altar

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The Greek, Latin and Hebrew that is translated as “altar” in English is translated in a number of ways:

  • Obolo: ntook or “raised structure for keeping utensils (esp. sacrifice)” (source: Enene Enene)
  • Muna: medha kaefoampe’a or “offering table” (source: René van den Berg)
  • Luchazi: muytula or “the place where one sets the burden down”/”the place where the life is laid down” (source: E. Pearson in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 160ff. )
  • Tzotzil: “where they place God’s gifts” (source: John Beekman in Notes on Translation, March 1965, p. 2ff.)
  • Tsafiki: “table for giving to God” (source: Bruce Moore in Notes on Translation 1/1992, p. 1ff.)
  • Noongar: karla-kooranyi or “sacred fire” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “offering-burning table” (source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “place for sacrificing” (source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “burning-place” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tibetan: mchod khri (མཆོད་​ཁྲི།) or “offering throne” (source: gSungrab website )
  • Bura-Pabir: “sacrifice mound” (source: Andy Warrren-Rothlin)
  • Kalanga: “fireplace of sacrifice” (source: project-specific notes in Paratext)
  • Cherokee: “fire nurturing place” (source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 26) (note that the Jewish priest is “fire feeder” in Cherokee)
The Ignaciano translators decided to translate the difficult term in that language according to the focus of each New Testament passage in which the word appears (click or tap here to see the rest of this insight

Willis Ott (in Notes on Translation 88/1982, p. 18ff.) explains:

  • Matt. 5:23,24: “When you take your offering to God, and arriving, you remember…, do not offer your gift yet. First go to your brother…Then it is fitting to return and offer your offering to God.” (The focus is on improving relationships with people before attempting to improve a relationship with God, so the means of offering, the altar, is not focal.)
  • Matt. 23:18 (19,20): “You also teach erroneously: ‘If someone makes a promise, swearing by the offering-place/table, he is not guilty if he should break the promise. But if he swears by the gift that he put on the offering-place/table, he will be guilty if he breaks the promise.'”
  • Luke 1:11: “…to the right side of the table where they burn incense.”
  • Luke 11.51. “…the one they killed in front of the temple (or the temple enclosure).” (The focus is on location, with overtones on: “their crime was all the more heinous for killing him there”.)
  • Rom. 11:3: “Lord, they have killed all my fellow prophets that spoke for you. They do not want anyone to give offerings to you in worship.” (The focus is on the people’s rejection of religion, with God as the object of worship.)
  • 1Cor. 9:13 (10:18): “Remember that those that attend the temple have rights to eat the foods that people bring as offerings to God. They have rights to the meat that the people offer.” (The focus is on the right of priests to the offered food.)
  • Heb. 7:13: “This one of whom we are talking is from another clan. No one from that clan was ever a priest.” (The focus in on the legitimacy of this priest’s vocation.)
  • Jas. 2:21: “Remember our ancestor Abraham, when God tested him by asking him to give him his son by death. Abraham was to the point of stabbing/killing his son, thus proving his obedience.” (The focus is on the sacrifice as a demonstration of faith/obedience.)
  • Rev. 6:9 (8:3,5; 9:13; 14:18; 16:7): “I saw the souls of them that…They were under the table that holds God’s fire/coals.” (This keeps the concepts of: furniture, receptacle for keeping fire, and location near God.)
  • Rev. 11:1: “Go to the temple, Measure the building and the inside enclosure (the outside is contrasted in v. 2). Measure the burning place for offered animals. Then count the people who are worshiping there.” (This altar is probably the brazen altar in a temple on earth, since people are worshiping there and since outside this area conquerors are allowed to subjugate for a certain time.)

See also altar (Acts 17:23).


In the Hebraic English translation of Everett Fox it is translated as slaughter-site and likewise in the German translation by Buber / Rosenzweig as Schlachtstatt.

sacred pole

The Hebrew that is typically translated as “sacred pole” in English is translated in Elhomwe with mafanwiiwa a Asherimu or “idol of Asherah” (source: project-specific translation notes in Paratext) and in the English translation by Goldingay (2018) as totem pole.

