. The first reference to the vine in the Bible (Genesis 9:20) tells us that Noah planted a vineyard (Hebrew kerem) and that he made an alcoholic drink from the fruit. Farmers since then have improved on the size, color, and quality of the fruit by careful pruning and selection until now there are at least 65 kinds of grapevines. Like many other plants in temperate areas, the vine has leaves that appear in early spring. After the fruit is picked and the weather gets cold, the leaves drop off and the plant is bare until the following spring. A typical vineyard in Bible times was surrounded by a stone fence. It had a stone tower from which the owner could watch for predators, and a place to squeeze the juice out of the fruits.
The vine is the most frequently cited plant in the Bible, and that alone makes it special. Vines, grapes, raisins, and wine were a major element of Jewish life, so it is not a surprise that the vine and its products are used figuratively probably more than any other Bible plant. After the flood purified the earth at the time of Noah, the vine became the means by which the human race was plunged again into sin (Genesis 9:20). We know from Jacob’s blessing in Genesis 49:11f. and other passages that the vine was the symbol of blessing, prosperity, and happiness. The fact that there were groups like the Nazirites and Rechabites who abstained from drinking wine simply shows the radical self-denial that these people imposed on themselves. A drink offering of wine was an important part of worship (Exodus 29:40), and the image of contentment was “every man under his vine and under his fig tree” (Micah 4:4). Jotham includes the vine in his well-known Parable of the Trees (Judges 9:7ff.). In the New Testament, Jesus rescued a man from humiliation at a wedding party by miraculously providing a fresh supply of wine (John 2:1ff.). Wine becomes a major symbol in the Christian community when Jesus foreshadows his crucifixion by comparing the wine poured out in the Passover celebration to his blood (Matthew 26:27f. et al.). He speaks of the need for Christians to be like the branches of the vine, drawing their nourishment from him, the True Vine (John 15.:1ff.). Nearly every New Testament writer makes some metaphorical reference to the vine or its products.
There are around 65 kinds of grapevines (Vitis vinifera) found in the Northern Hemisphere. They belong to a larger family of creeping plants called Vitaceae, which has over 800 species throughout the world including many in the tropical and warm climates of the world.
Grapevines have occasionally been grown in West Africa (for example, in The Gambia and in northern Nigeria) but are not well known even where they are grown commercially. Attempts at substituting a local tree name have not been entirely successful because the species chosen is usually not cultivated and/or does not have the same economic or social function that the grape had in Israel.
Thus it is probably best to use a transliteration from a major language. However, in parts of Nigeria and perhaps elsewhere, the word grep refers to “grapefruit” and should be avoided in translation. A transliteration from “vine” or “wine” is preferred, although a translator needs to be careful. The English word “vine” refers to any creeping plant, but it also refers to a particular kind of vine that produces grapes (Vitis vinifera). This can be confusing. Furthermore, translators in English-speaking countries should think carefully about what they are going to do with the word “wine.” In The Gambia, Mandinka translators first used “wayini tree” but later concluded that it may be better to have a word for “vine” that is not necessarily identical with “wine.” Bine, from binekaro (“vinegar”), was considered, as was inabi (“grape”) from Arabic.
Languages that borrow the Arabic word inabi must deal with the fact that this word bears an unfortunate resemblance to annabi (“prophet”) and new readers reading “water of inabi” in a context of prophecy may associate it, for better or worse, with prophets and prophecy. In northern Nigeria church people have gotten used to inabi in the New Testament even though many of them don’t know what it is. Basa in Nigeria uses a wild grape-like plant (afwafwa), and Igala has used the same species (achiwebetema) for years. Likewise, two translations in Mali and Burkina Faso use their local name for a wild vine (Lannea microcarpa) for the biblical vine. There is a species (Rhoicissus tridentata) in southern and eastern Africa known as “African grape” (locally called “bobbejaantou”). In such cases translators should write a footnote (or glossary item) stating that the grapes of Bible times were larger and sweeter than the local variety, and that they were cultivated extensively as a source for producing beverages. Other possibilities for transliteration are: vinyola/videra (Portuguese), vitis (Latin), and inab (Arabic).
