6and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab son of Reuben, how in the midst of all Israel the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, along with their households, their tents, and every living being in their company;
The Hebrew that is transliterated as “Reuben” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with the sign for “head” or “leader” referring to the position he had among his brothers as the firstborn. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Deuteronomy 11:6:
Kupsabiny: “They did not see what God did to Dathan son of Abiram (sons of Eliab son of Reuben), when the land/world opened and swallowed those people together with their families and all the things they owned.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “How, in front of all the Israelites, the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab the Reubenite, along with their households, tents and all their cattle your children also did not see all of that.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “and what he did to Datan and Abiram, the children of Eliab the descendants of Reuben. They were- swallowed-up by the ground that split, as-well-as their families, tent, and all their companions. This was-happened before/[lit. in front of] all the Israelinhon.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “Think about what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the two sons of Eliab from the tribe of Reuben. While all of your ancestors were watching, the earth split open, and they fell into the opening and disappeared, along with their families and their tents, their servants, and their animals.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.
Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way to do this is through the usage of lexical honorific forms, i.e., completely different words, as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, nasaru (なさる), the respectful form of suru (する) or “do,” is used.
For this incident see Numbers 16; Korah, the leader of the rebellion, is not mentioned here. See the Good News Translation model.
The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up: in many languages the idea of the earth opening its mouth will be an acceptable poetic metaphor. In others, however, it may not be natural to use this kind of language, in which the earth is pictured as a huge monster devouring its victims. The reader should not find the language unnatural or ridiculous. In such a case it will be helpful to show that Yahweh caused this event to occur; for example, “You saw how Yahweh caused the earth to open up underneath the tents of Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab from the tribe of Reuben. They, their families, their … fell down into the earth [or, this hole] and disappeared.”
Their households: this means all the members of their families (the heads of families are being referred to).
Every living thing that followed them: this includes servants and animals (see the same term in Gen 7.4, 23). Good News Translation makes this clear with “and all their servants and animals.”
In the midst of all Israel: the disaster took place right there in the camp, where all the other Israelites saw it happen. So Good News Translation has “In the sight of everyone.”
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Deuteronomy. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.