6who had been carried away from Jerusalem among the captives carried away with King Jeconiah of Judah, whom King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had carried away.
The term that is transliterated as “Nebuchadnezzar” in English is translated in American Sign Language with the signs for “king” and one signifying a wavy beard, referring to the common way of wearing a beard in Mesopotamia (see here ). (Source: Ruth Anna Spooner, Ron Lawer)
“Nebuchadnezzar” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor
In Spanish Sign Language it is translated with a sign depicting “idol in my image,” referring to Daniel 3:1. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
The name that is transliterated as “Judah” or “Judea” in English (referring to the son of Jacob, the tribe, and the territory) is translated in Spanish Sign Language as “lion” (referring to Genesis 49:9 and Revelation 5:5). This sign for lion is reserved for regions and kingdoms. (Source: John Elwode in The Bible Translator 2008, p. 78ff. and Steve Parkhurst)
The name that is transliterated as “Jerusalem” in English is signed in French Sign Language with a sign that depicts worshiping at the Western Wall in Jerusalem:
While a similar sign is also used in British Sign Language, another, more neutral sign that combines the sign “J” and the signs for “place” is used as well. (Source: Anna Smith)
“Jerusalem” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Esther 2:6:
Kupsabiny: “When the king of Babylon called Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the city of Jerusalem that was when their family and the king of Judah who was called Jeconiah and many other people were caught to go and become slaves in Babylon.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “It also happened that when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took Jehoichin, king of Judah, away [into exile]. Mordecai was also there.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “He was one of those taken-captives to Babilonia from Jerusalem, with King Jehoyakin of Juda. They were-taken-captives by Nebucadnesar of Babilonia.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Eastern Bru: “When King Nebuchadnezzar of the country of Babylon came to capture King Jehoiachin, king of Judah from the city of Jerusalem, they captured also Kish, the great grandfather of Mordecai also.” (Source: Bru Back Translation)
English: “Many years before that, King Nebuchadnezzar had taken Mordecai/Mordecai’s family and brought them from Jerusalem to Babylon, at the same time he brought King Jehoiachin of Judah and many other people to Babylon.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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.”
The name that is transliterated as “Jeconiah” (or: Jechoniah) in English is translated in Libras (Brazilian Sign Language) with a sign that combines “slave” and the people of Judah. King Jeconiah, the last king of Judah, was imprisoned and enslaved by Babylon (see Jeremiah 24:1). (Source: Missão Kophós )
The subject of this verse is ambiguous. Most interpreters understand the subject to be either Mordecai or Kish. If it refers to Mordecai, then he was over one hundred years old at the time of the story, since the first deportation from Jerusalem took place in 597 B.C. Good News Translation restructures this verse and makes it clear that Mordecai was the one who was deported. New Jerusalem Bible retains the relative pronoun who in verse 6, but since the word who extends into verse 7 as the person who was rearing Esther, the antecedent of who is clearly Mordecai. Reina-Valera revisada is the same as New Jerusalem Bible in construction; that is, Mordecai must be the antecedent of the pronoun who.
It is possible to understand the subject to be Kish, the great-grandfather of Mordecai (according to one interpretation of verse 2.5). New Jerusalem Bible reads “[Kish] had been exiled from Jerusalem…” (so also New Revised Standard Version).
The New International Version study Bible suggests a third possibility. The names “Jair,” “Shimei,” and “Kish” refer not to immediate ancestors of Mordecai, but rather to remote ancestors in the tribe of Benjamin. But since Mordecai himself would have been over one hundred years old, the New International Version note takes this as an elliptical construction in the sense “whose family had been carried into exile.” The note in Traduction œcuménique de la Bible similarly states that Mordecai is a descendent of a family deported at the time of Nebuchadnezzar. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch similarly says “Mordecai’s family.”
On both grammatical and exegetical grounds, it is most likely that the antecedent of the pronoun must be Mordecai and not Kish.
Captives: these are prisoners carried away by a victorious army. In Hebrew the words had been carried away and the captives have the same root. A rather literal translation of this verse reads “who had been exiled from Jerusalem in the exile that had been exiled with Jeconiah….” In some languages that construct verbs and nouns from the same word roots, it may be possible to describe the captives as “the carried-away-ones.” In other languages captives may be referred to as “war-prisoners” or even “war-slaves,” or by a paraphrased expression, “the people who were forcibly taken away.” According to 2 Kgs 24.14, ten thousand people were taken into exile by Nebuchadnezzar. The text here in Esther does not indicate whether many or few were taken as captives, but Biblia Dios Habla Hoy makes explicit that Nebuchadnezzar took “many” captives.
At the time of the Babylonian captivity, which began in 597 B.C., Jeconiah was king of Judah. The name of this king is spelled three different ways in the Old Testament: Coniah (Jer 22.24, 28; 37.1), Jeconiah (1 Chr 3.16), and Jehoiachin (2 Kgs 24.6-17; 2 Chr 36.8-9). Some common language translations use the name Jehoiachin in all places where this king is named, following the spelling of the historical books (so Good News Translation). Other translations that also use Jehoiachin, the better-known name from 2 Kings, indicate in a note that this is a variant of the name Jeconiah in the Hebrew (so New International Version). The translator should base decisions in cases like this on principles established for translation of the entire Old Testament.
Babylon: the region of Babylonia occupied the southern part of Mesopotamia in what is now the country of Iraq. Babylon was the capital city of the Babylonian empire. In the Hebrew Scriptures the name Babylon refers both to the city and to the region.
Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Noss, Philip A. A Handbook on Esther (The Hebrew Text). (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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