See also Asherah.

sin

The Hebrew, Ge’ez, and Greek that is typically translated as “sin” in English has a wide variety of translations.

The Greek ἁμαρτάνω (hamartanō) carries the original verbatim meaning of “miss the mark” and likewise, many translations contain the “connotation of moral responsibility.”

  • Loma: “leaving the road” (which “implies a definite standard, the transgression of which is sin”)
  • Navajo (Dinė): “that which is off to the side” (source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Toraja-Sa’dan: kasalan, originally meaning “transgression of a religious or moral rule” and in the context of the Bible “transgression of God’s commandments” (source: H. van der Veen in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 21ff. )
  • Kaingang: “break God’s word”
  • Bariai: “bad behavior” (source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Sandawe: “miss the mark” (like the original meaning of the Greek term) (source for this and above: Ursula Wiesemann in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 36ff., 43)
  • Nias: horö, originally a term primarily used for sexual sin. (Source: Hummel / Telaumbanua 2007, p. 256)
  • Mauwake: “heavy” (compare forgiveness as “take away one’s heaviness”) (source: Kwan Poh San in this article )

In Shipibo-Conibo the term is hocha. Nida (1952, p. 149) tells the story of its choosing: “In some instances a native expression for sin includes many connotations, and its full meaning must be completely understood before one ever attempts to use it. This was true, for example, of the term hocha first proposed by Shipibo-Conibo natives as an equivalent for ‘sin.’ The term seemed quite all right until one day the translator heard a girl say after having broken a little pottery jar that she was guilty of ‘hocha.’ Breaking such a little jar scarcely seemed to be sin. However, the Shipibos insisted that hocha was really sin, and they explained more fully the meaning of the word. It could be used of breaking a jar, but only if the jar belonged to someone else. Hocha was nothing more nor less than destroying the possessions of another, but the meaning did not stop with purely material possessions. In their belief God owns the world and all that is in it. Anyone who destroys the work and plan of God is guilty of hocha. Hence the murderer is of all men most guilty of hocha, for he has destroyed God’s most important possession in the world, namely, man. Any destructive and malevolent spirit is hocha, for it is antagonistic and harmful to God’s creation. Rather than being a feeble word for some accidental event, this word for sin turned out to be exceedingly rich in meaning and laid a foundation for the full presentation of the redemptive act of God.”

In Warao it is translated as “bad obojona.” Obojona is a term that “includes the concepts of consciousness, will, attitude, attention and a few other miscellaneous notions.” (Source: Henry Osborn in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 74ff. ). See other occurrences of Obojona in the Warao New Testament.

Martin Ehrensvärd, one of the translators for the Danish Bibelen 2020, comments on the translation of this term: “We would explain terms, such that e.g. sin often became ‘doing what God does not want’ or ‘breaking God’s law’, ‘letting God down’, ‘disrespecting God’, ‘doing evil’, ‘acting stupidly’, ‘becoming guilty’. Now why couldn’t we just use the word sin? Well, sin in contemporary Danish, outside of the church, is mostly used about things such as delicious but unhealthy foods. Exquisite cakes and chocolates are what a sin is today.” (Source: Ehrensvärd in HIPHIL Novum 8/2023, p. 81ff. )

See also sinner.

complete verse (2 Kings 23:15)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 2 Kings 23:15:

  • Kupsabiny: “And again, the king destroyed the altar of Baal in Bethel that Jeroboam son of Nebat had built, the one who led the people of Israel into sin. He broke it down completely and smashed the stones it had been built with. He ground those stones to powder and also burned the idol which pictured Asherah.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “He destroyed the altar and the places to do puja that Jeroboam, son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin, made at Bethel. He burned the puja places and pulverized the idols. He also burned the pole of the Ashera goddess.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Even the altar in the place-of-worship in the high place there at Betel was-torn-down by Josia. This place-of-worship was-built-up by Jeroboam the child/(son) of Nebat, which particularly became the reason that those from/of-Israel sin. Josia smashed it to powder and burned (it), including the post/[lit. thing-like-a-pillar] that symbolizes the goddess Ashera.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Furthermore, he commanded them to tear down the place of worship at Bethel which had been built by King Jeroboam #1, the king who persuaded the people of Israel to sin. They tore down the altar. Then they broke its stones into pieces and pounded them to become powder. They also burned the statue of the goddess Asherah.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on 2 Kings 23:15

