king

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Some languages do not have a concept of kingship and therefore no immediate equivalent for the Greek, Hebrew, Ge’ez, Aramaic, and Latin that is translated as “king” in English. Here are some (back-) translations:

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  • Piro: “a great one”
  • Highland Totonac: “the big boss”
  • Huichol: “the one who commanded” (source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Ekari: “the one who holds the country” (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
  • Una: weik sienyi: “big headman” (source: Kroneman 2004, p. 407)
  • Pass Valley Yali: “Big Man” (source: Daud Soesilo)
  • Ninia Yali: “big brother with the uplifted name” (source: Daud Soesilio in Noss 2007, p. 175)
  • Nyamwezi: mutemi: generic word for ruler, by specifying the city or nation it becomes clear what kind of ruler (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
  • Ghomála’: Fo (“The word Fo refers to the paramount ruler in the kingdoms of West Cameroon. He holds administrative, political, and religious power over his own people, who are divided into two categories: princes (descendants of royalty) and servants (everyone else).” (Source: Michel Kenmogne in Theologizing in Context: An Example from the Study of a Ghomala’ Christian Hymn))

Faye Edgerton retells how the term in Navajo (Dinė) was determined:

“[This term was] easily expressed in the language of Biblical culture, which had kings and noblemen with their brilliant trappings and their position of honor and praise. But leadership among the Navajos is not accompanied by any such titles or distinctions of dress. Those most respected, especially in earlier days, were their headmen, who were the leaders in raids, and the shaman, who was able to serve the people by appealing for them to the gods, or by exorcising evil spirits. Neither of these made any outward show. Neither held his position by political intrigue or heredity. If the headman failed consistently in raids, he was superceded by a better warrior. If the shaman failed many times in his healing ceremonies, it was considered that he was making mistakes in the chants, or had lost favor with the gods, and another was sought. The term Navajos use for headman is derived from a verb meaning ‘to move the head from side to side as in making an oration.’ The headman must be a good orator, able to move the people to go to war, or to follow him in any important decision. This word is naat’áanii which now means ‘one who rules or bosses.’ It is employed now for a foreman or boss of any kind of labor, as well as for the chairman of the tribal council. So in order to show that the king is not just a common boss but the highest ruler, the word ‘aláahgo, which expresses the superlative degree, was put before naat’áanii, and so ‘aláahgo naat’áanii ‘anyone-more-than-being around-he-moves-his-head-the-one-who’ means ‘the highest ruler.’ Naat’áanii was used for governor as the context usually shows that the person was a ruler of a country or associated with kings.”

(Source: Faye Edgerton in The Bible Translator 1962, p. 25ff. )

See also king (Japanese honorifics).

Translation commentary on Greek Esther 10:1

The land: see comments below on the coastlands of the sea.

Tribute translates the Hebrew word that means “forced labor” elsewhere in the Old Testament (see, for example, 1 Kgs 5.13 [5.27 in Masoretic Text]). Today’s English Version has “forced labor” here also in Esther. Similarly Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch says “obliged his subjects to forced labor.” In later development of the Hebrew language, this word came to mean “a forced payment.” Possibly in Esther, a text in late Hebrew, the word may mean “tribute” or “a money tax” (see New International Version “imposed tribute,” so also LSR, Revised English Bible, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). Either interpretation makes sense, though the meaning “imposed taxes” is perhaps to be preferred, since it emphasizes the wealth of the royal treasury and corresponds to the emphasis on royal wealth with which the story began (1.4).

Either choice may pose problems for the translator. “Forced labor” is work that people are obliged to do. It may be said “King Ahasuerus put work [tasks] upon the people to do” or he “decreed that the people must do certain work.” For “taxes” it may be said “King Ahasuerus decreed that money should be collected” or he “decreed that the people … should pay money to the government.”

The coastlands of the sea is literally “islands of the sea” (so New Revised Standard Version). Moffatt says “on the mainland and the islands.” New Jerusalem Bible understands this as a reference to the westernmost extent of the Persian Empire, which was the coasts of Asia Minor and the islands of the eastern Mediterranean Sea: “the Mediterranean islands.” New International Version says “throughout the empire, to its distant shores.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch says “in the whole empire,” understanding the sense of the Hebrew to be inclusive of the entire empire. Though the Hebrew says literally “from the land and the islands of the sea,” this is an example of metonymy, mentioning one thing but using it to refer to something related to that thing. The meaning is “on the people” of these regions.

The translator may follow the text fairly closely, as Traduction œcuménique de la Bible has done in saying “King Xerxes imposed a tax on [the people of] the continent and on [the people of] the islands of the sea.” This may be expanded to make explicit that it was imposed “on the whole empire, on the coastal regions as well as on the interior” (compare Today’s English Version, Bible en français courant, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch).

Languages spoken in areas far from the sea may need to use descriptive expressions such as “great lake, water without end, water without shores” and “land surrounded by water, land in water.”

Septuagint 10.1

Many Greek manuscripts lack the word “taxes,” saying simply “the king wrote.” Rahlfs includes the word, but the Göttingen edition of the Septuagint does not. Traduction œcuménique de la Bible (“he legislated”), Revised English Bible (“made decrees”), and Bible en français courant (“wrote laws”) are based on those manuscripts that lack the Greek word “taxes.” New Revised Standard Version and Today’s English Version are based on Greek manuscripts that include it. If translators have decided to follow consistently either of these two editions of the Greek text, that should be the basis of their decision here. The Greek specifies his kingdom, whereas this is left implicit in the Hebrew.

By land and sea: this English expression as used by New Revised Standard Version is ambiguous. It refers to the areas of the kingdom that were on land and those that were coastal or island territories (see discussion above). Today’s English Version may have harmonized with its rendering of the Hebrew, but it does remove the ambiguities of the more literal translation of New Revised Standard Version.

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Noss, Philip A. A Handbook on the Book of Esther — Deuterocanon: The Greek Text. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .