complete verse (2 Samuel 21:9)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 2 Samuel 21:9:

  • Kupsabiny: “They were killed and impaled/nailed/hung at the hill of God when it was the first days of harvesting of barley. Those seven people died in one/the same place.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “David handed them over into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they killed them and hung their bodies on the mountain before the LORD. The seven of them went down together. They were killed on the first days of barley harvest.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “David handed- them -over to the Gibeonhon, and seven of them were-killed there on the mountain near the place where the LORD is-being-worshipped. And their corpse were- just -left- there -unattended. This happened at the beginning of the time of the barley harvest-time.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “David handed those men over to the men from Gibeon. Then they hanged those seven men on a hill where they worshiped Yahweh. They were all killed during the time of the year that the people started to harvest the barley.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

barley

Barley Hordeum distichum or Hordeum vulgare is a type of grass like wheat and rice. It has been cultivated in the Middle East for thousands of years and is now one of the most prominent seed crops grown in the world. Twenty species are known, of which eight are European. Barley needs less rain than wheat does, so in the Holy Land it was typically found in the drier areas above the coastal plain and near the desert. From 2 Kings 7:1 and Revelation 6:6 we know that barley was considered inferior to wheat and was often used to feed animals, as it is today. When the wheat supply ran out, people had to make their bread with barley. Barley was gathered before wheat, the harvest coming around March or April in the lower regions and in May in the mountains (see Exodus 9:31 et al.). In Egypt and in ancient Greece barley was used to make beer.

Barley plants look like wheat or rice. They are less than 1 meter (3 feet) tall, and have a single head on each stalk, with six rows of kernels, although the biblical kind may have had only two rows. The head bends at a down-ward angle when it is ripe.

In the story of Gideon and the Midianites in Judges 7:13, “a cake of barley” representing the (despised) Israelite army tumbles into the Midianite camp and knocks down the tent (representing the nomadic Midianites).

Barley is a plant of temperate zones, like Europe and the Near East; it does not grow well in the tropics. However, barley has been recently introduced along with wheat into many parts of the world for brewing beer and other malted drinks. It is also known to have grown in Korea as early as 1500 B.C. along with wheat and millet. It is becoming known in Malay as barli. Except for the reference in Judges, all references to barley in the Bible are non-rhetorical, so unrelated cultural equivalents are discouraged. Some receptor language speakers may coin a name for it as in Malay, or the translator can use a transliteration from Hebrew (se‘orah), Latin (horideyo), or from a major language (for example, Arabic sha’ir, Spanish cebada, French orge, Portuguese cevada, Swahili shayiri), together with a classifier, if there is one (for example, “grain of shayir”).

Barley, Wikimedia Commons

Source: Each According to its Kind: Plants and Trees in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

See also barley bread.

Translation commentary on 2 Samuel 21:9

It may be wise to translate the pronoun he at the beginning of this verse by the name “David” in some languages, since a number of other persons have been talked about in the previous verse.

Gave them into the hands of the Gibeonites: that is, David turned the seven descendants of Saul over to the Gibeonites. Some other possible models for translating the verb here are “gave,” “delivered,” or “surrendered [them]” (New American Bible).

Hanged: see the comments on this verb at verse 6 above.

The mountain: if the textual problem of verse 6 is resolved in such a way as to do away with the reference to the mountain of the LORD, then the use of the definite article with the word mountain here is a problem. What specific mountain does this refer to? New Century Version takes it as a nonspecific reference and translates “a hill.” It is, however, more likely that the definite article designates a specific mountain located near a place where the people of Israel worshiped the LORD.

Before the LORD: see verse 6 above.

Perished: literally “fell.” Anchor Bible speaks of the seven “lying prostrate together.” But this verb is often used in the Old Testament as an euphemism for “died” (New Century Version), and this is the most likely meaning in this context.

In the first days of the harvest …: this whole phrase may be more literally rendered “in the days of harvest, during the first ones, at the beginning of the harvest of barley.” Barley was one of the first grain crops harvested (see the comments on 14.30); it was brought in during the month of April well before the wheat crop, which was harvested in early May in the Jordan valley. Compare Ruth 1.22. Some commentators see this timing as an attempt to show that the killing of these men was somehow related to the offering of the first fruits, but probably it is only a time reference that all readers were able to understand. The overall meaning of the phrase in question may be easily translated “at the very beginning of the harvest of barley,” or possibly by two separate sentences as in New Century Version, “They were put to death during the first days of the harvest season. (The barley harvest was just beginning.)”

This time reference is also related to the time mentioned in the following verse.

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 .