11(Now only King Og of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim. In fact, his bed, an iron bed, can still be seen in Rabbah of the Ammonites. By the common cubit it is nine cubits long and four cubits wide.)
The Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek that is translated as “cubit” or into a metric or imperial measurement in English is translated in Kutu, Kwere, and Nyamwezi as makono or “armlength.” Since a cubit is the measurement from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, one armlength (measured from the center of the chest to the fingertips) equals two cubits or roughly 1 meter. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Similarly, in Akoose, the translation is “arm distance.” (Source: Joseph Nkwelle Ngome and Marlie van Rooyen & Jacobus A. Naudé in Communicatio 2009, p. 251ff.)
In Klao it is converted into “hand spans” (app. 6 inches or 12 cm) and “finger spans” (app. 1 inch or 2 cm) (source: Don Slager) and in Bariai into leoa or “fathom,” which comprises the distance from a person’s fingertip to fingertip with arms outstretched, app. 6 feet (source: Bariai Back Translation).
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Deuteronomy 3:11:
Kupsabiny: “(Only king Og remained from the Rephaites. His bed of iron was still in Rabbah in the land of the Amorites. That bed had a length of thirteen and a half feet and a width of six feet.)” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “(Og, king of Bashan, was the last man of the Rephaites. His bed was about 9 cubits long and 4 cubits wide. That bed is still, even now, in Rabbah, [the] city of the Ammonites.)” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “(King Og was the only one left of the descendants of the Refaimnon. His iron bed was about 13 feet long and about 6 feet wide. This can- still -be-seen today in Raba the town of the Ammonhon.)” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “(Og was the last king who was a descendant of the Repha giants. His bed was made of iron. It was almost 14 feet/4 meters long and 6 feet/2 meters wide. It is still in Rabbah city in the Ammon area.)” (Source: Translation for Translators)
The concepts of distance that are translated in English with “long,” “wide,” and “high/tall” are translated in Kwere with one word: utali. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Some languages do not have a concept of kingship and therefore no immediate equivalent for the Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin that is translated as “king” in English. Here are some (back-) translations:
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.”
American Sign Language also uses the sign depicting the horns but also has a number of alternative signs (see here ).
In French Sign Language, a similar sign is used, but it is interpreted as “radiance” (see below) and it culminates in a sign for “10,” signifying the 10 commandments:
The horns that are visible in Michelangelo’s statue are based on a passage in the Latin Vulgate translation (and many Catholic Bible translations that were translated through the 1950ies with that version as the source text). Jerome, the translator, had worked from a Hebrew text without the niqquds, the diacritical marks that signify the vowels in Hebrew and had interpreted the term קרו (k-r-n) in Exodus 34:29 as קֶ֫רֶן — keren “horned,” rather than קָרַו — karan “radiance” (describing the radiance of Moses’ head as he descends from Mount Sinai).
In Swiss-German Sign Language it is translated with a sign depicting holding a staff. This refers to a number of times where Moses’s staff is used in the context of miracles, including the parting of the sea (see Exodus 14:16), striking of the rock for water (see Exodus 17:5 and following), or the battle with Amalek (see Exodus 17:9 and following).
In Vietnamese (Hanoi) Sign Language it is translated with the sign that depicts the eye make up he would have worn as the adopted son of an Egyptian princess. (Source: The Vietnamese Sign Language translation team, VSLBT)
“Moses” in Vietnamese Sign Language, source: SooSL
Here is another footnote: a note about the iron (or, stone) bedstead (or, coffin) of King Og.
King Og is said to have been the last survivor of the Rephaim (see 2.11), the legendary race of giants. We may also render this as “King Og was the last of the people called Rephaim.”
The Hebrew word translated bedstead by Revised Standard Version and others is taken to mean “coffin,” as Good News Translation has it, or more precisely “sarcophagus,” a stone burial container (so Bible en français courant and Revised English Bible). And the word understood to mean iron (Revised Standard Version) is thought to mean “black basalt,” the material out of which the sarcophagus was carved. The Septuagint translates “iron bed,” and this is how most translations have it. Some commentators think that a sarcophagus is meant, but it is impossible to know for sure. In many cultures “sarcophagus” will be an unknown term, so it is recommended that the equivalent of “[stone] coffin” be used. However, in cultures where other forms of burial are used, we may say something like “They buried him in a large stone container that was six feet wide and….”
Rabbah, the capital of ancient Ammon, is now Amman, the capital of Jordan.
A standard cubit (common cubit) was more or less forty-five centimeters (eighteen inches) in length. Nine cubits would be approximately four meters, or almost fourteen feet; and four cubits converts into one meter and eighty centimeters (1.8 meters), or six feet. Most translations give approximate round figures. Good News Translation omits the information about “cubits” and says “according to standard measurements.” Another way to express this is “according to what they considered the correct measurement.”
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 .
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