Just as the gates are shut on every side: The gates is literally “the courtyards.” New English Bible has “just as the palace-court is barricaded.” It is hard to say whether Revised Standard Version translates gates because it is easier to lock gates than yards, or because it is correcting the Greek text. It would be exceptionally easy for the Greek words for “gate” and “courtyard” to be mistaken for one another in the manuscripts; there is only one letter difference. By focusing on the prisoner, the restructuring in Good News Translation does not mention gates or courtyards. But notice that Good News Translation has shifted the comparison from gates … temples to “gods … prisoner.” Translators must beware of rendering this in such a way that the gates are compared to the gods or the temples compared to the prisoner.

A man who has offended a king may be rendered “a prisoner … for a crime against the king” (Good News Translation; similarly Contemporary English Version).

As though he were sentenced to death: This may be simplified by saying that the man who has offended the king is “about to be executed” (Good News Translation).

The priests make their temples secure …: The author makes a comparison here that gets overly involved, and translators will do well to follow Good News Translation in restructuring it quite drastically. Good News Translation comes first to the main point: “The priests fortify the temples … so that thieves cannot break in.” Literally, the Greek speaks of the thieves plundering, not breaking in, and the danger is the loss of everything of value inside the temples, including the idols themselves. Good News Translation makes this clear, however, in its second sentence, where the comparison is made: “The gods are locked up [obviously to keep thieves from carrying them off] as securely as….” “Fortify” may be the wrong word to choose; it gives the impression that the temple is to be attacked, as by an army. We need a word here (such as “secure”) that gives a sense of protection from theft, not attack.

With doors and locks and bars: These are three different ways that the Babylonians protected their idols. There were doors to the temples, and these were secured with locks and bars. The locks were some sort of metal protective device, using keys, that performed the same function as locks in modern times. The large wooden or metal bars were placed securely across the inside of the doors. If people were pushing in the doors from the outside and the locks gave way, these large bars would prevent the intruders from gaining entrance.

A possible alternative model for the last half of the verse is “The priests make their temples secure by closing the doors and locking them up with bolts and bars. This prevents robbers from stealing anything.”

Possible alternative models for the whole verse are:

• The priests lock up these idols in their temples as securely as prisoners who are about to be put to death for committing a crime against the king. They make the temples secure by closing the doors and putting the bolts and bars on them. This prevents robbers from stealing anything.

• The priests make the temples secure by closing the doors and putting bolts and bars on them. This prevents robbers from stealing anything. When the priests do this, they lock up the idols just as securely as prisoners about to be put to death for committing a crime against the king.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Shorter Books of the Deuterocanon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2006. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.