14Afterward he built an outer wall for the city of David west of Gihon, in the valley, reaching the entrance at the Fish Gate; he carried it around Ophel and raised it to a very great height. He also put commanders of the army in all the fortified cities in Judah.
The name that is transliterated as “Judah” or “Judea” in English (referring to the son of Jacob, the tribe, and the territory) is translated in Spanish Sign Language as “lion” (referring to Genesis 49:9 and Revelation 5:5). This sign for lion is reserved for regions and kingdoms. (Source: John Elwode in The Bible Translator 2008, p. 78ff. and Steve Parkhurst)
The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Latin that is translated as “army” in English is translated in Chichewa as “group of warriors.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 2 Chronicles 33:14:
Kupsabiny: “When those matters were finished, Manasseh built an outer wall in the City of David from the West side of the valley of Gihon to the Gate of Fishes. He built that wall to be very high going around Ophel. He made/placed soldiers to stay in all the cities that had walls in Judah-” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “After that Manasseh made the outside wall to the east of the city of David higher. He increased the height of the wall [from a point] near the spring of Gihon towards Ophel Tole and beyond, as far as the Fish Gate. In each of the walled cities of Judah, he stationed an army officer in command of a group of soldiers.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “Starting that-time, Manase built-up the outer stoned-wall of the City of David, from the west of the spring of Gihon to the place-where- water -flows until the Gate of Fishes, turning to the hill of Ofel. He also made it higher. Then he stationed/put commanders in all the stone-walled/fortified cities of Juda.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “Later, Manasseh’s workers rebuilt the eastern section of the outer wall around Jerusalem, and they made it higher. That section extended from Gihon Spring north to the Fish Gate, and around the part of the city that they called Ophel Hill. Manasseh also appointed army officers to guard each of the cities in Judah that had walls around them.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
The cardinal directions “east” and “west” are easy to translate into Maan here since the language uses “where the sun comes up” and “where the sun goes down.” For “north” the translator had “facing toward the sun rising to the left,” and for “south” she had “facing toward the sun rising to the right.” So the listener had to think hard before knowing what direction was in view when translating “to the north and south, to the east and west.” So, in case all four directions are mentioned, it was shortened by saying simply “all directions.” Manya uses a similar nomenclature for the cardinal directions. (Source: Don Slager)
Likewise, Yakan has “from the four corners of the earth” (source: Yakan back-translation) or Western Bukidnon Manobo “from the four directions here on the earth” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo back-translation).
Kankanaey is “from the coming-out and the going-away of the sun and the north and the south” (source: Kankanaey back-translation), Northern Emberá “from where the sun comes up, from where it falls, from the looking [left] hand, from the real [right] hand” (source: Charles Mortensen), Amele “from the direction of the sun going up, from the direction of the sun going down, from the north and from the south” (source: John Roberts), Ejamat “look up to see the side where the sun comes from, and the side where it sets, and look on your right side, and on your left” (source: David Frank in this blog post ).
In Lamba, only umutulesuŵa, “where the sun rises” and imbonsi, “where the sun sets” were available as cardinal directions that were not tied to the local area of language speakers (“north” is kumausi — “to the Aushi country” — and “south” kumalenje — “to the Lenje country”). So “north” and “south” were introduced as loanwords, nofu and saufu respectively. The whole phrase is kunofu nakusaufu nakumutulesuŵa nakumbonsi. (Source C. M. Doke in The Bible Translator 1958, p. 57ff. )
“West” is translated in Tzeltal as “where the sun pours-out” and in Kele as “down-river” (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel).
In Morelos Nahuatl, “north” is translated as “from above” and “south” as “from below.” (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
In Matumbi cardinal directions are defined as in relation to another place. “East” for instance typically is “toward the beach” since the coast is in the eastern direction in Matumbi-speaking areas. “North” and “south” can be defined as above or below another place. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
The Hebrew text that gives instructions where to place items in the tabernacle with the help of cardinal directions (north and south) had to be approached in the Bambam translation specific to spacial concepts of that culture.
Phil Campbell explains: “There are no words in Bambam for north and south. In Exodus 26:35, God instructs that the table is to be placed on the north side and the lamp on the south side inside the tabernacle. The team wants to use right and left to tell where the lamp and table are located. In many languages we would say that the table is on the right and the lampstand is on the left based on the view of someone entering the tabernacle. However, that is not how Bambam people view it. They view the placement of things and rooms in a building according to the orientation of someone standing inside the building facing the front of the building. So that means the table is on the left side and the lampstand is on the right side.”
Afterwards he built an outer wall for the city of David …: The pronoun he refers to Manasseh, which Good News Translation makes clear by using his name. In the description that follows it is not clear exactly what the intended sense of the Hebrew is. Interpretations and translations differ regarding the building of the outer wall. Since the city of David, Gihon, and Ophel were all located in the southeast part of Jerusalem, the wall apparently went from the Fish Gate on the north side of Jerusalem, all the way down the east side of the city.
It is not clear whether the Hebrew verb at the beginning of this verse should be translated built or “rebuilt” (New International Version, New Living Translation) here. Two different understandings are possible:
(1) Manasseh continued work on the wall that Hezekiah had begun (2 Chr 32.5) by rebuilding it higher and further to the west. This understanding is the basis for the following renderings: “Manasseh increased the height of the outer wall” (Good News Translation), “Manasseh rebuilt the eastern section of Jerusalem’s outer wall and made it taller” (Contemporary English Version), and “he rebuilt the outer wall of the City of David … and made it very much higher” (New Jerusalem Bible).
(2) Manasseh built a new high wall on the eastern side of the city and extended it westward (so Revised Standard Version/New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible, Nouvelle Bible Segond, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). This wall was on the hill below the eastern side of the city above the Gihon Spring.
For the city of David, see the comments on 1 Chr 11.5 and 2 Chr 5.2.
The Hebrew says that the wall was west of Gihon. Since Gihon Spring was located on the east side of the city, Good News Translation correctly says that the wall was “on the east side of David’s City.” Outside the city walls, on the east side, Gihon Spring was the principal source of water for Jerusalem. It will be important in most languages to add the classifier term “spring” since otherwise the readers may not know what Gihon was. See the comments on 32.30.
The exact location of the Fish Gate in the wall around the city is uncertain. Most likely it was on the northern wall and was a place where fish was sold and delivered to the city. According to Neh 3.3 and 12.39, the Fish Gate was to the east of the Ephraim Gate and to the west of the Tower of the Hundred on the north wall of the city (for a good map of Jerusalem at that time see A Handbook on Ezra and Nehemiah, page 295|fig:Map_JerusalemNehemiah.jpg).
And carried it around Ophel: Based on normal English usage, the verb carried is out of place here. The idea is that the work of building (or rebuilding) the wall continued in this direction. The Hebrew verb here actually has the meaning of “going around” or “encircling.” For this whole clause God’s Word says “He made the wall go around the Ophel.” New American Bible and Moffatt say “encircling Ophel.” For Ophel see the comments on 2 Chr 27.3.
He also put commanders of the army in all the fortified cities in Judah: See the comments on 2 Chr 17.2.
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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