sparrow

While the Greek word strouthion is certainly the name for the sparrow, the Hebrew tsippor is actually an inclusive word that refers to sparrow-sized birds in general. These small birds, especially sparrows, were caught in nets and traps and were an important part of the diet of poor people.

There are three types of sparrow that are common in Israel, the House Sparrow Passer domesticus, the Spanish Sparrow Passer hispaniolensis, and the Dead Sea Sparrow Passer moabiticus. All three are small speckled brown birds. Additional small birds that abound around towns and settlements are members of the bunting, finch, and tit families. Sparrows in particular are usually found in fairly large numbers roosting and nesting together. All are seed eaters and live mainly on grass seeds and grain.

Sparrows were considered clean birds and were associated with the poor.

Sparrows or sparrow-like small birds are found all over the world. Finding a local word is not usually difficult. The reference to “a lonely bird on the housetop” in Psalms 102:7 takes on additional meaning if the sparrow was intended, since it is a bird that is seldom seen alone. It would then indicate the psalmist’s sense of loneliness at being separated from those with whom he belongs.

Source: All Creatures Great and Small: Living things in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

complete verse (Ecclesiastes 12:4)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ecclesiastes 12:4:

  • Kupsabiny: “Ears will become deaf
    so you cannot hear the person who is grinding.
    Although a birds may surprise you in the morning and whistle
    you do not hear their whistling.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Before the doors to the courtyard are closed,
    before the sound of the grindstones becomes seldom,
    remember God!
    Formerly when you heard the chirping sound of birds singing, you got up,
    but now (that you are old) their chirpings just seem very faint.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Your (sing.) ears can- no-longer -hear well, even the noise of a millstone or the sound of the birds or the music.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Ecclesiastes 12:4

In terms of form and content, the first clause of this verse belongs with verse 3.

And the doors on the street are shut: a dual form in Hebrew, the word for doors indicates double doors. This is unusual, since most houses in Israel apparently had only a single door. The adverbial phrase on the street may describe doors opening out onto the street market. Those who advocate a figurative meaning for these verses interpret the doors as part of the body. The problem is that there is little agreement about which part—the legs, the eyes, or the ears. In the examples that follow there are three references to sounds we hear: grinding, birds calling, and women singing. Thus the most likely figurative meaning for doors is the ears. If the doors represent ears then we can add with Good News Translation “your ears will be deaf to the noise of the street.” However, if doors has another meaning, Good News Translation is too narrow a translation. And as noted earlier the meaning of the text may not be limited to old age. Some see a possible reference to death or to a subsequent funeral. During such times houses are closed up and various daily activities cease. Again the best solution is to translate literally and leave possible explanations to footnotes. We recommend a translation such as “the doors to the street are shut.”

When the sound of the grinding is low: the precise relationship of this clause to the previous clauses is that it also describes a time to come. That time is described as one when grinding sounds will be low. The verb “be low” carries a literal sense as well as portraying what is cut down or destroyed (see Isa 10.33 of trees; and Isa 26.5 of cities). We suggest that here the sound of grinding is low means there is no further sound of people grinding grain; it does not mean that they make very little sound when they work. This latter is the Good News Translation understanding. Good News Translation adds another phrase at this point: “or music as it plays.” To achieve this result it has brought the final phrase of the verse forward to this position. The problem with this is that there is no necessary connection between that phrase and the clause here.

And one rises up at the voice of a bird: we find various translations of this sentence, due to problems surrounding the Hebrew verb for “rises.” While most accept that the root is “rise,” New English Bible and Jerusalem Bible suggest “grow faint.” We reject this second suggestion, however, since it involves a change in the Hebrew text which does not seem justified. The next problem concerns who rises. Is it the chirping of the birds (New English Bible) or a person (Revised Standard Version and New American Bible one; Good News Translation “you”)? As the verb is followed by a prepositional phrase “to [or, at] the sound [or, voice] of the bird,” we think the Revised Standard Version rendering is correct: an old person gets up at the sound of the birds singing in the morning. This may be intended to suggest a contrast; while the old person has trouble hearing certain sounds, he is awakened in the morning by the shrill chirping of birds.

