grain

The Greek and Hebrew that is translated in English as “grain” (or: “corn”) is translated in Kui as “(unthreshed) rice.” Helen Evans (in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 40ff. ) explains: “Padddy [unthreshed rice] is the main crop of the country and rice the staple diet of the people, besides which [grain] is unknown and there is no word for it, and it seemed to us that paddy and rice in the mind of the Kui people stood for all that corn meant to the Jews.” “Paddy” is also the translation in Pa’o Karen (source: Gordon Luce in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 153f. ).

Other translations include: “wheat” (Teutila Cuicatec), “corn” (Lalana Chinantec), “things to eat” (Morelos Nahuatl), “grass corn” (wheat) (Chichimeca-Jonaz) (source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), “millet” (Lambya) (source: project-specific notes in Paratext), “food” (Nyamwezi) (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)or ntimumma lujia / “seeds for food” (Lokạạ — “since Lokạạ does not have specific terms for maize and rice that can be described as grains”) (source: J.A. Naudé, C.L. Miller Naudé, J.O. Obono in Acta Theologica 43/2, 2023, p. 129ff. )

sickle (illustration)

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “sickle” in English is illustrated for use in Bible translations in East Africa by Pioneer Bible Translators like this:

Image owned by PBT and Jonathan McDaniel and licensed with the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Translation commentary on Deuteronomy 23:25

Go into your neighbor’s standing grain: there were paths that led through the grainfields. So Good News Translation has “when you walk along a path in someone else’s grainfield.” Instead of standing grain Good News Translation and New International Version have “grainfield.” The grain could be wheat or barley; Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje gives this information in the text.

Pluck the ears with your hands: that is, pluck and eat them. This is what Jesus’ disciples did (Mark 2.23).

Put a sickle to your neighbor’s standing grain: they were not to cut the heads of grain and take them home. In cultures where sickles are not known, we may use a general translation as follows: “But don’t cut down the stalks of grain and take them with you” (Contemporary English Version).

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 .