Moreover the altar at Bethel: Moreover translates the common Hebrew conjunction plus an adverb that usually means “also” or “indeed.” This marks the transition from the description of the reform movement in Judah to the situation in the northern kingdom of Israel. As noted above in the introductory comments on this section, several versions have a new section heading at this point indicating that Josiah’s reform had spread to Israel. La Bible du Semeur provides a possible model for this transition by beginning this verse with the words “He did the same at Bethel….” Contemporary English Version also provides a useful model with “But Josiah was not finished yet. At Bethel he….”

In the Hebrew text the focus is clearly on the altar at Bethel. The Hebrew adverb that usually means “also” or “indeed” is repeated again before the words that altar, but this second occurrence is not translated in Revised Standard Version. Regarding Bethel, see the comments on verse 4.

The high place erected by Jeroboam: Some languages will avoid the passive construction here by saying “the high place that Jeroboam had built” or “… Jeroboam caused to build.” Regarding the construction of this high place, see 1 Kgs 12.25-33. Because Jeroboam did this, he eventually became the prime example of what a king ought not to do in Israel.

Good News Translation (similarly Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje) paraphrases this verse so that there is no separate mention of both the altar and the high place, but such a rendering is not recommended.

Who made Israel to sin: See the comments on 1 Kgs 14.16.

And he broke in pieces its stones: Its stones refers to the stones of the altar on the high place. Revised Standard Version follows here the Septuagint instead of the Masoretic Text, which reads “and he burned the high place.” It should be noted, however, that the Septuagint omits the words with the high place earlier in this verse. Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament recommends the reading in the Masoretic Text, but only gives this reading an evaluation of {C}, indicating considerable uncertainty. Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament considers the Septuagint translation to be a loose rendering of the Hebrew which cannot be used here to reconstruct an original Hebrew text. At the same time Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament acknowledges that the Masoretic Text itself may well not be the original text.

A number of modern versions follow the reading reflected in Revised Standard Version (Revised English Bible, Good News Translation, New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible), assuming that a high place could not be burned. This incorrectly assumes that both the high place and the altar were made of stone. It seems likely, however, that the high place was made in part from wood (see the comments at 1 Kgs 3.2).

Modern versions following the text recommended by Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament are New Revised Standard Version, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, New International Version, and Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente. For the last half of the verse, compare also American Bible: “He burned the high place, making dust of it, and burned the pole of Asherah” (similarly Hobbs). Translators are encouraged to follow the Masoretic Text here.

Crushing them to dust translates the same Hebrew verb and noun combination that is rendered “beat it to dust” in verse 6 (see the comments there).

He burned the Asherah: See verse 6.

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 2. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator’s Notes on 2 Kings 23:15

23:15a He even pulled down the altar at Bethel, the high place set up by Jeroboam son of Nebat,

Even the altar at the shrine built at Bethel by Jeroboam son of Nebat,

-or-

There was also an altar in the place of worship at Bethel⌊ ⌋ that Jeroboam son of Nebat had had built.

23:15b who had caused Israel to sin.

⌊the one/king⌋ who had led the people of Israel to sin,

-or-

⌊This/Jeroboam was the king⌋ who had made Israel to sin ⌊by worshiping idols⌋ .

23:15c Then he burned the high place,

Josiah destroyed. He destroyed both the altar and the shrine.

-or-

⌊King Josiah⌋ also destroyed that altar together with the place of worship.

23:15a-c (reordered)

He also tore down the altar in Bethel at the high place made by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who encouraged Israel to sin. (NET Bible)

23:15d ground it to powder,

He burned the shrine and crushed it into dust.

-or-

He burned the worship place and ground it into fine powder/ashes.

23:15e and burned the Asherah pole.

He also burned the wooden post ⌊honoring⌋ the Asherah.

-or-

He also burned the wooden pole ⌊representing⌋ the Asherah ⌊idol⌋ .

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