14When the Ammonites saw that the Arameans fled, they likewise fled before Abishai and entered the city. Then Joab returned from fighting against the Ammonites and came to Jerusalem.
In many, if not most of the languages in the Philippines, proper nouns, such as personal names, are tagged with a marker that signals their grammatical role within a sentence. For Tagalog and the Visayan languages , this typically includes si to mark the proper noun as the actor or subject (nominative case), ni to mark the proper noun as an owner (genitive case), and kay to mark the proper noun as as an indirect object, i.e. the one to or toward whom an action is directed (dative case). All of these also have plural forms — sina, nina and kina respectively — and unlike in the biblical languages or in English, the plural form has to be used when only a single proper name is mentioned but implicitly that proper name includes more than just one.
In this verse, where English translates “Joab (returned),” the Tagalog translation translates “sina Joab” because the context of the text makes clear that Joab was with his “picked men of Israel.” (Source: Kermit Titrud and Steve Quakenbush)
The name that is transliterated as “Jerusalem” in English is signed in French Sign Language with a sign that depicts worshiping at the Western Wall in Jerusalem:
While a similar sign is also used in British Sign Language, another, more neutral sign that combines the sign “J” and the signs for “place” is used as well. (Source: Anna Smith)
“Jerusalem” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 2 Samuel 10:14:
Kupsabiny: “When the soldiers of (the) Ammonites saw that Arameans had run away, they ran away from Abishai into the city. After the Arameans and Ammonites had run away, Joab returned back with his men to go to Jerusalem.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “And seeing the Arameans run away, the Ammonites retreated [lit. went running away] into the city before Abishai. After that Joab came back to Jerusalem from leaving fighting the Ammonites.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “When- the Ammonhon -saw that the Arameanhon were-fleeing, they also fled from Abishai and went-inside their city. So Joab and company went-home to Jerusalem from fighting-against the Ammonhon.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “And when the soldiers of the Ammon people-group saw that the soldiers from Syria were running away, they also started to run away from Abishai and his army, and they retreated back inside the city. So Joab’s army stopped fighting against the army of the Ammon people-group, and Joab and his army returned to Jerusalem.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
Fled: in those languages requiring an object for the verb “flee,” it will be best to talk of fleeing from Joab’s forces (or troops, or soldiers).
Likewise fled … and entered the city: seeing that their allies, the Syrians, were forsaking the battle, the Ammonites also decided to abandon the struggle. So they went back inside the city walls for protection (see verse 8 above). Since Joab did not attempt to take the city, this was the end of the battle. The verb entered really means “reentered” and will be translated “withdrew” or “went back” in many languages.
Came to Jerusalem: since this was certainly not the first time that Joab and his men had come to Jerusalem, it will be more natural to translate “came back” or “returned” in many languages.
Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on the First and Second Books of Samuel, Volume 2. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2001. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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