full / complete

In Gbaya, the notion of being full or complete (“surround,” “came together,” “all around”) is emphasized with ɗɛ́kɛ́t, an ideophone that designates that which is complete, filled to the brim; someone who lacks nothing.

Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)

chariot

The Hebrew, Latin, Ge’ez, and Greek that is translated into English as “chariot” is translated into Anuak as “canoe pulled by horse.” “Canoe” is the general term for “vehicle” (source: Loren Bliese). Similarly it is translated in Lokạạ as ukwaa wạ nyanyang ntuuli or “canoe that is driven by horses.” (Source: J.A. Naudé, C.L. Miller Naudé, J.O. Obono in Acta Theologica 43/2, 2023, p. 129ff. )
Other translations include:

  • Eastern Highland Otomi: “cart pulled by horses” (source: Larson 1998, p. 98)
  • Chichicapan Zapotec: “ox cart” (in Acts 8) (ox carts are common vehicles for travel) (source: Loren Bliese)
  • Chichimeca-Jonaz, it is translated as “little house with two feet pulled by two horses” (source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
  • Hausa Common Language Bible as keken-doki or “cart of donkey” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
  • Mairasi: “going-thing [vehicle]” (source: Enggavoter 2004)

It is illustrated for use in Bible translations in East Africa by Pioneer Bible Translators like this:

Image owned by PBT and Jonathan McDaniel and licensed with the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

See also cart.

army

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)

complete verse (2 Kings 6:14)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 2 Kings 6:14:

  • Kupsabiny: “When he heard like that, he immediately sent many soldiers to go to that place. They went with horses and chariots. Those people went there in the night and went to surround that city.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “He sent horses and chariots there, along with a great army. They went at night and surrounded the city.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “he sent there many soldiers riding on horses and chariots. They arrived at Dotan by night and they surrounded it.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “So the king sent a large group of soldiers to Dothan with horses and chariots. They arrived at night and surrounded the town.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Honorary "rare" construct denoting God ("protect")

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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.

One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme rare (られ) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, mamo-rare-ru (守られる) or “protect” is used.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on 2 Kings 6:14

So: The common Hebrew conjunction here may be taken as a logical connector, as in Revised Standard Version, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, New Jerusalem Bible and American Bible. But other versions take it as a temporal connector, using the word “Then” (New International Version, New Century Version). Still others make the first part of this verse a continuation of the sentence begun at the end of verse 13 (Good News Translation, New American Bible).

The order of horses and chariots and a great army may be altered to make it more natural in the receptor language. In many cases the soldiers will have to be mentioned before the animals. Others may prefer to say “a great army including many horses and chariots.” Some commentators see humor in the fact that such a large military force is sent to capture a single person (Hobbs).

They came by night; that is, they arrived in the vicinity of the town of Dothan after it was dark. This would have provided the enemy army with the necessary cover to assemble their forces and prepare for action. The English idiom including the words by night may be better translated “arriving during the night” (New Jerusalem Bible).

Surrounded the city: If the noun city is shifted forward to become the object of the verb came or “arrived,” then it may be represented here by a pronoun referring back to the earlier occurrence.

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 6:14

6:14a the king of Aram sent horses, chariots, and a great army.

Then the king sent horses and chariots and a large number of fighting men to Dothan.

-or-

⌊When the king received this report,⌋ he sent a large group of soldiers ⌊to Dothan⌋ . They took their horses and war carts with them.

6:14b They went there by night and surrounded the city.

The men arrived during the night and surrounded the town.

-or-

It was night when they reached the town. They camped in a circle around it.

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