cattle, livestock

The Hebrew that is translated in English as “livestock” (or “cattle”) is translated in Newari as “living beings brought up in a house” or “living beings cared for in a house” (source: Newari Back Translation). Specifically “cattle” is “cows and oxen.”

In Kwere it is “animals that are being kept.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

inclusive vs. exclusive pronoun (Deut 3:7)

Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)

The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).

For this verse, the Jarai and the Adamawa Fulfulde translation both use the inclusive pronoun, including everyone.

complete verse (Deuteronomy 3:7)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Deuteronomy 3:7:

  • Kupsabiny: “But we plundered animals and all the things from that land and went with (it).” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “But all the livestock and plundered goods of the city we took for ourselves.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “But we (incl.) carried-off all the animals/livestock and possessions/properties that we (incl.) took from their towns.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “But from those cities we took for ourselves all the livestock and other valuable things.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Deuteronomy 3:6 - 3:7

These two verses describe the outcome of the battle in the same words used in 2.34-35 to describe the defeat of Sihon. Care should be taken to use the same words in translating the two accounts. The verbal phrase utterly destroyed in verse 6 is the same as the one used in 2.34.

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 .