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 .

complete verse (2 Samuel 3:29)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 2 Samuel 3:29:

  • Kupsabiny: “Let/May Joab and his family meet pain (get punished) for the way that death came. May leprosy or wounds follow/affect his family and (may they) walk lamely. May a sword eat his family and famine spear/kill (them) always.’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Rather, may that guilt fall on Joab and his father’s whole family. And when [there are] boils or contagious skin diseases in Joab’s family, may they also not recover [lit.: stop]. May [his] descendants have to go on crutches or be killed by being cut with the sword or, being impoverished, have to keep on begging."” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Joab and his family are the ones-who will-be-held-responsible/[lit. is-to-answer-for]. May-it-be that with his descendants there-(will)- always -be disease that comes-out from his sexual-organ, there-(will)-be dangerous disease on the skin, invalid, will-die in battle and will-be-hungry.’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “I hope/desire that Joab and all his family will be punished for doing that! I hope/desire that there will always be someone in his family who has sores, or someone who is a leper, or some man who is forced to do women’s work, or someone who is killed in a battle, or someone who does not have enough food to eat!’” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on 2 Samuel 3:29

May it fall: technically the pronoun it in Revised Standard Version refers back to the blood of Abner. The Hebrew is literally “May they [the bloods] fall.” As in Josh 2.19 the expression “his blood shall be on his head” is a way of saying “he is responsible for his own death” (see also 2 Sam 1.16). Here David is saying that it was Joab who was responsible for Abner’s death, and that it is therefore Joab who should be punished.

The head of Joab: the head represents Joab himself. In view of the special expression just discussed, the idiom should be translated as a whole, and it will be unnecessary in most cases to retain the word head in translation.

All his father’s house … the house of Joab: as previously (1.12; 2.4; 3.1), the word house stands for the families of the persons mentioned. Here David pronounces what amounts to a curse on the members of Joab’s family. He lists five different kinds of misery that often occurred in the ancient world, and he wishes them on the family and descendants of Joab.

Never be without: some languages will use the negative of the verb “lack” at this point. However, this can be stated positively as “always be with” or “always have,” depending on the particular structure of the receptor language rendering.

Discharge: this physical infirmity is treated in detail in Lev 15. The Hebrew word rendered one who has a discharge has the same root as the verb translated “flowing” in Exo 3.8, 17; 13.5; 33.3. This usually refers to the abnormal flow of fluid from the male sexual organ as a result of some kind of sickness. Good News Translation therefore makes it specifically “gonorrhea,” while Revised English Bible speaks here more generally of “a running sore.” Such a discharge made a man ritually unclean (see Lev 15.2-15).

Leprous: the disease usually translated as “leprosy” is frequently mentioned in both the Old and New Testaments (see especially Lev 13–14, where the laws concerning this disease are given). While most versions translate this word as leprous, they usually provide footnotes or glossary entries explaining that leprosy in the Bible is not the same as what we call by that name today. It referred rather to a group of skin disorders that cannot be positively identified today. For this reason Good News Translation speaks of a “dreaded skin disease.”

The important point concerning both the discharge and the “dreaded skin disease” is that these diseases made one ritually unclean. David is not simply wishing any illnesses on Joab’s descendants. Rather these are illnesses that affect one’s standing in the religious community. Translators may wish to follow Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente in making this information explicit: “May there always be someone in the family of Joab struck by sicknesses that make one ritually unclean.”

Who holds a spindle: since the word translated spindle usually refers to the instrument used by women to spin thread (see Pro 31.19), most versions have taken this to mean that David was wishing that there would always be “one unmanly” (New American Bible) or “some effeminate creature” (Moffatt) among the descendants of Joab. Contemporary English Version says “May they all be cowards.” Some interpreters understand the Hebrew to mean that some men would be eunuchs, and this interpretation is reflected in the Nueva Biblia Española rendering “castrated.” Compare Good News Translation “fit only to do a woman’s work,” and Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente “forced to do women’s work.”

Several versions, however, including the Septuagint, take the word to refer to a stick used to help a lame person walk, and therefore translate “who must lean on a crutch” (New Century Version), “who leans on a crutch” (New International Version), and “clings to a crutch” (Anchor Bible).

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 .