straight / vertical

In Gbaya, the notion of being straight or vertical is emphasized in the referenced verses with the ideophone zééŋ (or: zéŋ).

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

Translation commentary on 2 Maccabees 6:19

But he, welcoming death with honor rather than life with pollution, went up to the rack of his own accord, spitting out the flesh: Eleazar would not swallow the pork. He spit it out, knowing that he would die for doing so, but he preferred to die with honor rather than to live after defiling himself with forbidden food. The connector But introduces the contrasting response of Eleazar. He, welcoming death with honor may be rendered “Eleazar chose to die with honor [or, honorably].” Pollution refers to defilement from eating forbidden food. For rather than life with pollution, Good News Bible has “rather than a life of disgrace,” but it is better rendered “rather than to stay alive by defiling himself.” A rack was an instrument of torture. The victim was stretched out on a kind of table with his hands above his head. On either end of the table the hands and feet were tied to a wheel or other device that could pull the limbs more and more causing great pain. While the victim was stretched out like this, he could be whipped or otherwise physically abused. For more information on the rack. For rack Good News Bible uses the generic expression “place of torture,” which other languages may find helpful. Of his own accord means “willingly.” Spitting out the flesh probably occurred immediately after they stuffed the pork into Eleazar’s mouth, and before he was led away to the place of torture. Here is a possible model for this verse and the last clause of the previous one:

• Evil men stuffed pork [or, the meat of a pig] into his mouth, 19 but he spit it out, and willingly went to the place of torture. He decided he would rather die with honor than live after defiling himself [or, eating unclean/forbidden food].

It is not clear why Good News Bible has combined the numbers for verses 19-20. Verse 20 clearly begins with “showing….”

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.