The Hebrew and Greek that is typically translated as “covet” in English is translated as “bulge your eyes over what is someone else’s” in Isthmus Zapotec (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), in Bura-Pabir with ngguka or “have strong desire for” which differentiates from silka or “jealous,” which refers not to one’s jealous attitude to one’s neighbor (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin), and in Newari´as “cause your eye to go to” (source: Newari Back Translation).
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated with “clothes” or similar in English is translated in Enlhet as “crawling-in-stuff” (source: Jacob Loewen in The Bible Translator 1971, p. 169ff. ) and in Noongar as bwoka or “Kangaroo skin” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).
In the ancient Orient, treasures consisted not only of silver and of gold but of (fine) clothing (see James 5.2), and for this reason not only rust but also moths could be looked upon as the enemy of the rich man’s treasures.
Coveted may be rendered in some languages as “wanting to take away someone’s possession” or “wanting for myself what belongs to someone else.”
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
coveted: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as coveted usually means “strongly desire.” Here Paul meant that he did not want to take other people’s things and keep them for himself. Other ways to translate this word are:
silver or gold: The words silver and gold refer to valuable metals. In Bible times, part of a person’s wealth was coins, objects, and jewelry made of gold and silver.
Some languages do not have specific words for gold and silver. If that is true in your language, you might want to:
• Use a general word for valuable things. For example:
treasure/valuables/riches
• Use the common language words for silver and gold and explain them in your translation. For example:
silver or gold ⌊valuables/treasure⌋
clothing: Fine clothing was also very expensive and considered part of a person’s wealth. Some languages will also need to describe the clothing as expensive. For example:
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
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