leprosy, leprous

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The Greek and Hebrew terms that are often translated as “leprosy (or: defiling/skin disease)” or “leprous (person)” in English is translated in Mairasi as “the bad sickness,” since “leprosy is very common in the Mairasi area” (source: Enggavoter 2004).

Following are various other translations:

  • Shilluk: “disease of animals”
  • San Mateo Del Mar Huave: “devil sore” (this and the above are indigenous expressions)
  • Inupiaq: “decaying sores”
  • Kaqchikel: “skin-rotting disease” (source for this and three above: Eugene Nida in The Bible Translator 1960, p. 34f. )
  • Noongar: “bad skin disease” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Usila Chinantec “sickness like mal de pinta” (a skin disease involving discoloration by loss of pigment) (source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
  • Hiligaynon: “dangerous skin disease” (source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “fearful skin disease” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “terrible rotting” (source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
  • Newari: “infectious skin disease” (source: Newari Back Translation)

Targumim (or: Targums) are translations of the Hebrew Bible into Aramaic. They were translated and used when Jewish congregations increasingly could not understand the biblical Hebrew anymore. Targum Onqelos (also: Onkelos) is the name of the Aramaic translation of the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) probably composed in Israel/Palestine in the 1st or 2nd century CE and later edited in Babylon in the 4th or 5th century, making it reflect Jewish Babylonian Aramaic. It is the most famous Aramaic translation and was widely used throughout the Jewish communities. In Leviticus 13 and 14 it translates tzaraat as a “quarantining affliction” — focusing “on what occurs to individuals after they suffer the affliction; the person is isolated from the community.” (Source: Israel Drazin in this article ). Similarly, the English Jewish Orthodox ArtScroll Tanach translation (publ. 2011) transliterates it as tzaraat affliction.

See also stricken and leprosy healed.

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Leprosy (Word Study) and Bible Translations Are for People .

inclusive vs. exclusive pronoun (2Kings 7:3)

Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)

The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).

For this verse, the Jarai and the Adamawa Fulfulde translation both use the inclusive pronoun, including everyone.

complete verse (2 Kings 7:3)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 2 Kings 7:3:

  • Kupsabiny: “There was then/at that time four people who had leprosy who sat outside the gate of the city. They asked one another, ‘What makes us sit here until we are going to die?” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “There were four men with infectious skin disease outside the gate of Samaria. They said to each other, "Why are we staying here until we die?” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Now/[discoure marker], there-were four men who had a dangerous disease on the skin who were-sitting at the entrance of the city. They talked-to-each-other, ‘Why should- we (incl.) -stay here until we (incl.) die?” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “That day there were four men who had leprosy/a dreaded skin disease who were sitting outside the gate of Samaria city. They said to each other, ‘Why should we wait here until we die?/It is ridiculous for us to wait here until we die.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

SIL Translator’s Notes on 2 Kings 7:3

7:3a Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate,

Meanwhile four lepers were ⌊sitting/waiting⌋ outside the city gate.

-or-

Outside the gate of ⌊Samaria⌋ city, four men with a skin disease

-or-

While Elisha was saying this, four men suffering from a terrible skin disease were/gathered outside the gate if Samaria.

7:3b and they said to one another,

They said to one another,

-or-

were talking to one another. One of them said,

-or-

They began to say to one another that

7:3c “Why just sit here until we die?

“Why should we (incl.) stay here until we die?

-or-

“If we sit here ⌊and do nothing⌋ , we will surely die/starve.

-or-

it was foolish to wait at the gate until they starved to death.

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