Fruit of the vine (Hebrew ‘enav; Greek botrus, staphulē): There is some evidence that botrus refers to a bunch of grapes, while staphulē refers to individual grapes. According to Louw and Nida (Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament based on Semantic Domains, 1988), however, both words may refer to individual grapes as well as bunches of grapes. The Hebrew word tirosh is equivalent to the word “vintage” in English, that is, the grape harvest and possibly the first squeezing of the grapes. It is normally used along with the words referring to the olive harvest (yitshar) and grain harvest (dagan).
And he built towers in the wilderness, and hewed out many cisterns: Since King Uzziah did not build the towers and dig out the cisterns himself, it will be appropriate to say that he had them built and dug out (so Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente). The Hebrew word for towers is the same one as in the previous verse, but these structures were different since they were not a part of a city wall, but free standing (see the comments on 1 Chr 27.25). They were isolated observation towers where soldiers could watch in the distance for any possible assault by enemy troops. In some languages a different term may be required. The wilderness refers to an area where people did not normally live, so Good News Translation and Moffatt say “the open country” (see the comments on 1 Chr 12.8). Here it included areas in the western foothills and on the coastal plain of Judah.
Cisterns were water storage areas that had to be dug or carved out of solid rock (see the comments on 1 Chr 11.17). Some were open pits, but they had to be covered (Exo 21.33). More often they were hollowed out underground. Such cisterns could be as large as 6 meters (20 feet) square. Since these cisterns were often cut out of porous rock, they had to be lined with a lime plaster. For a fuller discussion on cisterns, see WTH, pages 159-160|fig:WTH.Cistern.159-160.html. In some languages hewed out many cisterns may be rendered “hollowed many places in rock for storing rain water.” New Century Version says “dug many wells,” but this rendering does not accurately reflect the meaning of the Hebrew here since wells collect underground water from the immediate area. Cisterns collect rainwater that flows into them. Contemporary English Version provides a good model here, saying “he had cisterns dug there to catch the rainwater.”
For he had large herds, both in the Shephelah and in the plain …: The conjunction for introduces why Uzziah had towers and cisterns built. The animals and the people working the land needed protection and water. The Hebrew word translated herds is sometimes used of possessions in general, but here and in most other passages it refers to “livestock” (Contemporary English Version). The same term is translated “cattle” in 1 Chr 5.9 (see the comments there).
The Shephelah refers to the western foothills of Judah (see the comments on 1 Chr 27.28 and 2 Chr 1.15). The exact reference intended by the plain is not clear. It probably refers to the coastal plain of Judah (so La Bible du Semeur), or it may be the high plateau east of the Jordan River and south of the city of Heshbon in northern Moab (called “the tableland” in New Jerusalem Bible).
And he had farmers and vinedressers in the hills and in the fertile lands: Vinedressers are people who take care of the vines that produce grapes. Their work involves pruning the vines as well as harvesting the grapes (see the comments on 1 Chr 27.27). The hills refers to the hill country of Judah. Fertile lands (also New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible) translates a Hebrew noun that sometimes refers to orchards with fruit trees. Here it simply means productive farmland. But the Hebrew noun may also be understood as the name of a town south of Hebron as in Josh 15.55. This is the basis for the rendering “Carmel” (King James Version, NET Bible, Nouvelle Bible Segond, Luther). A literal translation of the Hebrew clause here may suggest that there were farmers and vinedressers on both the hills and fertile fields. More likely, Good News Translation expresses the intended sense, that is, that the vineyards were planted on the hills and the fertile fields were used for the other crops.
For he loved the soil is a literal translation of the Hebrew. The sense is more clearly expressed in English as “Because he loved farming” (Good News Translation) or “for he was a lover of agriculture” (Moffatt).
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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