All the daughters of song are brought low is another extremely difficult passage because it is hard to identify who these daughters of song are. Are they dancing women? Or mourning women bent low in grief? Or is it another poetic way to refer to birds singing? New English Bible takes the latter view, with “song birds.” New International Version “and all their songs” is ambiguous, since the songs may belong either to “men who get up early” or to “birds.” One problem with translating as “song birds” is that it seems somewhat contradictory. In the previous line the bird’s song seems to be loud enough to raise people from their sleep; in this line it fades away altogether. Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible, and Jerusalem Bible take a broader view, seeing this expression as referring to “music” in general or “song notes” (Jerusalem Bible). Good News Translation further links this phrase with “the sound of grinding,” drawing a contrast with the middle line. This is then moved to the end of the verse: “You will barely be able to hear the mill as it grinds or music as it plays, but even the song of a bird will wake you from sleep.”

Brought low translates a rare form of the Hebrew verb that describes something low (compare Isa 29.4). Here and elsewhere in the Old Testament it is a verb that parallels a form seen above in “the grinding is low.” A related form is used in the context of mourning (so Fox’s interpretation). Though Good News Translation and New Jerusalem Bible understand it to be saying that a sound grows fainter, it probably means it has stopped altogether (like Jerusalem Bible “stilled”).

We again recommend a translation closer to the original form, with a footnote explaining various possibilities for its meaning; for example:

• … before the time when the doors to the street are closed and the sound of grinding has stopped; before the time when a little bird’s call can awaken you, or the sound of singing has stopped altogether.*

A model footnote may be:
*The Hebrew text allows various interpretations. The reference can be to the quietness of a place during a funeral, the ceasing of activity in death, or to a time of life when a person no longer can hear sounds very well but is strangely bothered by high, shrill ones.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Zogbo, Lynell. A Handbook on the Book of Ecclesiates. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Ecclesiastes 12:4

12:4a when the doors to the street are shut

Remember your Creator before the front doors are closed. (New International Reader’s Version)
-or-
Your ears will be deaf to the noise in the streets, (New Century Version)

12:4b and the sound of the mill fades away,

⌊And remember him before⌋ the sound of the mill fades.
-or-
and you will barely hear the millstone grinding grain. (New Century Version)
-or-
Even the stone grinding your grain will seem quiet to you. (English Easy-to-Read Version)

12:4c when one rises at the sound of a bird

And ⌊remember him before⌋ you wake up early when the birds are singing,
-or-
You’ll wake up when a bird starts singing, (New Century Version)

12:4d and all the daughters of song grow faint,

but you can hardly hear them.
-or-
but you will barely hear singing. (New Century Version)

12:4a-d (combined)

⌊One day your ears will be deaf⌋ . You will no longer hear the noise of the streets or the sound of the mill grinding ⌊grain⌋ . You will wake up ⌊as early as⌋ the birds, but you will not be able to hear their songs. ⌊Remember your Creator before this time comes.⌋
-or-
There comes a time when we ⌊will grow old and⌋ lose our hearing. ⌊It will be as if⌋ the doors to the street are shut and we will hardly hear any sound. ⌊We will⌋ not even hear the noisy mill’s grinding nor the birds singing. Even though ⌊we will wake up early as a bird⌋ .

© 2006 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.

