19Moreover, Josiah removed all the shrines of the high places that were in the towns of Samaria that kings of Israel had made, provoking the Lord to anger; he did to them just as he had done at Bethel.
The Hebrew, Greek, and Ge’ez that is translated as “high places” in English is translated in Chitonga as malende. Ernst Wendland (1987, p. 57) explains: “The preceding expression [‘place for worship/sacrifice on top of hills’], though intelligible linguistically, sounds rather strange to the Tonga who live on the relatively flat plains of southern Zambia. There are ‘hills’ in their country, but normally no one would ever worship regularly there. For this reason the new translation will try out a cultural substitute (see below), malende, the ‘local shrine’ of Tonga traditional religion, where the ‘priest’ (clan head, who may be a chief as well) makes sacrifices to the spirits in time of corporate calamity, especially drought. This would seem to approximate quite closely the main elements of both form and function of the term ‘high places’ in the Old Testament, which were not always or even usually set upon hills, especially in the latter days of the monarchy (cp. 2 Kings 17:9, 29).”
In the Chichewa interconfessional translation (publ. 1999), it is translated as “shrines for worshiping images there.” (Source: Ernst Wendland in The Bible Translator 2002, p. 319ff. )
The Hebrew that is translated as “provoke (to anger)” in English is translated in Newari as “causing one’s anger to come out” (source: Newari Back Translation).
The Hebrew, Latin and Greek that is translated as “anger” or similar in English in this verse is translated with a variety of solutions (Bratcher / Nida says: “Since anger has so many manifestations and seems to affect so many aspects of personality, it is not strange that expressions used to describe this emotional response are so varied”).
Chichewa: “have a burning heart” (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation) (see also anger burned in him)
Citak: two different terms, one meaning “angry” and one meaning “offended,” both are actually descriptions of facial expressions. The former can be represented by an angry stretching of the eyes or by an angry frown. The latter is similarly expressed by an offended type of frown with one’s head lowered. (Source: Graham Ogden)
In Akan, a number of metaphors are used, most importantly abufuo, lit. “weedy chest” (the chest is seen as a container that contains the heart but can also metaphorically be filled with other fluids etc.), but also abufuhyeε lit. “hot/burning weedy chest” and anibereε, lit. “reddened eyes.” (Source: Gladys Nyarko Ansah in Kövecses / Benczes / Szelid 2024, p. 21ff.)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 2 Kings 23:19:
Kupsabiny: “The king also destroyed the altars of Baal which the kings of Israel had built in the cities of Samaria. Those were the things that had made God angry. Josiah broke them into pieces like he had done to the others in Bethel.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “Furthermore the kings of Israel angered the LORD by building places to do puja in the cities of Samaria. All of these idols and altars Josiah cut down and desecrated them like he had done at Bethel.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “Then Josia broke-down the places-of-worship in the high places in Samaria, as he had-done at Betel. These places-of-worship that were-built-up by the kings of Israel had- really -caused- the LORD -to-be-angry.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “In every city in Israel, at Josiah’s command, they tore down the shrines that had been built by the previous kings of Israel, which had caused Yahweh to become very angry. He did to all those shrines/altars the same thing that he had done to the altars at Bethel.” (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.”
The shrines … of the high places: As in 2 Kgs 17.29 and 32, the word translated shrines is actually the ordinary word for “houses” in Hebrew. But it is quite clear that these were places where the writer considered it illegitimate to worship, either because God was to be worshiped only in Jerusalem or because pagan gods were worshiped at these shrines. So it is legitimate to make this clear in translation.
In the cities of Samaria: Good News Translation translates this “In every city of Israel” and Contemporary English Version has “all over Israel.” This is done for the sake of clarity since the reference is to the former northern kingdom called Israel.
Provoking the LORD to anger: See the comments on 1 Kgs 14.9. Revised Standard Version supplies the words the LORD. The Hebrew text does not have the name Yahweh at this point, only the verb meaning provoking … to anger. But there can be little doubt that Revised Standard Version and most other modern versions are correct in adding the LORD here. This addition was, in fact, thought to be necessary by the Septuagint, which is followed by Revised English Bible, New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, La Bible Pléiade, and Osty-Trinquet.
According to all that he had done at Bethel: In the same way that Josiah had completely demolished the pagan place of worship in Bethel, he also destroyed the others located throughout the region of Samaria.
The structure of this verse may have to be altered in certain languages, stating in a first sentence that the kings of Israel had previously set up pagan places of worship, which resulted in Yahweh’s anger, and then, in a second sentence, describing the actions of Josiah in destroying these places. Others may prefer the structure of Good News Translation, which shifts the main verb removed to the beginning of the verse.
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 .
23:19a Just as Josiah had done at Bethel, so also in the cities of Samaria
In the same way as he/Josiah had done at Bethel, in the region of Samaria
-or-
King Josiah repeated what he had done in Bethel in the rest of Samaria.
23:19b he removed all the shrines of the high places
Josiah/he removed all the pagan shrines.
-or-
He destroyed all the places of idol/pagan worship
23:19c set up by the kings of Israel
These were shrines that the kings of Israel had built in the towns within Samaria.
-or-
built by the kings of Israel in the towns of Samaria ⌊region⌋ .
23:19d who had provoked the LORD to anger.
These worship places had caused Yahweh to be angry.
-or-
They had made Yahweh angry.
23:19a-d (reordered)
The kings of Israel had also built hilltop shrines in the ⌊other⌋ towns of Samaria. Yahweh had been very angry because of this. Josiah removed all those pagan shrines in the same way as he had removed the shrine at Bethel.
-or-
In every city of Israel King Josiah tore down all the pagan places of worship which had been built by the kings of Israel, who thereby aroused the Lord ’s anger. He did to all those altars what he had done in Bethel. (Good News Translation)
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