scattering

In Gbaya, the notion of scattering something or someone in all directions in the associated verses is emphasized with the ideophone sót-sót.

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

confused / dismayed

In Gbaya, the notion of confusion or dismay is emphasized in the referenced verses with yelem, an ideophone that expresses becoming confused, not knowing what to think.

Note that for 1 Maccabees 10:74 the Gbaya translators interpreted along the lines of the French Traduction œcuménique de la Bible which has “he was completely shaken by it” ( il en fut tout ébranlé) instead of the New Revised Standard Version, updated edition‘s “his spirit was aroused.”

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

enemy / foe

The Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, Ge’ez, and Latin that is translated as “enemy” or “foe” in English is translated in the Hausa Common Language Bible as “friends of front,” i.e., the person standing opposite you in a battle. (Source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)

In North Alaskan Inupiatun it is translated with a term that implies that it’s not just someone who hates you, but one who wants to do you harm (Source: Robert Bascom), in Tarok as ukpa ìkum or “companion in war/fighting,” and in Ikwere as nye irno m or “person who hates me” (source for this and one above: Chuck and Karen Tessaro in this newsletter ).

In Cherokee it is either translated as “the one(s) who reprimand(s) you” or “the one(s) feared.” (Source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 47)

Translation commentary on 2 Maccabees 10:30

Surrounding Maccabeus and protecting him with their own armor and weapons, they kept him from being wounded: For Surrounding Maccabeus, Good News Bible has “These five men surrounded Judas,” which makes the subject clear. We may also say “These five human beings formed a circle around Judas” (similarly Contemporary English Version). Good News Bible does not mention weapons, since it assumes that arrows and thunderbolts are their weapons.

And they showered arrows and thunderbolts upon the enemy: Compare 2Macc 5.3. The Greek word for thunderbolts refers bolts of lightning, but the idea of thunder goes along with it. Showered pictures the arrows and bolts of lightning coming down like rain, although the metaphor of rain goes better with arrows than with thunderbolts.

An alternative model for the first half of this verse is:

• These five men surrounded [Judas] Maccabeus and kept him from harm by protecting him with their own armor and weapons, and sending a rain of arrows down on the enemy, along with lightning.

So that, confused and blinded, they were thrown into disorder and cut to pieces: It must be clear in translation that the subject here is the enemy. For so that, confused and blinded …, Good News Bible is better rendered as “The enemy forces then became so confused and blinded that….” The enemy soldiers were literally blinded by the miraculous lightning flashes. They were thrown into disorder may be rendered “they broke ranks” (Good News Bible) or “they stopped fighting in orderly groups.” Instead of cut to pieces, some Greek manuscripts have “scattered.” This reading is accepted by New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Abel, and Goldstein, and it appears in Kappler and Hanhart’s Greek text. We believe “scattered” is probably correct. The alternative cut to pieces appears in the manuscripts in several different forms, which may result from scribes who assumed that “scattered” was a mistake. (It is a very rare form, and they may not have recognized it.) The last half of this verse may be rendered “The enemy forces then became so confused and blinded that they stopped fighting in orderly groups, and they began to scatter in all directions” or “The enemy soldiers then became so confused and blinded that they broke ranks and began to scatter in all directions.”

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on 1-2 Maccabees. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.