Commentaire sur la traduction de l'Ecclésiaste 12.4

Les biblistes sont d’avis que ce verset parle du sens de l’ouïe. Qohéleth décrit une scène villageoise ou les battants d’une maison sont fermés et les sons typiques du village ne sont plus entendus. Néanmoins les oiseaux font beaucoup de bruits et réveillent les gens très tôt le matin. En fait les battants de la porte représentent les oreilles des vieilles personnes qui n’entendent pas bien. On n’entend pas le bruit de tous les jours, mais on se réveille très tôt, au son des cris des premiers oiseaux. Bien que quelques versions rares enlèvent les images (le Contemporary English Version parle d’« oreilles sourdes »), la majorité des versions gardent le langage symbolique qui figure ici.

quand les battants se ferment sur la rue : les battants, au nombre de deux, représentent les deux oreilles. En hébreu la forme est duelle, ce qui montre qu’il s’agit des fenêtres à double battant ou aux portes doubles. Le fait qu’ils sont fermés sur la rue montrent que les vieilles personnes n’entendent plus bien. Dans beaucoup de cultures, cette image serait comprise, mais dans d’autres ce genre de fenêtres ne sera pas connu. On pourrait essayer de rendre plus explicite, en disant, par exemple, que les « battants des fenêtres sont fermés ». Il vaudrait mieux ne pas suivre la Parole de Vie qui dit « la porte qui donne sur la rue se ferme » car elle enlève l’idée d’une ouverture double, un indice important dans le texte.

sur la rue est litt. « dans la rue », indiquant que la maison en question fait face à la rue. C’est lorsqu’on est positionné ainsi qu’on voit et entend tout ce qui passe dans le village. Dans certaines cultures, surtout dans les villages, cette précision ne sera pas très pertinente. Il serait mieux de l’omettre tout en gardant le reste du langage figuré. On notera que le mot utilisé ici n’est pas le mot fréquent pour la rue (voir דֶּרֶךְ dèrèk au Ecc 12.5). Mais ce mot שׁוּק šoûq, a exactement la même forme que le mot hébreu pour « jambe ».

et tandis que tombe la voix de la meule : en hébreu il n’y a pas de conjonction et. La préposition בְּ be signale une proposition temporelle, « quand ». Mais plusieurs versions mettent une nouvelle phrase ici. tombe rend un verbe qui veut dire « s’abaisser » : « tandis que baisse le bruit de la meule » (Nouvelle Bible Segond).

la voix de la meule est une façon poétique de parler du son de la meule. Ainsi la Bible en français courant dit que « le bruit du moulin baisse ». La Parole de Vie « africanise » cette ligne en disant « les pilons restent silencieux », mais il est probable qu’il s’agissait en Israël d’autres sortes de meules ou moulins.

quand on se lève au chant de l’oiseau : les lignes qui suivent posent quelques problèmes d’interprétation, comme on peut le constater en regardant les différentes traductions. La Nouvelle Bible Segond, la La Bible du Semeur, la Bible de Jérusalem, et la Pléaide s’accordent avec la Traduction œcuménique de la Bible (Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament, « B ») et suggèrent que le sommeil léger des vieillards fait qu’ils sont facilement réveillés par le chant des oiseaux. Par contre, la Bible en français courant et la Parole de Vie pensent que « le chant de l’oiseau s’éteint », une lecture soutenue par certains experts bibliques. Si l’on tient compte du vers suivant, et que les vocalises s’éteignent, on sera tenté d’y voir un sens parallèle. Dans ce cas, les vieillards n’entendent plus le chant, litt. « la voix », des oiseaux.

et que les vocalises s’éteignent est litt. en hébreu « et s’abaissent toutes les filles le chant ». Comme pour le vers précédent, les interprétations sont assez diverses. Plusieurs versions (Nouvelle Bible Segond, La Bible du Semeur) pensent qu’il s’agit de chanteuses qui « se taisent ». Ainsi les vieillards ne peuvent plus entendre les chants des femmes ou des filles. D’autres pensent qu’il s’agit de langage figuré pour « les chansons » en général (Bible de Jérusalem, Bible en français courant, Parole de Vie, Pléiade).

Face à ces problèmes d’interprétation si nombreux, les traducteurs devraient faire leur choix d’interprétation, et s’ils jugent nécessaire, introduire des lectures alternatives dans les notes.

Source: Zogbo, Lynell. L’Ecclésiaste – Manuel de traduction – Commentaire linguistique et exégétique de la Bible. Alliance biblique universelle, 2021.